100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#61. Chris Mikkelsen's Leadership Journey: From Humboldt's Mischievous Past to Harbor Transformation, Community Collaboration, and Renewable Futures
Chris Mikkelsen, the CEO of the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District, joins us to share his journey from a mischievous childhood in Humboldt County to leading regional transformation initiatives. Raised in a Roman Catholic Italian family, Chris recounts tales of firecrackers, Hot Wheels, and dreams of basketball glory, painting a vivid picture of his upbringing and early career. His passion for Volkswagens, sparked at Redwood Motors, eventually led him to the Harbor District, where he steps into the shoes of his mentor, Alan Boblot, and embraces a leadership style rooted in faith and kindness.
Our conversation delves into the unique charm and challenges of Humboldt County, exploring the exceptional social services and community involvement that define this vibrant region. Chris reflects on his personal growth since joining the district in 2019, and how his values have shaped his approach to leadership and community engagement. Discover how the Harbor District is evolving from a traditional timber and fisheries port into a hub for sustainable ventures, with projects like Nordic Aqua Farms and offshore wind development promising new jobs and educational opportunities.
We also journey through Humboldt's stunning landscapes, from the picturesque South Bay to potential developments in Eureka that include parks and cultural events. Chris discusses the importance of local collaboration, especially with tribal entities, ensuring community benefits are at the forefront of regional development. Whether you’re drawn to leadership insights, community development, or the future of renewable energy, Chris's inspirational story offers a rich tapestry of life lessons and visions for a sustainable future.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
Find us on You Tube, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok!
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, welcome to my new podcast, 100% Humble, with your host, Scott Hammond, my new best friend, Chris Mickelson. Hey, Chris, I'm your old best friend. What are you talking about? He's my oldest. One of my old friends not that old Get you for 15 minutes and I've never screwed up my intro like that. It's like I must be nervous.
Speaker 2:I have that effect on people, Scott, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're pretty calm right now, though, chris, tell us the Chris Mickelson story, first of all, your job and your duties, and then let's go back to you are 100% Humboldt right 100% Humboldt. Nice.
Speaker 2:Nice. So currently I'm working as the CEO or Executive Director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District. It's a ton of fun. Born and raised here. Gosh, 53 years old, turning 54 soon.
Speaker 1:Wow, old guy.
Speaker 2:One of my childhood homes was a block off the water in Humboldt Bay. That was my grandparents' home and later on my Zio Gino's home. You hear the Italian family when I say Zio Gino, but grew up in a really wonderful Roman Catholic Italian family here in the community, a family of great faith and very proud of our cultural heritage Nice. So I feel pretty blessed Now I'm working on the water all these years later. Most of my childhood was in Cutton, though that's where my parents' home was.
Speaker 2:And you know, a little kid played in the woods, burnt Hot Wheel cars up, Cool had firecrackers every now and then. My parents' home was and you know, a little kid played in the woods burnt Hot Wheel cars up, had firecrackers every now and then, I mean, you know your typical shenanigans.
Speaker 1:Ordinance Firecrackers. Well, we were reverent with them. Yeah, you got to be. Don't want to blow your hand off.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what schools.
Speaker 2:Did you go to Gosh Cutton Elementary? I took a little try at St Bernard's. The nuns and I may have had differences of opinions how so? Well, let's just say that that was one in particular.
Speaker 1:This wasn't a fit.
Speaker 2:No, three days later I was back in public school Winship Junior High, 1989, eureka High School graduate and just all humble and then Eureka High 85 to 89. Go Loggers Go.
Speaker 1:Loggers Yep.
Speaker 2:Was that a good football?
Speaker 1:era.
Speaker 2:You know when you're my size you don't get to play a lot of football. You know, funny part was I went out for basketball and Coach Bonamini really nice guy, he's looking at the guys and it's radio, so nobody can see me right or podcast, but I'm going to use my hands anyways. So it was, you know, the six foot four guy, the six foot three guy, the six foot two guy, the six foot one guy, the six foot guy. And then there was me three, three, nine, three, and I had a top locker and he was like yep, yep, yep, nope, and I was like what do you mean? And he's like you're too little. And I was like well, but I can steal the ball. He says no, you can't. And I said aren't you the baseball coach? And he's like I am. And I said, well, you know, my strike zone is only this big yeah so uh didn't work, didn't get on the team, but uh, nice try.
Speaker 2:I did date his daughter for a while.
Speaker 1:So separate story. Okay, did you end up going to Humboldt after that? Did you do any post?
Speaker 2:high school I went into the school of Volkswagen. That's right, you were a Volkswagen guy. I tried college for a while but I kind of liked the nuns. It really wasn't my thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, you were at a Volkswagen dealership. Yeah, what was it called? Redwood Motors? Redwood Motors Volkswagen dealership?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what was it called Redwood Motors? Redwood Motors and then Coastal Imports, that's right. My mama died when I was pretty young and my grandma bought me a Volkswagen and I washed and waxed that thing every stinking day. Right on they got to know me at the dealership and offered me a job. So I pedaled cars for a while and then I got to work in the auto service business and had a great mentor there, alan Boblot, local fella, who kind of took me under his wing and just helped me out. Shout out to Alan yeah, good friend to this day. And funny that years later I'd become the director of facilities at the Harbor District and that was Alan's job.
Speaker 1:Oh, is that right so?
Speaker 2:you know, 25, 30 years later that we pass again. Alan was retiring and I was able to step into his shoes.
Speaker 1:It's a small world of Humboldt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's true. Good mentor, he taught me a lot in the auto service industry, oh, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Did you sell cars to start? I did, wow yeah, and you owned a Volkswagen. Did you have a Beetle? I had a.
