Dewey Davis was born on May 25, 1939, in Vian, Oklahoma. He passed away at the age of 83 on January 31 at 10:20 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Eureka. He leaves behind his beautiful wife of 53 wonderful years, Meta Davis, his two sons Jon Davis and Paul and his wife Melissa Davis, and his sister Pat Willey. Both Jonathan and Pat are residents of Idaho, Jonathan currently resides in Caldwell, and Pat in Nampa. Paul Davis lives here in Eureka. Dewey Davis is also survived by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. Dewey Davis is now in heaven with his father Arthur Davis, his mother Jewell Davis, his brother Doyle Davis, and his sister Hazel Reneau.
Dewey Davis was known locally as pastor Dewey; he was in the ministry locally for over 50 years primarily preaching and teaching from the pulpit of Redwood Christian Center. He Joined his brother-in-law Richard Reneau’s church at the bottom of Humboldt Hill in 1970. He started his ministry as the assistant pastor and eventually became the full-time minister of the congregation, he also had a full-time job at a local optical lab where he worked until 1994. In 1994 he devoted 100% of his time to the church and its congregation. The Redwood Christian Center would eventually purchase the Stafford campground just south of Rio Dell. At the campground on behalf of Redwood Christian Center, Pastor Dewey and his wife hosted and ministered to many family camps, youth services, and old-fashioned tent revivals. Dewey and Meta were involved in the lives of many travelers, campers, and wanderers that they met at the campground.
Dewey Davis graduated from Fortuna High in 1958. He was involved in multiple sports, primarily football. He then worked at the Pacific Lumber Company as a machinist. He was also involved with local car clubs, where he was one of the founding members of Kingsmen. He was also one of the founding members and the president of Straight-A-Ways. It was his love of cars and driving fast that would ultimately lead him to God. He often preached about the moment when he found God and God’s mercy during a car accident with one of his closest friends.
He then moved to San Antonio, Texas to attend IBC, International Bible College. At IBC he would meet his beautiful bride Meta Miess, and they would marry before he graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in theology. He then received his offer to minister in Eureka with his brother-in-law Richard Reneau. Upon starting his new ministry, he then found out that his first child Jonathan Davis was on the way. Upon getting to Eureka, starting his family, and joining the Redwood Christian Center, he built his home at the top of Humboldt Hill. The home would be his residence until the day he crossed the finish line of his life. The house was finished just in time for the arrival of their second son Paul Davis.
Throughout his ministry Dewey Davis touched many people’s lives. His ministry was not only as a pastor of a church or shepherd of the flock, he also was a teacher and a friend, and he always had a joke to share. He had many friendships which he cherished and sought guidance from, some of those friendships were not always related to his ministry. Pastor Dewey Davis’s ministry served so many roles while representing God’s love. He was there at the beginning dedicating a young life to Christ. He was there in the middle of their lives conducting the matrimony service for many new couples, and helping guide them while they started their families. He was also there at the end of their lives holding their hands singing and praying with them as they were reaching for the hand of Christ who would guide them to heaven above.
Recently Dewey mentioned that he wished he had more time to spend with his friends and family, and in his words, he felt he had so much more to give, he had sermons that he still wanted to preach, there were people in his life he still wanted to see saved, and in his ministry, he felt he still had more to give.
Dewey retired from Redwood Christian Center on December 31 and was able to look upon God’s face one month later.
A memorial service will be held at Redwood Christian Center, 6000 Humboldt Hill Rd, Eureka on Saturday, February 25 at 2 p.m. A potluck reception will follow. Please bring a dish and a memory to share.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Dewey Davis’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Virginia Ann Ciszek Felter December 1946 to January 2023
Ginny
was born at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital and grew up in a Marine
family. Most of her youth was in southern California during the surf
and car culture days, but horses were always her love. She got her
first horse as young teen and she and a friend would pack lunches and
ride way out into the hills. Occasionally her horse would open the
gate latch to visit the horses at the ranch down the lane. She’d
hear the latch click so would have to walk down in her nightgown to
bring him home.
She
always loved animals and started working for a veterinarian. That led
to getting her license as a Registered Veterinary Technician. Horses
became a secondary career, both in raising and jumping. Heaps of
prize ribbons remain, along with plates and bowls around the house
commemorating Hunter and Jumper events that she was in across the
region. In the 1990s she became the head of the Equine Division of
the Helen Woodward Animal Hospital.
