Font ResizeAn arrest was made in the murder of a Southern Humboldt man, the second reported murder in less than a year that was tied to the local commercial marijuana scene.
David Bruce Seiber, age 27, was arrested in San Diego in connection with the slaying of Blocksburg resident Forrest Gilbert Clammer, age 32. Clammer’s badly decomposed remains were found a mile from the Blocksburg Store the previous November. After an autopsy, the Coroner ruled that Clammer had died of gunshot wounds and the case was investigated as a homicide. Identification of the remains was done through dental records and fingerprint experts.
Seiber was being held on $500,000 bail. DA Bernie De Paoli said that if the Clammer killing was connected to marijuana cultivation, his office intended to seek the death penalty.
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Two claims seeking a total of $600,000 in damages from the County of Humboldt were filed on behalf of property owners in lower Redway. Richard Dorn of Redway and Patricia Dorn of Petaluma were asking for $100,000 in special damages and $250,000 in general damages when 70 feet of their river bank allegedly was washed away. They claimed the cause was a damaged county culvert. Eureka residents James and Joy Pastori were seeking $100,000 in special damages and $150,000 in general damages, also from the alleged culvert failure.
Guy Kuhlstad, Director of Public Works, said the county normally rejects such claims but that the claimants have other options. A culvert owned and maintained by Humboldt County through an easement failed and created a horseshoe-shaped hole at the eastern bank of the South Fork of the Eel River. The properties were located several hundred feet downstream from where a huge land and debris slide slipped into the river on Dec. 20.
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An enrollment study done for the Southern Humboldt Unified School District predicted the future would bring a total enrollment of 1,409 students to the district, an increase over the 1977 enrollment of 1,241. Enrollment at the time of the study was 1,418. The study predicted that enrollment would break 1,500 by 1986. As a result, some local schools were expected to be crowded beyond capacity while others would be almost empty.
Crowding was already a problem at Agnes J. Johnson School in Weott. That facility was designed to hold 210 students, but recent growth had pushed the enrollment to 213. The school board was looking at adjustments to the boundaries, moving them northward from Redway. The boundary between the two schools at that time was at Sylvandale, six miles north of Redway. The study showed that 72 students lived in the area between Sylvandale and Miranda. Sending kindergarten and first grade students in that area to Redway was under consideration.
Crowding was a problem at both Miranda Junior High and South Fork High School as well. Miranda JH was approaching its capacity of 240 students, with an enrollment of 234. Enrollment was expected to grow to 260.
Classroom space at South Fork was designed to accommodate a maximum of 570 students and the prediction was that enrollment there would stay below the maximum. Enrollment at that time was 376, but the study predicted enrollment would rise to 472.
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Weather during this week ranged from highs of 60 to 50 and lows of 39 to 30. The week had produced 2.10 inches of rain, bringing the seasonal total to 52.25 inches. Total at that time during the previous year was 25.06 inches. All measurements were taken at the Eel River Conservation Camp at Dean Creek.