Speaker 2:Volkswagen Scirocco Sweet, but it was a pretty hot little car for its day. You know, those were cool cars. The best part of selling cars was, you know, I got a diddle, diddle, diddle, diddle bargain for you. Every hand that goes up, every call that comes in, and we just drop that price five bucks.
Speaker 1:And they just show up. And people had money and they bought cars then and when it's a bargain, they're always there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If zero down $250 a month, people will thing.
Speaker 1:You might know this my wife Joni has a 67 Volkswagen Beetle. The kids all restored it Nice.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that In Oregon.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful man, Nick, you should see this thing. It is collectible and gorgeous. And guess who doesn't get to drive it this?
Speaker 2:guy. If he had more hair, maybe He'd only look cool in a Volkswagen with the windows rolled down and your ponytail flaring.
Speaker 1:And the hippie stickers on the back. I got it so from those jobs.
Speaker 2:so you moved into Coastal Automart, which was Subaru right, I was at the Volkswagen, audi, porsche, suzuki, mitsubishi.
Speaker 1:That was Randy, right, he was the sales manager.
Speaker 2:The sales manager was a guy. He looked like a little Oompa Loompa. His name was Bill Seifert. Okay, that's said with love and affection, bill.
Speaker 1:Is he still?
Speaker 2:local. I don't know Hell of a great guy. No, I worked for Bill and he was fun and we just, you know we had a culture and a good time there. Actually, you hear a lot of stories about the used car business, the new car business Very polished, very, very professional. You know, that's where I got my selling shoes. Everybody gets a pair and had a lot of fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Then you went over to Firestone, right, you ran the store I did Tire store?
Speaker 2:Firestone had closed and they wanted to reopen the store it was reopened as Expert Tire.
Speaker 1:Oh God, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:I think I can still remember. Let's see, it was about geez 91, 92, something like that, and I put almost 10 years in there.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:It was Expert Tire. Look for the purple and yellow. You know that's us Giving you exactly what you need Low, low prices guaranteed. And you know, the jingle just went on and on Wow, something about friendly service from folks that you know. You know, so.
Speaker 1:Were they started in Southern Oregon or where were they based?
Speaker 2:Bridgestone Firestone is a national company there in Cleveland Ohio.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that is their part, yep.
Speaker 2:Lillian Meadow, Illinois. We were in an Oregon-based district.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Portland, oregon, sometimes Washington, sometimes San Francisco. It moved around, but, yeah, I went there and started selling hoops. That's what we call tires Hoops. And do you know who? The most likely person to sell you tires is Scott.
Speaker 1:Somebody related to you, your family, the first person who tells you you need them. Ah, good one yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 1:know where they hide the dead bodies, Chris.
Speaker 2:Well, that's another show for another day.
Speaker 1:There is an answer, Page two of Google. Do you want to know why I don't? No one ever goes there. Oh yeah, yeah, good one. So there's a couple jokes. Oh, now I get it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Good one. So there's a couple jokes.
Speaker 1:Oh, now I get it. Yeah yeah, thank you for registering my joke. Also, you know, no one's ever sang a jingle or any other form of singing on 60 plus podcasts, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, when you have my voice, you just don't sing very often, but you know.
Speaker 1:The joke is can you sing over the hill and far away please.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably a better place for me, or you know, or in the pews on Sunday, one or the other.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's important singing. So fast forward, then, to your. You worked for Kurt Kramer for a while. You were in development.
Speaker 2:Yeah, after the Carrington Company actually went down to excuse me after.
Speaker 2:Let me take a step back. He got me off my game here. So after Bridgestone, firestone, I went to work for Tom Whiteley and his family and learned the commercial tire business, retread business. That was a ton of fun. And then Francis Carrington calls up one day and says hey, I want you to build a set of retreads for my truck. And I'm like, why would a man of your stature want retreads? But he did. He wanted them for one of his ranch trucks. And one thing about Mr Carrington when he said he'll be in to pick up his car at 11, you have it ready at 10, because he had a different way of telling time than the rest of us. Sure, absolutely admired him. Wonderful customer, exceptional family.
Speaker 1:Great reputation.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, just a lot of fun. And he said I got a phone call, rather from Betty in his office and said, hey, francis would like you to deliver this truck. And I was like, oh, what did we do? We must have left one of the lug nuts loose on his wife's car, right. So I was pretty much thinking I'd lost my big account and pull up to the Carrington company. I could barely see over the steering wheel of his big Dodge truck and there he is in the parking lot waiting for me. So as I stood there on the corner of 7th and H and a puddle of pee, he puts a big smile on his face and says, hey, you ready to do all management and come to work for me no more sales and I said, francis, you know what I'm?
Speaker 2:a tire menace in my blood. No, thank you. But he offered me many times and ultimately I went to work there and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Um, from there, I met, uh, a number of wonderful people, and my friend Scott Pesh referred me to Kurt Kramer when I wanted to get off the airplane. Uh, kurt's uh. There's people that want to do the right thing but they can't quite come to doing it. Kurt does it every time without prompting. Wow, just a remarkable man. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him, work alongside him, his wife Kim and the family.
Speaker 1:She's a sweetheart.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and so I just reflect on those days, and I had two of the greatest mentors I could have had. Wow, you know, I feel like I won the ovarian lottery. I had wonderful parents and an idyllic childhood, but professionally I couldn't have asked for two better people there.
Speaker 1:So break, break, a hard, stop ovarian lottery.
Speaker 2:I've never that's a Warren Buffett thing, that's a pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to. I think I might might use that in the right context. I've won the ovarian lottery. You're born well, you know it must be my hair. Yeah, that's a good one. So fast forward. Then you got on with the Harbor District.
