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Local News 04 28 26 · KMUD News

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:10
  Speaker B: Welcome to your KMUD News. I'm your news director, April Lewis, and I'm glad to be with you for this broadcast. Tonight, we'll have in depth coverage on a local emergency safety exercise, highlights from a special budget meeting for the Fortuna City Council and food for People's newest food drive. But first, a quick rundown of top stories and headlines. This is KMUD News. Starting off in state news In a hotly contested governor's race, recent polling is not providing much clarity ahead of the June 2 primary election. A new CBS News poll has Republican Steve Hilton on top polling at 16%, followed by Democrat Tom Steyer at 15%, Javier Becerra is at 13%, Chad Bianco at 10% and Katie Porter at 9%. With margin of error and other factors accounted for, this polling doesn't tell the public much about who a potential frontrunner might be. There is another debate tonight, April 28th that will either be in progress during this broadcast or completed since it started at 5:30pm it is hosted by CBS and will be available on their platforms afterwards. We will bring you coverage tomorrow with selected highlights and commentary in local news. Trinity county has announced the release of the Public Review Draft zoning code, a major milestone in the county's ongoing effort to modernize its land use framework allows alongside the Trinity County 2050 General Plan update. The comprehensive zoning code is designed to ensure consistency with the county's updated general plan, incorporate recent changes in state law and reorganize regulations into a cleaner, more user friendly format for residents, property owners and developers. The county will host two public study sessions with the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to review and discuss the draft zoning code. Community members are encouraged to attend and provide input. For more information on the study sessions, please contact Trinity county either via email@trinity2050.org or online. You can go to trinity2050.com in native news, the Round Valley Tribal Police Department recently conducted a marijuana compliance enforcement operation. During this operation, a large scale illegal grow was located and eradicated. Photos were provided via press release showing multiple cannabis plants being cut. Kmode News contacted the Round Valley Tribal Police Department about cannabis eradication activity, but did not receive comment as of press time. Now to our top stories from our news team. On Saturday, May 9, Humboldt county residents will help feed their neighbors literally. The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive returns for its 34th year and every can, jar and box collected by local letter carriers stays in the community where it was donated. Food for People says the drive is essential to keeping shelves full during the summer months. KMUD's Gabriel Zucker reports.
• 3:35
  Speaker C: Saturday, May 9th marks the 34th anniversary of the largest one day food drive in the nation, the national association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger Food drive here in Humboldt County. The effort supports food pantries all over the region, including Food for People and their network of 23 pantries. KMUD talked with David Reed, the development director for Food for People, who explained the importance of this food drive. Reed says the partnership with local letter carriers goes back many years.
• 4:08
  Speaker D: We've been teaming up with the National Letter Carriers association for a number of years. I don't know how many, but a ton. And this is actually a food drive. It's orchestrated by the letter carriers locally. So every association, every letter carriers union chooses to participate or not. And our local letter carriers association all throughout the county actually participates. And when people donate food with these bags that the letter carriers deliver in the mail, then the donated food comes back to the closest food pantry or the, the food bank headquarters in the community that they live in. So, you know, if someone gives food here in Eureka, the letter carriers pick it up on May 9th. They bring it to us here at Food for People's warehouse, and then we'll distribute that through our pantry and through pantries around the county. But let's say if someone donates in Garberville or Redway or in Fortuna or up in McKinleyville, that food stays in their community. So it goes to the pantry that is closest to someone's house.
• 5:12
  Speaker C: The food you donate stays in your community. And this year the need is rising as inflation continues to push food prices higher. Reid says the timing of the drive is crucial. The food collected in May helps stock shelves for the summer months when school meals disappear and demand spikes.
• 5:29
  Speaker D: The food that people donate during this letter carrier's food drive really sets up the network of pantries in Humboldt county for the summer because that's a really tough time, especially for families that have kids at home, school age kids, especially if kids are. If families are relying on school lunches and school breakfasts. Summer comes and those resources aren't there for everybody. We see a lot more people coming to food pantries at that time. And so there's a lot more pressure on the pantries. And this food that comes in from the letter carriers food drive goes into those pantries, especially during the summer, to help those families that need the help.
