Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
Coons
On August 15th, 2023, Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) Agents with assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) and the Eureka Police Department (EPD), served a search warrant on Ryan John Coons (29 years old from Eureka).
HCDTF Agents observed Coons travel from Humboldt County to Oakland, California. Upon Coons’s return to Humboldt County, Agents conducted a traffic stop on his vehicle. HCSO Deputy Esget and his K9 partner Yahtzee conducted an open-air sniff on the vehicle. K9 Yahtzee alerted to the vehicle indicating drugs were present.
Inside the vehicle, Agents located Ryan Coons and Shawn Clinton Bartley (52 years old from McKinleyville). Agents also located 1.8 pounds of fentanyl, 1 kilo of methamphetamine, over 100 Alprazolam pills, approximately $4,000 in U.S. Currency, digital scales, and packaging materials.
After the traffic stop, HCDTF Agents and EPD Officers responded to Coons’s residence in Arcata and located more scales and packaging materials.
Ryan John Coons was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked on the following charges:
PC182(A)(1)- Conspiracy to commit a crime
HS11351- Possession of controlled substance for sales
HS11352(A)- Transportation of a controlled substance
HS11378- Possession of a Controlled Substance
HS11379(B)- Transportation of a controlled substance through noncontiguous counties
Shawn Clinton Bartley was denied by correctional staff at the Humboldt County Correctional Facility. HCDTF will request the following charges be filed on Bartley:
PC182(A)(1)- Conspiracy to commit a crime
HS11351- Possession of controlled substance for sales
HS11352(A)- Transportation of a controlled substance
HS11378- Possession of a Controlled Substance
HS11379(B)- Transportation of a controlled substance through noncontiguous counties
Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.
The stretch of Highway 199 affected by the closure
From Caltrans:
TRAFFIC ADVISORY: Due to approaching wildfire, U.S. 199 will be fully closed at 2 p.m. from Pioneer Road near Gasquet to Oregon Mountain Road (PM 16 to 31).
“Honestly, I’m feeling a lot of emotions,” Chadwick told the Outpost, after placing third in the women’s sprint at the championships in Glasgow, Scotland last week. “I’m feeling incredibly proud of our performance. … We were able to hit several personal bests, and the bronze medal was the cherry on top!”
In case you’re not familiar with para-cycling, it’s a sport adapted for cyclists with various disabilities. As a blind rider, Chadwick races on the rear seat of a tandem bicycle, with her sighted pilot, Skylar Espinoza, seated at the front. Chadwick and Espinoza’s medal is especially impressive, considering that the two have only been training together for a few months, it was their first time at the world championships and it was their very first sprint race together.
Blind since birth, Chadwick was adopted from an orphanage in China at the age of 12 by her parents, Patricia Chadwick and Stephen Dias, who lived in Arcata at the time. Patricia told the Outpost that Hannah had not received any formal education before she was adopted, and after coming to Arcata Chadwick entered her first school, Bloomfield Elementary.
“She started out at Bloomfield and spent most of the time catching up and learning braille with an aid,” Patricia told the Outpost in a recent interview. “She’s very smart, so she caught up quickly and then went to Sunny Brae [Middle School] for sixth grade.”
After Sunny Brae, Chadwick changed over to Coastal Grove Charter School and then attended Arcata High School, where she graduated in 2011. After taking a year off to travel and do some volunteer work in China, she attended UC Davis and graduated in 2016 with a double major in international relations and Chinese. Chadwick said she was always interested in sports and fitness but spent most of her younger years in Humboldt focusing on school, trying to get good grades and get into a good college. After graduating from Davis, Chadwick was looking for a new challenge.
“I actually found tandem racing by accident,” Chadwick said. “One day I was sitting on the couch working … and I saw this ‘learning to race camp’ at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was so excited that I didn’t even read the flier, I just applied … I think I was the last person to get in before applications closed.”
After completing the camp in May of 2019, Chadwick was invited to attend another camp focused specifically on track racing in late 2019. She started working with a coach at the beginning of 2020 and when the pandemic hit, Chadwick said, she took lockdown as an opportunity to focus even more on her fitness and training and has been racing ever since.
Chadwick, with her guide dog, Zorro, and Espinoza at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs| Photo: Patricia Chadwick
Chadwick had previously been working with a different pilot, who decided to pursue other opportunities at the beginning of this year. So Chadwick had to find another pilot if she was going to continue competing at the elite level. Chadwick knew of Espinoza through one of her coaches and asked about her, and the two were connected in early February. In late February, Espinoza came to Colorado Springs, where Chadwick now lives, for a trial and the two hit it off.
They went to a training camp together for one week in March, another training for three weeks in May, and another three weeks leading up to the world championships.
Most of Chadwick and Espinoza’s training was done separately though, Chadwick said, and when she is training without a pilot she does most of her training indoors and does have to “get creative with certain exercises,” because of being blind. But mostly Chadwick doesn’t do anything different for training because of her disability, she said, adding that she goes to the gym at least three times per week and is on her bike almost every day. In addition to her training, she also works on her recovery, including sleeping, eating and soft tissue work, which is “just as important” as training, she said.