Speaker 2:I did so in 2019, a friend of mine called and said hey, there's this position for facilities maintenance in the Harbor District and I thought you know what I could kick in the clutch a little bit not be going 70 hours a week and maybe do that. It seems like a ton of fun. I get to work on the water, be around vessels and so I said, yep, all right, I'll come talk to you. So I went and talked to him, brought my resume along and a couple weeks later I was sitting there at the Harbor District polishing a shiny new fireboat, managing a crew of spectacular individuals who work out in the facilities and fast forward, I've been there going on my sixth year. Wow.
Speaker 2:Good, for you Did not intend to be the executive director, but here we are.
Speaker 1:Remember when you got that job? Yeah, six years. Yeah, I'll be. I'm just turned 10. So there you go. Time goes by when you're having fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah 10.
Speaker 1:Cool. So who is Chris Mickelson and who are you? What's your identity? How do you see your role in life?
Speaker 2:And boy. If I think about all the mistakes I've made over the years, I think that I'm just you know, I'm one of his children Absolutely perfect in being imperfect. I think that's probably my greatest trait. But I evolved to be better, to do better. I am grateful for faith. It's been a huge part of my life. Better I am grateful for faith. It's been a huge part of my life. I'm grateful for the times in my life where I wasn't above board that that was the one place I could be honest, you know.
Speaker 2:don't lie in your prayers. Heavenly Father knows you better than anyone.
Speaker 1:Don't lie to yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I just try to hold to that core value and really keep a different view of things. I try to be kind, try to hold to that core value and really keep a different view of things and try to be kind. And this is the maturity of recent years. That hasn't always been the Chris, you know. I think I was focused on being funny in the start of the show and I'm having a lot more fun kind of being in the background, showing a little humility and really understanding you know what life's all about.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Good yeah, so you know, forsake the sin, keep your chin up and try to set a good example for people. We all lie when we go to the grocery store every day.
Speaker 1:Hey, buddy, how's it going?
Speaker 2:Fantastic, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:You know it's not.
Speaker 2:It hasn't been the greatest day and I'm about to drop seventy five dollars on one basket of groceries, right, or one bag of one bag, yeah. And then you got to go home and prepare it all, oh, and do the dishes. But you know, bottom line, it lightens their day and it's a good thing. It's a good thing you hear, and in that dialogue over time becomes rapport, and that rapport over time you find out that there's others out there who are struggling just like we are.
Speaker 1:Or worse, or far worse, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's been a great part, and to be able to invite people into faith and to participate in it, it's been remarkable so sorry I didn't mean to make this about God.
Speaker 1:Good journey. Yeah, god's part of your answer. I got it. So what do you see are issues for as a county? What do you? We don't have any issues. What do you Sure we do? What are challenges? As you've grown and lived here at 100%, what do you see us facing off with as a community? And then we'll talk about the harbor a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, quickly. So when I worked years ago, most of the work I did was out of state, so I'd get on the airplane nearly every Monday morning because that you get to the gate, you get your seat assignment, you're pretty happy. You get your pastry or your coffee or your tea or your chocolate, you know whatever your pleasure is and there you sit, you spend the whole dang day sitting In the airport and you're touching dirty surfaces and you get that airplane ventilation film all over your body and you're cranky and people are pissed off and babies are crying.
Speaker 2:And you know the food's cold and terrible, if you can even get any. And son of a gun. Now you just got a two hour delay in San Francisco, yeah, but then it happens after an hour and 10 minutes of the screws falling out of the panels of vibration in the little Brazilia. That brings us all home to Humboldt County, or did, for those of us who've been here a while, that brings us all home to Humboldt County. Or did, for those of us who've been here a while, that plane sits there on the tarmac up in McKinleyville and they open the airplane door and that crisp, beautiful ocean air just fills the cabin. Good word picture. And it brings everybody to life and strangers start talking to one another. And then you're there chatting about your luggage.
Speaker 1:And somebody you love picks you up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a remarkable place that we live, and so do we have challenges. I don't know. I've worked enough places in the country and flown around enough. 27 states that it's pretty remarkable here, and I think if we have a challenge, it's taking for granted what we do have.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:We have exceptional leadership in our cities and our counties and our government. We have exceptional leadership in our cities and our counties and our government. We have social service programs that are like none other. We have a sheriff who cares about our community and his deputies. I work with them on the water. I can tell you they're absolutely fully committed. We've got our new chief of police here in Eureka, another man who's just. He's it.
Speaker 1:He's the real deal.
Speaker 2:Brian Stevens. Look what's going on in our schools. You know we've got kids. They're going to college. That's pretty exciting. We're opening trade programs, college of the Redwoods, I'm on the CR President's Advisory Council and it's all about the future. That's pretty incredible and our kids are fairly safe here. We got the best air, the best trees, the best water. So, yeah, let's focus on what we do have and not on what we don't have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. Not a lot of violent crime when you think of it. I mean we still have outlier statistics and some nebulous categories. But still, yeah, yeah to your point. I think you're right. If there is a fault, it's that we don't. We're not grateful.
Speaker 2:And look at the investment people make.
Speaker 1:You know you mentioned I had the opportunity to work for the Carrington Company and the Kramer family. You know, look what they're providing in these communities and families like them. That level of commitment is second to none and you're not going to find that many. Yeah, I'm pretty happy where we're at. I like all that. I think you've offered a really an alternate view of reality which is actually closer to probably what I would consider reality and that is. It ain't a bad place to live or grow kids and families.
Speaker 2:And there's pretty good pizza. Here too, there's good pizza. You ever want to grab a slice and a lunch?
Speaker 1:My son, actually works at Life from New York now.
Speaker 2:Oh, good yeah.
Speaker 1:Because he's doing his year. He's going to do a year there, but they all, like Big Mike, he has a good time. So let's talk about the harbor man. Tell us what is the mission of your job and what do you uh, what value do you bring? And and tell us the mission of how you see the harbor, its purpose, its, uh, long-term use uh, it's, it's arguably the biggest resource that we have, right, humble bay is the cleanest water in the state.