• 6:05
  Speaker C: Reid says they've already seen an increased number of families and seniors seeking assistance this year. And on top of that, federal charges to SNAP, known as CalFresh in California could reduce benefits for some households starting in June.
• 6:21
  Speaker D: It's kind of a scary time right now because a lot of people probably already know that the federal government has changed the way people are eligible for SNAP benefits, which used to be called food stamps, and here in California, it's called CalFresh. So starting in June, we don't know how many people will be affected yet, but those eligibility requirements are going to start to affect people and some people might lose those CalFresh benefits during the summer. So this is a time when we're really ramping up for an increase in need in all of our communities in Humboldt county and doing everything that we can to make sure that our pantries and our mobile produce pantry and our other programs for children and seniors are ready as people have less and less food resources. And so the letter carriers food drive is one way that everybody who has a little bit extra or can give, can afford to give a little bit of food, can help out those people that might be experiencing a little tighter food budget coming up starting in June and July.
• 7:20
  Speaker C: Reid explained that Food for People follows federal income guidelines for eligibility, but because of the increased need, no one should hesitate to reach out.
• 7:30
  Speaker D: We do have the income requirements that are set by the federal government, but honestly, you know, if someone needs food, we and our partners are going to find a way to get people the food that they need as best we can. So, yes, there are income guidelines that we have to follow, but we really want people to know that Food for People and all the partner pantries in the counter are here to help our neighbors. And so, you know, if someone's in doubt and they need help, they should come or they should call because it's in the name Food for People. That's what we do and that's why we're here. So people should, if they need the help, they should definitely come. We are here for you.
• 8:08
  Speaker C: The way this drive works is simple. If you get mail at home, you'll receive a blue bag. In the week leading up to May
• 8:14
  Speaker D: 9, people have a week or so, maybe a little bit less, to put whatever donations they want in that bag. And then on Saturday the 9th, they can put that bag out by their mail receptacle, their mailbox, whatever, and litter carriers will pick it up and they'll bring it to the pantry closest to where you live, or they'll bring it here to Food for People. And we're looking for non perishable foods. So canned goods, packaged foods. We ask that people don't donate food in glass and don't donate home canned goods because even though home canned goods are delicious, we can't serve it to the public. And that's about it. Making sure to check on expiration dates is really helpful and that helps us make sure that all the food that gets donated gets out to people who need it. And I will say also that even if you can't get the food out on May 9, most letter carriers, if there's a bag of food a day before or a few days after May 9, they will pick it up and get it to the right place.
• 9:13
  Speaker C: The most needed items include canned fish and meat, nut butters, soups, stews and canned fruits and vegetables. If you miss your carrier entirely, donations can be dropped off at Food for People's Eureka warehouse at 307 W. 14th St. Monday through Friday from 9 to 4. Reed says there are other ways to support local pantries too.
• 9:36
  Speaker D: There's a couple of things that people can do if you live in a community where there are food collection barrels at grocery stores, definitely. Like in Arcade at McKinleyville, definitely. And I believe in Garberville in some grocery stores you can donate there and that gets to your local food pantry. And if you can't donate food or you just don't really have the food that you want to donate, you can always go to foodforpeople.org there's a orange donate button. You can donate a little bit of cash to help us purchase food because we get really great buying power because we purchase a lot of food throughout the year and a lot of local produce and we'll use that donation to help us stock those pantries too.
• 10:15
  Speaker C: Food For People operates 23 pantries across Humboldt County.
• 10:19
  Speaker D: I would encourage people, if they're looking for a pantry or they're looking for a food distribution to go to foodforpeople.org because there are 23 pantries all over Humboldt county and they all have different open times and dates for us. Here at the Eureka Choice pantry here on 14th and Summer Streets, we're open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, open in the morning for appointments and in the afternoon for walk ins with a little break in the morning middle for folks to take lunch. So it's open three days a week here in Eureka. But if you just go to foodforpeople.org and click on Find Food near you, you can put in your address, your zip code, or just use the map to find a food pantry or food distribution that's close to you for people
• 11:06
  Speaker C: that need the support. Reid says there are different requirements for different locations.
