dered mandatory evacuations, perhaps moved some of the fin-ished lumber to higher ground, likewise move cattle herds to safety? As it was, while it was true that it had been raining heavily for a couple of weeks, it was generally believed that safeguards had been put in place after the flood of 1955 to prevent a similar catas-trophe. There was a new levee in Fortuna, for instance, and the town of Weott had rebuilt itself on higher ground.

But these preventive measures turned out to be unequal to the force of an overbur-dened river as powerful as the Eel. At the water’s roaring, ear-splitting peak, the Fortuna levee was massively breached; the newly-elevated We-ott was again

completely inundated. Twenty-nine people lost their lives, includ-ing five people in Pepperwood who refused all attempts to evac-uate them.

* As seems to be true during all manner of hard times in Hum-boldt County, no one panicked, despite sudden and severe depri-

JUNE 27, 2014 WWW.TOWNOFSCOTIA.COM VOLUME I, ISSUE XIX

Earlier this year, Redwood Coast Music Festivals awarded six grants totaling $3,000 to lo-cal senior programs. Supporting senior programs was the found-ing mission of the Jazz Festival and still is a major part of RCMF's mission statement. Grants were given to the following groups: HSU OLLI Program to purchase audio equipment, Humboldt Senior Resource Center to purchase instruments for their new Health Through Music program, Adult Day Health Care of Mad River for a new TV and enrich-ment activities, Tri-County In-dependent Living for the 8th Annual Disability and Senior Re-source Expo, Animeals to pur-chase pet food for low income/

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TH E GR E AT FL O O D O F 1964 the people living along the river—in towns like Pepperwood, Shive-ly, Stafford, Holmes, Weott—simply didn’t believe it. There had just nine years before been a 100 year flood. Surely this couldn’t be as bad as that.

* Reading about the flood of 1964 fifty years later, it’s tempting to play historical revisionist. What if there had been readily-accessible weather satellite imagery available then? Would the great flood have been so big a surprise? Just as, in

2005, the world could watch online in real time as Hurricane Katrina made its way inexorably toward New Orleans, what if Humboldt County could have tracked the extraordinary volume of tropical moisture headed its way? And what if they’d had the computer power to model peak flow during the inevitable thaw? Could the authorities have or-

Story by Lisa Baney Images © The Old Photo Guy, except as otherwise noted. Used by permission. When Kent Johnson, Jr., and his mother and brothers left Fortuna to go Christmas shopping in Eure-ka on December 22, 1964, they could see water in the gravel plant on Palmer Boulevard. When they got back, the water had risen to just under the plant’s loading chute. As they carried packages from the car and through the front door of their house the phone was ringing. It was Kent Johnson, Sr., calling from the Tidewater bulk fuel plant in Weott, where he’d been mak-ing a deliv-ery. The river was rising more than a foot an hour, he said, and he needed his sons to come help him evacuate the plant—as well as any of the residents who wanted to get out. His sons made it to Weott in rec-ord time, loaded up the truck, and had just passed Pepperwood on their way north when the ris-ing river closed Highway 101. The most catastrophic water event in Humboldt County living memory had begun. But some of

INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE PROJECTS

PROGRESSING Hello Friends: This is another in a series of status updates for those who live and work in Sco-tia. As most of you know, essen-tially all of the utilities in Scotia are being realigned, relocated, replaced and upgraded with new, code-compliant modern facilities and materials. Unlike the old Palco-installed utilities, new equipment will provide appropri-ate access, require minimal maintenance, and offer cost effec-tive operation for the Scotia Community Services District (CSD), residents, ratepayers and utility companies well into the future. For news and information about the CSD, see the article on page 5 of this edition of the Scotia Inde-pendent by CSD Interim General Manager Mark Richardson. Read on to learn more about the Infra-structure Improvement Projects now underway.

ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

For many years the old, odd-voltage Palco electrical distribu-tion system shunted power from the cogeneration power plant through several switching and transformer mechanisms for dis-tribution to industrial / commer-cial and residential power users throughout Scotia. That distribu-

Continued to “Flood,” page 2 Continued to “Frank,” page 3

REDWOOD COAST MUSIC FESTIVALS AWARDS SENIOR GRANTS

Back row: Kim Laney, OLLI Program; Janet Ruprecht, Senior Resource Cen-ter; April Joyce, Adult Day Health Care of Mad River; Mary Bullwinkle, Tri-County Independent Living; and John Stuart, RCMF Grant Committee & Board Member. Front row: Carole Beaton, Animeals; Maureen McGarry, Area 1 Agency on Aging and Lynn McKenna; RCMF Grant Committee Chair and Board President.

Frank

Talk

with Frank!

The Rio Dell Bridge succumbs to the raging waters of the 1964 flood.

homebound seniors and the Area 1 Agency on Aging to help fund the Volunteer Driver Program which transports seniors to and from medical appointments. To date, RCMF has given $299,775 to a variety of senior programs from Crescent City to Southern Humboldt. Redwood Coast Music Festi-vals is a 501 (c) 3 non profit and has a dedicated account for ac-cepting donations to support senior programs in our commu-nities. If you'd like to help sup-port senior programs, send a check made out to RCMF, put "Senior Programs" on the memo line and mail it to P.O. Box 314, Eureka, California 95502. To-gether, We Are Making Music And A Better Community!

The Scotia independent

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vation. Telephone service was out county-wide. In Scotia, the power plant went offline, cutting off elec-tricity to the town. All the bridges to the outside world, as well as be-tween interdependent Scotia and Rio Dell, were destroyed. The Pa-cific Lumber log pond overtopped and enormous logs came crashing through the truck door of Bertain’s Laundry (now the carpenter shop), damaging the building and much of the laundry’s equipment. The gro-cery store quickly ran out of food. “That was the thing that bothered me the most,” says Lucille Stephens, who owned the beauty parlor in town at the time. “We ran out of vegetables and bread. But the rule was, ‘Take what you need, don’t forget your neighbor,’ and no one went hungry.” It wasn’t long, though, before supplies began to arrive by helicopter, using Main Street as a helipad. “What a great feeling that was,” Lucille says, “seeing fresh, green vegetables again.”

* After it peaked, the river swiftly receded. What it left behind was horrendous devastation, document-ed in the scores of pictures that exist from that time. What the pic-tures can’t show, however, is the pervasive stench of the combination of spilled diesel, industrial chemicals and sewage, and the decomposition of the thousands of head of cattle. Most of this toxic waste washed down the river and into the ocean; but in the houses and buildings left standing it mixed with the peculiar stink of river silt-infused insulation, and was impossible to get rid of. However, there was no time to sit around being stunned. In a region of hardworking people skilled with heavy machinery and armed with the know-how for building big things, like roads and bridges and mills and entire communities, the work of restoring civilization began immediately. This was how they spent Christmas Day, and months afterward: There were people to find and feed and house, medical needs to attend to, telephone and electric lines to locate and repair, everywhere broken pieces of things to clear away, houses to muck out, and so much more. When asked if he was depressed about all the de-struction, the younger Kent Johnson scoffs and says, “We were just too damned busy.”

* It wasn’t all doom and destruction after the flood. Good-news anec-dotes about the aftermath abound. There’s the story of the Ferndale cow found wandering unhurt on the beach in Crescent City. An earth mover from the Eel River Sawmills was found in perfect working order miles to the south. Local competi-tors of Bertain’s Laundry took over Bertain’s customers until the busi-ness could get back on its feet, and then cheerfully handed the custom-ers back. And, although there were

Continued from “Flood,” page 1

flood and its aftermath. Thanks also to Susan Pryor, Heather Mul-ler, Frank Bacik, Tambria Quayle.

After the river water finally receded, everything was covered in mud.

some isolated incidents of looting in Hydesville while residents were holed up together in shelters, gov-ernment law enforcement officers quickly put an end to that. It was widely known that Pacific Lumber Company lost millions of dollars’ worth of logs and finished lumber in the flood. But what isn’t as widely known is that PL went around to ranchers and farmers whose land the logs and lumber ended up on and bought them back. For ranchers and farmers still deep-ly in debt from the 1955 flood, bleakly regarding ruined farms and decimated herds, this money made the difference between giving up in despair, and starting over again.