Speaker 2:We're the second largest natural bay. Um, we were a timber and fisheries port, as everybody knows, for an incredible period of time. That has almost ceased to exist. We do have Green Diamond, which is predecessor to Simpson Excuse me, a successor to Simpson but still part of the Reed family. They're shipping chips out of here on a recurring basis. When those chip ships are in, we put about 4 million cubic feet of a specific humidity size in chip. But that's a very big part of what we do. Did that restart after being gone? Yeah, green Diamond's had it for a number of years now, but that's a big part of the business that we have here. We have the opportunity to maybe ship logs in the future.
Speaker 2:There's this talk about a fish farm and I'm happy to tell you that that is super close. Nordic Aqua Farms is getting ready to begin the demolition of the former LP pulp mill and portions thereof and then build a recirculated aquaculture farm. That's brought education into our local community college and Cal Poly Humboldt an incredible amount of collaboration and we're working on the heavy lift marine terminal. So right now the Harbor District in all accounts is probably leading economic development in the county, wow. And that's not without sustaining support from the county of Humboldt and our cities, the colleges, unions, our merit workforce we're blessed in Humboldt County to have an incredible merit shop workforce. Tell us what that is. Those are those of us that come up through the trades and we learn our trades and we work in companies like O&M Industries or Kerning Construction. There's many others, I don't want to drop names.
Speaker 1:So kind of a journeyman sort of, exactly For the trades.
Speaker 2:And then we have our trades academies that are bringing those behind us up, and we have a huge investment from unions here in this community. I've had a lot of experience working with OE3, operating Engineers, local 3 in particular, and the California Building Trades Council. They want to make investment here. They want to grow an opportunity for our future and for our children, and I don't know if folks know this, but you can go through the ranks and learn a wonderful skill. You can also go through the opportunity to work with a union and get an incredible training that way, and so I got the best of both worlds here in that regard. So the harbor district's looking to really capitalize on that and let's do some development. We also have this great council from our tribal elders and our tribal governments who can mentor us in the proper way to manage Humboldt Bay and the land surrounding it.
Speaker 2:I think it's important to realize that we sit on the ancestral lands of the Weyant people ancestral waters and the guidance that we receive there and the opportunity to counsel is remarkably incredible. And there are a number of local tribes. We have the largest tribal population in the state. It's a big part of it. So, as we reflect on the harbor district and where we're going, those are some of our projects, some of the people we're working with, some of the guidance.
Speaker 2:But we also have an aquaculture industry. We grow seaweed, we grow manila clams, kumamoto oysters, pacific oysters. There are people that would like to grow scallops. So, yeah, we have the largest nurseries for juvenile product in the West and our juvenile shell product is welcome anywhere. That's how clean our waters are and that's not the case in other ways, and so we have to be cautious with our development because we need to protect those waters. Sure, we have groups like Baykeeper, now known as Waterkeeper Epic. Many years ago, agencies like that, people were a bit suspect at times, but they're wonderful development partners. They want responsible development and when we involve them early and often we have great outcomes as our agency. So I would say things are pretty good at the Harbor District. Shout out to our team out there and our commissioners Nice.
Speaker 1:Who are the commissioners Do you want to name? Is there enough to name?
Speaker 2:Well, there's five, so our commissioners have the identical footprint of our board of supervisors.
Speaker 1:Oh, really Okay. Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, come to a meeting. We meet on the second Thursday of each month and public comment is always welcome.
Speaker 1:I moderated a pre-election debate, if you will out, at Samoa Cook House in the Hammond Room, oh, located on Humboldt Bay. Oh, let's use the prop, nick over this way.
Speaker 2:That's a genuine Metzger's map. That's an incredible map, genuine Metzger's.
Speaker 1:See if I can Metzger over here.
Speaker 2:That's like a real topo with township and range and quarters. Arcata Bay Are you over?
Speaker 1:Arcata Bay.
Speaker 2:Well, we have a jurisdictional authority over all waters of Humboldt Bay, and so the North Bay is the intertidal portion of Humboldt Bay.
Speaker 1:So it's included. Uh-huh Gotcha. Yeah, that's quite a. That's a big chunk of that map for a water body right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's quite humbling to really reflect on what we're entrusted to manage and we. The amount of responsibility and accountability that goes into it's pretty incredible. Yeah, we run an osprey program oil spill prevention and response. That's probably one of the most common issues that happens on the day and, uh, you know, snap of the fingers, we're on it. We want to keep our clean and this is where people make their living. I look at the responsibility we have managing the waters. It was the same many years ago when I was working in housing. You know we really took exceptional care of the units we managed and we have to understand that that's people's temple, that's where they lay their head at night, understand that that's people's temple, that's where they lay their head at night. And so applying that level of commitment to folks is what we need to do for the 136,000 plus people who live in the county, because our responsibility at the Harbor District is to the people of Humboldt County.
Speaker 1:We have a county-wide footprint, so it's not really a political body as such. It's responsible to the entire populace.
Speaker 2:We are, yes, we are elected, or rather my board is elected by the people of Humboldt County.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about cruise ships and wind power in that order. Great, I mean, you have a lot of multiplicity.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of stuff going on, so Mindy in our office, who's our director of administrative services, works with Swan over at the City of Eureka, and Amanda on cruise ships. If I've forgotten one of you, my apology. I know there's a team there. We were a little down on cruise ships this year. Cruise ships haven't rebounded fully from the pandemic, but we did have a few the year prior and I think we've got plus or minus four on target for this coming year Wow, and most of what we get here are very unique ships. These are people that are looking to go to very specific destinations to see things. They'll want to go to the Redwood Forest and do a day excursion. Sure, they might want to go whitewater rafting. There's people that want to go to the.
Speaker 1:Redwood.
