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Monday, July 4, 2011 – Daily News 5A Death Notice Gerald Cherveny Gerald Cherveny died Friday, July 1, 2011, at his residence in Red Bluff. He was 77. Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers is handling arrangements. Published Monday, July 4, 2011, in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. SHELTER Continued from page 1A of society. “We don't serve every single homeless person,” Osborne said. “Those peo- ple who are at the campsites will never come into our shelter. They have no desire to be here. But for those who do want to be here, we want to provide them with the resources they need.” Those who do pass the intake process and are allowed into the shelter can stay up to six months. Dur- ing that time they work with case managers, participate in programs and are taught life skills that will help them transition to perma- nent housing. “We don’t know every- one’s heart, but we can take them at face value and if their story jibes, we’ll help them,” Osborne said. Workers from social ser- vices, mental health and other organizations volun- teer their time to see the guests in the evening. Beau- ty school and law students or others looking to gain experience and credits in their own field of work often provide their services as well. Guests must show improvement in order to stay, Osborne said. The suc- cess rate is relatively high, as many guests who come to the shelter are motivated to obtain permanent hous- ing. During the daytime, most guests are pointed toward other resources and spend their time taking advantage of the offerings. Guests do not hang out at parks, encampments or other 'hot spots' that are counterproductive to the progress they are making, he said. “A lot of our guests avoid hot spots during the day because they don't want to be tempted to drink or do the other stuff that happens at those hot spots,” Osborne said. “They know when the six months is up they're going to have to leave unless they give us a good reason for letting them stay.” Accountability is a big part of making sure guests stay on track. While guests do not pay money for the temporary housing or the other ser- vices provided by the shel- ter they do make up for it in other ways. A majority of the chores are done by the guests, with each person performing a daily chore as a condition of stay. The entire facility, including the two dorm areas, bathrooms and show- ers, common areas and patio are cleaned twice daily, once before bedtime and prior to check out. The shelter is not a flop house. There's a high level of accountability, said Patrick Clark, one of the shelter's services coordina- tor. “If anything, we give people a hand up, not a handout,” Clark said. “We wouldn’t be able to survive if we just provided free shelter to people.” Executive Director Brad Montgomery said despite some resistance from the community during the ini- tial planning stages more than 10 years ago, the shel- ter has proven its value and benefit to the community. In turn, the community has provided insurmount- able support through mone- tary, supplies and resources donations State and federal grants make up about 85 percent of the shelter's $500,000 budget. The rest comes from donations, Mont- gomery said. The shelter is operated by the non-profit Chico Community Shelter Partnership. Osborne said the only things the shelter has to buy are cleaning products and toilet paper, and that's only because it is cheaper for the shelter to buy the items in bulk. “If the whole communi- ty didn’t support us, we wouldn’t exist,” Osborne said. “Our community real- izes us being here has done far more good than bad.” NorCal tribe abruptly shuts down its newspaper HOOPA VALLEY INDIAN RESERVATION (AP) — A Northern California Indian tribe abruptly shut down its weekly newspaper, citing financial troubles at the nearly 20- year-old publication, as well as disappointment over recent editorial decisions. Hoopa Valley tribal council Chairman Leonard Masten Jr. sent a memo to the Two Rivers Tribune staff Friday order- ing them to stop operating immediately and remain closed until they develop a plan to correct the paper's "deficiencies." The Two Rivers Tribune is distributed throughout eastern Humboldt County and claims to be California's last Native- owned newspaper. Masten said the publication has cost the tribe $189,000 over the past three years, calling the sum "unacceptable," according to a copy of the memo provided to the Times- Standard of Eureka. He also criticized recent articles, includ- ing several that he said promoted drugs. "This is not in the best interest of the tribe," he said of the articles, which he did not identify individually. In an article posted Friday on the Two Rivers website, interim managing editor Allie Hostler disputed Masten's assertions, saying the newspaper was profitable last year and was on track to make money again this year. In addition, she said, stories that ran last month in a marijuana-themed issue of the paper didn't endorse the use of the drug. Hostler told the Times-Standard she was able to get the paper's Internet service reinstated after it was disconnected Friday afternoon. She said she planned to keep publishing and was rallying supporters to attend a tribal council meet- ing Tuesday to discuss the issue. Hostler