* But, of course, not everyone stayed. The 1964 flood wiped out pretty much everything along the river; people who had scraped to-gether all they could after 1955, borrowing from friends and family, in debt to the bank—many of them were financially ruined and had to give up and leave. Others weren’t able to handle the emotional toll of facing another once-in-a-lifetime blow. They, too, left. Indeed, for someone outside looking in it might seem foolish to live on the floodplain of such a powerful river, to stay and rebuild after being wiped out twice in less than a decade, with a good chance of it happening again. It’s no differ-ent than people living in a tornado or hurricane zone, or along other powerful American rivers, like the Missouri or the Mississippi. Devas-tating storms and floods happen with grim regularity in these places, and yet the residents of these towns and villages get up the next day and start the process of clean-ing up and rebuilding. Why? How? “It’s the love of the land,” says Tom Bertain, son of the original Bertain Laundry family. “It’s the hard work you put into a place, and after that your roots are there. This is your land, your gardens, where your children play and grow up. It’s yours and you can’t bear to let it go.”

Just one of dozens of boats taking people where they needed to go.

A house came to rest on the broken asphalt of Highway 101 north of Rio Dell.

Crews are hard at work fixing the broken Scotia Bridge.

Grateful acknowledgment to Tom Bertain, Bill Hunsaker, Kent Johnson, Jr., and Lucille Stephens for taking the time to describe what it was like living through the More photos page 6.

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dence in Scotia now also has a new service panel, meter box and weather-head, waiting for PG&E connections. Literally hundreds of easements and rights-of-way for the PG&E power lines, poles and trans-formers have been surveyed and identified on maps and deeds, and the communication utilities (Suddenlink and AT&T) are also preparing to relocate their facili-ties on the new poles when im-plemented. We anticipate that PG&E will fully mobilize its pro-duction forces and subcontrac-tors this summer.

GAS SERVICE UNCHANGED

No significant change is antici-pated for natural gas service. Essentially every residence and business in Scotia already has independent access to gas ser-vice, and meter and gas line lo-cations are not expected to change.

‘DRY’ vs. ‘WET’ INFRASTRUCTURE

Collectively, the electrical en-ergy distribution, cable, TV, phone, internet and gas services are often referred to as “dry” utilities. Just as important and perhaps even more extensive throughout Scotia -- though of-ten less seen -- are the “wet” utilities. These include lines, pipes, hydrants, inlets and other facilities for drinking water dis-tribution, wastewater collection and storm drainage services. These facilities are mostly hid-den below-ground, so under most circumstances we give lit-tle thought to them, their quality or condition. However, as part of the Conditions of Approval for the Scotia Subdivision, the county required that our water,

tion system is obsolete in many ways. With the sale and convey-ance of the power plant to an independent power production operator (Eel River Power or ERP), the plant is being upgrad-ed and operated in a more standard, commercial manner. The power plant recycles wood waste fuel purchased on the open market and produces elec-tricity which is sold directly to the California power grid, rather than distributed to myriad var-ied end users.

PG&E SERVICE TO ALL CONSUMERS

By design, in the near future, each of the commercial, indus-trial and residential power con-sumers in Scotia will obtain their electrical energy directly from an authorized Public Utility – in this instance, Pacific Gas & Elec-tric (PG&E). In order to connect those Scotia power consumers to the state power grid, essen-tially every pole, wire, trans-former, anchor and electrical meter in the town of Scotia must be replaced. The plans for this distribution system upgrade have long been available to the public for review, and a copy is still lodged on the TOS website (www.townofscotia.com) under the “Infrastructure Planning and Construction” tab.

WORK UNDERWAY This work has already begun and is expected to continue for approximately one year in ac-cord with the plans. Throughout Scotia, new commercial connec-tions, service boxes, concrete pads and pedestals have been put in place by an electrical con-tractor. Essentially every resi-

sewer and storm drain lines throughout the town be re-placed, realigned in the public rights-of-way (streets), and re-constructed with brand-new, current code-compliant equip-ment and materials. This project, too, is also advancing, and ex-tensive construction work will be underway in a matter of weeks. The engineered plans for “wet” utility upgrades have also been a matter of public record for quite some time, and a de-tailed version of the plans was published on the Town of Scotia webpage under the infrastruc-ture planning and construction tab. Final adjustments to these plans are being made on a regu-lar basis in consultation with Town of Scotia Company (TOS), its engineers and consult-ants, the Dept. of Public Works and the Scotia Community Ser-vices District. The final stamped, signed, and approved set of plans should be ready any day.