Speaker 2:Forest. And then there's the simpler events, where people might want to take a leisurely stroll around the Victorian assets that we have around our community and perhaps spend a little bit of time on, well, the trails around Sequoia Park.
Speaker 1:Or a cannabis farm Well. Is that part of?
Speaker 2:this. Yet I'm not really a big fan of the cannabis movement, so everyone will have to forgive me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we forgive it already.
Speaker 2:We'll just stop right there. Did you want to talk about windmills?
Speaker 1:Yes, I do, yeah. And then I want to do a comparative of other bays on the West Coast and other waterways.
Speaker 2:I don't want to trivia, you know I don't want to fail that one. But we're big, I mean we're sizable. We're the second largest natural bay in California.
Speaker 1:Besides San Francisco Bay. Wow, that's big. Yeah, san Diego Harbor is pretty big itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we work where we belong to, the California Association of Port Authorities. So we work with the other harbors. I'm getting more and more familiar all the time with the San Pedro Complex, which is the port of LA, the port of Long Beach, there's the port of San Diego, the port in Oxnard or Port Hueneme, and then we have Stockton, and then in the Bay Area we've got Redwood City, oakland, richmond, san Francisco, of course, the good old Port of Humboldt Bay. And did I forget anybody? I'm looking at all my friends there. I think I got them all, christ. The city doesn't really have a port. They do have a nice harbor.
Speaker 2:They have a nice harbor and they contribute greatly to the fisheries that we consume in West Coast Fisheries. There's some pretty big vessels out of there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fun fact for you, guess who got married at San Pedro Harbor.
Speaker 2:Scott Hammond, aka Jake and Joni.
Speaker 1:Hammond Congratulations, 43 and a half years ago.
Speaker 2:Wow, what a blessing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I had the hair you were talking about.
Speaker 2:What an incredible blessing.
Speaker 1:It was great we got married. It was Port Saccol Wedding Chapel. It's a little marina village and they had weddings on the hour and we just couldn't wait to be married. Yeah, we're super mature man 20 and 21. Come on, we had this dialed in and what we were up for. So, anyway, I love that port. Yeah, we'll go back and walk through there once more.
Speaker 2:Good folks down there. We've made a lot of great professional friends down there and have actually had a couple come up here and visit that really enjoy Humboldt, and I've got somebody from one of the ports coming up very soon Just bring his wife up here to look around and I'm very excited to have the opportunity to host him for an afternoon.
Speaker 1:The Fellowship of the Port yeah.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 1:So what else is West Coast, Oregon and Washington? Are they part of the association too? Or is that all?
Speaker 2:Well, there's West Coast Port, so COPPA is just California Association of Port Authorities, but we communicate with Brookings more from a Coast Guard standpoint. Coos Bay, coos Bay, north Bend, absolutely, in fact we share bar pilots. One of our bar pilots here travels to North Bend, coos Bay, fisheries, up around the Charleston area, florence area, tillamook, and then we get up through the PDX complex, up the Columbia River, up into PDX and of Puget Sound. Just yesterday about how West Coast Sports could collaborate in pretty good ways, especially with this continuing offshore wind development in the lease areas. You know, despite who's president?
Speaker 1:Hey, big segue to the offshore wind Way to go. Yeah, Tell us about that. I mean everybody's talking about it. Hey, big jobs, big doings. What's your perspective?
Speaker 2:Well, a pretty intelligent man I used to work for people would always say hey, what are you doing there? What are you making, what are you building, what's going inside? And he said you know, when we buy these, we never know what they're going to grow up to be. And I like that phrase. It's the commit less, do more phrase. So shout out to you, pal. I got to say the opportunity is grand, there's no doubt about it. Everyone knows that this has been coming for a while and it's with mixed reaction. So let's back up.
Speaker 1:It's a wind farm assembly. We're going to have a wind farm offshore, probably one way or the other right.
Speaker 2:Well, so let's lay that out. So the Harbor District has jurisdictional authority over the waters of Humboldt Bay, from where our jurisdiction ends, three miles out offshore is the California State Lands Commission, and then we get into federal waters and let's again recognize these are sovereign lands and sovereign waters.
Speaker 1:Are they all measurable?
Speaker 2:by Distance, that is correct.
Speaker 1:Correct, okay.
Speaker 2:And so out in the ocean. There's a lease area that's divided up into two, and we have Canopy Wind or RWE, and then we have Vineyard Wind, who have won those lease areas, and those come from Bureau of Offshore Energy Management or BOEM.
Speaker 1:These are two different companies.
Speaker 2:Correct Corporations, yep. What we're doing is we're developing a heavy lift marine terminal in the port of Humboldt Bay for the staging integration of these. So we'll have the little triangular floaters, the tower section, which is the big pole that goes up to the turbine, or the nacelle as it's called, and then the blades will be put on there. And so we'll start with one wharf, hopefully developed to two. Current plan is to develop between 40 and 180 acres. There's four property owners involved in it, including the Harbor District. We can lease those lands and sublease them and continue to work with those private owners, or they could sell to the district. Those are all options, but we want to make sure that what we enter to is favorable to our neighbors. We are building next to the emerging community of Samoa, so we're very sensitive to the folks that are buying homes there and living there and we're talking with them, as well as the developers.
Speaker 1:So south side of Samoa town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little south, a little east, yep, and, but that is an industrial area and one of the great things that development like the Spurs is, there is legacy contaminants that need to be cleaned up from these sites. These are what are known as brownfield sites by EPA standards. So the way to get these things cleaned up is development.
Speaker 2:And it's sure there's fuels Not saying that these are on any particular sites, simply the examples of things could be there. Some we know, some we have to do further studies. There's TP burners, fuels, chemicals that we use in the operation, glues and adhesives, paints, all of the above. So this is great for the health of the people of the peninsula. This is good for the health of people of Humboldt Bay. Then we talk about the jobs and the job creation and the education piece. We right now need to be in the sixth and seventh grade classrooms to be preparing our children to step into these jobs. That's the amount of time it's going to take to really get this out there and that's where we sit today and it's ever emerging.
