As the sun sets over the towering redwoods of Humboldt County, Scott Binder joins me to unfold a tapestry of tales that weave through his formative years in this Northern California sanctuary. Our exchange transports listeners to a time when the aftermath of a tsunami reshaped lives, and the hum of a bustling Blue Max Pizza by KXGO Radio provided the soundtrack to Scott's youth. We reminisce about the power of community, the pivotal encounters of adolescence, and the warm embrace of McKinleyville, a town on the cusp of transformation and potential incorporation—a testament to the dedication of its residents.
Navigating through the twists of fate that shape our career paths, Scott reflects on his own journey from the Air Force to IT, with the intimate corners of McKinleyville as the backbone to his tale. Scott and I explore the profound influence of local businesses, the magnetic pull of civic engagement, and the responsibility we hold to foster a flourishing future. As we peel back the layers of our personal challenges, including my battle with alcoholism, we uncover the raw beauty of recovery and the hope it brings for a unified community, bound by the determination to protect our environment while nurturing industry growth.
Our hearts swell with the spirit of kinship as we recount acts of profound kindness, including a father's tender care for a sick friend. Humboldt County's charm is spotlighted through shared favorites, from the local pizza joints to the tranquil trails that cradle our souls. With our feet planted firmly in the soil of our beloved county, Scott and I celebrate the delicate balance of personal responsibility and acceptance of life's journey, inviting listeners to join us in a toast to resilience, sobriety, and the enduring human spirit that connects us all.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
As the sun sets over the towering redwoods of Humboldt County, Scott Binder joins me to unfold a tapestry of tales that weave through his formative years in this Northern California sanctuary. Our exchange transports listeners to a time when the aftermath of a tsunami reshaped lives, and the hum of a bustling Blue Max Pizza by KXGO Radio provided the soundtrack to Scott's youth. We reminisce about the power of community, the pivotal encounters of adolescence, and the warm embrace of McKinleyville, a town on the cusp of transformation and potential incorporation—a testament to the dedication of its residents.
Navigating through the twists of fate that shape our career paths, Scott reflects on his own journey from the Air Force to IT, with the intimate corners of McKinleyville as the backbone to his tale. Scott and I explore the profound influence of local businesses, the magnetic pull of civic engagement, and the responsibility we hold to foster a flourishing future. As we peel back the layers of our personal challenges, including my battle with alcoholism, we uncover the raw beauty of recovery and the hope it brings for a unified community, bound by the determination to protect our environment while nurturing industry growth.
Our hearts swell with the spirit of kinship as we recount acts of profound kindness, including a father's tender care for a sick friend. Humboldt County's charm is spotlighted through shared favorites, from the local pizza joints to the tranquil trails that cradle our souls. With our feet planted firmly in the soil of our beloved county, Scott and I celebrate the delicate balance of personal responsibility and acceptance of life's journey, inviting listeners to join us in a toast to resilience, sobriety, and the enduring human spirit that connects us all.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, welcome Scott Binder to the 100% Humboldt podcast. Hi, scott, hey, good to see you. Good to see you, scott. So we were reminiscing before the show. Scott and I go back when I was a ad salesman up in Arcada, california, and you worked for Jim at BlueMax Pizza.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were on the Plaza for quite a long time. We were right next to the studios of KXGio Radio, right on the Plaza, so there was a lot of activity. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun In Arcada A great place to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it kind of speaks to you. Know the area you were born and raised here.
Speaker 2:I was born in Eureka at the old general hospital Wow, in the wing that now houses some provirons. So appropriate. So how appropriate is that? That's a good one, yeah it makes a good story.
Speaker 1:Supervirons is, by the way, the kind of the mental hospital it's psych ward. Yeah, it's a lockdown facility. Yeah, that's better said. So tell us the Scott Bender story. Tell us your beginning and middle and now Beginning and middle.
Speaker 2:and now, okay, I was. Of course we hit the beginning. I was born in Eureka. My parents lived at the time in Crescent City. About the time my mother went into delivery, she was staying in Trinidad with her mother, my grandmother and grandfather and they had me then moved back up to Crescent City. My dad was a gypo logger and he had a login show up in the Smith River area at the time and we were there approximately three or four months with me as an infant. My parents rented a house right on Pebble Beach Drive yeah, overlooking the ocean, right on the cliff. The house was actually on stilts. This is the other Pebble Beach, the other Pebble Beach, pebble Beach Drive, crescent City Right. And here comes the big tsunami and all that and the 1964 storm. That was a big storm that year. It was a big storm that year and anyway, it scared the hell out of my mother. So she immediately packed me up and moved home Trinidad. Wow, go figure. Okay, so I lived from about age four months right around four to five years in Trinidad.
Speaker 1:Okay, beautiful town, Trinidad, California. I'm gonna show you on the map, you don't need. I'm gonna show our listeners, watchers, Trinidad right here. Big whaling harbor Probably the most amazing place on the North Coast. We rediscovered it during COVID and that's our Joni and I take a picnic up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I take my kayak out of the boat launch there quite often. Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah, it is, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:So how was it growing up in Humboldt County? Did you go to McKinleyville High?
Speaker 2:Anyway, I went for my first first half of the school year, for my kindergarten year, in Trinidad, and then we moved to a house overlooking Clam Beach on Patrick Creek Drive, right, and I spent I enrolled in Dowsbury School and I was in Dowsbury School for the second half of my kindergarten through sixth grade, transferred to McKinleyville Middle School or McKinleyville Elementary School, m-e-s, which is what it was back then for seventh and eighth Right, and then I went to Adventist School in Fortuna for grades nine and 10. How about that? Okay, yeah, that was a heck of a commute.
Speaker 2:It took approximately two and a half hours each way because the school bus weaved around everywhere and picked up all the students between McKinleyville and Fortuna, so I did my homework on the bus, and so when I got home I had my free time.
Speaker 1:So that's the old Fortuna Academy.
Speaker 2:The old Fortuna Junior Academy. I believe it's still there.