and Masten did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Sunday. Byron Nelson Jr., vice chairman of the tribal council, said council members discussed the Two Rivers Tribune at their meeting Thursday, but he was unaware that Masten planned to shut down the newspaper the following day. Nelson, a former managing editor of the publication, acknowledged that some members of the community had voiced concerns about recent articles. "The frustration is that there are stories that are more cru- cial than trying to be an investigative tool trying to take on controversial issues," he told the Times-Standard. Nelson predicted the paper would remain closed only temporarily and that the tribal council would elect an editor- ial board to help determine future content. "It's not exactly like a paper on the outside," he said. "It's a tribal paper, and there are a lot of politics involved." Highway project in redwood grove stirs debate SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A scenic stretch of Highway 101 that wends through a majestic stand of ancient redwoods in Richardson Grove State Park is called the gateway to Humboldt County — but officials and local businesses say this narrow roadway is actually a barrier to the region's economic growth. To remove this barrier, the California Department of Transportation in January plans to remove dozens of trees and realign a section of the highway so it can be added to a national system of roads that cater to large, so-called Surface Transportation Assistance Act, or STAA, trucks which now cannot legally use the road. This one-mile stretch is the only part of Highway 101 from San Francisco to the Oregon bor- der where the large semi-trucks used to ferry goods around the nation aren't permitted, except by a special exemp- tion. But a vocal group of North Coast residents on Thursday asked a federal judge in San Francisco to stop Cal- trans in the latest shot fired in the bat- tle over the grove project. The group says the road work will damage the root systems of the area's towering, ancient redwoods — including the world's ninth tallest — and open up the area to more semi-truck traffic, pollution and development. The judge said his ruling would be delivered this week. However, they see the fight as not just about trees, but about preser- vation of one of the California coast's last undeveloped areas where a small town vibe persists. "Not everybody goes crazy for the trees, but it's more than that, (Caltrans and county officials) are not consider- GOP Continued from page 1A the two sides could not reach a compromise. Instead, the deal Brown reached with Democratic legislative leaders contained billions of dollars in cuts to social programs and public universities and colleges, programs Democrats hold dear. They are assuming bil- lions more in additional tax revenue than was forecast in January, but also built in immediate cuts if that money fails to materialize. Union leaders and Democrats hope that as the deep spending cuts take effect, Californians will feel the impact and public opin- ion will shift toward support- ing tax increases they hope to put on the ballot in Novem- ber 2012. Those could include higher taxes on the wealthy and taxes on compa- nies that pump oil in Califor- nia, but there are no specific proposals yet. Republicans could be saved by a rebounding econ- omy. The Democratic budget relies on $12 billion more in revenue. If that is realized, voters might be reluctant to raise taxes, as public opinion polls suggest they are. Yet any rollbacks to pub- lic employee pensions might now be left to Brown and his fellow Democrats in the state Legislature, leading to reforms that are far less sweeping than those sought by Republicans. "We were prepared to go to the table and negotiate in good faith on a pension- reform package. We believed that a legislative package could be put out that address- es the voters concerns' about spiking and things like that and closed loopholes ... a rea- sonable package," said Dave Low, president of a coalition of unions called Californians for Retirement Security. "The Republicans appeared to not want to sup- port any reasonable package. They missed out on their opportunity to have a voice in this process, and now they don't." Gary Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, also feels it was a missed opportunity. His group supported Brown's proposal to extend the tem- porary tax hikes in exchange for structural reforms. "The Republicans are calling it a victory because they believe that not extend- ing the taxes, the higher tax rates, was good for the aver- age Californian," said Toebben, a Republican. "Our feeling is that the cuts that had to be made in order to balance the budget will long- term negatively impact K-12 education and higher educa- ing the overall aspect of what's being contemplated here," said Barbara Kennedy, an activist who has helped organize opposition. Kennedy argues that investment in diesel trucking is an old way of thinking in an era when fuel prices are climbing. "It is time to begin the end of our dependence on diesel trucking and begin to divert our resources to other modes of goods movement that will be more economical and less damaging to the environment," she said. When Humboldt County economic development coordinator Jacqueline