Speaker 1:Wow, I like it. It's a big vision. So these blades would be, so the whole thing could be manufactured.
Speaker 2:It would be assembled here, so we won't have manufacturing here, maybe in the long term. And we certainly, when you permit a project, you permit for, if you will, the biggest, baddest project. So yes, we've included the opportunity for quite a volume of manufacturing. But in the beginning we feel the floater panels will come in here that's the triangle, again the floater and have a final assembly done in Humboldt Bay Integration of the tower sections, placement of the nacelle, placement of the blades.
Speaker 2:They would then be pulled away from the wharf, brought over to a quality control area to make sure that everything's correct and they function, and then they would either be towed out to sea or they might be in wet storage for a day or two or a week, depending on conditions, and that would be a repetitive process. And right now, with just the existing lease areas off the shore, we have many, many years of production availability here and we believe that, even though we have an administration that makes claims about when now, we can't argue the fact that we have to come up with alternative energy. A president can make that proclamation but doesn't make it true, and so we might see things slow down in the near term, but we don't believe so in the long term. And those lease areas that will expand will be up the coast, up into Oregon and beyond, and so we're very focused on that, and this is not appearing to be boom and bust. This is appearing to be something that really will work for.
Speaker 1:Humboldt County Because we've had boom or bust. Dotcom. Redwood Steele county because we've had boomer bust, uh, dot com, redwood steel cannabis, that other thing that boomed and busted. Yeah, yeah, this would be great.
Speaker 2:That'd be a long term. Yeah, I mean, I. I look at it this way. I have a son. I'm 53, I have a 10 year old, had children late in life, um, I'm blessed with a 10 year old, a 15 year old, a 20 year old and it's, it's absolutely amazing. Finley is 10 years old Just by my age. I'm going to miss half his life. That's hard, that's hard, yeah, it's incredibly hard, but what an opportunity we have to give him something that's good. I hope he has good health.
Speaker 2:People ask me all the time why do you want to do this so bad? Well, let me put it this way I grew up in the timber industry. My family owned a small lumber mill. In my household of five, I am the only one who's either not being treated for, who hasn't died from cancer. Do you think I want to clean this area up? You're darn right, I do so. When I look at young Finley, it's an absolute testimony. So I'm a believer in the project. I think it's the right thing to do. It gets our water even cleaner than it is now. There's a lot that could happen with ships coming in here, and we got to keep our biosecurity right and keep our waters clean and keep disease out of our water. So we've got to put all the best management practices in place. But I'm not afraid to say that I'm not a believer, because I can look in Finley's eyes tonight during bedtime prayers and I know it's the right thing to do so.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love your narrative. Tell me more about other things happening around the Bay. So you got Samoa being redeveloped. Fairhaven, absolutely, there's stuff shaking right.
Speaker 2:You really want to keep me talking, my goodness. So let's see here. Well, we got this beautiful town called Samoa. It's an old lumber town, you know. Samoa is just a handful of parcels and now it's homes and there's the chance to develop a lot of new homes there as well. Take a drive out there, take a look at it.
Speaker 2:They're doing some good things and I think, like every development, has its challenges and its setbacks, but they're keeping their heads down, moving forward and trying to make a good community. We were the recipient of a Clean California grant so we got $930,870, I believe it was for about a two-year program to do initiatives along the small peninsula. So we did recurring trash cleanups, we went into neighborhoods, helped people with disposal of things that may have been in the yards or nuisance abatement, did a lot of interpreted science, trail and signage, trail enhancement, community meetings, visioning. Just finished paving a new parking lot out at the Manila Park. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And getting ready to get that striped. Thank you to our friends at Hooven and Company who are the successful bidders. Pat and his team and his brothers did a wonderful job like they always do.
Speaker 2:Hoovens are great and Pat's the real deal. They all are, but I got a considerable love for Pat. I've worked with him on a few projects. We did that in partnership with Redwood Community Action Agency and what's known as the PCC or the Peninsula Community Collaborative, so that was a real satisfying experience. You cannot imagine the tons and tons and tons and tons of trash that we removed from our beaches. Along that there's a new Peninsula Community Services District to provide water and sewer eventually out in the peninsula. A lot of investment from the Arkley family at the Fairhaven Business Park and cleaning up that area. The grant allowed us to do some things with the fire department, the services district and then you know we have a beautiful park. You can launch boats down at the county park into Humboldt Bay and just south of that there's a little cove with a wonderful beach. Right that people you know play just like they're out at the ocean, but they're on the bay.
Speaker 1:It's really safe. It's a real gradual.
Speaker 2:It is. And then of course we have the OHV park and try to stay out of the Coast Guard, but they're great guys too. Obviously, with another water I get to engage with the U Coast Guard.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we just had a large give back to the Weyot people. So there's a property known as the Booby Ranch or the Dog Ranch Right the Harbor District acquired that immediately deeded it to Friends of the Dunes who held it in trust for a few years, decided if it could go to BLM or if it could go to the Weyot tribe. That was the original desired buyer for the tribe, or who desired to buy it, I should say so. We attended a ceremony last week in which we were able to partake of culture and see a ceremonial signing for the give back of the land. That's great.
Speaker 1:And then you have Malal Dunes way up at the north by Manila as well, right, yes Is that BLM.
Speaker 2:There is some BLM up there, but Friends of the dunes has their own uh agreements and programs and magic trail, uh, friends of the dunes is uh, um, they're an agency. I don't think it's enough recognition out of the peninsula for what they do in the lands that they manage and the manner in which they they do it. Wow, good folks. And so south bay we've got hooked and slew and the.
