Growing up in the majestic redwoods of Humboldt County, Gregg Foster has stories that'll transport you to the days of yore and incite a hunger for humble community beginnings. Stroll down memory lane with us as we explore Greg's childhood in Miranda CA, his transformation from a South Fork High student to a lobbyist for student interests, and his numerous professional escapades. Our laughter is as rich as the history we're discussing; from local football rivalries to early modem-based document transmissions, this episode is a treasure trove of nostalgia, innovation, and good old-fashioned hometown pride.
Venture into the heart of Ferndale with us, discovering the magnetic charm of its Victorian heritage and the vital role businesses like Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville CA play in weaving the fabric of Humboldt County's growth. Gregg, a jack-of-all-trades, delves into his lending expertise, revealing the joy of fueling local dreams and the intricate dance between cooperation and competition among community lenders. It's a fascinating peek behind the curtain of small-town success, where every handshake and freshly brewed coffee signifies a deeper connection within this vibrant Northern Californian enclave.
As we wrap up our conversation, we cast a spotlight on the persistent efforts to enhance local air services and the legacy of broadband development that has catapulted Humboldt into the digital age. Gregg's collection of political memorabilia not only showcases his enthusiasm for our nation's political journey but also invites you to share in the quirky delight of campaign buttons and bumper stickers. So buckle up for a ride through the twists and turns of Humboldt County's past, present, and the people who continue to shape its future.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Growing up in the majestic redwoods of Humboldt County, Gregg Foster has stories that'll transport you to the days of yore and incite a hunger for humble community beginnings. Stroll down memory lane with us as we explore Greg's childhood in Miranda CA, his transformation from a South Fork High student to a lobbyist for student interests, and his numerous professional escapades. Our laughter is as rich as the history we're discussing; from local football rivalries to early modem-based document transmissions, this episode is a treasure trove of nostalgia, innovation, and good old-fashioned hometown pride.
Venture into the heart of Ferndale with us, discovering the magnetic charm of its Victorian heritage and the vital role businesses like Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville CA play in weaving the fabric of Humboldt County's growth. Gregg, a jack-of-all-trades, delves into his lending expertise, revealing the joy of fueling local dreams and the intricate dance between cooperation and competition among community lenders. It's a fascinating peek behind the curtain of small-town success, where every handshake and freshly brewed coffee signifies a deeper connection within this vibrant Northern Californian enclave.
As we wrap up our conversation, we cast a spotlight on the persistent efforts to enhance local air services and the legacy of broadband development that has catapulted Humboldt into the digital age. Gregg's collection of political memorabilia not only showcases his enthusiasm for our nation's political journey but also invites you to share in the quirky delight of campaign buttons and bumper stickers. So buckle up for a ride through the twists and turns of Humboldt County's past, present, and the people who continue to shape its future.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to 100% Humboldt, where we talk to people that make a difference at Humboldt. I'm Scott Hammond and my new best friend. Oh, there you go. Hey, greg, a difference. You didn't say a positive difference or negative difference. Greg, my new best friend, who makes a positive difference at Humboldt and is 100% Humboldt, you are.
Speaker 1:You were born in Bred. Really, I was Bred and born. Yes, it's good to know that. Order TMI man, are you from Ferndale originally? No, I was born in Ferndale now, but I was born in Garberville, because that's where the hospital was, and then grew up in Miranda Wow and moved away from there in 1983, although I came back in the summers for a couple summers.
Speaker 1:That's fun, yeah, summer days in Miranda, oh, it's beautiful, it's beautiful. So we just saw Tommy Emanuel and his one of his guitar players. Actually, he was a slide guitar player, doe Bro. He grew up down there and he was remembering all the stories of summers at Grandma's, oh, yeah, yeah, I think, in Miranda or somewhere it could be. Yeah, I mean, there was when I was a kid in Miranda we had, you know, at least one, two, three, four operating or resorts or motels, right, and it's a lot of people came down and from up here to enjoy the sun. They said they do the chores in the morning and swim all day, yep, yep. Well, and it's funny because there were two motels with pools in Miranda, one being the Miranda Gardens and the other being the Whispering Pine, which is up on the hill, and towny kids like us were never allowed to go in the Whispering excuse me, miranda Gardens pool. Why? Because of resort. Oh, you know, they don't want these towny kids in there. These are for the fancy Eureka people. But Whispering Pines would allow us, but only after we did we would sweep, so they would give us brooms and we'd have to sweep all the sidewalks and everything around them. We can go in the pool, then he can jump in. Yep, yep, you dirty local people. I know, I know, with our, you know, like grimy cutoff shorts or whatever, the muddy Miranda kids. Yeah, I always say I was a dirt road kid. I didn't live on a paved street until I was 18 and went off to school. Wow, so tell us the journey. You went to UC Davis, I did, but you went to South Fork, south Fork High. Yeah, my parents were school teachers there. Oh, wow, south Fork High School and graduated in 1983. And then off to UC Davis and this school, five years there and then worked in Sacramento for a few years and then came back here.
Speaker 1:I was looking, what did you study at Davis? I was a polysci, public service. So I was local government, state government, with an emphasis on less book learning and more doing. So I spent a lot of time working in local politics down there. In fact, I was a paid the student body. I was a student that got paid to be a lobbyist to the city and the county when I was there and I actually had a staff and we tracked and did all the work you know to represent student interests to both the city of Davis and the county of Yolo. Yeah, I did that for a couple of years and what a gig. Oh yeah, it was fun, it was a lot of fun. I had an office on campus as a student. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had an office on campus and you know the staff and we tracked all the stuff. And then I went to all the meetings and got on all the committees and those towns and and we made a big difference. Actually we really did. We were very good organizers back there pretty practical about things as well, and Davis is such a great town it was. My uncle was a football coach there for many years and he retired as head coach there in 1992.
