Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to the KMED News. I'm your news Director April Lewis and I'm glad to be with you for this broadcast. In this episode we have stories on potential hotel tax increases in Eureka Redway's water restrictions and a series of neighborhood incidents in Shelter Cove leading to a plea for police assistance.
But first, some local headlines and alerts. This is KMUD News.
Starting off with local Cannabis News.
We want to let listeners know that the California Department of Cannabis Control, also known as the dcc, is hosting an in person listening session at the Matteal center on Wednesday, June 24th at 3:00pm Participants will also be able to ask questions of the DCC directly. In this time of flux in the cannabis marketplace, we highly encourage all growers to attend. Again, the DCC's in person public meeting at the Mattiel center in Redway to discuss future regulatory changes in the cannabis marketplace will be on Wednesday, June 24th at at 3pm we highly encourage the entire community to attend to meet and ask questions of our cannabis regulators directly.
Moving on to news in Garberville on June 19th at approximately 5pm, Humboldt County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the 900 block of Sproul Creek Road in Garberville for a welfare check on two subjects that were reported to be passed out inside a parked vehicle.
Upon deputies arrival they located the vehicle and observed both subjects passed out inside and drug paraphernalia in plain view.
The subjects were contacted and detained. The female passenger was identified as 28 year old Cooper Jane Henderson of Redway.
She was on active probation and per the terms of probation was subject to search at any time during their investigation. Deputies located drug paraphernalia, narcissist narcotics, a loaded.40 caliber firearm and stolen checks in possession of Henderson.
She was arrested without incident and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked on the following possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance with an armed and loaded firearm, felon addict in possession of a firearm, possession of blank checks, a probation violation and carrying a loaded firearm in public.
Next is Mendocino News from Cal Fire the Cal Fire Mendocino Unit, working with the California Department of Transportation as well as surrounding local government fire agencies, will be conducting a vegetation management prescribed burn along U.S. highway 101.
This project will start at Nelson Ranch Road south of Ukiah and finish at the top of the Ridgewood Grade south of Willits.
This prescribed burn will treat approximately 400 acres of grass within the Caltrans right of way along U.S. highway 101.
This project will contribute to fuel reduction along the highway, providing safety of motorists and emergency responders from roadside fires.
The reduction of vegetation will help reduce the chance of catastrophic wildfires in the future while providing firefighters with live fire training opportunities.
U.S. highway 101 will be under controlled traffic during the burning operations.
Emergency vehicles will be patrolling the area heavily so please be aware of emergency vehicles along the highway.
Burning will begin on Monday, June 22 and continue as favorable weather conditions exist concluding on or around July 9th.
Burning will start at approximately 6pm and conclude at approximately 11pm with daily smoke visible in the area.
Burning operations will take place if weather permits, Monday through Friday.
This project burn will be conducted under strictly controlled weather and fuel conditions. Smoke and aircraft may be visible in the area.
Additionally from Cal Fire Mendocino the Cal Fire Mendocino Unit, working with the US Army Corps of Engineers as well as the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority will be conducting a vegetation management prescribed burn at the Coyote Valley Dam.
This prescribed burn will treat approximately 23 acres of grass along the face of Coyote Valley Dam to facilitate the annual geological survey and required earthquake inspection of the dam structure.
The reduction of vegetation will also reduce the chance of catastrophic wildfires in the future while providing firefighters with live fire training opportunities.
Coyote Dam and the fish hatchery near the base of the dam will be closed to the public while the prescribed burn occurs.
Burning will take place on Sunday, June 28th starting at approximately 6pm and conclude at approximately 11pm Smoke will be visible throughout the entire Ukiah and Redwood Valley
[00:05:26] Speaker C: areas,
[00:05:29] Speaker B: also in Mendocino. From the Mendocino National Forest Service, a Segment of the M21 road is closed for emergency repairs.
The temporary closure begins between Hammerhorn Campground and Smokehouse Creek M21 crossing on the Covalo Ranger District.
The closure is due to a washout that has caused a total failure of a 100 foot section of the road.
The M21 road will be closed until emergency repairs can be completed.
From Caltrans District 1 in Del Norte County, US 199 is once again open to one way control traffic west of Gaske near Hardscapel Creek.
Around 10:30am this morning a large tanker rolled on its side which temporarily and completely blocked the highway, temporarily closing the highway in both directions.
It is now once again open with one way traffic controls and heavy traffic is still reported in this area of 199.
In the Petrolia area there was a small wildland Fire today, Monday, June 22, first reported around 4pm near the intersection of Lindley and Mattole Road.
The Lindley fire was estimated at an eighth of an acre and was spreading slowly through brush and timber.
Cal Fire released calls for air support and ground resources continued to work managing the small fire with a fire engine, hand crew and a line around the fire.