CONSTRUCTION PLANNING AND

IMPLEMENTATION In the meantime, much prelim-inary work is being done. In re-cent weeks, the TOS distributed requests for proposals and con-tract specifications to solicit bids from qualified contractors to construct the infrastructure up-grades. Several qualified contrac-tors participated in the bidding process, and contractor repre-sentatives and TOS’ consulting

engineers and TOS officials par-ticipated in “jobs walks” examin-ing all aspects of the project. Ul-timately a local prime contrac-tor, Wahlund Construction, was awarded the first preferred bid-der status. TOS now has entered into a letter of intent with this local prime contractor while we work out some of the last mi-nute scheduling and design is-sues. TOS has received the con-tractor’s bonds and insurance, and we have identified local sub-contractors who will also be as-sociated with the project, includ-ing Wendt Construction of For-tuna, Bess Paving of Carlotta and DCI Builders of Ferndale. It is important to us that TOS will have the opportunity to work with these local contractors and subcontractors. These are all parties with whom we have worked constructively for many years. Keeping the benefits of economic development within our communities is also an im-portant goal. We had a preconstruction meeting just days ago to identify work supervision, reporting, in-spection, approval and invoice protocols, and we hope to start the process of construction ma-terials and equipment staging and scheduling almost immediately. We are very excited to see this work under way. Our surveyor has already begun construction staking, and the contractor has commenced exploratory excava-tion or “potholing.” Construc-

Continued from “Frank,” page 1

Continued to “Frank,” page 4

Just published Report About Your Drinking Water in Scotia!

The Annual Consumer Confidence Report is now available

at our office at 113 Main Street, Suite A Scotia, California

and on the Web at

Town of Scotia - www.townofscotia.com

Scotia Community Service District - www.scotiacsd.com

The 1996 Federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments require all community water systems to report annually to their customers regarding the quality of their drinking water and any risks associated with contaminants detected in the water. Water systems must re-port data for the previous calendar year by July 1 of each year.

Our annual report is now available, and we are pleased to note

that we had NO violations or water quality issues as monitored in

routine tests conducted weekly and monthly for 2013. Watch your

mailbox for your copy of the report, to be mailed soon!

Fireworks Safety: As everyone knows, we are in the midst of a drought, and vegetation fuel load is very high in our area. Fireworks Safety is more critical than ever this year. Scotia Fire Chief Broadstock asks that you remember to be Fire Safe when celebrating Independence Day. Remember, NEVER employ ANY fireworks anywhere near residential or vegetated areas. Aerial fireworks (Bottle Rockets, Roman Candles, etc.) are absolutely prohibited, unsafe and unwise in and around Scotia. Fire Risk under current fuel loads and weather conditions projected for the 4th of July is VERY HIGH this year. We have been experiencing unseasonable winds which quickly dry vegetation and spread fire faster than it can be contained. This year we will have Scotia Volunteer Fire Department and law enforcement officers patrolling our area and enforcing fire safety law and regulation, so be safe, and have a wonderful Independence Day!

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tion activities will ramp up in earnest through the month of July. The work will be plainly visi-ble on the ground throughout Phase 1 area of the subdivision development project.

PHASE 1 WORK AREA MAP

A map of the Phase 1 area is included below. Very generally, the Phase 1 area includes much of the commercial center along Main Street, and the residential area from Main Street up Mill Street and Church Street to the Scotia School. In this area, the water, sewer and storm drain lines will be replaced, realigned and rerouted, sidewalks and crosswalks will be repaired or replaced, and streets will be re-paved. Because it is important to complete some of this work while the Scotia School is not in session, our contractor will likely commence work along First Street from approximately B Street to Church Street and then up Mill Street adjacent to St. Pat-rick’s Church. Water, sewer and storm drain lines will also be re-placed in the Commercial Cen-ter serving the Renner gas sta-tion, Hobys Market, the TOS offices and US Bank, as well as the Palco Pharmacy and Scotia True Value Hardware store.