Her
dad was a Marine WWII war hero and a tough father to grow up under.
Her older brother never satisfied dad’s expectations so Ginny would
step in and try to fill her brother’s shoes. An example is when
brother Bob had no interest in the family airplane, Ginny took up
flying and soloed. She paid attention to her dad’s business savvy
and began a portfolio at a young age.
Bob
met Ginny when she asked him to do some remodeling on her condo. She
had a wonderful location with a great view to the beach and down onto
the Del Mar Racetrack. Only you could hardly see the view since she’d
coerce the tree trimmers to skip past the fast-growing Coral trees in
front. Instead of a view she had a grove full of life with chirping
birds right out her windows. Bob did the work for her and one thing
led to another. Our first camping trip together sometime in 1997
would be easy to date because that weekend we could see the Hale Bopp
comet as the sun came on the desert horizon both in the morning and
evening.
Anxious
to leave rapidly growing San Diego, we took a trip for a week or two
each Christmas. After a number of adventures, we came through Arcata
and liked it. We put a realtor on task to find a home or property and
we bought an empty field with full sun and a view to the horizon. We
built a house together and have been involved with Humboldt’s
community since. Ginny helped at Planned Parenthood, loved the
Humboldt Crabs, and was always in the midst of house plants, the
orchard and garden, parakeets and our Corgi.
In
about 2014 Ginny started making occasional bonehead decisions. When
we went to her physician, she said “I have to report her to DMV.”
Ginny passed her driving test but DMV doesn’t forget and the next
year she got a notice to come in for the written test. No matter how
many times we took the online tests, she just couldn’t do it, so in
2016 DMV tested her and took her license. It’s been a gradual
process but in time the diagnosis was Alzheimer’s and she slowly
lost her interests and abilities. It’s been a long sad journey, not
without good times, but the disease won. If inclined. please send
monetary donations to either the Alzheimer’s fund or to Hospice of
Humboldt.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Virginia Felter’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
HUMBOLDT TODAY: The search for an elderly mushroom hunter continues, Rob Arkley is “furious,” Cal Poly Humboldt students may soon be looking for new places to live, plus what does Broadway need? Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.
The College Creek apartments on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus would be reserved for students transferring from a different university next fall, according to a recent post on the Cal Poly Humboldt housing website. Photo: Andrew Goff.
Could Cal Poly Humboldt evict more than a thousand of its current
dorm residents next school year?
That’s the
implication of a recent post on the website of Cal Poly Humboldt’s
housing department, and it has current dorm residents in a bit of a
panic. In the post, the housing department notes that in the fall of
2023, all of the college’s traditional, on-site student housing
will be reserved for freshmen and new students transferring from
other universities.
Second-year students
or beyond – in other words, everyone living in the dorms now –
would be mostly on their own. The post originally said that it would
have almost 90 beds for second-years available at the Budget Inn, in
the Valley West area. It has since added the Motel 6 and the Super 8
motels, both also in Valley West, to that list, for a total of about
347 beds “to call home,” as the university puts it.
The housing post
adds that it is trying to add 1,000 beds in total before the start of
the fall semester, but it seems that there will be hundreds of newly homeless students looking for places to live next semester.
Many of those students are a little bit panicked right now, and they’ve organized a protest at the Cal Poly Humboldt quad that will take place Wednesday, starting at 11 a.m. One student lets us know that there will be a planning meeting for that protest in the same place tonight at 7 p.m.
“The situation with housing that is going on in the school is absolutely ridiculous…” said one student who left a voicemail on the Outpost’s phone. “A lot of people are talking about dropping out and leaving which is going to make the situation even worse.”
“As an alumni and father of a current CPH student, I find this action deplorable,” wrote one commenter on a Reddit thread devoted to the topic. “Student housing is a major contributor to my daughter’s experience and success at CPH. This kind of policy should be implemented in a multi-year phase-out, not as a surprise announcement (quietly posted over the weekend on top of everything else).”
Arcata’s derelict Craftsman Mall site, future home of a nearly 1,000-bed, Cal Poly Humboldt-run housing facility. Photo: Andrew Goff.
