Blog note: This article, reporting on a Eureka City Council meeting, references the police chief's Community Advisory Panel, which reviews police-related topics such as grand jury reports.
The Eureka City Council authorized community services to apply for a sizable state grant to fund housing, heard from the Police Chief’s Community Advisory Panel, received a lengthy update about the city’s marketing efforts of late.
The council also listened to a trio of
community members fed up with a seemingly never-ending Fourth of July.
HGTV says thanks but no thanks
According to a presentation given by Jennifer
Eddy of Eddy Alexander, the marketing firm in charge of Eureka’s re-branding
and tasked with increasing tourism in the city, an application by the city to
be featured on HGTV’s show “Home Town Takeover” was denied.
Eddy, during a lengthy presentation, also
briefed the council on everything from how their website is doing in terms of
attracting folks to the region, to how many social media shares stories on
Eureka’s transfer of land back to the Wiyot people garnered (over 100,000).
One item of note was Eureka’s hot hotels.
According to Eddy, hotels in Eureka were at 80% occupancy during Fourth of July
weekend, which is “well above the norm” as COVID-19 regulations still advise
tourists to stop touring.
Eddy did make sure to stress than her agency
is not currently trying to market the city to tourists, but said continuing to
promote Eureka on social media and the internet as a whole is an “important
strategy” in terms of garnering attention long after the COVID-19 days are
behind us.
Project
Homekey
The council voted unanimously to allow
Community Services Supervisor Jeff Davis and his team to go ahead with
developing a grant application aimed at nabbing a chunk of a $17 million pool
of money for housing underserved populations facing housing crisis because of COVID-19.
Davis, reached Wednesday by the
Times-Standard, said the department “has a great opportunity” to secure funding
for the purchase of a motel or hotel within the city for the purpose of turning
it into a shelter for people already facing inadequate housing compounded by
increased risk from COVID-19.
The California Department of Housing and
Community Development has earmarked $17 million of a $600 million statewide sum
of money for the region Eureka sits in, all for the purpose of creating shelter
as housing insecurity continues to rise amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Advisory
panel
The Police Chief’s Community Advisory Panel,
a committee that helps to review policing in the city, may soon be an official
advisory panel in Eureka.
Police Chief Steve Watson led a presentation
by the committee, one of 33 in the state — somewhat a rarity for a state with
more than 500 law enforcement agencies, according to data shared by Watson.
Formed
in 2015 by then Police Chief Andy Mills, the panel reviews policing-related
topics such as grand jury reports,
use of force, and internal reviews of the department.
Currently a think tank more than anything,
the panel may soon become an official advisory board. Council directed the city
staff to create an ordinance to make the panel an advisory board with regular
meetings and subject to Brown Act regulations and other official governmental
rules.
Long-time member of the panel Daniel Price
said during the presentation, “Would anyone argue policing has gotten easier in
the last five years? We’re asking a lot of our police in this day and age.
(Chief Steve Watson) has done a tremendous job…He cares about this
community…He’s a very conscientious person.”
Enough with
the booms
During general public comment, three concerned
city residents asked the city to look into creating an ordinance banning or at
least severely limiting the use of fireworks in the city by residents.
Jean Scheffler said there has been a notable
increase of fireworks use of late, saying the explosions have, “terrified our
animals…ruined our sleep, scared our elderly and veterans and wasted police
officers’ time.”
Scheffler, along with two other residents,
said they want to see the city implement an ordinance to at the very least
limit, if not ban, the use of fireworks in residential areas.
Council did not discuss the matter because it
was not an agendized item.
Eureka Times-Standard
August 5, 2020
By Andrew Butler
No comments:
Post a Comment