Speaker 1:Funny story. You don't know this about me, or maybe you do. I was a long-haired, feral, hippie child smoking gobs of marijuana at 14 or 15. And who's at the door? It's an old Adventist man named Roy Guess who shows up and he's got a free Bible. He goes Scott, I've got this free Bible that you ordered. You mailed it away Good news for modern man and I said could you come back later, because it's almost a Cheech and Chong movie, smokes coming out, the whole thing.
Speaker 1:And it's committed. And he goes I would like to come back next Tuesday. Okay, and for the next 14 Tuesdays we studied some really solid parts of the Bible. It wasn't all Adventist Sabbath, but he made a difference in a young knucklehead and I said yes, he goes. If you go 13, 14 weeks, I'm gonna give you the free leather white Bible. I go. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just a broke kid in the hood and without going on too long, I ended up getting baptized to my mother, my Lutheran mother Shagrin. She didn't like that much, but she came on a Saturday and it wasn't too long thereafter where I? It just wasn't quite a fit and I fell for a young Greek girl in Chula Vista Whole other story, but my Adventist common ground with you. There we go.
Speaker 2:That's a great story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what happened after the, anyway, the junior high?
Speaker 2:After junior high. Well, that well, junior high, seventh and eighth, and then ninth and 10 was the first two years of my well, ninth grade. I went actually it was seventh, it was seventh, it was ninth grade and 10th grade at Fortuna Junior Academy. And then I did one semester of my junior year up at Milo Adventist Academy in Daze Creek, oregon, which is a little East of Canyonville.
Speaker 1:Is that a live-in deal? Near Roseburg huh, is that a live-in deal where you live? Oh yeah, I lived in a dorm. Okay.
Speaker 2:Anyway, yeah, I didn't get along very well up there at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could. Yeah, I would totally understand that. So today you're claimed. One of your claim to fame is you're an MCSD. Are you the president of the board up at the water district?
Speaker 2:I assume the board president. Mc John, january 1st and Nick we have the president with us.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. And for you folks out there in Iowa, mckinleyville sits right up here in a little North of Humboldt Bay. Here's Eureka, the county seat, mckinleyville. I live in McKinleyville. Okay, you live in McKinleyville, I do, and you have a big heart for McKinleyville, I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know I was. You know it's my home. I spent, you know, almost my whole life there. I, after I got out of high school, I went straight into the Air Force and I did a tour in the Air Force and I came back and I lived in Eureka for six months Arcada for probably close to 10 years About that. And then my wife and I bought a house in McKinleyville in 2001, brand new house. I'm still there, can't afford to move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can All right.
Speaker 2:Right, but anyway, I spent a career in the restaurant industry. I worked for Blue Max Pizza, of course, and I ended up being a manager after a while. We did move down to 11th and K down by Earl Miranda's insurance agency.
Speaker 1:That's here in Arcada, right over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and K Hill Shell, what a great guy Earl was. Yeah, earl, and power what a nice man, Right right. You know Brett, he's a great guy too. Old time Arcada insurance guy, Old time insurance guy, fire department captain, the whole bed. He volunteered for the Arcada fire district for a long time.
Speaker 1:When I started as a state farm agent, he came in to say how proud he was of me. Hey, that's awesome, he was already retired and I go, man, I haven't seen you in years. And he came by and he made a special trip to come in and say hi and he noticed an article I'd written in time standard about Ron Palleggi, who was the owner of the Tri-City paper that I worked at. So that's how I knew Earl. And he came by. You know what?
Speaker 2:a class and my brother.
Speaker 1:And your brother. Yeah, absolutely yeah, brian. So we have a lot of connections Because Brian and I knew each other, worked together and then I couldn't quite throw a stone from my house on Dowsh Prairie. Wait at the end two years, but it wasn't that far away.
Speaker 2:No, we were probably, you know, three or four miles away as the bird flies, maybe less.
Speaker 1:yeah, it was right there, and that's such a beautiful part of McKinleyville. Oh, it is, it's great. So let's talk about McKinleyville. So do you want to? You see restaurant career and then you've done IT work as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did that In. We were living, my wife and I were living in Arcada, I had just bought a mobile home out in Valley West and we just got together, christina and I. For those of you on the internet who know me, you know her as Miss Kay.
Speaker 1:It's Miss Kay. She's amazing. We were in Toastmasters together. She and I were in Toastmasters.
Speaker 2:Give us a speech together, right, yeah, she was president of Toastmasters. She was, she was a great speaker. Yeah, she is a great speaker, lovely lady. Anyway, yeah, are you married up? Oh, I'm married. We were married in 1997. Our first date was in 1995. Last week we celebrated our 29th dating anniversary, which I consider to be our real anniversary because we've been together constantly ever since that first date. Awesome, that's wonderful. Okay, anyway, in 1997 we were married, and by that time we had decided that we needed to get a house, and so we moved to McKinleyville. I had stopped working in the pizza business in 1990, let me see. Well, what year was it? 1996. February of 1996, I went to work for a man named Jim Eli who owned a varsity ice cream company Another old school arcade company.
Speaker 1:So you were a drier's ice cream guy.
Speaker 2:I was drier's ice cream guy man, what great ice cream, yeah. But I was mainly known as the humble creamery guy and my route was the Klamath, trinity Valley, willow Creek, hoopa, Orleans, somes Bar. I went out to Burnt Ranch. I serviced Burnt Ranch School, I served all the schools and I was there for nearly 23 years I'm chopping at the bit to point at my map.
Speaker 1:Right now. You ready? Yeah, let's see if you can stab it. I've never gone this far off the map, so bear with me. Solier Willow Creek, hoopa reservation way up here. So Humboldt County is pretty remote, as you know.
Speaker 2:On that route. Humboldt County is very remote and your map won't show Trinity County, which I also serviced in Lower Siski County. Soames bars right up at the top there and you can see it.
Speaker 1:Let me see I'm going to find it.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's up there at the end of 96. County line, yep, right up at the corner Right it's about 200 yards northeast. The store is 200 yards northeast of the county line. Wow, that's a long drive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a long drive.