Speaker 1:The Aggies, yeah, the Aggs go Aggies, and so it was a big family tradition to be going down there all the time anyway. And so my brother and sister went there, my cousins, you know, my uncle and aunt went there. Everybody went there. Not to be confused with the A&M Aggies and College Station, texas, no, no, no, this is the Different Aggies. Uc Davis Aggies they have hand signals down there. They're a whole group. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, back then it was a Division II non-scholarship school and one I don't know, like 35 straight league champions or something, right, yeah, oh, they'd come up and just kick Humboldt's tail all the time. Oh yeah, all the time, yeah, but they were in the same league, Humboldt and Sack and Davis. Yeah, it was the Back in the day. It was called the Division II Far West Conference and it was Chico State, san Francisco State, humboldt, and you know a lot of them have all dropped. So I think it was the Black State and Davis still had football, but everybody else has pretty much dropped it Too bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I sat next to the Cal Poly president that almost comes up in the show. Humboldt State, no, that's Cal Poly, cal Poly. Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, you got to get it right. There's no such thing as Humboldt State. And I said, when are you bringing back the football program? Oh yeah, I'm sure that was a, and I go KHSU, he goes. Well, we have KHSU, I go. It's a feed dude. Right, it's Sacramento. He was nice. I mean he's a great guy. I mean I'm like Tom. So what's your current?
Speaker 1:So you graduated Davis, then you went and worked in SAC, worked in SAC, worked in policy and did some other fun stuff. I helped produce events. I worked for a nonprofit that was an association of elected officials statewide and we did work there in policy. And then I got hired by a consulting firm and I was 25 years old and they made me a project manager, which is pretty cool. And what I found out was they did that because I was the type of person who would just take on any assignment they gave me and I said, well, I'll figure it out right, mr Action. I did everything, from working with Ernest and Young and doing an analysis of the bottle bill program and we wrote legislation around reforming that For cycling, yeah, yeah. And then producing the. I produced the 1990 Earth Day Concert for the state capital, cool stuff. Yeah, we played there. The dead Johnny Otis was our headliner, but we had mostly bands that were in the area at the time in Sacramento, some of the bigger bands. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I did live radio and TV. Is this the same bill? That West Chess Pro kind of? He was on that agency. That Correct, yeah, no, in fact that's where I met.
Speaker 1:Wesley was way back my first job with this local government commission. He was at the time a county board, you know, on the board of supervisors here, and I met him through there, right. And then we got to know each other much better because I was writing regulations for the new bill that passed and he was appointed to the board and so we knew each other. You're both humble guys. We were, yeah, yeah, although he's not originally from here, so he's almost local. He's only been here like 50 years. I think he was the one who admitted that he was not actually a humble grad. He did go to Right, right, humboldt stayed at the time I could say that word. And he goes, yeah, and the president, he goes. I'm not actually a grad, he goes, I know. Yeah, but an alumnus is anybody that attended? Oh, there you go. Perfect, yeah. And he did pretty well for himself. I think, oh, what a nice man. Yeah, he's been a great guy. So what's your current role? What are you doing? Well, let's bring him from sec.
Speaker 1:So you came back to Humboldt. Sure, move back to Humboldt in 1991, at the tender age of 26, and went to work with a friend of mine named Margaret Gaynor in Arcada. And what it really allowed me to move back was in the few years that I'd been in Sacramento I'd kind of built up a client network, customer network statewide, so I could come back up here, but most of my work in consulting and was done outside the area. So I traveled all the time. So you had connections to SAC, yeah, and SAC in Southern California.
Speaker 1:That United Flight was really vital to you. Well, we had those little puddle jumpers back then. We also had back then we had American Eagle who was flying to San Jose. So I could fly on that. Oh, sacramento, san Francisco, alaska to Alaska up north. Yeah, back then. But we'll get to Airlines in a minute. Oh yeah, I'll talk all day about that.
Speaker 1:But it was, you know it kind of. It's interesting. You don't think about these things except when you start looking back. You know that really sort of understanding how our business works. And we got up to 11 employees and we had an office here and an office in Oakland, wow, with Maggie. Yeah, yeah, you know, we realized how important it was for anyone wanting to do this kind of work to be here, to be connected, and of course we didn't have the internet. So Lots of phones and faxes, yeah, phones and faxes, and the airplanes, and letters and letters. It was on paper, they had paper letters, yeah, it's so funny, weird. The newspapers Exactly big newspapers. And it was funny.
Speaker 1:When I came up here, you know, I said you know, you can transmit documents. This is pre-internet but you can transmit documents through the phone line. And we said let's get a modem and there was an old program called Procom and you would call the person out to the side and say, ok, your settings are this, my settings are this, make sure they match. And then we'd transmit a document that way. That's pre-fax. Well, no, we had faxes too, but this way you could send it to them and they could edit it and then send it back. That's pretty cool 2400 Bod modems. So it was just like all day. Oh yeah, it was just text. It was like, wow, look at that, it's going. It's a three-page doc. Well, and we only had one phone line. So it was like if someone was calling in, then it was don't answer the phone. I got plugged into the modem. It's a big sign on the phone Don't touch it. Exactly. So, yeah, pretty.
Speaker 1:But, as I said, having that experience sort of informed some of my work in the subsequent 30 years, sure, so all those connections in SAC served you. Well, when you came back, oh, absolutely, yeah, that's the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area. We need those guys to make change up here. Yeah, well, and it was just because there wasn't going to be enough work up here in the field and work that I had sort of cultivated in the few years I was down there outside after school. So it was like, ok, well, I brought my work with me and of course Maggie had a good network and connections throughout the state and so we were able to. I did that for five years and then it was the nature of her work and agency. She was consulting, we were consulting for her. Yeah, we did a lot of work Solid waste education, a lot of recycling programs, and it was a heady time at the time.
Speaker 1:In 1989, the state passed a bill that said you had to recycle 50% of your solid waste Wow, so we went out there and did a lot of consulting on how to do that and a lot of public education and marketing kind of information and, yeah, that was fun. It was fun. We recycle like crazy, yeah, yeah. Well, people don't sort of remember what it was like before this bill passed, but the recycling programs were, of course, few and far between yeah, oh, and when we visit Boise, idaho or wherever, even Medford, there's some recycling, but it's not Wait, don't throw that, well, we don't recycle it, dad. So there it goes. What was interesting at the time is, of course, recycling was all about like, well, put it in the bin and take it away.