TRAFFIC AND ACCESS DURING CONSTRUCTION Because much of the wet infra-structure work is to be trenched in place below ground and in the public streets and rights-of-way, there will naturally be some in-convenience for residents. Park-

ing limitations, traffic control, detours and road closures will be common throughout the con-struction. The Dept. of Public Works will review and approve traffic control plans and stipulate requirements and conditions, but we have designed plans that should minimize disruption to the extent practicable. For example, fortunately, most residences in Phase 1 have ac-cess to their homes both from the public street or right-of-way in the front, and from alleys to the rear. When roads are closed due to trenching for water, sew-er or drain lines in the street, it may be necessary to park in, and access your homes through, the rear alleys. For this reason, Town of Scotia management must require that all tenants re-move any trailers, RVs, boats or other non-essential vehicles and equipment from the alleys to fa-cilitate adequate parking. It’s worth nothing that the terms of every residential lease already require that boats, trailers, and other similar vehicles be parked elsewhere, not in the public streets or in alleys.

CONTACT AND COMMUNICATION

Contact and direction regard-ing street closures and parking will be undertaken in a number of ways. Residents should expect to see signs posted regularly with such information, and we will commonly make “knock and talk” contact with residents to make sure they understand our plans and processes. In addition to street signs and direct com-

munication, the contractors will often put door-hanger messages on every affected residence to alert tenants when road closures, parking prohibitions or access limitations are in place. General messages and specific direction will be posted on the local Scotia bulletin boards, at the post office and CSD offices, and more infor-mation will always be available through the TOS offices and on the TOS and CSD websites. WORK TO BEGIN JUNE 30

The first road closures are ex-pected to take place along First Street from approximately B Street up to Church Street and Mill Street near the school. In those areas, work could begin as soon as June 30. Work is com-mencing there in order to have the best chance to complete oper-ations prior to fall and the return of school students. All these upgrades and im-provements are required by the County. Scotia has some of the oldest infrastructure in the state, much of it installed by Palco in a fashion (and employing materials) which is now simply obsolete. As a consequence, the utilities often require continued maintenance and repair, locations are uncer-tain, and access is difficult. The improvements may cause some disruption and inconvenience but we expect few, if any, unplanned interruptions in service, and we will do our best to keep you in-formed and updated as the work progresses. Phase 1 of the work is relatively small in scope. Phase 2 is already being planned.

Want to learn more about the Great Flood of ‘64? Many of the photos in this edition of the Scotia Inde-pendent were borrowed with permission from Images of America: The 1964 Flood of Humboldt and Del Norte. Cre-ated by local authors Greg Rumney and Dave Stockton, Jr., the book contains hun-dreds of photos of the Great Christmas Flood of the Eel and Klamath Rivers. Accord-ing to the Eureka Times-Standard, Rumney was the recipient of the Rudy Gillard Collection, which comprises the bulk of the photographs in this book. Stockton grew up in the area and witnessed the flood. Rumney, the news-paper reports, is shooting a documentary film about the flood which is set to be re-leased at the end of the year to commemorate the flood’s 50th anniversary. The book is available at Amazon.com and wherever good books are sold.

Continued from “Frank,” page 3

Phase 1 of the work area includes much of the commercial center along Main Street and up Mill and Church Streets to the Scotia School.

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I am happy to write this post to help bring the community of Sco-tia up to date on the progress of our newest public agency: The Scotia Community Services Dis-trict (SCSD). As of April 2014, the SCSD is now officially in business, and we have begun our start up process to occur in phases over the next year. With a full Board of Direc-tors now in place, we are ready to take on our full responsibilities of owning and managing the following Community based services: D r i n k i n g W a t e r ; Wastewater; Storm Water; a Fire Department; limited historical street lighting; along with a fully developed Parks and Recreation De-partment, including the Winema Theater, the Sco-tia Museum and Park, The Scotia Soccer Field, Car-penter's Field - Baseball Park, Fireman's Park – Group Picnic Area and the Scotia Community Forest – 22.5 acres along the Eel River from Fireman's Park to the Rio Dell Bridge. The SCSD was able to adopt its first District By-laws on June 19, 2014. All business of the SCSD is public, and documents are a matter of public record. They can be seen at our web page at www.scotiacsd.com or you can come by the office for a copy. The Bylaws are the blueprint for how and when the Board meets, conducts business, public notices, hearings and procedures. During the next few months, the Board will be receiving training, reviewing policies and procedures, developing regulations and ordinances, and doing the various start-up activities of a new town government. We are looking for help and participation from members of the community on all of our newest activities. Committees will be formed, and the related advisory roles will help our Board to conduct busi-ness in a fair, open and equitable way.