Speaker 2:It's about an hour and 45 minutes from Soames bar back to the depot in Eureka.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about two things in Peterbilt Maps and geography and ice cream. Yeah, kind of get a little excited here. So you were the ice cream man. I was. I was the ice cream man Van Halen's song, yeah, so you brought all the ice cream to the hot airs, because in that inland area it gets quite warm.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and I started super early in the morning. Yeah, you know, I got up at 1 am sometimes. Wow, I still get up at 345 am each morning.
Speaker 1:You're an early bird.
Speaker 2:I know you're a very much early. Nothing wrong with that, really Nothing wrong with that and that means I can. You know I can do all the things that I want to do. Before the world wakes up, my phone starts dinging, I get in my prayer and meditation first thing. It's good. And then I get online and I start answering questions. Yeah, I always have a lot of texts that come in during the night and Facebook messages Sure People asking me things and wanting information and you know I'll sit down and start helping people.
Speaker 1:So around the McKinleyville Community Services District, sort of questions or just community questions?
Speaker 2:Yeah, generally. You know I've been on Facebook so long and I've I post prolifically and people have come to recognize that if you have a question about McKinleyville or pretty much anything, humboldt County, whatever, ask me I'll probably know. And if I don't know, I know who knows. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It may pay you a compliment. Yes, you are straight up with people, without, without any virile, if that means the word right. There's no nastiness to you. It's straight up, it's logical, it's fair when I hear, when I read your post or your responses and Joni and I have commented on this, joni is my wife of 42 years, as you. You know, joni, I know Joni. The eggs are starting to produce. By the way, the chickens are back. Awesome, we'll get you some cartons. Yeah, add's kicking in.
Speaker 2:So we have a bag in the garage for you guys.
Speaker 1:Okay, Cool, yeah, so we, we like your post and the fact that you have this. I wouldn't even call it a persona online, I think it's just you and and it's. It's straightforward, and I I've never attended an MCSD Community Services District meeting, but I can only imagine that you conduct that business in the same spirit.
Speaker 2:Well, I've only been president for a couple of days. A couple of days I've only done one meeting and then one meeting last year I conducted I didn't screw it up, good, didn't crash, did the meeting did not crash? No, I, I run a lot of meetings anyway. I've been involved I. I was appointed to the Measure Z committee for the county by supervisor Madrone.
Speaker 1:And the Z measures explain that to our listeners.
Speaker 2:Okay, measure Z is a half cent sales tax that's county-wide. That pays for public service enhancements, um sheriff's positions, um county roads, um debris disposal and that type of thing.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And and notably, uh, the Hoop I Ambulance.
Speaker 1:How about that the Camel?
Speaker 2:Medical Centers we we heavily support.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, so let's walk this back for a quick second. Okay, so McKinleyville, in essence, is probably as big as Arcata without Cal Poly student present, right? What is it? Is there a in?
Speaker 2:terms of population Population Okay, the McKinleyville uh census designated place, the McKinleyville CDP, which is the zip code 95519, is in area bigger than 95521.
Speaker 1:Okay, and yet we're not incorporated. Yet, yeah, we're not incorporated and we're going to get there in a minute. But I want to hear about your involvement in the community the last 20 years, because you've been. You've been on that, that McKinleyville uh, I don't even know the name of the committee. That's how involved I am because I've been a work in staff for 40 years. But Joanie's, joanie's really wanting to get involved with that the. Is that the future? Um, uh, the visioning committee, that that it's talking about.
Speaker 2:That's the you're talking about the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee. Yes, sir, um, locally known as the McMack McMack, that's it. I've attended a lot of meetings. I am on the committee as an alternate.
Speaker 1:I have participated, but I haven't participated as a full member, and uh, and they're kind of steering the future or have garnering ideas for uh, guiding us into a glorious future.
Speaker 2:Right, the. They're revisiting the idea of uh, of incorporation right now and they're putting together funding and planning for an initial feasibility study to see if uh, the num, see if the numbers work.
Speaker 1:Right, and this is in cooperation with Cal Poly Humboldt.
Speaker 2:Right, this um, dr Joshua Zender, who, who they're working with up at Cal Poly, has already conducted some studies and um, um they're pointing toward he was pointing it toward it being, uh, being, feasible for McKinleyville to incorporate when compared to other cities not in the Humboldt County area that have that have done so successfully.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So you've got um, formerly HSU, now Cal Poly, right? It's kind of a running joke on the podcast, the artist formerly known as Prince, the university formerly known as Humboldt State.
Speaker 2:You know, I got used to the name change just as fast as I got used to 2024.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:I, it's Cal Poly Humboldt.
Speaker 1:It's Cal Poly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, of course I'm not an alumnus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So so question for you that is, is this is a tremendous resource to do this kind of feasibility study because he's bringing the the university, uh, kids, staff, money, tech technology.
Speaker 2:He is, but it has to be done by a third party. It has to be done by a neutral party and uh uh, a business whose sole business is to conduct these type of studies. It's going to cost several thousand dollars and they're going to have to contract with uh.
Speaker 1:I got you, so it's a little more complex than right.
Speaker 2:But anyway, the Mick Mac committee has a subcommittee that they have put in place called the McKinleyville Incorporation Exploratory Subcommittee, the MISC. They love they love their acronyms.
Speaker 1:That's kind of an acronym too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the most silly acronym. That's a long one Now. Have you ever heard? But anyway, it's comprised of uh, of members of the, of the, mick Mac, and there's some members at large from the public. Uh, jesse Miles from the Chamber of Commerce. He's great Participates Um Drs Ester Shout out Drs Ender and um they, they have their own, their, their own subcommittee and they're the, they're the, the. The group who is pursuing the incorporation Got you Under the leadership of, uh, the committee chair, lisa Duggan.
Speaker 1:So what's your, what's your guess in the next 10 years? Do you think? Do you think it'll happen?
Speaker 2:I don't think it'll happen.
Speaker 1:No, do you think it happens someday?