Speaker 1:And I ended up starting to work on the other side of the coin on that, which was how do you develop markets for this material? Right, and we had friends that we worked with quite a bit that were, you know, a lot of the paper was going overseas. So they were paper brokers and we worked with a scrap. We got hired by the scrap industry to do work and some of the others, and it was like, oh, how do we develop markets? And just before I'd come up, I'd work on a program and wrote regulations for a state loan program that was going to invest in manufacturers user cycle materials it's called the Recycling Market of Elements own program, and so that's where I started learning about lending, because I never people would go. Wow, you went to business school, and all that Because I've been a lender for now almost 30 years and I was like, well, no, never had an accounting class. I learned it in real school, right, I learned it in the trenches, really. So you worked for Redwood Capital Bank. I did so.
Speaker 1:When I left Maggie Gaynor Associates, I went and worked at the Hullberry Foundation for a few years and we did some work in economic development around there. Peter Pettinkamp, peter yeah and Kathy Moxin and I worked together and then in 1999, redwood Region Economic Development Commission job came up and I applied for that and got that, and I've been doing that almost continuously since then. I've actually quit that job twice, right, because you went back and forth. So I was there for eight years and I quit to go work with Patrick Cleary, who was a friend of mine and helped run the radio stations K-Home, case Log on the point for a couple years. And then those are the big years, right, kind of formative they were. Well, it was funny, because what was great timing is I was like, oh sure, let's go into smart market radio that's supported by advertising, right when the recession hit. So it was scary, although we built sales through that, and that was just primarily.
Speaker 1:Did you live in Ferndale? Then I did yeah, let me show everybody where Ferndale is on my handy-dandy map. Oh, yeah, there it is. It's map time. It's map time. Ferndale's right over here by Fortuna. It is I don't really want to say the two in the concert. Well, I could. Well, there is a love-hate relationship between Fortuna and what I always say is Fortuna's love would love to live in Ferndale. And no, that's not true. But yeah, I live in Ferndale.
Speaker 1:I moved from Arcada to Ferndale in 1997. My wife just hiked to Russ Park and did that. Oh, it's beautiful. She said it was amazing. It's a real hidden gem there. Yeah, she saw these neat flowers. Oh gosh, yeah, this time of year and a little bit later, the flowers, if they're amazing, and it's a big old growth spruce forest and it's really neat. So for those that don't know, ferndale's a Victorian village. People come from all over the world to come see it. It's kind of a special. Yeah, the whole town is like a national historic place landmark and I bet it's great off season. I think it's great all year, but it does get more crowded in the summer. A little more crowded in the summer. Yeah, and that's all fun. Yeah, we moved there in 97. And then the kids were raised there Super friendly, though One of them still live there. Oh, yeah, I think so. Yeah, I like the steeple and the shows that Paul does over there. Oh, amazing stuff, yeah, amazing stuff, and he's done a great. You know, he and actually there's another guy before him did a great job of restoring that church because it was pretty much run down in a band and when I moved to town in 1997. Magical church, it is gorgeous now. And then Tuyas Taco Gloria does a great job.
Speaker 1:One of our Redex customers. Oh, is that right? How about the Jersey boys, are they? Yeah, jersey scoops, jersey scoops and Lolita, we financed that as well. What did you do? Yeah, joanie says Fabius, we've got to go and go check it out. Ferndale's been great. I mean Redex, we've actually provided loans to Blacksmiths Shop and Ferndale Pizza, the red front store, tuyas, golden Gate Mercantile, francis Enos, fire Repair yeah, so we've done a lot of financing. What about the North Coast Journal's store? They're with the local product. Yeah, they did that themselves.
Speaker 1:That's a great little store. What's it called? Oh gosh, humboldt Hometown or something like that. Pretty cool. I mean, we just say the old bank right, it's the old bank Should get Los Bagels to move down there. Oh, there you go, there you go. Yeah, well, we have Patches Pastries just open, so now we have Ice Cream and these pastries, and then the farmer's daughter just expanded. So that's a great little store too. Was it Joe Coaches? That used to be the Blacksmiths Backsmiths shop? Yeah, is he still living? No, he passed away. But years ago we helped him working with Six Rivers Bank and who's also passed away, and we helped them expand into a second building. The bank passed away. Yeah, yeah, the Six Rivers Bank is gone.
Speaker 1:Remember, it was a being a nice guy. We brought a bunch of student. I was a student at Humboldt doing student work with other kids and we did a field trip there. Yeah, oh, he was a cool guy. Oh, yeah, no, he's a really cool guy. And Hobart, his shop and everything was down there. Oh, and we also financed the Minds Eye coffee shop that's in there. Oh, yeah, that's a nice coffee shop. That's another one that we did. Yeah, so we've been pretty heavily invested.
Speaker 1:So you've been up to Hobart's place when he was living, oh, yeah, back in the day. Yeah, that was a crazy spot, that was creepy. I went up there and I go, I'm pretty dull when it comes to spiritual stuff. Yeah, I was in there and I'm going shit, this is weird stuff here. Yeah, he was quite the correct. I'm feeling something weird here.
Speaker 1:Well, and the downstairs is all that sort of unfinished redwood barnwood with the sculptures on it and everything, and it's like God forbid anybody drop a cigarette or set some place on fire. It'll flame, it'll be gone in a minute, but it survived, it survived. It's all redwood folks, yeah, so tell us more about your current role. So you went back and forth from K-hum and where else did you? And then we'll come back to your job that you left, sure, sure. So I left your current job. That you left several times, right, I have quit only twice. I've returned three times, but they brought you back. That's the main thing. Yeah, that's it Exactly. So then I? Yeah, so I did a couple years at Laska's Communications and then came back to Redack in 09, worked there for a few years. They had had some personal issues and stuff that came to help fix and got it back up on his feet.
Speaker 1:And then one day John Dahlby comes in and gives me a holler. He says, hey, let's go to coffee. And so I did. And he says, why don't you come work with the Redwood Capital Bank? And I said, well, that'd be fun. I'd been a lender at that point for quite a while and it was a good opportunity to go over there and learn how banks do it. And I did that for three years.
Speaker 1:Successful banks yeah, yeah, the other one they're just next. This month is their 20th anniversary. It's so hard to believe. Yeah, I know exactly. And Costco's been here 150 years.
