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After hearing an hour and a half of pleading, distraught public commentary from financially struggling local cannabis growers, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors gave them a reprieve on Tuesday, voting 3-1, with Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell abstaining recusing herself, to suspend Measure S cultivation taxes for the next two years.

Bushnell abstained recused herself because she has her own cultivation operation, and Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson cast the lone “no” vote. He observed that the booming weed economy people are harking back to was based on prohibition. He also noted that while growers may unanimously support axing the tax, a majority of voters approved Measure S.

“That’s the constituency, ultimately, that we are answering to,” Wilson said.

Back in February, the board slashed 2020 Measure S bills by 85 percent, citing profound economic struggles for an industry beset by rampant overproduction and a transition away from small-scale farms in remote forested hills. According to growers who spoke on Tuesday, things have only gotten worse.

Tabatha Miller, the county’s chief financial officer and assistant county administrative officer, said there’s a 57 percent delinquency rate for the current tax year, even with the dramatic 85 percent reduction.

The vast majority of public speakers urged the board to eliminate Measure S completely.

“Everyone taxes the cannabis industry at such an outrageous amount,” one local grower said. He specifically called out the $52.7 million in excise taxes that the county has collected since implementing Measure S in the 2017/18 fiscal year. “It’s great for the county, but it’s killed the entire Humboldt County cannabis industry,” he said.

Others objected to the fact that the taxes are based on cultivation area rather than production quantities or sales amounts.

“It seems like you’re just handcuffing farmers before they’re even out of the gate,” a cultivator named James observed. The owner of Humboldt Renegade Farms also asked for a 100 percent reduction in taxes, saying, “The overtaxation and overregulation is literally killing the small farmer in Humboldt County.”

Nick Erickson, owner of Full Moon Farms, said many Humboldt County farms have already failed, “and we’re gonna see more farms leave this industry before it’s over. That is why I’m asking you all today for complete elimination of Measure S.”

Erickson added that he, for one, is still optimistic about the future of the industry. “The current market is unsustainable for any size cannabis business model, including large corporations,” he said. “It will correct itself to at least have a living wage.”

Honeydew grower Sean Stamm said farming is a lot of work, “and starting indebted for the last three years has been backbreaking and demoralizing.” He beseeched the board, “Help us get through this time so we can make Humboldt great again.”

Karla Knapek of Honeydew Valley Farms said that the lowest amount they were offered for flower last year was $263 per pound while last month they were offered just $200 for a pound. The break-even figure for her business is around $375 per pound. She joined the chorus requesting a 100 percent reduction in Measure S taxes.

When the matter finally went back to the board for discussion, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn said he’d be willing to slash taxes again, even though local growers asked to be taxed six years ago “because you were excited about being legal.”

Still, he said he’d be fine with a two-year suspension or even a four-year suspension of Measure S taxation. He noted that the collapse of the local cannabis industry has had “trickle-down” impacts across the entire county economy. 

Wilson then remarked that the inflated value of cannabis was caused by its status as an illegal substance, which impacted communities across the country. And he said some of the restrictions growers still want — from one-acre cultivation caps to crackdowns on out-of-state imports — are all “gradations of regulation” that would artificially inflate the product’s value.

Wilson also observed that the supervisors don’t have the authority to entirely eliminate or repeal Measure S since it was passed by voters. 

Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone, who attended the meeting remotely, struck a more positive note, saying change breeds adaptation. He also cited the old adage “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip” and suggested revising it to “You can’t squeeze blood from a bud.”

“Let that be a quote for the day,” he proposed. Madrone went on to say he supported the two-year moratorium on tax collection. 

Bohn wound up making the motion to suspend Measure S collection for two years — cultivation years 2022 and 2023, billed in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The motion, which Madrone seconded, also deferred all outstanding Measure S payments until October 2023, and it directed staff to return with recommendations to modify Project Trellis, which uses Measure S revenues to fund micro-grants.

PREVIOUSLY: PG&E’s Electricity Transmission Limits Threaten to Throttle Development Throughout Southern Humboldt, Blindsiding Local Officials

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Executives from Pacific Gas and Electric appeared before the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to answer questions and offer updates about the utility’s recently revealed electricity transmission limits, which threaten to hamstring economic and community development across Southern Humboldt.

There were some terse exchanges, though PG&E officials revealed that upper management recently approved tens of millions of dollars in additional infrastructure improvements that should shorten the timeline for resolving the most disastrous implications. 