After coming home from Scotland last week, Chadwick took a few days to rest, but then got right back to her training, she said. If all goes well, Chadwick and Espinoza hope to go to the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile this November, and to next year’s World Championships, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in March. The team’s ultimate goal, of course, is to go to the Paralympics and Chadwick said she is hopeful that they will qualify for the summer games in 2024. But if not, she feels confident that they could train hard enough to qualify for the next Summer Paralympics in 2028.
Though Chadwick no longer resides in Humboldt, she wanted to say how grateful she is for the time she spent here and wanted to thank all of the family, friends and educators that helped encourage her to pursue anything she set her mind to.
“Growing up in Humboldt County taught me the importance of how to create and maintain a support network,” she said. “I’m so grateful to everyone that encouraged me along the way. I was given many opportunities, and I’m so thankful to be a part of the community.”
Do you operate an Airbnb or a Vrbo in unincorporated Humboldt County? Or, do you have passionate opinions about people who do? If so, you’ll want to attend tonight’s community meeting on short-term rentals.
Flyer provided by County of Humboldt
Humboldt County Planning and Building staff will host a community meeting at 6 p.m. at the Humboldt County Agricultural Center, 5630 South Broadway in Eureka, to discuss proposed rules for short-term rentals in unincorporated areas of the county. Attendees will have an opportunity to share concerns surrounding short-term rentals and learn about the revisions made to the draft ordinance.
Planning and Building staff estimate that there are over 1,000 short-term rentals operating in unincorporated areas of Humboldt County, even though they are not currently allowed to operate.
Back in June, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors adopted an urgency ordinance that placed a temporary ban on new short-term rentals (dwelling units that are rented to guests for 30 consecutive days or less) to give staff time to form new rules for such uses. The temporary moratorium was adopted to discourage people from rushing to initiate new short-term rental units in advance of the proposed ordinance. If the ordinance is adopted, short-term rentals initiated after June 6, 2023, will not be acknowledged as pre-existing due to the moratorium.
Tonight’s meeting is the third in a series of public discussions on the proposed rules. Staff will hold two additional meetings on the draft short-term rental ordinance on Thursday, Aug. 24 and Wednesday, Sept. 6. Check out the press release below for more information.
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Press release from County of Humboldt’s Planning and Building Department:
The County of Humboldt once again reminds the community that an ordinance is being prepared to allow the use of short-term rentals (STRs) in unincorporated Humboldt County.
The purpose of the draft STR Ordinance is to allow some residences in unincorporated Humboldt County to be used for STRs while protecting the character of the neighborhoods where they are located and to preserve residential units for people and families who live and work in Humboldt County.
The County of Humboldt’s Planning & Building Department has revised the draft ordinance based on community feedback received at the first STR ordinance public meeting. The proposed revisions include administrative permit and business license requirements only for most projects, a cap on STRs in the greater Humboldt Bay area where housing is more scarce, and deference to existing operations. To learn more and review the revised draft ordinance, please visit the county’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance web page.
To receive public feedback on the revised draft STR ordinance, the Planning & Building Department will host two additional community meetings.
Community Meetings
An in person Northern Humboldt community meeting will take place on Thursday, Aug. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Center at McKinleyville, located at 1615 Heartwood Dr. in McKinleyville.
A Zoom meeting to present additional changes made in response to the Southern Humboldt, Humboldt Bay Area and Northern Humboldt community meetings will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. Community members can register and join the zoom call at the following address by visiting bit.ly/HumSTRO1 or by scanning the QR code found below this press release.
The draft ordinance proposes a permitting process for rental of residential dwelling units for a period of 30 days or fewer, including homes listed on Airbnb and Vrbo. Those who operate these types of STR units in unincorporated Humboldt County and all interested members of the public are encouraged to attend. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the revisions made to the draft ordinance and ask questions and share concerns, ideas, and input.
The County of Humboldt is committed to providing equal access to all county programs, services and activities through the provision of accommodations for individuals with qualified disabilities as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). With 72 hours prior notice, a request for reasonable accommodation for this meeting can be made by calling (707) 268-3722.
For more information, please call (707) 268-3722, email khilton@co.humboldt.ca.us, or visit the Planning & Building Department office located at 3015 H St. in Eureka.
As foretold last week, a section of the row of eucalyptus trees that line Highway 101 between Eureka and Arcata was removed over the weekend.
It probably bears repeating that even though the towering invasive trees are an iconic aspect of many locals’ daily commutes, arborists determined years ago that they are in a state of decline. Also, crews have frequently been called upon in recent years to trim the trees due to their penchant for dropping dead limbs on the roadway.
Anyway! Due to the emotional attachment to these trees that many readers have expressed, the Outpost stopped by and gathered a bit of imagery documenting the dramatic alteration to a heavily trafficked section of Humboldt.