Despite Cal Poly Humboldt not meeting its enrollment targets this year, Arcata is currently on a building spree in the expectation that the Cal Poly transformation is going to spur big growth in the town. Cal Poly Humboldt is developing the Craftsman Mall property up the street from campus to house 1,000 students. Developer Steve Strombeck is adding 100 units to his Westwood Garden Apartments project. And, of course, the city is working on the Gateway Area Plan, which — if it passes in its current form — would likely add thousands of units to the city’s housing stock over many years.
But few if any of these new units are expected to be online by the fall of next year, and that points to an acute housing crunch for students next year
David Loya, the city’s director of community development, told the Outpost this afternoon that so far as he is aware the university has not yet reached out to the city about the new policy. (We couldn’t reach city manager Karen Diemer to ask if she had received the news.) However, Loya said, temporary squeezes like this highlight the pressing need for more affordable housing in the area.
“There are systematic problems our communities need to address,” Loya said. “I think the reality is that we have these periodic reminders, but the housing crunch is real and pervasive.”
Cal Poly Humboldt issued a press release late this afternoon. Here it is:
Cal
Poly Humboldt is experiencing unprecedented growth due to our strong
academic programs as well as our polytechnic designation. We
know that students and their families have concerns about the
availability of quality, affordable housing during this time of
growth. To help meet their needs, the
University is providing other temporary housing options.
We
are committed to offering priority
housing at on-campus residence halls
for
all first-year students and accommodating as many transfer and
returning students as we can in the next academic year. We know that
while all students benefit from the opportunity to live on campus, it
is of the utmost importance to those students newest to our campus to
support their full transition to Cal Poly Humboldt.
To
balance these needs and support our returning and transfer students,
Cal Poly Humboldt is increasing our bridge housing options for Fall
2023 by adding approximately 1,000 beds. Our goal is to provide as
many students as possible a safe and affordable housing option
managed by the University.
At
this time, we have arranged options that include the Comfort Inn,
Motel 6, and Super 8 hotels near campus in Arcata. We are also
working on additional options.
Cal
Poly Humboldt is committed to sustaining a quality student experience
throughout this time of growth and transition. One
example of bridge housing is from this past Fall 2022, when
upperclassmen had the opportunity to live at the Comfort Inn in
Arcata. Surveys and conversation with current residents in our
campus-managed off-site housing have shown their satisfaction with
this option. Students have shared their appreciation of the
convenience of the location, its strong connection with the community
and local businesses, and the extra amenities, such as breakfast,
cleaning service, and a grocery store within walking distance.
Students enjoy these amenities as well as a
reduced cost of housing (which will be $3,312 per semester for Fall
2023 and Spring 2024 semesters respectively).
All
continuing students received a message
today
from Housing & Residence Life explaining their options and the
housing application process and timeline. This web
page
was
recently updated to help our students and their families better
understand our process. More information will be shared regarding
options and the included amenities in more detail. We will continue
to update you as we finalize contractual agreements for additional
spaces and services.
A 2019 Now This documentary on homelessness among students at Humboldt State, as it was then known.
Security National headquarters on Fifth Street in Eureka. | Photos by Andrew Goff.
# # #
It was early in the morning, two days before Christmas, and Robin P. Arkley II was furious. He said so in an email to Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery: “I am furious.”
Arkley addressing a crowd in 2014. | File photo.
Arkley, the 67-year-old president and chief executive officer of Security National Servicing Corporation, a Eureka-based company dealing in real estate acquisition and management, said he wanted a meeting the following Tuesday, and he directed Slattery to bring along the city attorney, newly seated Mayor Kim Bergel and one member of the city council.
“We have been totally mistreated,” Arkley said in his email. “With 220 eureka employees, 1,400 housing units planned for the city, I am tired of miles ‘misspeaking’ or just misstating facts, we need somebody we can trust.”
Arkley’s frustration with city leadership had been building over the past two years. He vehemently disapproves of the city’s recent efforts to convert municipal parking lots into affordable housing developments, an initiative aimed at promoting infill development while meeting the city’s regional housing needs allocation (RHNA), as outlined in its general plan and required by the state.
From Arkley’s perspective, the parking lots represent a far more valuable asset to downtown Eureka than the proposed housing developments. He considers parking the lifeblood of a thriving downtown, saying it not only offers easy access to retail and restaurants, it also gives his own employees the shortest possible walk from their cars to Security National’s headquarters at 323 Fifth Street. Walking Eureka’s streets is dangerous, he argues, particularly for women.