• 11:11
  Speaker D: It depends on the food pantry for sure. Here in Eureka, we have a once per month distribution for and if a household has a senior in it or has young children in it, people can come a second time for produce and bread. But every other pantry has, like I said, different dates and slightly different rules depending on their community.
• 11:33
  Speaker C: Last year the drive collected just under 40,000 pounds of food. This year, Reid says they're aiming higher.
• 11:40
  Speaker D: It's Saturday. May 9th is the collection date. Last year we collected just under £40,000 of food and we're hoping to get to £50,000 this year.
• 11:50
  Speaker C: To learn more, find a pantry or donate, visit foodforpeople.org for KMUD news. I'm Gabriel Zucker.
• 12:06
  Speaker B: The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is conducting its annual Beacon training exercise in coordination with a large network of volunteers and other agencies across California. Beacon stands for building emergency area communications operations and networks. We spoke to Lieutenant Joshua McCall, who explains more about how the sheriff's department implemented and uses. The Beacon training exercise is an exercise
• 12:33
  Speaker A: that actually started out of our Office of Emergency Services. This will be the third year that this exercise is being conducted. It started initially in kind of coordination with the shakeout week as an alternate exercise kind of related to large scale disaster events such as that. The point of the exercise is to test how communities, volunteer groups, local government, nonprofits, for example, and emergency response partners communicate and share information during a large scale disaster. Events such as like a large earthquake or a large wildfire or something like that, where normal communication systems, Internet, phone lines, things like that may be disrupted. The point of the exercise is to kind of strengthen the communications and build resilience with working through these other communication methods as a backup, things like texting, amateur radio, satellite communications and other auxiliary systems such as that, so that we had an event like that and those normal methods for making those communication links are down. How do we overcome that? Build through a network to be able to share information, relay status updates, make requests, things like that, for this, especially across a large scale disaster like that, where the impact is likely to go beyond just a local, a local area or, you know, one county and maybe, you know, several counties or more widespread even.
• 14:12
  Speaker B: And since these exercises involve, you know, members of the community, different organizations, how is it decided what organizations or volunteers are involved? How do folks come forward to come help?
• 14:23
  Speaker A: So yeah, so this, this year, the registration for this year's exercise, since it happens in a couple of days here, the registration for this year's exercise is already closed, but it is hosted and There's a website, this is beaconexercise.org and so through that website, it explains information there as far as kind of an overview of what the exercise is, kind of who it involves, time frames, things like that. And then through that is a way that organizations or people can go in and potentially register to be a part of that exercise.
• 15:01
  Speaker B: What knowledge or experience do you think the department has gained from these exercises in the past? And especially information for folks on what is done for wildfire readiness as we're heading into that season?
• 15:13
  Speaker A: Well, I will say this is my. I just came into this position of being the program manager for Houma County Sheriff's Office OES here a couple of months ago. So this is my first real involvement with this exercise and kind of exposure to it. I think that this exercise has, as far as things that are learned, obviously is just building those. Building those networks and relationships with other organizations and groups and seeing who has what type of capabilities, those types of things. So when we have something like that happen, we kind of have some work up ahead of time. We're not trying to, you know, you're not trying to figure out after the fact. You gotta have some of that stuff established ahead of time. And then as far as, you know, wildfires, it speaks just like any other, I think disaster. Right. Being prepared is everybody's responsibility. And if you're prepared for an incident like an earthquake, a lot of things, you know, situations may be a bit different, but having those preparedness plans in place ahead of time, the incident itself, while depending on the type of the incident, it may impact various, you know, functions of it, a lot of those things are going to be across the same, the same kind of areas and platforms. And so having that built ahead of time, whether it's an earthquake or a wildfire, a lot of those things apply across the board to various disasters.
• 16:35
  Speaker B: Can you describe maybe in just a little more detail what exactly happens during the exercises? Like what is. What is simulated, who is spoken to, what's kind of the protocol you have to go through to go through the exercises themselves?
