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BL City
Council contemplates cost of cultural considerations
By Matt Kapko
Eye Reporter
The Arcata Eye
February 04, 2003
Last Tuesday’s
Blue Lake City Council meeting was spent mostly resolving some minor city
government issues, but also hearing the proposal for developing a cultural
plan for the city.
The audit report for the fiscal year 2001/2002 scheduled for that night
was continued to a special meeting slated for Feb. 6.
As the new City Council liaison to the Blue Lake Rancheria, City Councilmember
Marlene Smith discussed her recent meeting with Tribal Vice Chairperson
Arla Ramsey. Smith said she and Ramsey are looking into similar liaisons
in other communities to determine what their policies and procedures entail.
This is being done to try to push the relationship further along, by hopefully
following some guidelines already in place, she commented.
Trying to alleviate the slowed economy’s affect on Blue Lake, Mayor
Dave Nakamura has recently undertaken plans to bring more businesses to
town – specifically at the industrial park.
He presented the council with some preliminary plans for finding and hiring
a consultant to help locate potential tenants for the industrial park.
A cultural plan for Blue Lake
In a twist from the usual happenings at its meetings, the City Council
heard a proposal to develop a cultural plan for the Peaceable Hamlet.
Dell’Arte Artistic Director Michael Fields presented to the council
the proposal from Ferdinand Lewis, a doctorate student in the University
of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development.
Lewis worked for Dell’Arte this past summer as a writer for its
“Animating Democracies Project.”
He is now interested in developing a cultural plan for Blue Lake as part
of his doctorate program’s “focus in cultural planning, and
a particular interest in rural economies,” he wrote in a letter
to Fields.
When living in Blue Lake last summer, he “learned that a number
of residents are anxious to find a way to keep the small town feel of
the place, while addressing inevitable growth issues.”
Lewis showed his excitement for the possibilities, noting that “advantages
of rural cultural planning have only recently begun to be noticed.”
Fields has offered housing to Lewis for the anticipated month-long schedule.
The $3,000 cost is an amount the city may not be able to afford, but City
Planner Bob Brown and Lewis have already been brainstorming ideas for
other possible funding sources.
Searching for much-needed revenue that could fund projects such as a cultural
plan, the City Council later approved a resolution to release confidential
information from the State Board of Equalization, regarding the identity
of one of the city’s taxpayers that the board claims did not report
any tax for the third quarter 2002 period.
On another note, Wiley Buck’s first day as Blue Lake’s city
manager came last Saturday.
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