Speaker 2:It'll happen someday, if the if we can ever get some, some sales tax revenue into McKinleyville. You go down the street you see all these empty businesses. We, um, I don't even think that the Chevrolet dealership is there anymore. I think that they're gone. Yeah, okay, we need a, a sales tax base. Now, of course, life plan humbled and we are up. Yep, the two housing developments that are, uh, that are being um, put put up, they're going to contribute to that sales. They've been on the show, both Mary and Dr Ann. Yeah, I saw them yesterday at the state of McKinleyville meeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the hall it went great.
Speaker 2:It went great. There were. There was, uh, uh, mary and Ann, both from there, and Lisa Dugans spoke from the. Mcmack. Cody Rogitz from the Humboldt County uh Department of Aviation he runs the the airport Okay and Pat Kaspari, the MCSD general manager, gotcha, and they both presented uh, Lisa presented on the incorporation and, of course, the the, the two housing ladies presented on on their, their developments. Cody on the future, their report and the improvements being made. He's got $50 million to spend, wow, um for for runway improvements, uh um, flood. They're the, the IFR improvement, uh, their and uh is that the technology that?
Speaker 2:yeah, the technology that lets them fly in without being able to see the, the, the, the instrument, instrument flight rules and the history of the airport.
Speaker 1:It's a World War II trading base because it's so darn fog.
Speaker 2:Absolutely it was started by the Navy. Yeah, yeah, oh, it's Navy. I've never, never do that For learning how to fly in the fog. It was originally a navel, a naval installation. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if any of you have flown in or out of Humboldt know that you might miss a flight every once in a while because it's they either don't get here or they can't get out.
Speaker 2:Yep, Last time I flew back into Arcada we were diverted to Sacramento this was a couple of weeks ago and, uh, we got fuel and then we were able to come back to Arcada and cleared enough rest to land. Oh, that's pretty good. So, yeah, we, we dodged a bullet there.
Speaker 1:I remember they were. They were going to cancel the flight in San Francisco to Arcada. And I called my daughter Abby. I said Abby, go outside real quick. Look, look outside. She goes, dad, it's, it's completely clear. I go. Thank you, we're right next to the airport, so I go and so they let us on. But yeah, it's quite, quite, quite an airport, we're right by there, so you, you're not far away either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not far away, but you're directly across from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Depending which way the wind blows, you can hear the the 620 jet stereo.
Speaker 2:If they take, if they take off to the south, they go right over the top of my house. Yeah, you would hear that I live right off a railroad. Yeah, so they they make that turn and go out over the ocean to get in there.
Speaker 1:Get in there laying in the air Right, so it's a pretty well run outfit, I think, right as airports go. Is that your opinion? I think?
Speaker 2:so yeah, other than the fog and the the you know chance of getting right, getting fogged out.
Speaker 1:Right. So McKinleyville has a lot going for it. It's got beaches, it's ocean, it's got a regional airport. We sort of have a lot of retailer manufacturing yet. But are we zoned for some of that stuff?
Speaker 2:We are zoned for some of that stuff, but mainly I think that we're we're zoned, we're being zoned for housing.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:You know we've always been known as bedroom community anyway, yeah, and the county is using us as a place to fulfill their share of the housing that Sacramento says that we have to.
Speaker 1:yeah, the housing mandate Interesting. So are those that fight that in McKinleyville that would say, hey, why are you sticking all this development here?
Speaker 2:Oh, there are those who fight it. They're people who want to fight urban sprawl, so they want to build up and they're very much into what's called form-based code, and that's what we're seeing at the Gateway Project in Arcada right now. They're major proponents, is it going up or they're building, building up and making very high density housing.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what the new dorms are gonna be right Right off the 101 there at Cal Poly. Yeah, so who else is on the board with you?
Speaker 2:Okay, on the board at the MCSD there's director Greg Orsini, who's a former general manager there, and Dennis Mayo, local rancher. There's Jim Bytman. He's a retired educator and professor. And there's David Kouch, who's recently retired from the city of Arcada. He was a wastewater treatment plant operator supervisor.
Speaker 1:Did these guys all play nice in the sandbox?
Speaker 2:generally speaking, we have a wonderful board. That's great. We get along real well. We're somewhat ideologically different, but we're all very fair with one another and we use our reasoning power and we cooperate. I love it and for all five of them we want the best for McKinley-Vills in there. And the citizens that live there.
Speaker 1:I think it's pretty well-renned board and agency.
Speaker 2:You know, the fact that hardly anybody ever comes to our meetings from the public says both good and bad. You know, the bad is that we want people to participate, we want to hear the community voice, we want them as part of our decision-making process. But the fact that they aren't there means that we're doing our job effectively. We're not causing controversy, we're very, very transparent. You know, I run my little campaign if you want to call it a campaign on transparency and on sticking to our mission, which is providing safe, effective and financially you know, fiscally responsible water, wastewater, street lights, library services and parks and recreation to our community. It's pretty diverse. So you're kind of city hall. We're the closest thing to city hall that McKinley-Ville has right now, which means that you are Mr Bayer.
Speaker 1:I am the facto mayor of McKinley-Ville with us here today.
Speaker 2:You know what's funny is on the McKinley-Ville community watch page a lot of people has referred to me as the mayor of McKinley-Ville, almost as much as Jerry Eves.
Speaker 1:If you do, Jerry, that's funny that is funny. That used to be what's her name? She was the mayor of McKinley-Ville. She passed away a couple of years ago. Oh, I'll think of her name here in a minute, but she was hard worker at the senior center. Oh, Eleanor Sullivan. Thank you, Mayor.
Speaker 2:Sullivan yeah.
Speaker 1:What a sweetheart she was.
Speaker 2:Oh, another thing I want to mention is that I'm also the executive director of the McKinley-Ville Senior Center.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay.
Speaker 2:When I was elected to the board of directors in 2021, a board members were named as one board member was named as a liaison to the McKinley-Ville Senior Center From our board to the McKinley-Ville Senior Center and I was chosen to fill that position. I started going to their board meetings and I started participating with them, asking questions, asking financial questions and looking at their books and all that and I'm a numbers guy and I guess it spooked the last director that they had and one day he just didn't show up and nobody's heard from him again.