As of 4:22pm forward progress was reported as stopped and additional resources were canceled and next our main stories this is KMUD News.
Redway's Community Services District recently declared a Stage one conservation restriction on residential and commercial water use. KMUD News reports the Redway Community Services District has issued a summer Conservation Declaration.
This is based on current Eel river flows and also lacking a reservoir the district expected to have online that is not currently operational.
Here's audio from Redway Community Services District General Manager Cody Cox to learn more about why the stage one conservation declaration was issued.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: On the 17th we had a board meeting which is when we declared Stage one water conservation and that typically happens when we have infrastructure delivery issues such as issues with storage reservoirs, pumps, motors or we're operating beyond 18 hours a day, which means the wet well has fallen, which means the river CFS flows have fallen. Currently we're right around 98 cfs. I want to say, according to the USGS Miranda Gauge, the reason that we are in Stage one voluntary water conservation right now is because we have one reservoir down that we planned on having back up by now, but we're waiting on a valve to complete the project, which is a entirely new water storage reservoir, 250,000 gallons. We're waiting on a 10 inch control valve, that's what we're waiting on, that will be complete by the end of this month, hopefully, and we'll be moving on from that project.
We will not go into stage two until we reach that operation of 18 hours or more each day. Or the gallery falls, which is where the water from the river is collected, which means we would have to drop from 350 gallons per minute to approximately 300. So it takes longer to deliver it. We can go. We've gone as low as 250 gallons per minute in the past, which takes longer to deliver and we'll keep the community updated as we move through these stages.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Redway Community Services District General Manager Cody Cox also explained more about current recommended water restrictions for residents and when Redway residents might see a move to Stage two restrictions.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: The recommended restrictions for water conservation for the Redway Community Services District are all listed on the website. We have 1 through 6 and 1 through 10 on both of them. It's best to review that.
There is quite a bit there's landscaping waters allowed between the hours of 6pm and 10. You know, that's on an odd and even base. That's how we're trying to restrict outdoor watering on those times to an odd and even water conservation plan. Yeah, under that plan, odd numbered homes are asked to restrict their outdoor water usage to Wednesday and Sunday. Even numbered homes are Tuesday and Saturday.
Businesses are asked to water on Monday, Mondays and Thursdays. Yeah, and water. You know, there's a lot of detail in here. You know, water each area for only 10 minutes. It can go on. Basically common sense as far as conservation is concerned for our small community with the lower flows.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Current recommendations for Redway residents to conserve water under the Redway Community services District Stage 1 Conservation Declaration include only allowing landscape watering between 6pm and 10am odd number homes are also asked to restrict their outside water usage to Wednesday and Sunday.
Even number homes are asked to water outdoors only on Tuesday and Saturday.
Businesses are asked to water on Monday and Thursday. Water each area only for 10 minutes.
You can find additional recommended water restrictions for Redway residents currently under Stage one water conservation on the Redway Community Services District website, which is redwaycsd.org Reporting for KMUD, I'm April Lewis.
Eureka's budget needs revenue and the council will consider a hotel bed tax increase to boost income.
[00:12:02] Speaker D: Daniel Mintz reports Eureka is entering a new budget year with a bigger deficit than expected and may pursue a hotel bed tax increase to help close the financial delta.
The Eureka City Council approved the coming fiscal year's budget at its June 16 meeting. As the current year's budget comes to a disappointing end, City Finance Director Lane Millar recounted the budget's downbeat recent history.
The city expected to finish this year with an $800,000 deficit, but the forecast didn't pan out. If it had, the city would have come within a single percentage point of its savings reserve policy level.
Instead, Millar said, at mid year our deficit grew substantially to just under $4 million in the red.
That put the budget at over 7% below the policy threshold to reach a targeted reserve level, Millar proposed a Plan based on 3% revenue growth through fiscal year 2029-2030.
He said if spending growth is limited to just 1% during those three years, we would be able to produce a healthy surplus.
On the way to talking about raising the ToT, some spending reduction strategies were described by Millar.
[00:13:24] Speaker E: So there's many ways you can do this.
One way is to restrict these are not fun to talk about, but is to limit the amount of Salary growth, that's a big one.
That really is a hard thing to do. But if we don't kind of turn the ship around, it's unlikely that we're going to have a lot the money to provide for salary increases anyways.
You know, over time, things like freezing positions, offering retirement incentives, reorganizing departments.
When you have a multi area, you do that over the course of three years. It's usually.
It gives you a lot of time to plan. It's a lot less painful than, you know, waking up one day and realizing that you need to cut 10% from your budget right away.
[00:14:26] Speaker D: Hearing that, Council member Scott Bauer suggested a way to boost revenue through a TOT increase.
[00:14:33] Speaker E: You know, these kind of times are exactly why we have reserves, right? And I think it's prudent to think about it, you know, having two months instead of three right now, like, we need the revenue.