In 2021 Arkley appeared on KINS Radio’s “Talk Shop” program and vowed to take political and legal action to block the city’s “crazy” parking-lots-to-housing efforts, saying city officials had tried to execute their scheme “in the stealth of night.”
Over the past year or so, Arkley and his staff have tried to negotiate several deals aimed at preserving one lot in particular, the one at the corner of Fifth and D, next to the recently condemned Lloyd Building. These efforts included an aborted bid to buy vacant property at Harris and Pine streets with the intent of trading it to the city in exchange for the parking lot. The Pierson Company wound up making a similar land-swap deal with the city last year.
Arkley has also proposed developing housing on his own 43-acre parcel known as the Balloon Track, though that land is not zoned for residential development. After the city announced plans to demolish the earthquake-damaged Lloyd Building in December, Arkley sought to acquire it but couldn’t come to terms with the city.
These unsuccessful efforts — stymied, in his view, by insufficient cooperation from city officials — fueled Arkley’s fury.
Twenty minutes after sending that early morning email on December 23, he sent Slattery a follow-up:
Miles,
I would have preferred to have dealt with a capable and creative person. I ALWAYS find a way to yes. You ALWAYS find a path to a snotty and ill thought out no. The people of eureka and this county deserve better. I think that you are well advised to find a different path.
You should cater and protect your business center’s constituents. Do your council KNOW that we are trying to protect fellow females who work in eureka? It may be time for a female city manager who cares about the safety of women.
Merry and Blessed Christmas to all.
Vty [very truly yours], Rob
By all accounts, the December 27 meeting at City Hall did not go well. People who attended say an irate Arkley unleashed a series of expletives before storming out, leaving his daughter and a few Security National executives behind to talk with city officials.
More than a month later, Arkley tells the Outpost that he’s so fed up with Eureka’s current leadership that he intends to move his company headquarters outside city limits.
“Will local downtown businesses be crushed when we leave? Yes,” he said in an email sent on Thursday, “but our first duty is to sn [Security National] folks. We have 4 acres in escrow outside the city. I will not deal with them anymore. I don’t want to spend $15-20mm on a new building, but am being left with little choice.”
# # #
Whether Arkley follows through on that threat remains to be seen, but in one of several emails responding to questions from the Outpost he said the real estate deal closes in 60 days and has no contingencies. He declined to give an exact location but said it’s close to Eureka.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Slattery acknowledged that the city is prioritizing affordable housing over parking.
“That’s true, we are,” he said. “That was part of the general plan update and it was overwhelmingly supported by the community.”
During community workshops, he said, the public told city officials that they’d like to see Eureka move away from the type of development you see along Broadway, where businesses are pushed back off the property line to accommodate parking lots. Public feedback favored Old Town-style development, with parking requirements waived to allow infill featuring multi-story buildings that accommodate both retail and housing.
“The City of Eureka is considered a built-out city in that we don’t have large tracts of vacant land,” said Leslie Castellano, who represents Ward 1 on the Eureka City Council. She was the council member who attended the December 27 meeting with Arkley and his people.
“There’s a housing crisis in Eureka and throughout California. … ,” she said, adding that in Eureka, parking lots are some of the most viable locations for new housing construction. “We went through a fairly lengthy round of public process in making that determination,” she said.
Last year the City of Eureka commissioned a study analyzing parking availability and usage rates in Old Town and downtown, a region that runs west-to-east from A through L streets and north-to-south from First through Seventh streets. There are 3,114 parking spaces in that study area, all told, including public and private spots, on-street parking and off-.
The study, conducted by TJKM Transportation Consultants, found that Eureka has more than enough parking. Cities should aim to have a parking occupancy rate of 85 percent, the authors say. If that many parking spots are full during peak hours it indicates “a healthy and balanced parking usage between supply and demand.”
How does Eureka do by that metric? “During the study period, the findings suggest that the study area reached a maximum of 49% occupancy during peak hours with 1,584 spaces open for parking,” the report says. The off-street parking lots never got more than 55 percent full, leaving about 50 spaces open. On-street parking didn’t even reach 50 percent occupancy during peak hours, leaving 1,154 spaces available.