Debets talks to local businesses — artisan cheese-makers, microbrewers, machine parts manufacturers — con- cern No. 1 was shipping costs. The North Coast has no major shipping port, no major rail lines and a small airport. Truck transport is the only way to get large quantities of goods and services in and out of a very remote area, and the three main road- ways into the area had stretches too narrow for STAA trucks, which move much of the nation's goods. Currently a few STAA trucks have exemptions, but Caltrans said two travelling in opposite directions cannot make it safely through. "These are the same size trucks that run all over the country delivering goods, and they can't come here," said Debets said. "It puts us at a severe competitive disadvantage and it costs more to import products." As Caltrans moves forward with its plans, the protests have become more raucous and vocal — during one protest in February outside the Cal- trans office in Eureka, an officer had hot coffee thrown on him and another tion, and that's a long-term investment." He said the state needs excellent schools and univer- sities to be competitive. So can Republicans count the budget as a win, loss or draw? Thad Kousser, an assis- tant professor of political sci- ence at the University of Cal- ifornia, San Diego, said the GOP successfully leveraged its only remaining legislative power by letting temporary tax increases expire on July 1. "They were able to get nearly exactly the same kind of all-cuts budget they would've got if Meg Whit- man had won the governor's race," he said, referring to Brown's Republican oppo- nent in the 2010 gubernatori- al race. "In some ways, they got the best of both worlds. They got the policy they wanted, trimming govern- ment, without having to take the political heat for it." The GOP lawmakers' mistake may have been in not agreeing early in the year whether they wanted to negotiate with Brown, many was hit by a metal mug, police said. Twelve protesters were arrested. Dozens of protesters recently marched on the Caltrans offices in Sacramento, delivering a petition signed by 11,000 citizens opposed to the project. Much of the furor over the Richard- son Grove project has revolved around the construction's effects on the ancient redwoods. Caltrans says it will remove 54 trees, with only six red- woods. The agency had originally said it would need to cut down 87 trees, but revised that after public outcry. "We had a lot of public comment from people saying 'We love the grove, we love the trees,' and we real- ly worked to bring those numbers down in this final environmental doc- ument," said Julie East, a Caltrans public information officer in Eureka. Still, critics contend the trees tar- geted for removal are not the problem and that the construction itself will damage the fragile root systems of the ancient redwoods nearby. Caltrans said it is using an air-powered excava- tor to remove dirt from areas where the new roadway or shoulder will be, and will only cut roots two inches or less in size to minimize damage. Joe McBride, a University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley forestry professor who studied the site and Caltrans' plans, said in a court document filed in support of the project's opponents that Caltrans' arborists had not accurately stated the project's potential effects on the old-growth redwoods. McBride's analysis concluded that dozens more trees would die as a result of the work, and that the root systems of seven ancient redwoods would be negatively impacted. moderate Republicans out- side the Legislature believe. In the end, just a handful of Republicans in the Senate ever entered serious talks with the governor. Instead, Republican law- makers offered conflicting messages and failed to lay out exactly what they were seeking in exchange for the votes Brown needed to call a special election. Mitch Zak, a Republican political consultant who sup- ported GOP lawmakers meeting with the governor, said Republicans should have laid out specific policy proposals on pensions, state regulations and a spending cap soon after Brown released his initial budget proposal in January. Doing so would have forced Brown to publicly reject their plans or go against his powerful union allies, he said. "Had they had that atti- tude at the beginning, I think they might've had some luck in getting the governor on their side. But there's one big stumbling block that we can't forget: The unions kept say- ing we don't want to vote on pensions and spending lim- its," said Joel Fox, a Republi- can consultant and editor of the Fox & Hounds Daily blog. Fox was among Republi- cans who had urged GOP negotiations over the gover- nor's tax proposal. It may be difficult to tell how voters respond to the Republicans' approach this year. The GOP has seen its clout in California fall, along with registration that is now below 31 percent, compared with 44 percent for Democ- rats and 20 percent for inde- pendents. Next year's elec- tions will be held under new legislative districts being drawn by an independent commission and the first widespread use of Califor- nia's new top-two primary system. "They feel that they have raised their standing with the voters," Fox said. "The trou- ble is, the test is going to come a long time after this budget decision is put to bed."