But I also think exploring things like the transient occupancy tax, the TOT, which is currently at what, 10%, I believe, you know, correct.
Yeah. A lot of cities have, you know, up to 12.
And I think it's.
These are the kind of times we need. We need to talk about that. It's obvious we don't want to cut service, we don't want to lose staff.
Therefore, we need revenue.
So I think we should explore that. We should explore the ToT, increasing that to a level that is something that helps us weather these kind of times.
So that's my suggestion as we look at that.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: But council member Mario Fernandez suggested a TOT hike could backfire.
[00:15:34] Speaker E: I would be cautious going that route just with where expenses are right now, because becoming over reliant on TOT to the point that we're already looking at an increase in cost for cost of living. But just being a tourist destination during the summer months, in addition to the increased cost of gas right now, I would be worried that we wouldn't be seeing what we would expect when it comes to our transit occupancy tax. So I would say, yeah, look at it, but don't become reliant on it, because I would be hard pressed to say, let's do it.
[00:16:10] Speaker D: The council unanimously voted to adopt the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget without any further discussion on increasing ToT.
But they'll be talking about it at their next meeting during a future agenda items discussion. Council member Leslie Castellano asked that a TOT increase be considered as soon as possible, as it would have to go before voters in the November election.
The council took an informal vote showing thumbs up or thumbs down on whether to discuss it at the next meeting.
Doing so got three councilmember thumbs up with Fernandez and Councilmember Rene Contreras deloach signaling thumbs down with the majority support. The tot discussion will happen at the next meeting in Eureka. For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Shelter Cove is hearing increased complaints about a notorious resident. KMUD News reports the usually quiet and serene village of Shelter Cove, one of the most visited spots on California's Lost coast, has some neighborhood issues of late. The dispute is serious enough to scare neighbors, involved the Humboldt Sheriff's Department and was a hot topic of discussion at the most recent Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District board meeting on June 18. The concerns center around a woman named Kristy Rose, who reportedly has caused issues and even started fights with multiple neighbors.
Kristy Rose reportedly resides in an unpermitted structure in the hills above Shelter Cove.
One concerned citizen took their complaint directly to the Shelter Cove board, including an account of a serious hair pulling incident. Here's audio of a concerned neighbor describing one of multiple reported neighborhood incidents at last week's Shelter Cove Improvement District meeting.
[00:18:11] Speaker F: So I drive down there and she's in the middle of her property in the street, and as soon as I pull up, she starts yelling at me, what are you doing here? Get out of here.
I said, look, you don't live on the street.
Move on.
She won't. She just keeps screaming and videotaping. So Shay comes out of the house and we walk up to her and then she starts screaming, don't. You touched me. No one's touching you. She has her phone in Shay's face, literally like this.
And Shay grabs the phone out of her face and this woman latches on to her dreads and tries to drag her to the ground.
Shay's a big girl. This woman is not very big and she's my age, but she's hella strong. So me, I'm like, oh my God.
I try to get.
I try to get her hands out of Shay's hair. It takes. Shay has a friend inside that comes in three of us, five minutes to get this woman off of Shay. And in the process, she rips out my hair. She throws my glasses down the road. She's trying to stomp on her feet and. And the whole time we're going, just let go. We didn't hit her, we didn't punch her. We didn't do anything violent except try to get the fingers out of her hair while she's trying to hurt us. What the cops do?
Nothing.
We all filed the report. The cops told us we're just paid to watch.
Now this woman, Christina Rhodes, is trying to go after Shay for elder abuse because she took the phone out of her face.
This woman hassled Kristen Wendy Ball to the extreme. Two of our neighbors have tried to serve her with restraining orders. The cops can't find her. Give me a damn break. We need some help on the Hill.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: What you just heard was audio from the June 18 Shelter Cove Resort Improvement Board meeting where a concerned resident disclosed a series of neighborhood incidents involving Christy Rose, who reportedly resides above Shelter Cove in an unpermitted structure.
Later in the same meeting, board member Wes Bonheim also raised concerns about a growing number of incidents in the Shelter Cove neighborhood and recommended better engagement from the Humboldt Sheriff's Office to help solve the issue.
[00:20:28] Speaker G: This was brought up earlier, but I just wanted to bring it up now because I think that this is more the appropriate thing. I think we need to get a letter to the sheriff's office on behalf of Shelter Cove.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: I think that'd be really important.
And I think, you know, having.
I don't know if it needs to
[00:20:46] Speaker G: be a regular monthly thing until we get the support we need, but we're having these incidences. They're coming up more regularly. And I think that it's important for us to start being the squeaky wheel
[00:20:56] Speaker B: that was Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District board member Wes Bonheim expressing concern about a growing number of incidents involving resident Christy Rose, who reportedly resides in an unpermitted structure above Shelter Cove.