Parking space occupancy on weekdays reached only about 50 percent occupancy on weekdays, according to a recent study. | Image via City of Eureka.
Nevertheless, members of the local business community and some in the public argue that it’s short-sighted to build housing on city-owned lots. (The Outpost reached out to the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce for comment but did not hear back before the time of publication.)
Slattery said city staff delayed work on the housing element of its general plan update for more than six months in an effort to alleviate those concerns. He said city staff looked at “six or seven” properties suggested by Security National employees or Arkley himself as candidates for land-swap deals that might save the parking lot at Fifth and D.
“There were at least two or three of those that were available that we would be willing to trade, similar to like we did with Pierson,” Slattery said. “For one reason or another [Security National] chose not to follow through on that.”
Some properties suggested by Security National were not viable for inclusion in the city’s regional housing needs allocation (RHNA), Slattery said. In the case of the Balloon Track, the land is not zoned residential, so the state won’t accept it as a potential site for future development.
In 2010, Eureka voters approved an Arkley-organized ballot measure to change the zoning on the property Balloon Track property to allow retail, office, multi-family residential, light industrial, restaurant and museum uses. At the time, Security National had plans to build a major development including a shopping center anchored by Home Depot.
Two local environmental groups sued over the ballot measure, and according to Slattery, Security National has yet to submit required documentation to the California Coastal Commission, so the zoning changes have yet to be implemented.
“It was made clear [to Arkley] at the beginning that in order to do an exchange, [the property swap candidates] had to meet certain qualifications. … ,” Slattery said. “He [Arkley] hates hearing this because he tells us to tell the state to eff off, and ‘Don’t even worry, they can’t do anything to you.’ Well, that’s not true.”
Another bone of contention between the city and Arkley concerns Security National’s plans for a community housing development along the Indianola Cutoff north of Eureka. Slattery said Arkley approached the city to ask about extending its wastewater infrastructure to service the new development.
“What I said to him was, ‘We would be more than supportive of doing that, but we are not paying for it with our ratepayer dollars,’” Slattery said. He added that the route Security National proposed — roughly following Hwy. 101 from the city limits north to the development — would be expensive and complex in terms of permitting. He said he suggested that Security National instead approach the Humboldt Community Services District about extending their services north from Redwood Acres to the development site along Myrtle Avenue/Old Arcata Road.
Arkley, he said, took this as a rejection and lack of cooperation.
In another interview on KINS Radio, from Jan. 30, Arkley called in from Baton Rouge, La., where he spends much of his time. He told host Brian Papstein that the City of Eureka is “more concern[ed] about the homeless or the very-low income than they are about the businesses and employees.”
Regarding the Indianola development Arkley said that if necessary Security National can rely on non-standard mound systems for septic treatment if necessary, though he added, “That’s a bad long-term fix for the county and the city. So let’s all figure [this] out instead of getting obstacles, instead of having envy. Let’s solve some problems instead of laughing at those who are trying to do things.”
Slattery points to the successful property swap deals with the Pierson Company — which preserved the lots at Fifth and H, Fifth and K and Fourth and G — as proof that city staff and the council were willing to work with the business community. And he said probably half of Arkley’s Eureka employees would qualify for units in the planned affordable housing developments.
But Arkley wasn’t satisfied, and in emails leading up to his December 27 meeting with city personnel (obtained via a California Public Records Act request), he blamed Slattery personally.
“Miles, you assume that you are smarter than all of us. You are not,” he said in one email. In another Arkley suggested that he would not cooperate on a proposed Caltrans project, which calls for Hwy. 101 south to be re-routed through the Balloon Track onto Koster Street. The City of Eureka supports the Koster couplet project but is not leading it.
“Find a new route,” Arkley wrote to Slattery. “I like our land the way it is. The city will receive the same cooperation that I have. If people are hurt or die in traffic, I am truly sorry. However, I am trying to protect the safety of sn [Security National] and other women downtown.
“This is going to be a fun meeting!!!!” he continued. “Get where it is going? I am tired of your bullshit.”
In other emails, Arkley accused Slattery of only pretending to live in Eureka, and he said Security National plans to enlist a public relations firm in this fight.