Speaker 1:Where did time go? I know, and that's I do remember when he was forming it. I still have his card somewhere. It says John Dahlby, rev Humboldt Bank. I have the Humboldt Bank, but I also have Rebbit Capital Bank. Parenthesis, information, information. Yeah, it was a collectible. Yeah, exactly so. Yeah, I went and did commercial lending there for a few years, helped open the branch in Arcada, nice, and developed that, and he's a nice guy. Yeah, yes. How do you figure his following works? I mean, he's like Mick Jagger, he just brings people with him. Maybe. So Well, I wasn't loyal. I ended up leaving, except for you. Yeah, exactly, except for me.
Speaker 1:Then, 2015, I went back to Redech and I've been there ever since and that's probably my last job change, because I'm getting too old to keep hopping around. Yeah, you're 50? I'm 58. Oh, you're 58. Sorry, my bad. Nice try at flattery. Yeah, on the cusp of 59. That'll be 59. Nice, I want to talk about the current job, what you do, and I want to talk about airlines, sure.
Speaker 1:And then I want to talk about what you see, what the current needs are and what we'll need to be and where we're going. Is it OK? Oh, absolutely, let's do that. It's your show. So, hey, no, your show. I mean, you locked the door from the inside. I can't get out. You're stuck, I'm stuck here. Nick, don't let him go anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. His name's Nick. Yeah, just remember to feed me later. So where do we start? So what is your job title? What do you do now specifically? So I'm executive director of Redwood Region Economic Development Commission. Were you always the director? I was always the executive director. Yeah, I was hired as the boss and just remained there, and so our primary.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's two things, two ways to describe Redec what it is and what it does. Right, and so what we do primarily is lend money to small businesses and organizations local organizations who can't get funding through traditional sources or can't get all the funding they need. Okay, so that could be a startup. It could be someone who hasn't got a long history, maybe someone who's having some issues in their business, whatever, and would that include the cannabis industry? We couldn't do that. There's some regs around that, yeah, yeah, because we were originally capitalized by the federal government and, as a result, we can't play in the space. But that was all you know. Quite honestly, it was a space that didn't need that when it was building. Here there's a lot of money coming in, a lot of investment capital on that, and now, when it needs it, it's probably not a place. It's trying.
Speaker 1:Yes, so we right now I think we have 58 or 59 businesses and organizations in our portfolio, probably about $10 to $12 million out right now. Some of that's Headwaters fund money from the county because we participate, loans with them, and so that's a blast. I mean, I just love doing that and we've done. You know a lot of the marquee businesses around here one that's just celebrating its 20th anniversary is Six Rivers Brewery. You financed that. We did yeah, yeah, we participated with Redwood Capital Bank and did the loan for the Dick Taylor expansion and the Eagle House. We did that. Those are all big ones, yeah, yeah, and then I'm the ones that I made. Do you mean Dick Taylor? Yeah, dick Taylor, this Dick Taylor. Dick Taylor, ben DeBar, right here in Eureka California. Hey, desti, hi Adam, yeah, I watched the Adam podcast, ben DeBar, I like it. Yeah, that's what they say. We're Ben DeBar all in one spot.
Speaker 1:You gave me an analogy. I was like I'm gonna give you a $10 bottle of Scotch. It's the equivalent of a $10 Dick Taylor chocolate bar. In terms of the, it's the top of the top of the marque chocolate. And I go, I think chocolate's a better deal. Yeah, I, you know, I couldn't probably tell the difference. Maybe I could have a 5,000 to you know, something considerably less than Scotch. But yeah, dick Taylor, you know it's.
Speaker 1:The only thing I don't like about it is it's right near my office and so it's hard to resist going over there. I thought you were gonna say I never go because it's like when you live by Disneyland, you never go to Disneyland. Oh yeah, no, it's, it's hard, and especially when I get out in the morning and they're roasting beans or doing something like that, oh my gosh, everything smells like chocolate and their coffee is really quite good, oh gosh, it's delicious. Yeah, yeah, joni has to stop there a lot. So that's a cool part of your job. You get to see the success stories.
Speaker 1:So I think you know, I mean, I think about doing this since 1999. And I haven't figured. You know I one of these days I'll just sit down and tick through every business that we've been able to help years. You'll River Brewery we know we did their new brew house and then helped them with their expansion, that they just opened a new brew house, and yeah, so we did the Scotia hotel. We did that one as well. Scotia Lodge yeah, and that's a restaurant, right, a restaurant and hotel. Yeah, who runs that? Jon and Amy O'Connor, humboldt Base Social. Yeah, yeah, they have the Humboldt Base Social as well. Nice, and so you're saying there's a brewery down there now. Well, the Eel River Brewery. That's based in Fortuna. When they went to expand their brew house, they did that in an old mill building in Scotia and that went for quite a while and now they've just basically expanded that brew house and brought it back next to their restaurant facility in Fortuna. Oh, that's cool. So, yeah, it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1:We've done all sorts of different kind of businesses. It's a lot of fun. Not all succeed, but we have a pretty good track. So is Ross an Arcada Economic Correct, kind of a parallel. Yeah, we always say we're a collaborative competitor. So we do compete some for business, but we're both relatively small, so in terms of the total need out there, there's plenty to go around. But we've also worked together. So we've done loans where each of us has a piece. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, we've worked together for a long time. And Joe Dolby's nice. Yeah, we're all nice.
Speaker 1:Right, john and I were in a men's group and he's just like harassing me and I go. What's going on? They go. If he doesn't harass you, he probably doesn't like you, right, exactly, there you go. Oh, he must love me. Yeah, there you go. There's a bell curve. It's like he's rashing me because he likes me now. Where am I? Now it's love, yeah, it's love. Now it goes to hate. There you go. There's a lot of lines here and why they come and go, and the deregulation under Reagan. Well, you know, it's funny. I kind of just like lending. It's one of those things I just sort of stumbled into.
Speaker 1:And in 2003, you know and it goes back to what I said earlier, which is being connecting Humboldt County, was incredibly important for sort of the next wave of business. That I thought. And so I went to a conference in San Diego in like 2000, 2001. And I went to a session where they're talking about small businesses graduating out of UC San Diego technology incubator and I the moderator was a guy who I became friends with, who was an editor of the San Diego business journal, and I said do you know where Humboldt is? And he goes yeah, I do. In fact, you know, I've been up there and I said so you know what of these people. Would you know what could we offer these folks coming out of these tech incubators and maybe they even move up there. He says I don't even know.