Planning and Building Director John Ford launched the proceedings with an overview of the “dire implications” of PG&E’s electricity transmission limitations, which he said could stifle both residential and commercial development, impacting the county’s compliance with state climate and housing regulations at a time when the local population is expected to surge to support Cal Poly Humboldt, offshore wind development and other industrial growth.

And he noted that PG&E hasn’t been transparent about why they didn’t see these problems coming and do something to prevent them.

“Today’s discussion is the culmination of over six months of asking for answers,” Ford said, adding that county staff has been asking, to no avail, for maps that show where in the county PG&E has capacity to support growth and where it does not.

Ford pulled no punches in his criticism of the utility’s business model, which he said is essentially to provide service until capacity is used up, as it now appears to be across Southern Humboldt. This “first come, first served” model leaves important questions unanswered, he said. 

For example, while PG&E has promised to spend tens of millions on infrastructure improvements over the next few years, providing upgrades to supply Fortuna, Rio Dell and a new hospital project in Garberville, “the basic question of what this will do for capacity has still not been answered,” Ford said. “[W]here will we be in 10 years when we can no longer buy automobiles with internal combustion engines and there is no capacity to charge electric vehicles? What will happen when there’s not sufficient power to address the housing need caused by offshore wind development?” 

In meetings with PG&E, he said, the question often gets asked: How did this happen?

Ford theorized that PG&E may have known about the vulnerabilities of its system “and simply made a business decision to allow the capacity to be used up without making timely capacity improvements.” 

The utility, for its part, supplied a variety of local and regional employees to address the board’s questions. Ronald Richardson, vice president of PG&E’s north coast region, told the board that PG&E has developed a number of “mitigations and solutions” since August, including $300 million-worth of capacity upgrades in the Garberville and Petrolia areas. 

Carl Schoenhofer, regional senior manager, pointed the finger at cannabis, saying new business applications in SoHum are seeking large amounts of electricity. 

“Not that we have anything against cannabis,” he said. But growth in that industry has not been factored into the state-approved load forecasting models, and in SoHum, new business applicants are requesting more than double the existing customer load from PG&E’s Rio Dell, Garberville, Fruitland and Fort Seward substations.

Plus, cannabis operations are often in remote, rural locations, which requires significant capacity upgrades to distribution lines, transmission lines and substations, Schoenhofer said. PG&E’s senior leadership recently approved $16 million-worth of capacity upgrades to serve new business applications in the Eel River Valley, and Schoenhofer said that work should be completed no later than 2024.

Residents in the more remote regions of SoHum, including Miranda, Blocksburg, Petrolia and Whitethorn, can expect to face a longer timeline, with transmission capacity upgrades not planned to be completed until the end of 2026. Schoenhofer called that an “aggressive” timeline.

Jon Stalllman, principal with a group called Grid Research Innovation and Development, said he’s helping PG&E with its strategic capacity planning. He said the area from Garberville to Alderpoint “presents some of the most complicated engineering solutions that we have in our service area” with cannabis projects demanding big energy loads “on the outer edges of our distribution system.” 

Around Briceland, Honeydew and Petrolia, PG&E would need to spend $300 million to serve just 37 new business customers, Stallman said. This would entail engineering and construction through “extremely difficult mountainous terrain.” The utility is exploring other options in the area but Stallman offered “no promises” because they’re extremely complex.

“We really do want to serve the area; it’s just extremely complicated,” Stallman concluded.

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn was first up to grill the execs. He noted that while there may be 37 new customers seeking power hookups along one transmission, PG&E has a lot of existing customers there. And it’s not like cannabis operations are a new phenomenon. 

“How many cannabis applications have you fulfilled already, and did you see a trend maybe starting?” he asked. “Because there has to be hundreds of those out there already.” Bohn cited the utility’s well-document failures to maintain its aging infrastructure. “So some of that $300 million would be tied into normal rehabilitation of the lines from years of service, I would think,” he said.

Fortuna City Manager Merritt Perry and Planning Director Kevin Caldwell appeared at the meeting, and they criticized PG&E for its lack of transparency, saying city officials only recently realized there was a problem when local developers were denied hookups despite having received “will serve” letters from the utility.

“So, things weren’t adding up,” Perry said. In August, city officials finally got an assessment from PG&E, whose reps said it would take $900 million and nine years to get new connections.

