Holiday travelers southbound to the Bay Area on Highway 101 unexpectedly found themselves spending New Year’s Eve and the following two nights in Garberville and vicinity.
Two large rockslides crashed down on the major north-south route through northern California dumping an estimated 10,000 cubic yards of rock and mud onto the two-lane portion of the roadway north of Confusion Hill a short distance south of the Humboldt-Mendocino county line.
The instability of the hillside made working to remove the slide after dark hazardous.
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One Southern Humboldt gun dealer who agreed to discuss the matter on the condition of anonymity called a new law “just another way to run the little guy out of business.”
The sweeping new gun laws required all handgun buyers to obtain a safety license and imposed broad new background checks to identify gun owners who had become criminals.
While more than a dozen states had handgun licensing laws, California’s was among the toughest and required written safety tests and fingerprinting.
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Despite all the rain, water became a precious commodity in Garberville for five days, but thanks to public response to requests for conservation and some neighborly help from Redway, the community was able to make it through the crisis.
On New Year’s Day, the motor on the main pump at the Garberville Water Company burned out. The backup pump was placed into service, but it failed to operate.
”We had our main water tank full of water,” said the systems operator for the Garberville Water Company, “but without the pumps, we couldn’t keep it full.”
The company put its emergency plan into operation, notifying water users by radio broadcast and door-to-door contact of the situation and requesting that water be used conservatively until the pump could be repaired.
”Water in the main tank went down and we came close to running out,” the systems operator said, “but the community pulled together. I’m really proud of the way they came through in the emergency.”
Redway Community Services District also helped out by providing water to help keep the main tank from running out. The water was transferred from a fire hydrant in Redway into a water truck and transported to Garberville.
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The board of directors of the Healthcare District, in its desire to be a good steward of the tax funds approved by voters, had established an ad hoc strategic direction committee. The purpose of the committee was to explore and recommend funding priorities to the board for a period of 18 to 24 months and beyond.
Some of the recommendations the committee made were to become current with all the hospital’s creditors and establish effective competitive salary and wage scales. The committee also recommended investment in a reasonably priced clinic scheduling softwear program that would allow more efficient scheduling of patient appointments by increasing the number and timing of appointments available and making more organized use of limited exam space. Along with that it was recommended that an investment in dictation equipment for medical records would save staff and practitioner time.
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