Speaker 1:Two questions how good is your broadband and how good is your air service? And at the time it was like neither was great, broadband certainly wasn't. Air service was okay. You know, we'd still had we hadn't united in America we had a single cable going down our willets getting charged. Well, yeah, but at that time that didn't exist. So so we were still in a microwave system there.
Speaker 1:So I came back and said, okay, so air service and broadband, that's where I'm going to focus for a long time. Yeah, I didn't think it'd be this long, but but it was. And so so in 2003, the then airport manager, a woman by the name of Teresa Askew, contacted me and says hey, we're working with this consultant and the city of Reading. We're putting together a grant application to the federal government and the goal is to get Alaska Airlines to start flying to Los Angeles. Can you help with that? And I said, well, we need a letter of support. And I said, sure, I can do a letter of support, that's easy. So I wrote a letter of support and they didn't get the grant and the feedback was that there wasn't enough demonstration of local community support and yeah, for just a guy writing a letter in it. So I said, okay, teresa, turn me loose, right. And so I ended up getting a bunch of letters from all the politicians and everything and we actually raised money from people to do as a match and we ended up getting the grant.
Speaker 1:The city of Reading was the lead on that, and so we got the grant and subsequently they put in what was called a minimum revenue guarantee, which was kind of a new thing back then, and as a contract, it's kind of an incentive contract, like if they do well, you don't have to pay them, but if they don't do well, you pay them a little bit and that's out of that grant money, right, that pot of money, exactly. So we put that in place. Well then we thought, well, you know, what we don't want to have to do is provide the incentive, or you know, and we want them to succeed. So I, you know. I was like, well, how do you advertise? What kind of marketing program are you doing for this? I was like, oh well, yeah, we should. So we started doing local marketing for that.
Speaker 1:That service started in 2000, june of 2005. Later that year I get a call from the consultant because I thought it was the one off for me, right, okay, you know, we get donated a bunch of advertising at Lascaux to talk about Lascaux and we've brought Alaska here, yeah, and got Alaska to go to LA and then. So I thought that was kind of a one off. I was kind of you know how's it performing, kind of staying in touch. But I was working a couple of years later at Lascaux Communications and I get a call from the consultant and said no-transcript, delta might want to service your territory and go to Salt Lake City, salt Lake, you guys interested? I said, well, I'm just working at a radio station now, but let me, yeah, I'm spinning the vinyl, right.
Speaker 1:So the airport manager at the time and the public works director and I and the consultant, we put together this big presentation. We went down to Atlanta, did the presentation to a room full of people about why they should invest here, and so Delta decided and I get a call and I had my first cell phone at the time. I get to call my cell phone, cool. And I had to go out, pull the antenna up and go out in the parking lot, and Delta had said, yeah, we'll do it, but you need to provide a half million dollars in incentives and a half million dollars in pre-sold tickets. I remember that, yeah, and you got about six weeks to get this all in place and we did it. So I worked with Redec who I wasn't employed with at the time and just a huge community coalition came together and really helped that. Who was the director of Redec? It was a woman by the name of Madeline Holtkamp. She was only there for about a year in left. So we built this huge coalition of people, local businesses, everything else. It's a lot of pre-sold tickets. Yeah, it was, it was, and what they got was a Delta card that had cash value on it. You could use it. So we did that.
Speaker 1:The service. At the time. This was like oh gosh, I'm trying to think it started in 07. So it must have been 06, 05. So just before the recession, right, right before, yeah, so the service starts, oil goes to $140 a barrel, which is like all the airlines are losing money, going nuts. And then that was the first half of the service. Second half of the service the recession hits, there you go. So it was like, well, great, so that service lasted a little over a year, but it had great usage. But the whole industry was collapsing so we lost that service and there's not too long after that is when Alaska pulled out of the market as well. Our friend was the manager of the local depot. Oh, ok, brandy Brandon he's a great guy. Yeah, yeah, no, and we were really the victims, quite honestly, of just national and international economics at the time, and we suffered as a result.
Speaker 1:So, but not deterred and not daunted, we just kept at it and I did a recruitment, worked hard. We had actually negotiated a contract with American Airlines to do Los Angeles service here starting in June of 2012. But I might have been later in June, but it doesn't matter. Anyway, we had a good contract with them. We negotiated it down from $2 million to $500,000 in a pretty good conference room or in Tampa, florida, at a conference Is that where they're based? No, no, it was an airline conference going on there.
Speaker 1:We met with their VP and it was Emily Jacobs and I, and we came back with this great deal and unfortunately, it was an election year here and one of the candidates who was running, ran these anti-American Airlines ads. How dare we give incentives to the? So what we thought was the support we would have when we got back from the county evaporated. Did the person get elected? Yeah, they're not on the board anymore. But yeah, so I'm mentioning names, but it rhymes with Rhymes with Benel. Let's just say, anyway. So Let me think For Benel. Yeah, and so, unfortunately, you know, american had already stuck us in their schedule and here they come right and we're selling tickets, and then the deal fell apart. Oh man, but they did come right, weren't they? Well, later, later, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So we pivoted and started working on getting United to do the same. And we were still talking to we talked to five or six airlines three or four times a year and do our presentations to them, and we had a draft contract in 2012 with United to do the same thing. And then United killed it. We kept at them and they started in 2018. So these things are long developers, right, yeah. And so I became the fly humble. We started that as a big countywide collaboration. We had the top employers involved. We had everybody involved, so we did the two that were our biggest recruits was the LA and Denver, and those started in 2018 and 2019. And then, once service starts happening, people take notice and so some of the other airlines took notice, I think. And then we saw a fellow come in and an American for a while the Phoenix and a fellow still does. Birbake, yes, but not Vegas, no. No, they started Vegas. They did not have a good schedule and, to be clear, I'm no longer involved in the air service here.
Speaker 1:The county decided to go a different direction. As they say, it's the only job I've ever been fired from that I never was paid to do, but like a sign for the opposite, yeah, yeah. So the county. You know there was a lot of changes that occurred in the county. One of the things I was chair of the aviation advisory committee at the part of this period of time and I kept saying you know, we can manage this place better. And so for six, eight years, we pushed to have a big management study done and that occurred. I think it was 2018 when it was done 2019. Management of the airport Aviation system yeah, and the management study was pretty pointed in its criticisms of how, especially, the finances were being handled. And after that study was published, the FAA gave a management letter basically saying you need to fix this or you're going to have to reimburse the federal government $50 million. And then there was a lawsuit and the United States government sued the county and this all occurred in like, I guess, 2019, 2020.
