Fortuna council likes water bag idea

Eureka Times-Standard

Fortuna council likes water bag idea

By James Faulk The Times-Standard

Thursday, February 20, 2003 –

FORTUNA — The City Council heard a summary of the proposed plan to export Mad River water and gave its unanimous support to the idea in concept Tuesday night.

The city has no official input on the subject because it is not a voting member of the task force established to evaluate the idea. The group is made up of wholesale customers, including Eureka, Arcata, Blue Lake and McKinleyville.

Ric Davidge of Aqueous Corp. has proposed buying up to 6.5 billion gallons of untreated water per year from the water district and shipping it in giant, 800-foot-long bags.

Other cities have already heard the proposal and the responses have varied — Arcata vehemently opposed the idea, while Eureka encouraged more research.

Fortuna is not a customer of Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District because it has its own water sources.

City Manager Duane Rigge said the district made the presentation to Fortuna because the city would likely benefit if the project brought some economic growth to the area.

In other business, the city put its city attorney debate to rest Monday. The council approved a contract with David Tranberg as city attorney.

It had considered going with Richard Platz, the city attorney of Blue Lake, but opted instead to stick with Tranberg. Councilmembers cited his experience with larger municipalities as a deciding factor.

Tranberg is also the city attorney of Eureka.

The city will look to put some teeth in its ability to collect fees for the Fortuna Business Improvement District.

The city received a letter from the district asking that the city enhance its ability to enforce the fees, much as it does currently with business license fees. The council directed Rigge to look into ways that those fees could be enforced, and to bring it back to the council at a later time.

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