PUBLIC ECONOMIC DISCLOSURES

In keeping with an open meet-ing and open business model, the Board members are required to submit to the California Fair Polit-ical Practices Commission a "Statement of Economic Interests

- Form 700 A Public Document". This disclosure statement includes information from the board mem-ber on financial issues that may affect decisions for the Board. These include: investments, inter-ests in real property, and business positions held on the day a mem-ber assumed the office. In addi-tion, income (including loans, gifts, and travel payments) received during the 12 months prior to the

date office was assumed (date of oath of office).

CONSULTANTS TO THE DISTRICT

At this time, we have been re-viewing qualifications of attorneys and accountants, and we have the limited services of a consulting engineer during the Town of Sco-tia upgrade of our water, sewer and storm drain facilities project. Our July 19th board meeting, we will have a short workshop on the requirements and needs to start our accounting system. In future meetings, we will review attorney qualifications and hire an

attorney for specific start-up ser-vices, such as reviewing our pro-posed ordinances and policies and procedures. Our consulting engi-neer, Steve Davidson, attends our monthly Board meetings on re-quest to report on progress with the TOS infrastructure project.

ETHICS TRAINING

In California, the state has im-posed limited requirements for

special district elected officials, but a very important one is a mandatory requirement for a minimum of two hours of ethics training every other year. This is AB1234. The workshop covers Open meeting laws (Brown Act), conflict of interest, ethical con-duct, fair processes and avoiding perks. Two of our board mem-bers have completed the required

ethics training, and the other three members will receive the trainings over the next several months. Both online training and classroom training are available from several organizations in the state, including the Rural Commu-nity Assistance Corporation, Cali-fornia Rural Water Association and the California Special Dis-tricts Association.

DISTRICT INSURANCE One of the most im-portant steps for the Board and the SCSD is to obtain insurance coverage for the district and the services of the communi-ty. We are working with the California Special Dis-tricts Association - Special District Risk Management Authority (SDRMA) to acquire insurance as we develop into a fully func-tional District. An im-portant element required for insurance is to under-stand the Districts finan-cial risks, so as we put our first Budget together, along with the adoption of policy and procedures, ordinances, regulations, the SDRMA will offer a variety of insurance pro-grams.

DISTRICT OFFICES AND

HEARING ROOM This summer, you should see the Interim General Manager move into the new SCSD office and meeting room at 122 Main Street, where we currently meet the third Thursday of each month. We will be adding a new main phone line to the office and will be conduct-ing our business inde-

pendent of the Town of Scotia Company, LLC, where TOS has been host-

ing our new agency over the past several years. We are excited about the start-up activities; these will set the tone and direction for the SCSD for the foreseeable future. Please drop by our offices to say hello, and if you have any questions or suggestions, we are pleased to bring them to the Board.

Greetings from Mark Richardson, Scotia Com-munity Services District Interim General Manager

Board members from left to right: Gayle McKnight, Diane Bristol, Rick Walsh, Susan Pryor, John Broadstock

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The Scotia log pond with Bertain’s Laundry just behind it.

The Williams Street neighborhood of Scotia, with the still-standing houses of Railroad Avenue, razed after this flood.

Another bridge along Highway 36 leads to nowhere. The 1964 flood was finally too much for it.

The flooding of the Pacific Lumber mill, with Fireman’s Park to the left.

South Fortuna, after the levee breached .

One of the many temporary log bridges that were constructed in the area. This one was along Highway 36.

A steady stream of helicopters brought supplies to Scotia and Rio Dell.

The stand of young trees in Fireman’s Park survived the river’s onslaught.

A view of the devastation looking toward Fernbridge from Ferndale.