“I really can’t overstate the impact of that assessment,” Perry said. “Essentially what it was doing was putting a building moratorium on the City of Fortuna and telling anybody who wanted to invest, whether it’s in homes or in businesses in the city, that they needed to go elsewhere.”

The city has developers ready to start projects in the old Fortuna mill site and more than 150 residential housing projects approved or at some stage of the planning process, Perry said. Plus, the city’s wastewater treatment plant needs high-power energy upgrades to comply with regulatory permits, a new senior center is in the works and existing businesses need to expand their power usage.

“I think it’s really important that we understand the circumstances that led to this,” Perry said. “We still haven’t heard exactly why everything was business as usual and then we ran up against a wall.” 

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell said that she appreciates the $30 million investment to serve the new Garberville hospital and its associated housing, but she asked, “Where’s that leave everybody else in Southern Humboldt?” There’s no room for growth in Garberville proper, she added.

“So, for people that are investing a lot of money, we need better answers,” Bushnell said. “And I understand you guys are trying to get there [but] we need to get there quicker.”

Later in the meeting, following a public comment period, Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson said our culture’s belief in constant growth has led to infrastructure problems beyond just electricity to include delayed maintenance on roads, water and wastewater systems. Centralized energy generation may need to give way to micro-grid technology and distributed systems, he said.

PG&E’s execs had brought up the concept of equity, saying the utility must do right by all of its ratepayers across the state, which means that expensive upgrades in remote locations don’t make the most sense.

Wilson pointed out that land use decisions are also implicated in our current predicament because PG&E is now responding to legal requirements to supply service in these remote areas, which were approved for development at the local level. But Wilson added that there’s a key difference.

“We’re the transparent organization; you are not,” he told the PG&E execs.

The board wound up simply accepting the informational report before moving on to other matters.

Press release from College of the Redwoods:

The College of the Redwoods Board of Trustees announced the end of their COVID-19 vaccine mandate at their Nov. 1 meeting.

Looking at the steep decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the District, Governor Newsom’s announcement that he will end the state’s COVID-19 state of emergency on February 28, 2023, and to aid in CR’s continued efforts to build back enrollments, the Board of Trustees retired two policies related to CR’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate - Board Policy 2900 and Administrative Policy 2900. The Board also rescinded Resolution 782 that directed the District leadership to require evidence of COVID-19 vaccinations for all students and employees.

The Board’s actions, effective immediately, lifts the COVID vaccine mandate for students and employees. Students are no longer required to be up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations in order to register for face-to-face classes.

CR recognizes that vaccinations help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and prevent serious disease. As such, the District still highly recommends that all students, faculty, and staff maintain an up-to-date vaccination status.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $2.7 billion initiative to expand transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds. The state gave school districts only 13 months to prepare for the first wave of the expansion, which began this school year.

That’s not much time, especially during a pandemic and in the midst of a dire teacher shortage. School districts had to make plans for implementing the new grade, hire teachers and aides and find classrooms for the new students.

By far, staffing has been the largest challenge for districts. Statewide, districts need thousands of teachers and aides to staff transitional kindergarten classes throughout the four-year rollout of the expansion.

This year, some districts were able to meet most of their needs by moving teachers who were doing other jobs, including subbing, running reading programs or teaching other grades. Now districts are worried about finding qualified teachers for the next few years of the expansion. The scramble to find staff is also creating a domino effect on child care programs and preschools whose teachers are ideal candidates for higher-paying transitional kindergarten classrooms.

“TK is a great opportunity for students and beneficial for families as well, but the rollout is so fast that I don’t know that we have all the staffing and workforce available to meet the needs,” said Noemy Salas, senior director of Early Childhood Education Programs for the Chula Vista Elementary School District, in San Diego County. “All of the districts are hiring. We are competing for the same teachers and that is a concern.”

The California Education Department did not release guidelines for how to implement the expansion of transitional kindergarten until February of this year. Once they had the guidance, districts had to seek approval for their plans from local boards of education by June 2022 for a fall start date.

“All of the districts are hiring. We are competing for the same teachers and that is a concern.”
— Noemy Salas, senior director of Early Childhood Education Programs for the Chula Vista Elementary School District

Education Deputy Superintendent Sarah Neville-Morgan said the districts had all of last year to plan for the expansion, and the multi-year rollout gives them several years to grow to meet full demand. In addition, she said her department worked directly with school districts, provided plan templates and strategized with districts about how best to expand their transitional kindergarten classes even before the guidance was released in February.