“There is no point in trying to work with you folks,” he wrote. “You know, you may have the advantage in some pr battles but we have spent over 25 x what anyone in the city has. Regardless of what you say, we have a $50mm portfolio of getting things done, which are ver [sic], very visible.
“Further,” he added, “220 jobs in the city ain’t anything to scoff at,” apparently positioning his employees as leverage. (In interviews, Arkley has alternately cited the number of Security National employees in Eureka at 220, 200 and “nearly 200.” The Outpost could not confirm any of those numbers.)
# # #
Slattery said people were taken aback by Arkley’s behavior during the December 27 meeting.
“[It was] extremely unprofessional and astonishing to me, coming in this professional environment like that, and to start off with cuss words in front of elected officials and start throwing F-bombs out … basically walking out in a tantrum and leaving his employees behind to discuss the rest of it.”
Castellano said she tried to explain the city’s public processes in these matters “because it seemed like he wanted us to create some sort of separate process so he could have access to a city parking lot.”
The city will soon issue a request for proposals (RFP) to develop affordable housing on three city-owned lots, including the one at Fifth and D streets. Castellano said she encouraged him Arkley engage in the RFP process.
“I think he was hoping for something different,” she told the Outpost. Some of the things that Arkley kept bringing up in the meeting related to challenges that Castellano considers systemic in American society and California in particular, challenges such as housing shortages and the resulting populations of unhoused people, including some with serious mental health issues.
“I kept feeling like there was an assumption that one parking lot could kind of address all these complex issues,” Castellano said. “I just don’t think that’s true, unfortunately. … Maybe there’s just a frustration that there’s not an easy solution to this.”
On the evening after the meeting, Arkley sent another email to Slattery. In the subject field he’d written, “Little boy, don’ t be so foolish as to think this is the end…we have only just begun. The City has far more to lose than we do. Change is acomin’.”
The following morning Arkley emailed Bergel, saying he understood that she would soon be meeting with some Security National folks. He said that he admired Bergel’s efforts but that neither Slattery nor “Julie” were worth his time. (By “Julie” he apparently meant Castellano.) He also mentioned that he was looking to relocate Security National’s headquarters, adding that he would not “deal” on the Koster couplet project and that current uses of the Arkley Center for Performing Arts “will be curtailed.”
Bergel wrote back, thanking him for reaching out and for his dedication to the City of Eureka. But she went on to say:
I was extremely disappointed with the tone and behavior in the meeting yesterday. It is very clear to me that you do not care for our staff, that is your prerogative. However, if we are to work together at any capacity, the kind of belligerent behaviors expressed in the meeting must stop. We are not in the second grade here.
Treating people with respect regardless of our “emotions” will get us much further in our relationship than calling names and yelling, screaming, and demanding.
Arkley responded with a single sentence: “Laughing at your team and you.”
Security National headquarters with the Lloyd Building in the background.
Reached via email last week, Arkley was still angry. He made an oblique reference to “crime on sn employees” and added, “Walking to farther parking lots, if any are left in the dark. Dangerous? You bet!”
We wrote back to ask what crimes have been committed against Security National employees.
“Crime is almost weekly,” he responded. “If you ever walk downtown, you will live it.”
Asked again what specific crimes have been committed he replied, “The stuff of legend. Almost countless. It is the stuff of a meaningful story.”
We asked one more time what specific crimes have been committed. Were these violent crimes? Assault? Robbery?
“As you can probably guess, our HR director would shoot me if I disclosed,” he replied. He had cc’d two Security National employees and asked one to confirm his information about crimes. Instead, a consultant named Gail Rymer sent a follow-up email, attaching an opinion piece she said Arkley had written in October for publication in the Times-Standard. You can download a pdf of the piece by clicking here. It mentions his concern about employee safety but does not include evidence of specific incidents.
Asked about his meeting with city officials, Arkley alleged that his reasonable proposals were met with laughter and rejection:
I told them that we have 50 acres in the City on or near the water. We could rezone an acre or two to [RHNA] qualified use and we would save downtown parking. Slam dunk. Miles Laughed and the Mayor and councilmember [Castellano] had blank looks. Parking is the lifeblood of downtown retail and restaurants. I said that we have plenty of toys to make a deal happen. I was then accused of wanting favored treatment. Do I make more selling the land or developing it? Get serious. This was a great solution for all. They would not even talk. I have never seen less solution oriented people. I guess if you are low income, you are a favored constituency status. Regular workers are on their own.