Speaker 1:Let's audit the books, folks.
Speaker 2:And so they assembled a hiring committee and I was asked if I would like to lead their center. Very nice, and I was unemployed at the time, other than doing some independent contracting with the computers, like you mentioned. I do that too, yeah, but I don't talk a lot about that because I can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I understand. So I want to talk about you for a minute and your vision of Humboldt County as it relates to North County, mckinley-ville. Okay, past, present, future. But I almost have to ask about the future Do you see a political aspiration? I don't think you're as ambitious as the negative side of that. But if people said, hey, why don't you do this? Would you run for supervisor or something like that if the opportunity was there? Well, couple of you, you want to go too direct.
Speaker 2:No, I think that this is the pinnacle of my political career. I don't want to get into politics to make a living. I'm into politics if you want to even call it politics to make a difference to help people. My whole life is helping people, just like I led off with. I woke up this morning at 3.45, 4.00 am, did my prayer and meditation and then I got on the computer and started answering people's questions. I was helping people and I do that all day.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful In one way or another. You know there's a saying early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. I really like that one, and that's our old buddy. Everybody will know this at any age. It's all Ben Franklin, but there's so much truth in that. And get up early, get in the office early, before everybody else does. Come in early and stay late and get the job done.
Speaker 2:Well, like I had originally said, getting my stuff done before the world wakes up and my phone starts ticking.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, oh yeah. So what do you see? What do you see as our past and our present and our future for the county? How would you quantify the past and the present and what would you like to see for the future? Just generally speaking, Scott, Okay well, I really don't know.
Speaker 2:I just wanna be happy. I just like to see everybody get along. We've become so fractured. Oh yeah, people identify politically now rather than their identity is wrapped up in their politics or some sort of ism that they have or are against, and their ideals are become part of their identity, rather than their humanity being their identity.
Speaker 1:Brilliantly said yeah, what do you think the key is to get away from that? How do we step back?
Speaker 2:I can't speak for anyone else, but the key for me doing that is to be very conscious of my spirit being spirit-led rather than self-led. For so many years I was selfish and self-centered and all I thought about was myself, and I was afraid of losing what I had, and I was afraid that I wouldn't get what I wanted, and it led me down a dark path where my solution was alcohol. Tell us more, okay. I started drinking when I was in the Air Force and I found out very, very quickly that if I took some drinks you know, one or two beers I couldn't stop, you know, until there was no more supply or I got cut off. And not long after that I found that I had to drink every day.
Speaker 2:So I developed alcoholism very quickly and I battled that for quite a while, for nearly 35 years.
Speaker 1:Wow, have you been sober now how long?
Speaker 2:I've been sober a little over five years now. I ran into a group of people who helped me out and taught me how to quit drinking on a spiritual basis, and so I'm very much spirit-led. I'm not self-led. My goal, and my goal every day, living one day at a time, is to be of service to others.
Speaker 1:Amen, yeah, good word Is that AA.
Speaker 1:I can't say Can't say, can't say so I have a similar. So it turns out we have a lot more similar journey than you know. I At 17, 18, 19,. My partying career continued. Of course, coming to Humboldt and getting sober at 20 makes no sense at all, because this is the weed, was the weed and is the weed capital of a lot of the earth. But so counterintuitive.
Speaker 1:I got sober but my father drug me to all these AA meetings all over North San Diego County. He sold insurance on Kent Pendleton Marine Corps base and he lived an ocean side and I would visit him and he would haul my butt to meeting after meeting, after meeting, and I go what are these drunks, man, these guys? Why can't they handle their alcohol, nick? What's happening here? And I can, of course, I can hold it. I can drink a lot of Heineken and pull it together here. It smokes some weed too, and a little did I know that I developed a problem. And so his influence very quietly, he was zero pressure, zero lectures was a difference maker and Joni and I were sober for 30 plus years. And thanks, dad, it was awesome, thank you. And so the program has been good. Whatever program we won't name has been great for you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, you're a. You were good. You were great then, but now it's like so bright. What has it done for you in terms of just the sober life lifestyle?
Speaker 2:You mean as far as well, physically, anything, anything relationship. Basically I can remember things Ah, that's important, things like that but anyway, it's more of a spiritual journey than anything else.
Speaker 1:I like that early morning prayer and meditation. Is there any reason why we wouldn't do that? Ego?
Speaker 2:Ego is I can do this myself. Yeah, that's right. Well, I tried that for how many years? And it never worked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how's that working for you? Yeah, joni's father Tom was. He battled alcoholism his whole life and he died three years ago, 81, and he, he said you're, and he would go to all the meetings. So he had all the sayings your ego is not your amigo. That's a good one, I like that. And the other one was Nick, never go, never go into your mind alone. It's a dangerous place. And I thought, yeah, that's pretty good, tom. So he had all that, a culture that he downloaded and struggled his whole life against that beast. And anyway, different story, different guy. So what would you like to see for the county? Going forward, people getting along?
Speaker 2:and the division, the fragmentation, okay, Well, I'd like to see the industry being to develop, developed that not only pays a living wage but is also earth friendly. Okay, you know, we don't need to kill the earth in order to make a living.
Speaker 1:No, that's true.
Speaker 2:Right, and I just, I just want to see people get along better, and I don't see it getting any better.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think that's so fractured and people's identities are so wrapped up into their particular brand of politics. There isms I like that, and there isms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of isms out there.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of isms and there's more being created every day.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I like to source that where that comes from, but that's another podcast. What do you see for? You see homelessness in McKinleyville.
Speaker 2:of course I do see homelessness and that's a direct that stems directly from the lack of mental health care in California, and I can just speak for the state of California. I know that the governor has spent an incredible amount of money on mental health care just as of late and you know, we have yet to see that effect here in Humboldt and I don't think that they've been seeing too much effect in anywhere. You know San Francisco, los Angeles, you know there, you know it's the mental mental health care, the lack of mental health care, is driving most of the problems we see, you know, from drug abuse to homelessness and crime To crime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we have a great, great sheriff's department speaking, in which they should be doing a great job where we're at we do with the staff that they have and with the legislative latitude that they have, which is pretty much crippled by Sacramento and the voters.