“We can completely see and understand they are feeling the pressure. They are dealing with multiple factors and trying to find staff and prepping classrooms for preschool-age children,” said Neville-Morgan, who leads the Opportunities for All Branch, which oversees the early learning and care, multilingual support and special education divisions.

“It goes back to seizing the moment. This was California’s moment to transform education.”

She points to the Education Department’s efforts to help districts prepare and launch the program, such as informational webinars, and scheduling office hours so districts could ask questions and share concerns. The department also created workgroups and design teams to plan how to best carry out the expansion, and recently created a communications tool kit to help districts outreach to community members and parents. The Education Department has also offered grants to districts for planning, implementation, renovation and new construction, and teacher training.

The expansion was bold but the execution has been arduous, said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley who also heads the Children’s Forum, which researches education issues in the state.

“Ideally, expansion will accelerate in year two as more families learn about the TK opportunity and Sacramento distributes facilities, dollars, and trains necessary teachers in steadier fashion, moving beyond a glacial pace,” Fuller said.

State education officials and legislators say the districts shouldn’t have been surprised by the expansion because it has been discussed for years.

“This is decades in the making. It’s a big deal for California, for our kids, for our education and success,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, a Sacramento Democrat who is the chair of the Assembly’s education finance subcommittee. McCarty authored a bill to expand transitional kindergarten that was later included in the governor’s budget.

For years McCarty and early education advocates pushed for expanding transitional kindergarten — and failed. But this time, several factors made it possible:

• The pandemic required state officials to think differently about how to educate children who were not attending online classes or struggling academically;
• Newsom made early education a priority and supported the expansion;
• Plummeting school enrollment made room for 4-year-olds on campuses;
• Political groups and labor organizations aligned on the expansion.

“A lot of children during the pandemic stayed at home, and TK gives them a gentle onramp to our schools,” Neville-Morgan said. “Because more families kept younger children at home, we think having TK launched now creates some of those school readiness components.”

California transitional kindergarten was first offered in 2012 to 4-year-olds who turned 5 between Sept. 2 and Dec. 4. These children had previously enrolled in kindergarten but in 2010 a new law required children to turn 5 by Sept. 1 to enter kindergarten.

Now, with the expansion, each year of the rollout will see more children eligible to attend school based on their birth dates. By 2025-26 all 4-year-olds will be eligible.

At that point, up to 500,000 California children will be eligible to attend transitional kindergarten and more than 300,000 are likely to be enrolled, according to the Learning Policy Institute, a research organization focused on education policy and practice.

The institute estimates California will need 12,000 to 16,000 transitional kindergarten teachers and between 16,000 and 20,000 assistants for those classrooms.

There are several ways to become eligible to teach transitional kindergarten. A teacher with a multiple-subject credential with 24 units of early childhood development completed by August or a child development permit is qualified. There is also a temporary waiver available to teach for those with preschool experience, a bachelor’s degree and early childhood development credits.

In addition, the state is developing a new credential approved by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing last month. The PK-3 early learning credential will cover transitional kindergarten through third grade.

Deborah Stipek, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education who is a member of the commission’s Early Childhood Credentialing workgroup, said the state is helping with staffing on several fronts: teacher preparation grant funds, the development of the new PK-3 credential, and flexible paths for potential teachers to fill the available jobs.

“I suspect that any schedule would have seemed too fast for some districts,” Stipek said. “They have a three-year runway, which seems substantial.”

There are a couple of districts further along in expanding transitional kindergarten, including San Diego Unified, which invited all 4-year-olds this year.

“We worked around the clock to get teachers in the pipeline and kids in the seats,” said Stephanie Ceminsky, director of early learning for the district. She said enrollment in transitional kindergarten more than tripled compared to last year and the district opened 189 classrooms this year.

“It goes back to seizing the moment. This was California’s moment to transform education.”
— Sarah Neville-Morgan, Education Deputy Superintendent

Most districts are moving more slowly with the rollout schedule.

Los Angeles Unified needed 500 teachers and aides to staff the expansion this year, said Dean Tagawa, executive director of the district’s Early Childhood Education Division. But with reassignments of current staff, Tagawa said his department only hired 20 people outside the district.