Speaker 1:And shortly thereafter, I think, my phone quit ringing. They didn't need my help anymore. So I think then then COVID yeah, so now they've taken that program inside the county. It's running out of county economic and they've extended the runway. That was part of it. Right, well, that was done before. Yeah, so we have, interestingly, redec provided financing to the county to both the terminal and runway expansion projects.
Speaker 1:How about that? Yeah, yeah, the fund retention, because it takes a long time to get there. You guys are everywhere. We've done a lot, yeah, yeah, it's pretty exciting. It's close to home for all of us. It's literally close to my home. It's about a quarter mile away. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So some of those planes that go off are bigger, it seems like, are louder. Oh, yeah, absolutely, and they're not that early louder, but they are bigger. Yeah, and it's interesting because, coming home, you can see how much people are traveling, because they're in the third lot down. It's full, right, and there's this thing I mean when I started airline recruiting work in 2004, 2005, the biggest plane we had was the 76-seater. Here that was called the big prop plane that Alaska ran. It's called the Dash-8 or Q400, depending on which they were running. That was a big turboprop. And then our other planes that we ran were 19-seat jet streams and 30-seat Embraer Brazilias and those were 30 to 32 seats depending on configuration. And so now we're running EMB175s, which are E-175s, which are 75, 76 seats, running the 737, which is 189 seats. Those are bigger. Yeah, these are huge aircraft. Those are United. The Velo runs the 737. You can tell they're louder, yeah, yeah. And then United's running 50 and 75. It's a Velo twice a week. Now, right Is it? They're running up to four, I think. Now they run it throwing an extra departure in the high season and they just established a crew base in Santa Rosa. So Santa Rosa just got four more Velo destinations. That's cool. Santa Rosa is a really big place. It's funny it is After I recruited Delta Great and we had a lot of success and we're making some names for ourselves outside the area on this recruitment and stuff because we were really leaders, and certainly small airports, in using these financial incentives and doing all this stuff.
Speaker 1:I had a county supervisor call me, from Sonoma County. I had Paul Kelly and he was friends with Glenn Gouldan who lived up here. Sure, I knew Glenn, he was my landlord. Yeah, okay, well, and Glenn had said call Greg, you know, because at the time Santa Rosa didn't have any air service At all At all At all. It's huge, right, right, exactly so, remodeled and everything Right. So Paul and I had a number of calls together and he's like you know, how do you do this recruitment? I said, okay, well, here's the firm we use. I'm no expert, right, but here's the firm we use. And here's, you know, build your business support first in the community and get your political support and know that you have to invest and also know that it's a long-term process that eventually should pay off. And they are, they're still growing, right, right. And so they got, you know, they had no service.
Speaker 1:They, I guess you know, put together an air service fund and got the community behind it and pressured and, you know, really worked on United to get a service, something. This is you sharing the secret sauce and how to do that? Right, well, I still. It's interesting. It's interesting, I still get calls from out of the area of people and want you know like, hey, how did you do this Best job you'd ever had? Right, right, exactly, exactly. So it's nice and you know, things happen, right, things happen. You know the I always want to leave things better than I found them and I think I left the air service system here much better than I found it. It sounds like it's a leader in how to do it. So, yeah, I'm one of the old guard. Now, you know I would look at the old guy.
Speaker 1:I went to the conference a couple of years ago. I think one of my last air service conferences and they asked the question was the session being led by the airport manager of Phoenix and they said, well, how many of you you know have done these certain things? And I kept raising my hand. I go, well, god, you keep raising your hand. How long you've been doing this? Put your hand down over there. Yeah, and I have a lot of friends in the industry and they're just like, oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:And and they said, well, when did you do your first MRG? And I said, well, we did one with an air travel bank in 2004, and five put it in place for services started around then and there was like, oh my gosh, you know that was really old, you're really old, exactly, you're a vet, you're right, right. So that was really fun. And we did that in broadband stuff at the same time. And so, you know, we got into the first the fight to get the first fiber object line here, and Rita got really involved in that. That's the one that goes down one-on-one through Willets, correct, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then once we got the first one done I was working with us and then the Rubber Technology Consortium, we started advocating for a second one and Patrick talked to you on the podcast about you know, hey, we contacted PG&E and said, hey, we want to build a fiber optic line. You know, we don't know, we're kind of all bluff, but we said we want to build this new second fiber optic line. Can we use your right away for free? And it was just a total hail. They said, yes, it was funny.
Speaker 1:Jack McCown, who was the director of business development he's just long since retired, but PG&E, he calls, and you know he's talking to us and he's like you know, we're actually pretty intrigued by this idea and then he said is the Ivanhoe still there in Ferndale, and he said, yeah, he goes, oh, I love the Ivanhoe, okay, I'm coming up. And so he came up, tell you what we're having dinner and you're buying, right. And so we went down and met with him and the interduosist to the company that PG&E was using to build their fiber network, and that was in two gosh two well, most of them, that's one over there, highway 36. Highway 36, yes, let's go back to the map. So one-on-one runs up and down. This way. It does, it does. It's a very good way to go to the portuna All the way to Red Bluffs. Right, they went to Cottonwood, yeah, but Cottonwood, yeah, yeah, that was a big switch over there. Cottonwood, it's not very warm in the summer, no.
Speaker 1:So that was built over the and Connie Stewart got involved and helped a lot with raising public funds from the California Advanced Services Fund to fund that project. And we built the second fiber optic line from Eureka to Cottonwood, and so then we had a second service. So if one went down, the other one would. Redundancy is everything, yeah. And now, if you look at it, they're building.