Former Eureka mayors Frank Jager and Nancy Flemming
The following press release was sent to the Outpost by Gail Rymer, strategic communications specialist and sometimes spokesperson for Security National:
Two former mayors of the City of Eureka, Nancy Flemming and Frank Jager, have endorsed the Housing for All and Downtown Vitality ballot initiative. This initiative seeks to give voters a say in a comprehensive update to the Housing Element of the City’s General Plan.
“The Housing for All Initiative has my endorsement,” Frank Jager said. “It addresses two critical needs of our community — housing and parking. The Initiative is about making a better plan for Eureka — one where businesses can thrive, and housing can be built to address the desperate housing needs,” he said.
According to Jager, the City’s current plan to decrease parking in the downtown corridor will create a huge problem impacting local businesses, future downtown residents, and visitors. First, the City is eliminating more than 600 parking spaces downtown, currently used by visitors, workers, and local businesses. Second, the City plans to allow housing to be built on those lots without providing parking for the new residents. As a result, visitors will have no place to park, and small businesses downtown will be forced to leave. The result will cripple the economic vitality of historic downtown Eureka.
If passed, the Housing for All Initiative will let voters have a say in changing parking requirements for housing developments. The initiative improves the City’s plan to provide housing downtown by requiring parking to make living downtown more attractive for families while protecting downtown businesses.
“I have faced the challenges of creating three different downtown businesses,” Nancy Flemming said. “I depended on abundant parking to survive. This initiative will preserve the parking necessary to keep our local businesses open.”
“As a former mayor of Eureka and old town merchant, I am personally aware of the needs of our community,” Flemming said. “The Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative is a win-win for the City, its residents, and businesses.”
In addition, to help alleviate the severe housing shortage in Eureka and throughout the region, the Housing for All Initiative also includes rezoning 8.5 acres of the former Jacobs Middle School property to enable Eureka to provide hundreds of badly needed housing units for working-and-middle-income families.
Approximately 1,600 valid voter signatures are needed to place the measure on the ballot. To read the initiative and learn more about signing the initiative, visit www.eurekahousingforall2024.org.
An orange-tinge sky greeted us coastal dwellers upon awaking this morning, the result of some of the 23 confirmed lightning-caused fires burning inland, according to Six Rivers National Forest.
“All incidents remain under a full suppression strategy with rapid and aggressive initial attack operations,” the Forest Service said Wednesday morning. “Air attack is being used to perform reconnaissance throughout the forest and additional resources have been ordered to support these incidents.”
The closest significant blaze — and the one likely responsible for the current color filter on our lives over here — is the Lone Pine Fire burning just south of Hoopa. As of 8:30 a.m. this morning, Zonehaven Aware lists the blaze as having burned 352 acres with no containment to report.
There are no evacuation orders anywhere in Humboldt at this time. We will update if we hear otherwise.
(UPDATE, 10:20 a.m.: The North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District (NCUAQMD) notes that air quality for Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties is “overall, good to moderate” with “conditions with brief periods of
increased smoke impacts and upper-level haze”)
The Lone Pine Fire is listed at 352 acres as of Wednesday morning | Zonehaven
Six Rivers National Forest gives a Wednesday morning update on how things are going on their end in the release below:
The Six Rivers National Forest has received approximately 150 lightning strikes across the forest since Tuesday evening, resulting in 23 confirmed fires. Firefighters continue to assess current fires and patrol the area to identify other potential starts. All incidents remain under a full suppression strategy with rapid and aggressive initial attack operations. Air attack is being used to perform reconnaissance throughout the forest and additional resources have been ordered to support these incidents.
The Lower Trinity District has a total of 7 reported fires. The Pilot Fire, near Little Pilot Rock, is comprised of 6 separate incidents and is a total of 15 acres. Several air tankers and helicopters are currently working on these fires. Farther north, the Lone Pine Fire, near Horse Linto Creek and Trinity River, is now approximately 352 acres with fire personnel on site. The fire has burned onto the Hoopa Reservation and the forest is working in close coordination with the Tribe. The North Coast Interagency Type 3 Team has assumed command of the Lone Pine Fire as of 7 a.m. this morning, August 16.
On the Mad River District, 9 fires were reported; however, only 2 fires fall within the district boundaries. The Salt Fire and the Betts Fire are both in the Zenia area with fire personnel on the scene and responding to the incidents. The local fire department was able to fully contain one fire and is now in the stages of “mopping up.’
On the Orleans District in the Bluff Creek area north of Mosquito Lake, several fires have been grouped into the Blue Creek Fire. Smoke jumpers have arrived on the scene and are making progress on the 16-acre incident.
The northernmost District, Gasquet, has reported 11 active fires. The Holiday Fire, north of Patrick’s Creek near the Oregon border is currently the largest on the district at approximately 100 acres. The remaining 10 fires are currently under 10 acres each. The Kelly Fire is approximately 1 mile south of Patrick Creek on the south side of Hwy 199 and is visible from the road. Please exercise caution when driving in the area.
There is a red flag warning in effect for the Gasquet, Willow Creek, Orleans, and Mad River areas. Forecasted weather includes low relative humidity, warm temperatures, and wind gusts across the forest.
At this time there are no closures or evacuations in place. For evacuation information please contact your county sheriff’s office.