As the largest district in California, Los Angeles Unified had a roster of qualified teachers because it has several programs for kids under 5, including transitional kindergarten, state preschool classrooms, and early education centers for 2- to 4-year-olds. It also ran various programs over the years that targeted 4-year-olds for school readiness.

“It was like we just kept moving,” Tagawa said. “It wasn’t as challenging and we had the teachers already.”

For other districts, it has been tougher and there is still anxiety about finding enough teachers.

Sacramento City Unified has 346 kids enrolled, said Aida Buelna, transitional kindergarten administrator for the district. It has 19 transitional kindergarten classrooms, up from 10 before the expansion. Buelna said the district plans to add another 15 to 19 classrooms next fall.

“There was no way we were going to be able to do this all at once,” Buelna said. “For next year, we want to start hiring early.”

At Chula Vista, finding teachers for the dual language immersion transitional kindergarten classrooms, where students are taught in two languages, has been even more challenging because they require an extra certification, Salas said.

In the process of building out transitional kindergarten, Salas lost at least 10 instructional aides working in the district’s preschool program. Now, she’ll have to fill those jobs, too.

“You are going to see that every new year — staff leaving preschool to go to transitional kindergarten.”
— Rita Palet, executive director of early education programs and services for the San Diego County Office of Education

To find qualified teachers and assistants, districts are looking directly at the legion of child care and preschool teachers already working with 4-year-olds at private and nonprofit preschools and child care centers. Some programs have lost teachers and aides to districts, which pay more and offer summers off and pension plans, and preschool and child care providers are worried about losing even more as districts need more teachers in the next few years.

“They are the best ones to be teaching TK but it’s leading to stress on both sides,” said Rita Palet, executive director of early education programs and services for the San Diego County Office of Education. “You are going to see that every new year — staff leaving preschool to go to transitional kindergarten.”

Palet and other education officials say they support early education teachers who want to make the switch. But they say they feel as though the state didn’t take into account how difficult it would be for child care and preschool programs to fill the gaps left by departing staff and students.

“We have highly institutionalized state preschool and Head Start programs. You can’t just move those kids and move those teachers instantly without doing real damage,” Fuller said. “I don’t think anybody thought through how slowly those tectonic plates, that are interrelated, would be moving.”

Neville-Morgan and McCarty said recent increases in the reimbursement rates the state pays providers for child care and preschool for low-income children should help with hiring and retention. But advocates and providers say the increased rates are not enough to meet state staffing requirements for younger children, who require more adults per child than 4-year-olds.

In California, the typical center-based preschool teacher with a bachelor’s degree earns about $42,600 a year compared to $84,700 for a transitional kindergarten teacher, according to a June study by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.

The center found that nearly half of all preschool teachers have a bachelor’s degree or higher and three-quarters have a child development permit. The center has been advocating for an expedited certification pathway for preschool teachers based on a similar process for private school teachers who are able to get a multiple-subject credential without attending a preparation program, said Elena Montoya, senior researcher at the UC Berkeley center.

“Teachers who might leave their work in a preschool to go work in TK may love their job and love what they are doing,” said Montoya. “But they may have to make this choice because their wages are not enough to subsist on.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Joyce Vivian Smith (Holt)
Oct. 7, 1943 – Oct. 25, 2022

Joyce passed away at Especially You Care Home on October 25, 2022 at age 79. For the last several years Joyce struggled with declining health due a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. Despite her diagnosis she lived her life to the fullest and continued to make friends until the very end.

Joyce came into this world with an unmatched exuberance for life. A true force; Joyce made her own rules. She was born in Astoria, Oregon to Vivian (deceased) and Norman (deceased) Holt and moved to Eureka when she was very young. Joyce spent her first year of life on a fishing boat before growing up and living in Eureka for the majority of her life. She graduated from Eureka High School in 1961.

Joyce made friends everywhere she went. She always had a gift on hand and celebrated every occasion. Joyce was full of spirit and generosity (unless she was playing cards) and made everyone around her feel special. She had an internal fire that brightened the world around her. She loved to talk, laugh and listen to others. She was direct, honest and had an infectious laugh that energized any room. If you were lucky enough to know her she made an impact. She was a real powerhouse.