“I did not laugh at him,” Slattery said. “I gave him an answer that he didn’t like.”
Regardless, Arkley’s relationship with Slattery and other city officials has grown so bitter that he has vowed to all but abandon the city, moving his company headquarters out before construction begins on new affordable housing developments.
“That’s really unfortunate,” Slattery said, but he added that he won’t bend any rules in an effort to convince Arkley to stay.
“He made remarks during the meeting about how there was an old regime at the City of Eureka that was a lot more business friendly. The way that I took it was there was an old regime that treated certain people certain ways and it wasn’t necessarily equitable, but I can assure you everything that we do is equitable.”
Castellano expressed more of a c’est la vie attitude when asked what Security National’s departure from Eureka will mean for the city.
“It will mean that there will likely be a vacant building at that location for some period of time,” she said. “Downtown has changed over the last 100 years and will probably continue to do so. Ideally the building is not vacant for a long time. Ideally, [Arkley] finds a place where he’s happy and feels good.”
Today, a federal district court reconfirmed that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must comply with the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in operating the Klamath Irrigation Project. Link to the ruling.
“Once again, the courts unequivocally rule that the ESA is the law of the river,” stated Yurok Vice Chairman Frankie Myers. “Protecting the fisheries we depend on for culture and subsistence comes first when making water allocation decisions.”
Under the ESA, water must be released from the project to provide Klamath River flows to sustain salmon that are on the endangered species list. But irrigators who obtain water from the project have long argued in court that distributing water for irrigation is outside the scope of the Endangered Species Act. Federal courts have consistently rejected the irrigators’ argument, the 9th Circuit Court holding as long ago as 1999 (Klamath Water Users Protective Ass’n vs. Patterson, 204 F.3d 1206 (9th Cir. 1999)) that the ESA applies to the project and overrides irrigators’ rights to water.
The irrigators then turned to Oregon state courts. They convinced a state court to order the Oregon Water Resources Department to enforce state water rights, even if that meant violating the ESA. In 2021, the Oregon Department issued an order prohibiting the Bureau of Reclamation from releasing water to the Klamath River to sustain salmon that are on the Endangered Species Act. That order led instantly to this litigation.
The United States, joined by the Yurok Tribe, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Institute for Fisheries Resources, asked the federal district court in San Francisco to rule on which laws take precedent. Today, the federal court invalidated that state agency order and ruled that the Oregon order “conflicts with the the ESA, at least because it poses an obstacle to the accomplishment and executions of Congress’ purpose and objective in enacting the ESA: protecting and restoring Endangered Species.”
“This decision helps bring peace and resolution to the Klamath Basin by clarifying the interplay of federal and state laws as applied to the Klamath project,” noted Yurok attorney Amy Cordalis, also a Tribal member.
“This is a major victory for salmon and all the people who depend on salmon for their cultures and livelihoods,” said Glen Spain, for the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) and the Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR), both co-Plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “But really it just reaffirms the existing ‘Law of the River’ that state water rights cannot be used to block the water needs of ESA-listed fish.”
This ruling comes as work to remove four dams on the Klamath River begins. “Dam removal will provide a much-needed boost to salmon runs, but the fish still need water,” concludes Myers.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On Feb. 4, 2023, at about 3:41 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies on patrol in the McKinleyville area conducted a traffic stop for a vehicle code violation on Central Avenue near Little River Drive.
The vehicle yielded and a passenger, 25-year-old Andrew James Lamberson Jr., immediately exited the vehicle and fled. Deputies recognized Lamberson, as he was wanted on multiple warrants and had previously fled from deputies the day prior. Deputies pursued Lamberson into a nearby green belt. Lamberson violently resisted arrest and was uncooperative while being taken into custody. During a search of Lamberson incident to arrest, deputies located drug paraphernalia.
Lamberson was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of resisting a peace officer with violence (PC 69), resisting a peace officer (PC 148(a)(1)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364(a)) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)(2)), in addition to warrant charges of driving under the influence of alcohol (VC 23152(a) & (b)), driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol (VC 23152(g)), driving with a blood alcohol level over .15 (VC 23578), driving with a suspended or revoked license (VC 14601.5(a)) and Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) revocation (PC 3455(a)).
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