• 16:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that varies obviously by the exercise. They're obviously not all the same. For the Beacon exercise, specifically the Beacon exercise, the primary function behind it was the communications aspect of it. But for instance, in this exercise, for instance, there will be the communications portion, which is going to involve, like I talked about, you know, organizations from. It's grown quite a bit, I think this year we're up to over 385 people registered for it. That's 35 counties in California that are participating in some way, shape or form. And it's expanded from the first year. It was just within California. Last year was three states. Now we're up to organizations from nine different states that are having some type of a role in this. In addition to testing and practicing the communication side and relaying those messages and establishing those networks to relay messages, you know, distances as may be necessary to relay a message across different areas to get it to its destination point locally. We'll also be running an exercise in our emergency operations center to simulate, okay, what would our emergency operations center outside of just the communication aspect of it, but what would we be doing in this instance? This exercise is going to simulate a large earthquake along the San Andreas fault. So we will look at, okay, this incident has just happened. Now we're activating our emergency operations center, standing that up, getting personnel into staff that the necessary functions in there and start working through a drill and exercise of okay, what are the things, what are our initial priorities in that first couple hours? Working into a little bit further into that day of the incident and then working through, simulating. All right, we're a day later or two or three days later. Where would we be at hypothetically at this point and what types of resources and things would be looking to get or damage assessments and things like that would we be working through at this point? So we can simulate and train on that side of things as well. Beyond just the communication side of things.
• 18:56
  Speaker B: For members of the public that aren't involved with these exercises and are just hearing about them, is there any kind of base messages the sheriff's department might have for just staying ready for emergency situations, things to look out for, keep track of?
• 19:09
  Speaker A: We always encourage everybody to sign up for things like Humboldt Alert so they're up to date on developing situations and be a part of those. I mean, outside of that, I think the thing is just know that this exercise is to help communities practice on how to communicate during disasters when those normal communication systems are down, and strengthening those backup links with that. And like we talked about earlier, just being prepared ahead of time. You know, this is simulating one type of disaster, but being prepared for one disaster typically is going to help you be prepared for a multitude of different types of disasters that may occur. And it's everybody's responsibility to be involved in that and do some pre planning with that. And having that preplanning done ahead of time can definitely help save a lot of hassle or potentially a life on the backside. If and when such A disaster does occur.
• 20:06
  Speaker B: Reporting for KMUD News, I'm April Lewis. Next, we have highlights from a special budget meeting of the Fortuna City Council, including citizen comments. The city is currently facing some hard financial realities.
• 20:26
  Speaker E: So tonight we are talking about the proposed budget and we're specifically going to talk about the general fund portion of the budget tonight and not the enterprise fund. And so just as a reminder for those who may not be familiar with what the differences are between the general fund and the enterprise fund, between this, between, you know, within the city. The general fund primary purpose is core government services as compared to enterprise funds, which are more business like and fee supported services. The primary revenue sources for the general fund are taxes as opposed to user fee and charges for enterprise funds. As staff met with each department and went through the budgets, we did come up with a number of items in order to help reduce the deficit that we were faced with in the general fund. And so those are listed here. And that includes the hiring freeze to remain in place for the entirety of next fiscal year. The total savings to the general fund will depend on which possession positions end up having vacancies and for how long. We eliminated the entire budget for business improvement and so that saved $20,000 to the general fund. Departments reduced services and supplies budgets by up to 10%. Total savings to the general fund equated to about $75,000 from that effort. We also froze a part time community services officer that saved $33,000 to the general fund. We froze a currently vacant full time police officer position that's projected to save the general fund $190,000. We also included in the proposed budget to lease the River Lodge to another local public agency with time slash costs allotted for a smooth transition period. And so this included the elimination of the full time River Lodge manager and currently vacant River Lodge coordinator positions and the total savings to the general fund for those two changes equated to $180,000 to the general fund. And then we did not implement the full time transit supervisor position that was approved by council a few months ago. And so that saved the general fund $70,000. So we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the River Lodge, transit and museum just to kind of give some more background information on why those were included in the