Joyce worked for many years as a department store manager of women’s clothing in Eureka and in Santa Cruz. She was passionate about helping women find clothes that made them look and feel good. Joyce later worked as a bookkeeper for Redwood Electronics Supply. She was a very hard worker and put 110% into everything she did.

Joyce is survived by her daughter Joelle Davidson, daughter in-law Lynne Sandstrom, granddaughters Trysta Hays, Brandi Hays and great granddaughters Lili and Katana. She is also survived by her two sisters, Diane Bare (Ted) and Ida-Fay Felthauser (Mike), nephews Les Bare, Jason Lindholm and Cory Lindholm and her cousin Kathy Payne. She is proceeded by her daughter Rana Krueger, granddaughter Tiffany Hays and cousin Nyle Henderson. Her lifelong friendships include Joanie Lee, June Lee, Nancy Wilson, Irene Johnson (deceased), Liane Peroni, Lucy Sprat, Fran Morehouse, Esther Curtis, Kristy Norton, Gene Hansen and many others.

Joyce was so full of love and life. She often proclaimed that someone should write a book about her adventures. Her one of a kind personality led to a one of a kind life. We will miss her.

Thank you to Hospice, Pace and Especially You for the wonderful care you provided.

A celebration of her life will be held on November 19, 2022 at the Moose Lodge in Eureka from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Family and friends are welcome to attend and celebrate her wonderful life.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Joyce’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Clarence James Landry
April 30, 1930 – October 22, 2022

Clarence was almost named Bazile. He was born in the Landry farmhouse near Lena, Wisconsin on April 30, 1930. He died peacefully in his sleep of old age on October 22, 2022 in his daughter’s home in Arcata.

He was a typical Midwest farm boy, attending Meadowbrook School in Stiles Township. He milked cows and was active in 4-H. He graduated from Lena High school in 1948 with 47 other classmates

He tap danced in the bars in Oconto Falls, when Vic would take him to town. His older siblings, Germaine and Howard lost him twice, once in Oconto Falls, and one time at Kelly Lake. He excelled as a percussionist at Lena High, and was a member of the George Glass Combo (Oconto Falls, Wisconsin), Kenneth “Duke “Rouse Polka Band (Coleman/Pound, Wisconsin) and the Fay Ivan “Kernal” Hessil Polka Band (Oconto Falls, Wisconsin) He continued drumming with the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh marching and Pep bands. His drumming ability was put to use as a cadence drummer at Fort Leonard Wood.

A Korean Era draftee, Clare served at Fort Banks, Massachusetts, after training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and training at Fort Bliss, Texas. Training included anti- aircraft gunnery and his main duties were serving as a Morning Report Clerk.

After finding engineering was not his calling at UW Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he attended UW-Oshkosh, where he enrolled in an industrial arts class for elementary teachers. Grace Helmer needed much help constructing her step ladder. They married December 30, 1954, in Lena, Wisconsin. Alicia was born in 1956.

Clare taught fifth and sixth and was principal at Clark School, South Beloit, Illinois. In 1961 he earned a Master of Arts in Reading Instruction and Counseling at Rockford (College) University. His career continued with sixth grade teaching positions at Henrietta, Wilson and MacIntosh Schools in Rockford, Illinois. He served as Principal of Hallstrom and Welch Schools. He also held positions at Atwood Learning Center and Rockford Lutheran Academy.

Clare loved teaching and the best teaching years were at Rockford University Center for Learning Strategies. Clare took so much joy in the success of his students and remembered them so well in his autumn years.

From 1964 to 2007 Clare was a seasonal interpreter in Glacier National Park, serving visitors in the St. Mary Valley, Two Medicine, Logan Pass, Goat Haunt and Many Glacier areas. His work there ensured a marvelous girlhood for Alicia.

Grace and Clare were madly in love, and he was her dedicated care giver. They made many dear friends and acquaintances through both of their career paths.

He was a member of UW-Oshkosh Newman Club; St. Jude’s Parish in Beloit, Wisconsin and was Chair of the Parish’s Centennial Celebration in 2008. In 2018, He joined St. Mary’s Parish in Arcata 2018 and loved being part of a new parish. He also formed many bonds with young ministers in the Christian Ministries in the National Parks.

He is survived by Alicia (Yoshi) Uemura; grand-daughters Laurie, Margaret, Emilie, Elizabeth and their partners; three great grandchildren, Josephine, Akai and Amalia. Additional survivors are numerous nieces and nephews, very dear friends; and his feline lap-companion, Donatella.