Speaker 1:You could wow, you're too. You're too far south already we're going way down. Have you been out to boone point? And so South Bay we've got Hooked and Slew.
Speaker 2:You're too far south already we're going way down have you been out to Boone Point, right behind the power plant, so out in King Salmon. I've taken the trail down there. Yeah Well, when you're driving into King Salmon you've been the first corner coming in, and now you're headed back south. There's a little hill you can climb and there's a lookout up there. It's called Boom Point, oh wow. And then that beach that's out there, that's available for recreation, as are all the trails. That's Harbor District, asset, incidentally.
Speaker 1:Is that on?
Speaker 2:the way to Gills by the Bay. It is yeah, on your right there to the west side yeah. And you see a lot of people pole fishing out there in the rocks. Be careful, on those rocks there's some cavities. If you get down inside of there we're going to have to rescue you, so be careful. But a nice recreation out there. Then we have the Jimmy Smith boat launch out in Fields Landing, which the county boat launch facility.
Speaker 1:Was he a supervisor? He was Jimmy Smith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's. That's a nice place. You know it takes a lot of management there. We've had a few people that have moved into camp, but these are great folks. They're trying to figure out what their next stop is and what they're going to do, so we treat them with dignity and respect and they help us take care of the boat launch.
Speaker 1:Very cool, Chris, is there an old boat out there too, like a World War II ship that used to.
Speaker 2:So there's a sunken vessel down there at one of the private docks and we're working to see if we can get that out of the tidelands. I think the World War II ship you're talking to about is called the 1091, and that's out by the Timber Heritage property.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And, incidentally, on the lands where the Humboldt Heavy Lift Marine Terminal will be developed, that's across the bay over by Samoa. That's correct, very dedicated group that are trying to restore that and get it to a site where it can become a museum. We'd like to help and support them and sustain them in that effort.
Speaker 1:Whether or not it's possible, we don't currently know but there are some operations underway to preserve it or preserve a portion.
Speaker 2:Let's take you further south.
Speaker 1:Are we ready to go to Hookedon yet?
Speaker 2:We've got a beautiful boat launch facility there. There's the jimmy smith boat launch. Of course the district has at the end of yard road, um, the only haul out facility in the region where we have 150 ton marine travel lift wow. And then you have some of the finest views anywhere, which is the views down into south bay, the wildlife area and down to hookton um on the south spit there. There's also some culturally sensitive areas there and there's a very important site for one of the tribes and, of course, the overlook at Table Bluff. So I think the South Bay is often forgotten. I'm glad you brought it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there's a lot down there where the old lighthouse ranch was on the Table Bluff area. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And if you want to throw a line in the water, you can catch a leopard shark. It's like a boa constrictor with teeth, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Everybody should have one of those yeah, yeah. No, you're right, it's an incredible resource. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the South Bay has a lot of incredible beauty down there. I love it. So let's head back north for a minute and talk about, right, like in Eureka, Talk to me about is there going to be another Sara Bareilles concert where you guys can help out with that.
Speaker 2:Do you see more shows? I'm just not the guy to ask on that. What's the property called? You're talking about the Halverson property.
Speaker 1:Halverson yeah, yeah, what do you see happening with that property?
Speaker 2:I think the city is currently working on a plan. So Jeff Ramey at the city I have the pleasure to work with him periodically and I know they've been meeting with people and there's some plans to redevelop there. There's the former Sam Sacco Amphitheater which was a performing arts area that, unfortunately, people have moved into and haven't treated it with the respect and courtesy that it should have been treated with. Sure, but I understand that his family is working with the city on some either maybe a slight change of use there or some developments there. I believe there's some planning for a park in that area, recreational type park, and I think right now you've got the waterfront trail run right past there. So what a wonderful place to recreate You're reading my mail.
Speaker 1:I was going to talk about trails.
Speaker 2:I don't know anything about Sarah Bareilles, but you know other than she's pretty good piano player and I've they told me she can sing you were in proximity for the show, right.
Speaker 1:You guys kind of staged a lot of it, right.
Speaker 2:Well, we got a call for help from the Yucca Police Department and it was an honor to be able to support them. I mean, this is all them. They did it. They just told us what to do. But yeah, we get to be a little bit of a part of that and zone off some of the water and do a little security detail. And I think the best part was when I was able to see all the people setting up chairs on the Embarcadero to look across the water, who couldn't get a free ticket, and letting them know that those trees that are right above you, well, there's birds in those and you might not want to sit too close underneath those trees, just be careful. We had our own nice little concert over there and it was wonderful. Her voice carried just fine.
Speaker 1:She's great. Yeah, we did 4th of July from a boat in your marina. It was great. My friend, phil Thibodeau, has got a beautiful ship and we hung out on his boat and it was gorgeous. So, hey, it's that time for the show where we quiz Chris. Hey, chris, welcome to 100% Humboldt. You too can have a Dick Taylor chocolate bar located on Humboldt Bay. Oddly. Second in C. Old Town, eureka no. First in C, first in E.
Speaker 2:Gosh. Well, you got yourself really confused there. I really first in C would be Jeff's?
Speaker 1:Is it? Maybe D it's? They're between.
Speaker 2:D and E, d and E, is it? Yep, are you sure? On that one, 100% Humboldt. Ring the bell. Then you finally got one.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll be asking the questions Ready Number one you.
Speaker 2:You could eat anywhere. Where do you go to eat In?
Speaker 1:Eureka In.
Speaker 2:Humboldt, oh my home.
Speaker 1:At home. You're going to eat at home.
Speaker 2:What are you going to have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that begs. What are you going to eat Tonight, knowing your dream, your dream dinner? You could have any. Oh man, price is not an object.