Speaker 1:We've got a fiber optic line going from Eureka to Singapore. Right, it's being built right now, when will that be done? It's soon. I mean, they they just ship dumping fiber as they. They're rolling the big spools of fiber across All the way across the ocean, and it's not just fiber. They absolutely have to build facilities in the bottom of the ocean which are power regenerators to regenerate the signal as it's coming across, and some other stuff. And then there's another company that's building a line and this is all private at this point from the, basically the intertie at the Harbor District over to Redding. So we'll have another one going east, we'll have one going north and south. How will they build that? Will that be over there? They're working on it right now. Yeah, so it's along 299, not just in the highway, but along that general path, got it? Yeah? So anyway, it's really kind of exciting because we went I mean literally, I remember, before the first fiber optic line, when I worked in Arcada and again we were doing a lot of work out of the area and when it was really rainy we couldn't call out of Humboldt County because the microwave system was Microwaves lose capacity when it's bad weather.
Speaker 1:So I was like, oh, this is no good, you couldn't send a fax. What are we going to do. Yeah, right, it's like we got 64 flood. Yeah, exactly. So the things that we were dealing with in 1991, I'm still working on now. So the fiber hub is where in Arcada, right when Copeland Lumber used to be. Yeah, so there's a big facility there that is like a server facility so people can buy in there and put their stuff.
Speaker 1:And I think that my hunch and this is not rocket science, not just my hunch is that once these projects are complete, we'll see a lot of other people coming up and saying, yeah, we can build a plant and we're going to do it. The Humboldt County, especially the Humboldt Bay, will have one of the best fiber networks in the world. That's pretty cool, that's pretty big thing. Right, it is, it is Well. And what's funny is we have this, that project, and we have the Nordic Aquifarms Project, which is sort of quietly going forward now and it's huge, and both of them sort of gotten kicked off the front page because of the Osher Wind stuff. So it just goes to show how different my job is and all of our jobs are now than they were 25 years ago Shifted, yeah.
Speaker 1:So the Osher Wind things to go to that's still a little forward. We want to try. Yeah, I mean, there's some major hurdles to get over. Still, the biggest one, and we don't hear a lot about, is that they can't transport power out of here because there's not enough transmission capacity. Interesting. So Schatz Energy Lab did a study that says that build the transmission infrastructure to get the power out is anywhere from $7 to $40 billion. I thought they would have worked on that before they thought about generating power.
Speaker 1:You know it's supposedly all happening at the same time, but the thing the Osher Wind needs is two things right. One of is the ability to actually transport the electrons. Any other is actual identification and knowing the pricing and everything for where they're going to sell that power. So those are called power purchase contracts. When they sell it back to PG&E over in the valley, well, it all goes to the Cal ISO, which is the California Independent System Operator. They're the ones that really manage the grid and they don't buy power necessarily. But you have, like, in Humboldt County, we have a power purchaser which is the Revacos Energy Authority, right, and they buy power and then sell it. So you got to identify markets because ultimately it's a business, right. It takes a certain amount of your making widgets. In this case, you're making electrons, and you got to sell that electron for more than you cost to make, and so the rules of business always apply, right, revenue has to exceed expense. I don't care what you're doing, right, I agree.
Speaker 1:So I had two questions for you that I want to talk about, your legacy and what's on your tombstone and all that. Who are you? What do you want, right? So you've served out a bunch of boards. I have, I mean yours. I'm on my first board. I'm on the. I have some cond Prom from οποorenPI. I'll think of the member where you are. I can't. What was your name? I'm on my first board. It's really exciting night. I've been to one meeting. Yeah, right, like I had a thousand boards. I'm looking at this. It's about 20, about 20 different boards. He's got a huge board resume. Yeah, I know, I know you never get bored. I never will. No, I like it and that's great service.
Speaker 1:So, of all these boards, and and and then business people you've done business with. What a couple of memorable stories that you're happy, proud about. I got to serve under Rex I what a whoever, what you know I come to mind. You know I'm most proud at Redek, when I look, go up and down the street and I can Look at, and when I say Redek, it's not me, it's it's the team. I mean Redek is a team, yeah, I couldn't work without them, they couldn't work without me. But we go up and down the street and see the businesses that we financed. You know, see them like tallie and Meredith, like we're celebrating our 20th anniversary, I mean, oh my gosh, six or 20 years ago, right, and and they've expanded out to get their patio, right. You know, and I, if I go into Eagle House and I'm having dinner, the tavern, and and to Mets, when the owners are, you know when the other comes up and goes. You know we couldn't have done this without you. I mean that feels great, right, you know, warm feeling, you're making a real difference. That's good.
Speaker 1:In terms of the board service, well, gosh, there's been. So I can't remember all the boards that I've been on, but one of the things I do that Popped in my mind this morning is the Discovery Museum and they're doing the perilous pledge, which is really fun, coming right up, right, yeah, exactly, and I was the co-founder of that event. Yeah, I was president of the board of the Discovery Museum back then, Wow, jumped off that first year, right next door. They're a good neighbor, oh yeah. And Great organizations back, you know, back when we were down in the old town. So you know, those are the things I like. You know it's like, oh yeah, I was able to do, use whatever skills I have, this event that's still ongoing, right, right, in a great organization I'm gonna help move forward. Let's the organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I'm not a it's funny. I, like I said earlier, I didn't go to business school and I didn't do that. But you know, after 25 years of Lending and working for businesses and probably 50, 60 million dollars in financings I've done in Humboldt County. I don't even know how much, but you know, if I figure, if I got 10 under my belt right now, then you know, over 25 years it's gotta be more right. But you know, one of the things I bring to these boards is and one of the things I really stress for these nonprofits and organizations is, really mind your finances right. No margin equals no mission, nice, and and so I've been. You know I'm treasurer of two boards.
Speaker 1:Right now I'm on the investment around the finance committee for another see look at numbers your spreadsheet guy, kind of, yeah, you know I and not like an accounting piece, but it's like, okay, tell me the story, right, what's what's happening here, and and and balance sheets, more than profit and loss statements, just like tell me where you are, and and Trying to ask those questions. It's really important for board members to understand that and and so we feel joined boys, because they're really passionate about the topic, right, they're very mission oriented and the finance stuff kind of goes by the side. You know, I don't understand it. I don't want to act like I don't understand it, so I don't ask any question, I don't look at it. Right, guys, boring. Let's talk about the programs. We're doing a denial, right, right, well, and so, as I said, no Martian, no margin equals no mission, mission, right, because you don't have the money, you're not gonna, you're not gonna be able to do all the click. Retirement, no health, no money, right, oh, fun, is that exactly so? So I've helped a number of don't profit as well with that, both either on their board or we've Actually done some funding for for organizations that we hit hit a patch.