Preceding him in death are his dear wife of 62 years, Grace; beloved grand-daughter, Katie; his parents, Julia Luisier and Victor Landry; and siblings, Norman, Germaine and Howard.

Clare’s family would like to extend their sincere thanks to Father Fabian , Father Francis , and Deacon John Gai of St. Mary’s Parish, Arcata; Father Bala of St.Jude’s, Beloit, Wisconsin; Chris Cassaro, Paul’s Chapel in Arcata, Daley- Murphy-Wisch, Beloit, Wisconsin; and Humboldt Medical Supply, Eureka. We are grateful to everyone at Hospice, especially Robert, Erin and Rebecca; and the Visiting Angels, Sheila, Dee, Fox; and many other caregivers. Thank you to Maricela Bean for loving facials. We are grateful for the expert care of Dr. Rodney Swenson, D.O. and Dr. Alberto Taylor, D.D.S.

Pallbearers in Arcata are Yoshi Uemura, PJ Lynch, Robert Sataua, Nick Brichta, Jim Monge; and Mitchell Monge. Honorary Pallbearers are Joel Kindle, Matthew A. Nelson, and Akai Sataua. Wisconsin pallbearers will be John Landry, Ed Landry, Mike Landry, Vic Landry, Joe Landry; and Bronco Bell.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Mary’s Parish, Arcata on Wednesday, November 2nd at 4 p.m. Graveside Committal will be November 8 at 2 p.m. at Mt. Thabor Cemetery, Beloit, Wisconsin. Clarence will be buried with Grace.

Memorial gifts may be offered to the American Heart Association; St. Jude Catholic Church, 737 Hackett St, Beloit, WI, 53511; Rockford University, 5050 East State St. Rockford, IL, 61107; or Glacier National Park Conservancy, P.O Box 2749, Columbia Falls, MT, 59912.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Clare Landry’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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Speaking from inside a cavernous Arcata Bottoms warehouse this afternoon, state Senator Mike McGuire unveiled a $10 million investment to transform the expansive building into a state-of-the-art health care educational hub for Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods.

“The North Coast has some of the most acute shortages of health care professionals and nurses in California,” McGuire said. “We’ve expanded the pipeline for nurses here on the North Coast by launching the licensed vocational nurse-to-registered-nurse program in Del Norte County at the College of Redwoods Crescent City campus. … Even with all of this progress expanding the health care workforce, we needed a home and that is why we are in a warehouse this morning.”

For years, Cal Poly Humboldt has used the 30,000-square-foot warehouse, located on Samoa Boulevard, as a storage facility. In the next two to three years it will house “the most modern learning lab between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon border.”

“It will be the epicenter for training North Coast health care leaders and the workforce of tomorrow,” McGuire said. “This health care education hub will house amazing health care labs, classrooms, as well as conference rooms all specially designed to train not just nurses but respiratory therapists, radiology techs, psychiatric techs and more.”

McGuire credited College of the Redwoods President Keith Flamer and Cal Poly Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. for leading the charge on the new health care hub. 

“We clearly understand that we can do much more to help our students if we work together and not separately,” Flamer said. “This health care education hub is just another example of the wonderful work that [President] Jackson and Cal Poly Humboldt have been able to do in the last four years. … There’s a lot more room to expand for our community partners and other health care areas that we don’t yet have or we haven’t even dreamed of.”

Jackson shared Flamer’s sentiment and offered “a very, very, very big thank you” to McGuire for helping to make the health care hub a reality.

“The things that you are able to do for this region and its campuses rarely go unnoticed,” he said. “CR and Cal Poly Humboldt have … a connectedness that is centered on serving this region and the students that learn here. … We intend to create a thriving health care program. This facility and the joint academic programs that are a part of it helped us to do just that.”

There were several aspiring and practicing registered nurses present during today’s announcement. McGuire highlighted one woman in particular, Regina Taylor, who was among the first to graduate from Cal Poly Humboldt with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“I can’t say enough about the faculty at both [CR and Cal Poly Humboldt],” Taylor said. “The faculty is there to assist us through thick and thin, through laughter and crying. … They prepared me to enter the medical field with confidence and the foundation to be the best nurse that I am. I am fortunate to say I have recently accepted a position at Redwood Coast PACE as an RN.”

Keep scrolling for more pictures of today’s announcement!