David Benda
Redding Record Searchlight
Published 10:00 AM EDT Sep 21, 2019
More public park fencing is coming to Redding.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved permanent fencing in Parkview Riverfront Park to protect a riparian vegetation restoration project.
The city in 2015 received a $376,940 state grant to help with the restoration of riparian and native trees and plants at Henderson Open Space and Parkview Riverfront Park.
City officials have found that most of the plantings completed last year failed and any new planting will not survive under current conditions at Riverfront Park, a staff report written by Community Services Director Kim Niemer said.
“There are numerous tents, blankets and litter regularly in the planting area as well as significant foot traffic through the planting area,” said Niemer, adding that temporary fencing put up in the past did not work.
In February, the park off Freebridge Street and Parkview Avenue was ground zero for the city’s enforcement of its revised anti-camping rules. Signs were posted saying it was off limits from dusk to dawn, allowing police to ticket campers. Police and community volunteers later came in and cleared the homeless encampments that had been there.
The permanent fencing will block access to the Sacramento River, which borders the city park. The fencing will not affect the trail at the west end of the park, which will remain open and accessible.
It will cost about $25,000 to install the fencing, and the money will come from existing sources, Niemer said, including $20,000 from the city’s illegal site abatement grant. About 850 feet of fencing will be erected. The goal is to have it in by the end of the year.
The new fencing will be wrought iron and six feet tall, similar to what is at South City Park, where the city put up fencing late last year.
Some business owners and others in the Henderson Open Space area will tell you that the fencing around South City Park and the city’s crackdown of its revised anti-camping ordinance have created issues.
“The second they started enforcing the no camping law, what they did is they went down to Henderson Open Space and cleared all the campers out. Those people don’t magically disappear — they pushed them all to our property,” Karin Knorr, who manages the Cobblestone Shopping Center on Hartnell Avenue, told the Record Searchlight in May.
For the record, Henderson Open Space continues to be a haven for homeless camps. Police recently went in and cleaned out about 40 homeless camps. On Wednesday, city and county leaders, along with residents, took a walking tour of the open space.
Meanwhile, In recent years, the city also has fenced off Carnegie Park, home to the food truck court. The city also installed a fence at the Redding Library.
A fence around the abutments at the North Market Street Bridge just east of Caldwell Park is up to deter people from coming down from North Market Street — though that’s just one of many ways individuals over the years have gotten under the bridge to camp.
As I wrote in August 2017 in this column, Redding is known as Tree City USA — an Arbor Foundation designation — but are we becoming Fence City USA?
Historical society mystery
The Shasta Historical Society is trying to figure who circulated a survey that the nonprofit group says it did not send out.
Society officials are asking members if they did receive the survey to call the historical group at 243-3720.
It’s a mystery that Heather Farquhar, the group’s new executive director, is trying to solve.
“Were trying to figure out where the survey came from,” Farquhar said.
Mike Moynahan, the Shasta Historical Society’s board chairman, told me he only knows of one member who received the unauthorized survey. He and Farquhar met with the member. They don’t know how many people received the survey, or if the survey was meant to undermine the group’s efforts.
“It’s still a mystery at this point. Our investigation of the incident only shows one person receiving the survey, so far,” Moynahan said via email Thursday.
Meanwhile, Farquhar is the group’s third executive director in the last seven years. She takes over for Patricia Lord, who was terminated from the job for unknown reasons in May 2018.
Farquhar was looking to leave the frenetic pace of the San Francisco Bay Area and settle in a community much like her Paradise roots, where she graduated from high school in 1985.
Farquhar was the collections and historic properties manager for the Hayward Area Historical Society and deputy director at Los Altos History museum prior to coming to the Shasta Historical Society.
“Her qualifications, with her MBA, are just wonderful,” Moynahan said. “She is not only qualified educationally, but she has a background and skills in the area we really need at the society.”
Moynahan said Farquhar is a “great communicator” and that they want her to get the word out in the community about the society.
One thing Farquhar wants to do is bring in more volunteers.
“Currently we have about a dozen regular volunteers,” she said. “I’ve worked for organizations in the past where we have had over 100, so I’m aiming to get us to that point.”
More volunteers mean more educational programs, more tours and possibly more community events, Farquhar said.
Ten years on the air
KCNR AM 1460 and recently FM 96.5 is celebrating 10 years on the air in greater Redding.
Launched by the husband-and-wife team of Carl and Linda Bott, the station is locally owned. There are not a lot of those left in the country.
Its anchor program is Free Fire Radio, which is hosted 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday by the Botts. The station also features syndicated programming.
“I think we offer something that people want up here in Shasta County,” Carl Bott told me. “We talk about the community and we support our community warts and all.
“You are our newspaper of our area and we feel that we are the newspaper of the airwaves. We also invite people on all sides, all points of view. Everybody is welcome on the show (Free Fire Radio) and always has been.”
KCNR is headquartered in downtown Redding on Market Street in the Sherven Square building.
Carl Bott recently told me that the station has had more than 4,000 guests, including yours truly, who has appeared on the Botts’ program at least a couple of times.
“It has been extremely interesting for us,” Bott said of the last 10 years.
Read more from Buzz on the Street:
- Customers rally around couple after they reopen Shasta Lake restaurant
- Redding Rancheria looks to build Homewood Suites in Shasta Lake
- Wildcard Brewing deal falls through. What’s next for downtown Tied House space?
- It’s a ‘historic’ tax measure for Shasta County. Can voters get behind it?
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly “Buzz on the Street” column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
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