We'll have to see if the Humboldt Sheriff's Department responds to the board's requests for additional support. Reporting for kmud, I'm April Lewis.
A consumer watchdog group says California is failing to address price gouging at the pump as refinery profits soar. Here's the story from our friends at KPFA.
[00:21:36] Speaker H: While Californians are paying over $5 per gallon at the pump, state oil refineries boast high profit margins. This according to a report from Consumer Watchdog based on data released from the California Energy Commission. The data reveals profit margins reaching $1.24 per gallon in April compared to just 49 cents per gallon in January.
Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Cort said this April margin is hurting consumers and is unjustified.
[00:22:11] Speaker G: We're paying $1.50 more per gallon than the average US driver, but only $0.87 of that is justified by our higher taxes and environmental fees, which pays for roads to stop greenhouse gas but the rest of the money is pure profit for these oil refineries.
And it's a real problem because Californians saw a huge price spike. It's like a $2 a gallon increase since January and people don't have that in their budgets.
[00:22:42] Speaker H: According to data provided by the cec, a breakdown of gas prices confirms Quart's claim.
Crude oil cost does increase 87 cents but margins on refining and distribution rose by $1.12 per gallon. Court says that this is a failure of Governor Gavin Newsom's administration due to special legislative sessions following similar price spikes in 2022 and 2023. As a result, reforms were indeed suggested, but they were never written into law.
[00:23:20] Speaker G: The rules were to create a price gouging penalty authorized in 2023 to take back the extra profits over whatever level the Energy Commission would choose to set. We would think 70, 80 a dollar per gallon.
You know, anything over that should go back to the public. So now we're at $1.24 a gallon. And those rules were never written because unfortunately the Newsom administration chickened out.
[00:23:49] Speaker H: Court says it is on the next governor to put these reforms into law. Though hopeful, he says he is reining in his expectations. The next governor will likely be Democratic candidate Javier Becerra, who received large donations from oil refineries during the primary elections. He received upward of $500,000 from Chevron alone. While oil refineries averaged at that $1.24 increase.
Chevron's margin was much greater. They reported $1.35 per gallon, making them the most profitable refiner on the market.
[00:24:31] Speaker G: I'm looking at the new governor who would probably be Javier Becerra, as though he's a clean slate, but obviously he's not as partial to consumers position as Tom Steyer was. Tom Steyer embraced the price gouging penalty saying I'm going to put that in first day in office. Javier Becerra hasn't said anything about that.
[00:24:51] Speaker H: Corp predicts that the profit margins for May will be even greater. The CEC responded to comments saying in 2023 and 2024, CEC held three workshops to assess the impacts of of the gross gasoline refining margin and conducted its own initial assessment of the impacts. Based on these findings, CEC commissioners voted to deprioritize the implementation of the GGRM and focus on petroleum supply stabilization tools. The CEC plans to release a report in early 2027 that focuses on additional GGRM analysis including statutorily required cost benefit analyses for KPFA News. I'm Kennedy Cuello.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: The California Postal Union is working to save post office locations. Suzanne Potter reports.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Postal worker union leaders are rallying communities to help save 25 post office locations in California that have suspended operations and could close permanently. More than 414 locations nationwide are currently on the U.S. postal Service suspension list and hundreds more have closed in recent years. Sarah Wilson is president of Local 960 with the American Postal Workers Union. She says the USPS has reopened multiple locations after communities campaigned on their behalf.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: As of today, I can smile. The two offices that were about to lose their lease, Shingletown and Shasta, have a brand new lease. They're safe. On 10 October, the Klamath River Post Office reopened.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: USPS guidelines say local post offices may suspend operations if there's a natural disaster, if the office is severely damaged, if there aren't enough staff or if there are problems with the lease. The agency says on its website that its goal is to either reopen or close suspended locations within 180 to 280 days. APWU executive Vice President Debbie Seraidi says the closures cost jobs, threaten the agency's mission to provide universal mail service and hurt local businesses and customers who must drive farther for service.
[00:27:18] Speaker F: They're destroying our democracy, they're destroying our service.
A lot of our customers and community members, they don't realize that they have the right to have a voice.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: The website apwu.com nomoreclosures provides resources for communities that want to fight post office closures in their area. For California News Service, I'm Suzanne Potter.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: That's all for our news broadcasts. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our rotation of broadcast engineers Dennis Marr, Katie Phillips, Bianna Federico, Michael McCaskill, Larry Lashley and Javier Rodriguez.
Also thanks to our reporter for this broadcast, Daniel Mintz.
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Railway community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located in the unceded territory of the Sinkion Wailaki Wiat, Wilcott and Kato people.
We honor ancestors past, present and emerging and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection that these tribes have to the region.
I'm April Lewis. Stay tuned.