Speaker 2:That would be no doubt about it. Fresh catch out of our local ocean in Humboldt Bay Sablefish probably my favorite.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:It's a nice white fish, very flaky, local catch, and if we weren't doing that maybe it would be dungeness crab.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I like the lingcod myself, yeah.
Speaker 2:I do want to give a shout out to our friends out at Cafe Marina. It's one of the best areas to sit in the county. People enjoy a nice little lunch or cocktail there and obviously they're part of what we do out on Humboldt Bay and we have great seafood in town Seagrill Jack's and I know there's local fare appearing on these menus now and it's very exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, there's a lot. Question two where do you go for coffee?
Speaker 2:Well, seeing as that I come from, now the Mormon faith. You've let everybody know I drink coffee, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that Dick.
Speaker 2:Taylor has a nice treat there a chocolate or some coffee, but I like hotel coffee and chocolates. There used to be a place has Beans in downtown Eureka. Yeah, Father Lorne Allen from St Burns Church, which is my childhood church, used to write his sermons there and it was always fun to visit with him. And there's a rumor that maybe another coffee shop might be starting up there soon. It's at the foot of J or I Corner of 2nd and I, yeah, yeah, my childhood home.
Speaker 1:That was a great coffee joint yeah.
Speaker 2:Something might be happening there. Keep your eyes peeled. We'll keep our eyes peeled.
Speaker 1:So you get number three, you get the day off.
Speaker 2:What are you going to do with your day off? Garden in the backyard, man, really, this weather, yeah, kneeling down under those redwood trees digging in the dirt there's nothing like it. Yeah, I love to be outside, out in Humboldt County. If you're not there, get on your bicycle. There's plenty of trails to ride. Go walk the forest. I think most days off the best thing you can do is get up at 8 o'clock in the morning, find out where Packout Green Team is on a Saturday morning, spend your hour and a half with them, clean it up, get rapport building, know a lot of great people. Thank Aaron for what he's doing for our community, and there's incredible volunteers Too many to name. There's three in particular I'd love to name, but maybe on a future show, when you have me back or when I have my show and I have you back.
Speaker 1:I like your vision. Question number four, and we'll start to wrap up with this. By the way, you've done very well. Let me just hand you this on camera, thank you. Yeah, and you're right, their coffee is magic.
Speaker 2:It's my son says how did you know that I'm a dark chocolate guy? I?
Speaker 1:just lucky, nothing like it. Yeah, yeah, this is good.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll save it. You come by the office, we'll share a cup of coffee and a little snap of that chocolate bar.
Speaker 1:Oddly, it goes really well with killer red wine. Oh yeah, did I out you again. No, okay, I don't know what. Georgia's Latour is. I don't have any idea what that is. What do you want to say? What do you want to be said at your celebration of life? What's your tombstone saying? Your celebration of life? What's your tombstone saying? What are we?
Speaker 2:saying when Chris passes, what would you like? He was an unreal curse who gave back what he got.
Speaker 1:Nice no, that doesn't fit.
Speaker 2:Maybe a little, I don't know. As I said earlier, I'm shifting. I think I was focused on the wrong things for many, many years and I had a chance to reflect on it a few years back and I don't know that it's what I want on my tombstone. But you know, I've faced some things in my own life and some challenges, and I've watched members that I care for very deeply struggle in my own family and you know, sometimes the way that people affront themselves or they behave is not always great and I think that through faith, through repentance, through forsaking sins and through the great grace of the sacrifice that's been made for us, we can inherit a perfect body.
Speaker 2:I have someone in my life who I love very dearly, who suffers with behavioral illness, and I've watched them be segregated from nearly everyone and segregate themselves. And I'm always asked you know, why don't you just walk away? Why don't you do that? How do you get through this? And all I can say is that if I was in this person's shoes, I wouldn't want somebody to walk away from me and have a little bit of grace. But, more importantly, I have an absolute testimony that this person will inherit a perfect body and it will be restored in every way, and I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Amen, brother, I like it's for real. Any parting shots? By the way, do you know where the term parting shot came from? I just learned this. Nick, you're going to love it.
Speaker 2:You must have learned it from Brian Papstein, isn't he the trivia king he might be?
Speaker 1:Brian, do you know this parting shot? So the Parthenons would retreat on their horses and people would come after them in the 17th century and they would appear to be retreating and leaving. They would spin on their horses with their bows and they would give them a Parthian shot and it was devastating to somebody pursuing them. And they shortened that to parting shot. So not that you have arrows anywhere that I could see Any parting shots.
Speaker 2:How about you buy lunch next time? Okay, I'd be honored. That's not a parting shot, that's just lunch.
Speaker 2:I'm just grateful. I don't have a bone to pick with anyone. There's no parting shots at you. I'm just grateful, I, I, I don't have a bone to pick with every anyone you know and no, there's no parting shots at you. I'm grateful for the opportunity. Again. I just um, just just just just just show a little grace to others and and and and realize that none of us are perfect. And, um, when you're in the grocery line, you know, just tell them you are fantastic, even if you aren't, because I think if you do that, they just might make it fantastic for you.
Speaker 1:That's right. My dad said kindness doesn't cost you anything. Kindness costs nothing you know, and people appreciate it. So it's time for a little kindness, some grace.
Speaker 2:I learned when. I was 47. That's a lot of life lessons there, buddy.
Speaker 1:That is a lot. Yeah, good work. Well, thanks, chris for being here. Thanks for running the Harbor for us.
Speaker 2:I thought this was a five-minute interview, you know so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you went a little long. There's somebody dead. Thanks again and, by the way, thanks everybody for watching and listening and 100% Humboldt. Subscribe on your podcast on YouTube. Watch us on Access Humboldt. You can see my friend Chris and I and we're thankful for people that help us out here and come back, and we'll have a new guest next week. Thank you, scott. 100% Humboldt.