Speaker 1:I want a couple people that we're fun to work with along the way. Oh, my gosh. She mentioned a couple already, and there's so many. You know, um, patrick, of course, yeah, you know there's so many. I Hate to point people out because then I I'm gonna leave someone out that I didn't mean to. You know, um, oh, everyone was fun, right? Well, you know not everyone. I Can say that for sure. Not everyone's under work.
Speaker 1:You were on that list, right, right, but you know one of the things, and, and you know, I've lived here Essentially almost all my life and I've been in board, involved in so many organizations and and worked with so many businesses, and you know, my board is 19, or they have. There's actually 16 that have appointed, but 19 local tourists. So I've been, you know, anytime. I have 16 elected officials on my board of directors, wow. And so you know, I can't get away with anything in this town because everybody knows me and so. So, but I, you have to say, I'm a people person.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed to enjoy working with people and trying to get them towards a Place where you know, we're, we're focused on a pretty hard Target. You know, subjective, I'm pretty impatient with a lot of talk, except when it's coming from me, of course, but that's different. Yeah, I have this sort of ADD approach to meetings. It's like 15, 20 minutes in if it's not exciting or not moving forward. I'm bouncing out of my chair and walking around. You know who is it?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, but you know, the thing about doing finance is it's, it's meaningful, right, it's it's, you can't flub it. Well, it tells stories, yeah, yeah, and, and this things have to work, right, you know. And the money has to go out and it has to come back. Your business has to make money and it's a scorecard, right, right, and so you can't fake that or fluff it over. You know, with a lot of words, yeah, you got to pay your bills, right, and often is it too much money, the problem, that's right, not the problem, right, right, no, yeah, and so there's some business, you know some. I Just looking around the businesses that we financed over the years, you know, from, you know, orrick to Garberville and Willow Creek and everywhere in between, yeah, it's kind of cool, that's long-term legacy stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I mean I, we, we helped. You know, I think the financing is obviously important that the owners are doing 98% of the work. Right, I've got it started. I put a little, I took, put a little fuel in the tank, but they're, they're driving the tractor. I like that.
Speaker 1:I'm a good metaphor, yeah, so I always end with this who are you? What do you want and and what's it say on Greg's tombstone? Oh, okay, well, I'm Greg Foster, good to meet you. Yeah, well, that's right. Yeah, yeah, child of Southern Humboldt. And what do I want? You know, health and happiness. I got great kids. You know my son and his wife live in Ferndale and the house he grew up in. My second son lives down in Watsonville with his partner and they are great, great kids. Are you grandpa? Huh, no, and not yet. Not yet, I suspect. You know, at some point probably happen. Yeah, and the nice thing is, I age is that my oldest son married a physical therapist, so she's right up the street. So you know I got a little. You know that's great. You know my parents live. My parents live down the street. So, like my parents, my son still living. Yeah, oh, yeah, they're, they're 82 and 84. They live, but we're all together as family and it's that's great. So that's that's kind of all I really want. Have fun, and I want to stop raining this weekend so I can go out and work in the yard. I'll stop today. They're beautiful right and I guess my tombstone is he left it better than he found it and nice, really, all I want.
Speaker 1:I'm a, you know, I moved back here. I had this sort of career path laid out when I got out of college and it wasn't gonna involve coming back to Humboldt. But I came back to Humboldt and, and you know, without being I'm trying not to be parochial, but I'm certainly a hometowner and and you know, I think you know I we have kind of a rosy Everybody has a rosy. Look, when they grew up, right, because you had no responsibility as a kid, you know this place was great when we were kids. Projects were awesome yeah, the green. You know we're at this place just great when we were kids, and you know it's still great now and it's different. I think you know we're going through a lot of transition now. When I started this job, it was how do we stop the bleeding and and try to help people turn around, and now it's oh my gosh. You know we've got all these projects, all this stuff going on, but for me, I Really focused my attention, you know, and helping folks that maybe aren't Getting all that direct largesse and also, like the communities that are still suffering, southern Humboldt, my home area, you know, the oric willa creek let's boom and bust with cannabis, right, yeah, yeah, I want to talk about that for 10 seconds and that, that that is.
Speaker 1:It is busting, right, oh, it's not the numbers, they're busted, you know. And, and that ripples all the way through the county because there was a lot of cash that fell out of the system over the last few years and that was spent everywhere. Right, that was sure. And and cars on, on diesel on the way down the line, clothes on, you know everything. And so when you draw that much cash out of an area, you know everyone's sort of feeling it. And so, while we have this promise of something that might happen in 10 years without your wind, right now we're in limbo. We got, yeah, we got really got to focus on. I think you know who needs our help right now, yeah, and so you know I'm not the one that goes on all the junkets to the offshore. You know it's like let's go to Europe and look at offshore wind and learn about. It's like now I'm not interested, right, you know I'm gonna stay here. We're kind and I'm gonna be an irritant on behalf of the town of Warwick or the Sun Humboldt or that, because these are people need help now. And maybe it's just cuz I'm a dirt road kid and that's where my yeah, that's where my, my heart lies. That's good, yeah, hey.
Speaker 1:One last question yeah, political question. Oh gosh, I know you're gonna. I work for a board of elected officials, so watch me, watch me punt that question. Why did Scott do this to me? So I used to visit your office and your office is full of political member. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's all I wanted to say. It's just got some. You got some cool shit. I do, and I wish I'd you know I I don't have as many wall snacks.
Speaker 1:I moved into the building. Nixon and Reagan, yeah, oh yeah, I've got a ton of political presidential buttons going back to the 30s, always side major. Why not? Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then at home I've got, you know, tons of pamphlets and bumper stickers, everything up. That's funny. Yeah, pretty nerdy, it is very nerdy, yeah, yeah, no, I don't admit that all day, all day, I'm a nerd. Hey, appreciate it. I was fun You're being here, greg, yeah, yeah, thanks for the good talk and yeah, I hope to have you back, and 78% of what I said was true, so that's pretty good stat. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's coming from a numbers guy. Yeah, exactly, thanks again for coming. Oh, thank you, we'll see ya, take care.