Speaker 1:And I think Sheriff Hansel has done a great job. He was on the show. He's what a great guy. I watched his podcast. Yeah, he's a sweet, sweet guy. I liked what he said and Larry Doss said something that I think bears bears. It is a quite relate, but it will in a minute. He said that Humboldt's got grit and I like I like that. It's an old fashioned word. Grit, it's like gumption, it's like there's a, there's still a bit of grit here and maybe, maybe that'll that'll help us.
Speaker 2:Well, you can take the knocks and come back a little bit stronger because of it.
Speaker 1:That's the idea. So we have? We have homelessness. How about a housing crisis? What do we? What do you see on that, on that horizon? What are you?
Speaker 2:hearing Well, we're, we're building and you know, in McKinleyville I'm not sure if we're going to be able to solve housing crisis or not. It's going to. It's going to take an economic change. Yeah, you know, mortgage rates are way too high for anybody to buy right now. The, the, the how. The price of housing and the wages are so disparate that, you know, kids, you know, when I bought my house in 2001, it, you know, barely over 20 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we bought it for a song.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we bought it for a song you know, and then now you know it's nearly tripled in cost.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And wages aren't keeping up with inflation Right.
Speaker 1:And try to sell it and then go live somewhere, because they didn't have to live somewhere.
Speaker 2:Well, we can't afford to move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you'd have to go to Tennessee or back to North Dakota or somewhere.
Speaker 2:And that's a no go with the wife.
Speaker 1:That dog don't hunt.
Speaker 2:No, besides, I, I've already, I've already committed to McKinleyville I'm, I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to get a memory lane for a minute. Would you be willing to talk about a few personalities over time of in McKinleyville? I'll start with Opie. Oh sure, I thought Opie was a a nice band. Coffee's always on, coffee's always on. He was a our car salesman that one day wanted to have his own new car dealership.
Speaker 2:He had a used car dealership.
Speaker 1:Yeah, didn't he work for Iver Isaacson? He did, he did, and then he he had a little dealership and ran Fortuna. But he came up he bought that land and and Opie's fine cars. Where what's the coffee?
Speaker 2:It's always what the coffee is always on, always on, Come on down.
Speaker 1:He was. He was delightful yeah.
Speaker 2:Who else you?
Speaker 1:remember from from the past and McKinleyville that touched you in any way.
Speaker 2:I remember from the past. Well, I had Estes Freud.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:He was a great history teacher. I liked my teachers. Yeah, ed Estes was a great teacher. Dean Chesbro at the high school was a great counselor. His wife was my fourth grade teacher at Asperger Avalo, chesbro.
Speaker 1:Were they related to? Oh, I knew her. Yeah, were they related to West Chesbro? No, okay, different. Same name, a different spelling, different spelling, Okay, got you. I remember Dick and Don Miller, I mean the Miller brothers who own Miller Farms, giant. Nursery in McKinleyville and you know big difference. Makers employed a lot of people. They did and they inherited it from their papa right.
Speaker 2:Henrietta Hartman. Ah, there's one, there's one, my first, my first legal job.
Speaker 1:Tell us a story about Henrietta. Oh, she was the Annie Oakley of Dow's Price. This lady, who's her name? I can tell you an Annie Oakley story. Carried a gun in the pickup.
Speaker 2:Carried a gun in the pickup, had a shotgun filled with rock salt, oh yeah. And she carried on a tractor, right yeah. Anyway, I lived on Patrick Creek Drive, so you were on her and her property is in back of Patrick Creek Drive, between there and Dow's Ferry Road.
Speaker 1:First day we moved in she pulled up in her pickup. She looks out and I'm looking at this gruff kind of dirty lady. She goes you got any dogs? And I go no, ma'am, just kids. She goes good, because I shoot dogs, I eat my sheep. I go, honey, come and meet the nice lady and she became a friend in later years and she softened and God and time and life really mellowed her and she was quite the sweetheart, uh-huh yeah.
Speaker 2:I worked for pulling bulbs at the end of Woody Road. Well, she lived right there at Woody Road at Dazz Prairie for a lot of years and had her bulb farm on Murray. She had a lot of acres. Back in the day she did the Daffodil Farms. How about that? She had different places, and then I did work at her house too.
Speaker 1:Now she would be a historical figure for McKinleyville, because McKinleyville historically was bulbs and was it carrots and potatoes and other kind of crops.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know crops, cabbage and this type of thing. You know the Hewitt Ranch.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Hewitt Farm out there on Azalea Sure. You know they grew a lot of produce. Badsguards by the airport.
Speaker 1:Did you ever know the flower guy, leslie Woodruff, that developed the Stargazer Lily? I've heard a lot of his stories that Lane DeVries he actually bought the patent and then Sun Valley Bulbs has made it a legend.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh. I've heard a lot of stories about him and I posted Lily not too long ago on Facebook and somebody brought his name up. You know we talked a lot about him, it's an interesting dude.
Speaker 1:He um real rough, real rough McKinleyville rough hands and my father wanted to meet him. He was a flower freak and he came in from Oceanside and took him over to Leslie's house and he was sick. He was sick in bed and they still waved us in. And come on in to meet Leslie. He's my dad and his daughter was she lived there and I'll never forget.
Speaker 1:My dad was very tender, recovered alcoholic and was unafraid and he gave him a peck on that forehead and he prayed for him and it was just I go, wow, man, dad, that's beautiful, what a nice gesture, uh, man to man, with respect, and he loved, he loved the man's life, work, which was, uh, you kids out there, go find a Stargazer Lily today and give it a smell and you'll know what I'm talking about. All right, anybody else come to your mind.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was just thinking to some of the people that I knew. I knew a lot of the firemen. For whatever reason, Jer Jer Buck comes to mind, not only because he was a member of the fire district, Jer Buck, but he was also the vice principal at the elementary school.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I went to and I used to hang out at the fire department because when I was in 19th and 10th grade the school bus had dropped me off from from Fortuna Junior Academy at CR a lot so that I could go in and play on their computers.