proposed budget. So staff presented a detailed analysis of the River Lodge for the council at the September 2, 2025 council meeting. that time, the council directed staff to keep the River Lodge and pursue marketing opportunities to help address the recurring deficit that the River Lodge facility has operated in for many years. And so staff have been working on that effort and have not been able to come up with a workable solution to have revenues meet what expenses are. And so some of the numbers we were working with are displayed here. So the River Lodge annual budget is almost $470,000. The number of rented days, a full year's worth, from April 2025 to March of 2026, it was rented for 163 days. And so if we divided the budget by the number of days, we would essentially have to get $2,880 per day that the facility was rented out. And currently we're getting about $1356 per day. So we'd have to more than double the price, which we would anticipate a lot of people leaving at that price point. Our transit revenue has gone from $600,000 in fiscal year 2122 down to about $414,000 in 2627. It's just been steadily decreasing over the years and we really don't see an end with this. Transit funding has been difficult to come by. Staff also analyze the museum. So the museum's annual budget last year was $39,000. They bring in between April and March, they brought in 2,700 visitors. And so the kind of average cost per per or the cost per visitor is $14.36. The museum does bring in some donation and sale revenue. April to March, that was $3,000 in revenue and donations that they received. And that fund that receives those donations has a current balance of about $22,000 accumulated through the last several years. And here's a chart showing number of museum visitors by month. And you can see it spikes in May through August and then comes down in September. And so staff's recommendation is to direct the city manager to close the museum October to April and pay for the part time museum curator position out of the museum donations fund and put the historical commission on hiatus. Alternatively, the council could choose to keep the museum open year round and paid for from the general fund as it is currently. And this would add over $24,000 back into the general fund. And council would need to provide direction on alternative budget cuts or fund the additional $24,000 from reserves.
• 25:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, I just have a question to clarify. How old is our phone system that needs to be replaced?
• 25:40
  Speaker E: That's a good question. That would be a question for c on our IT manager. It's got to be at least 15, 20 years old. I've been here nine years and I know it was old when I started. So somewhere in that range.
• 25:54
  Speaker B: Thank you.
• 25:55
  Speaker F: If I could just add a little bit more context to that. The equipment that we currently have is no longer produced. And so basically anytime a phone breaks, we have to dig in the closet and hope that we have some sort of replacement, used replacement part. And we no longer have the IT support for the phone system. And I would love to say we don't need a phone system, but we do need a phone system. We do need people to be able to contact city hall and public works and the police department. So it is a one time expense that we do need to purchase a new phone system.
• 26:32
  Speaker E: Curious what a balanced budget would have looked like if we wanted to go that route. Having a balanced budget would essentially mean getting rid of your entire parks and recreation department. And so we have looked at that, you know, just kind of out of curiosity, but you'd essentially not have any parks and rec department. You'd probably also have to get rid of some of your streets crew. So you wouldn't have people out really any maintenance workers.
• 26:57
  Speaker F: Hello, my name's Ruth Deckett. I am one of the historical commission appointees from the city council. And today I'm here to talk about the museum. But that doesn't disregard the fact that we need our police department. We need all of the other services that we've been talking about today because we know as budgets are cut, incidences of all kinds of problems develop in our communities. So where do you draw the line? How do you make those decisions? But I'm feeling like today our Depot museum is a hidden gem right in the center of our community. And to close it, even for short periods of time, would mean a death sentence. Because eventually we would say, well, we lived without it for six months. We can live without it for another such period of time. And then eventually it would go away. That's what makes me sad about this whole thing.
• 28:04
  Speaker B: We'll continue to keep you updated as the city of Fortuna makes significant financial decisions. That's all for our news broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer and thanks to our assistant director, Gabriel Zucker. KMUD News is online. You can find us on kmud.org and now streaming on podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening. You can also follow us on social mediamudnews, including Facebook and Instagram. Do you have issues important to you that deserve more attention? Are there stories we're missing or that you're curious about? You can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsema.org Redwood Community Radio is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News. Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unseated territory of the Sinkyon, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilkut and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging, and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection that these tribes have to this region. Reporting for kmud, I'm April Lewis. Stay tuned. In.
• 29:43
  Speaker D: Sa.