Speaker 1:Ah, early nerd Right.
Speaker 2:I was a very, very early nerd, you know playing, playing on their mainframes.
Speaker 2:And I'd take the last bus to McKinleyville with the Humboldt Transit bus and it would drop me off in downtown McKinleyville. Of course there wasn't a bus stop at Clam Beach, right, um? So, uh, and I would go to the fire department to wait for my dad to get back into town after wherever he was working that day. And the fireman, let me sit there in their fire station and wait for dad, you know, because it was warm and I was safe, sure. And so I got to know all the firemen Ordell, murphy, firemen, um, bill Hover, uh-huh, do you know Frank Toasty? Frank Toasty, of course, he's my next door neighbor. Okay, yeah, what a nice man. Yeah, frank, and Sarri, she taught it, taught eighth grade at the elementary school when I was there. That's right. And uh, yeah, I think, a lot of.
Speaker 2:I got into computers really early and, uh, you know I've been into computers ever since. You know I ran a, ran my own bulletin board system when I was living in Arcada, dial up BBS's oh, remember those, yeah, yeah, that was fun. And then I, you know, got into um, um, like Facebook, real early.
Speaker 1:Right, so you run the thing every morning, the uh today, right, yeah, I got somebody on alert On alert, yeah, and every Gosh and I look at that, that's my group.
Speaker 2:I was actually given that group by a woman who started that group um some some years before she had given it to me oh, perhaps six years ago, six or seven years ago, pre-covid then, yeah Right, it was well pre-COVID. Yeah, it was um. Gosh, it must have been um 2016, 2017. When she gave me the group, it had three or 4,000, you know pretty, pretty rough people who weren't very respectful, and I turned the group around and kind of grew it into a uh, facebook group that was about service and that was a. It was about disseminating information.
Speaker 1:Sure and uh, and what you have. The other one that today in photos in Humboldt County is that, oh the daily inspirational photo.
Speaker 2:I started that the day of the governor's lockdown, when he said that we had to stay home. How about that? And because if we're going to stay home every day, we need to see outside. You know, we need to be aware of the beauty of Humboldt, yep, and so people share some of the beauty of Humboldt. A lot of it, a lot of it. And I kept doing this day after day. Yeah, you know, show us your, show us your pictures. Show you know, because you know, if we can't get outside to see these pictures, you know we need, we need to experience this beauty.
Speaker 1:So if I want to become a member of that, I already am, but if you already are, so if somebody, I love it. I mean the photos, especially with the technology today, this camera can take world-class pictures of a world-class place and put them up on Facebook. By 7 am. We see it every day. Yeah, it's full. I look at that, I marvel, I go how long? How long is this thread?
Speaker 2:Right Technology has made everyone an expert photographer. That's right, especially if they know how to edit their pictures.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely true. So I look at that and I go, okay, this, there's something. You hit a note. So what are the? These are two sites. Do you have a third that you monitor, or?
Speaker 2:curate. I run an Artisan Pizza site.
Speaker 1:Well, that's some. What are the three names? Again, give it to us one more time.
Speaker 2:Well, Artisan Pizza is one Humboldt County on alert. That's my group. I'm also an admin on McKinleyville Community Watch and I've been there for a long, long time.
Speaker 1:And then what was the other one this day in Humboldt? Or the photo, the?
Speaker 2:photo, it's just. That's just a photo thread on Humboldt County on alert.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, yeah, so you oversee that and I guess monitor and throw spammers out or whatever. A Facebook guy.
Speaker 2:We pretty much. We cleaned that group up a long time ago. There's three other volunteers who help administrate that group and troublemakers don't stay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's known as a very respectful group and that's why it's so large. It's the largest Facebook group of its kind in the North State. Wow, how about With nearly 36,000 members now? Wow, that's really something, just a help group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that would be Loco and it's threads of lunacy.
Speaker 2:It's threads of lunacy with and just Trolls. Well, Loco has a very selective censorship.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Kim Kemp site, redheaded black belt. She very rarely ever censors, so all of yous go there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're both. I guess they both have their own journey. But yeah, no, I'm really glad that you do that because those photos I look at some of them, I go how did they get that picture? That's a beautiful ocean wave in the morning, snow on the beach. You never see that picture. Oh, hardly ever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So thank you for doing that. So who is Scott Bender?
Speaker 2:In terms of what?
Speaker 1:Just generally, who are you? So Johnny's father, recovering alcoholic, had two questions I'm going to ask you. One of them is who are you and what do you want? You kind of stated some of this already, but I'll let you maybe take another run at that.
Speaker 2:Who has been. I'm just a regular guy who wants to lead a happy life and wants to see other people happy and is just along for the journey.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:I have no real aspiration other than to be happy and to help other people be happy.
Speaker 1:That's an agenda, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of work.
Speaker 1:That's hard being me. Yeah, yeah, no, it's a worthy effort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I could. I just help wherever I can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what are your favorite? If I were to ask you some favorite Humboldt stuff, including McKinleyville, what's your? You're a pizza guy, so you're an artist in pizza. Artisanal, is that the right word?
Speaker 2:Yeah artisanal pizza homemade pizza maker. I have a propane-fired pizza oven in my backyard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've seen some pies come At least I've never had one, but I've seen the pictures. Where would you go to have a good pie and Humboldt? My house Besides your house, you go there. Not that it's not a restaurant.
Speaker 2:You know, scott, the truth is is that I don't go out for pizza. Okay, I've heard that the life from New York makes a good product, but it's not wood-fired, it's a pretty good product, yeah. There's a place in Blue Lake that makes what I've heard is good wood-fired pizza.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think I know what you're talking about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they enjoy a good reputation, but I couldn't personally tell you because I've never had their product. You're busy making one at home. Yeah, absolutely, I make one a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I've seen some of your meals. They're great. What's your favorite Humboldt County spot? My favorite Humboldt County spot, if you're just to take Miss Kay and we're going to get in the car and go somewhere. Where would you, when would you journey off to?
Speaker 2:Arcada Community Forest, the Ridge Trail, trails eight and nine.
Speaker 1:Okay. And your wife knows this oh yeah, no, she, she was there today, that's why she knows Yesterday. No, actually they went down to Bull Creek yesterday. Oh, did they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me show you where it is on the map. Okay, I know where Bull Creek is.
Speaker 1:I don't even know where it is, offhand it's. Oh, it's down in here Toward a we out up by Grasshopper Peak. They were down there with all the we actually called them the old, the Fortuna, old Farts hiking group. Oh okay, they're faster than anybody, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the only reason I know where that is was because at one time I was a member of a radio club who had has a radio gear up on Grasshopper.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know where that is. Yeah, I do Okay, any regrets in your life?
Speaker 2:Well, if I were to say I've had any regrets, it would be selfish of me to say because God planned out my life the way that he wanted it to go and so no, if I said I had any regrets, it would be going against God's will for me.
Speaker 1:That's a good answer. I love it. I like that answer. What do you want it to say on your tombstone? If you could write it, or pre-write it, just the essence of it what would you have him write on that?
Speaker 2:I've never thought of that. Yeah, I've never thought about dying. Yeah, that's really ever. Not really.
Speaker 1:Okay, good, sorry to introduce that to you. I know, maybe not, maybe that's a great thing.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going to sometime, but I likely won't know. I don't get to choose what day I die. Good point I don't have an obituary written.
Speaker 1:That's good Okay.
Speaker 2:Although I know some people who do. Some of us rewrite them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people are hardcore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, let's talk about death.
Speaker 1:For a while. That seems appropriate. We've not gone here yet. See, yeah, of all people, you would play it straight up. The other thing that Joni's dad said I don't know why he's coming into this podcast today. So much is. Nobody gets out of here alive.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Like an old crime show.
Speaker 2:There are the only things that we know for sure death and taxes.
Speaker 1:I like that, though you don't control the day or the time. Maybe for some of us, but you don't see it coming. That's probably okay, rather than five years of lingering cancer, which we've all seen and it's unpleasant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, terrible. Yeah, tubestone quote I'm not going to let you off that one quite that easy. Anything, I don't know. I mean that might be a good one, I don't know. Happy and sobriety maybe. There you go. Okay, that's good. I'm so glad that you're on that journey. It's so cool. I know it doesn't. Sobriety is not something people talk about a lot, because most you know Tom came to our house and I said Tom, joni's dad, we're having a barbecue this weekend. Every you know Matt and the older kids, adult kids are here. Everybody's going to have a couple of beers. Is that okay with you? Is that going to blow your mind? He goes, scott, most of America has one or two drinks every night. He goes. If I have one or two, I wake up 11 days later. Yeah, he goes. I can't handle it. It shouldn't be an issue for me tonight. Please have a beer, whatever you want to have, but I'm not going to partake if you don't mind. And I said of course I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my opinion too. When I first stopped drinking, you know people were on pins and needles. You know about drinking it around me because my family in town they like to have beer and wine with their dinners and stuff and they're very uncomfortable. They thought for sure, you know, it would trigger me or something or another. But no, no, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:I think it stems from respect, right and care, and people don't make it weird, it does but I've also made it very clear that you know I'm the one with the problem.
Speaker 2:You don't have the problem. You can enjoy this. I can't, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll be happy, I'll be happy, and some people have a developing problem with their drinking and they may or may not see it, but that was their journey, you know, and I my dad instilled in me a lot of stuff early on. That was really, you know, personal responsibility. I think you're a big, you haven't said those words yet, but I know that you're all about personal responsibility, whether it not your serving the community or commenting on Facebook.
Speaker 2:And I think I was taught ethics by my dad, by example.
Speaker 1:Yeah so An accountability. We're all accountable.
Speaker 2:We are all accountable, whether we know it or not. We're all along with honesty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honesty, I think those are all stellar and I think you know sobriety, you know not a bad deal and probably underplayed. And although they say the non-alcoholic beer is not a resurgence, it's a whole new wave, it's the people are, you know, they want the beer hit without the beer alcohol hits.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what Non-alcoholic, non-alcoholic beer is for non-alcoholics? There you go, so we'll just let them go ahead and drink that, and I'm just going to enjoy my bottle of water and your Coke and my Coke and all the coffee I drink.
Speaker 1:Funny Joni's dad one more time. Hey, tom, wherever you are in heaven, bless you, you're on the show today. He drank Coke. He got sober and he would. You're joining the pickups. I go what's the Coke to it in our fridge? He goes. My dad's coming to town oh okay, he's the only guy he would never touch coffee. He goes. How do you put that in your body? Coffee, that's awful. Starbucks, what are you talking about? And I go look at you chugging, chugging a six pack of Coke.
Speaker 2:Who's talking here? I don't do Starbucks at all, you know. I can't justify spending four or five bucks for a coffee.
Speaker 1:There was a day it was a treat and a therapy, and now it's. You know, you might as well go get a broasted chicken for $4.99 at Costco and eat for a week, than you know a small mocha for five bucks. It's just, it doesn't add up. Oh, you bet Anyway any parting shots, Anything else about you, McKinleyville, Humboldt.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just glad to, I'm just, frankly, I'm just glad to be alive. There you go, that's you know, and I'm here and I'm participating and I'm having a real fun day.
Speaker 1:Nice. I know there's Facebook sites. One more time with their titles. So if folks wanted to come on and follow them and is there some vetting that you do like a couple of questions. Humboldt County on alert. Humboldt County on alert. That's on Facebook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the one. The only vetting is is that you be a local person.
Speaker 1:Okay, good enough. Well, scott Binder, thank you for coming to the 100% Humboldt podcast.
Speaker 2:You bet.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me All right. We'll see you soon. Thanks again.