Supervisors consider food insecurity and TIF district possibilities

Public comments dominated the regular weekly meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Nov. 3.

T.C. Loving questioned the supervisors during the general public concerns portion of the Supervisors' meeting.

“I’ve been really concerned about hunger in Humboldt County,” Loving began. “Will people’s SNAP benefits be delayed or deferred?”

Loving, a member of the Humboldt County Democrats, stated they put together 26 emergency food boxes last spring but wondered what the best use of their resources would be now.

“I have been telling people to donate money to the Food Pantry by making their checks payable to the Food Pantry,” Loving said. “I just wanted to check with you folks and make sure that is the best way that people in Humboldt can help.”

Supervisor Chair Rick Pedersen agreed that donating money is the best way to help right now.

“That is the best way they can contribute because then they get more food for the buck,” Pedersen said.

The local Food Pantry pools donated funds and then either purchases food from the food bank at a greatly reduced cost or bargains with local grocery stores to buy items in bulk at a greatly reduced cost.

Loving also questioned Supervisor Bruce Reimers on the status of Upper Des Moines Opportunity, Inc, (UDMO), the organization in Humboldt that administers the Food Pantry. Reimers sits on the board of UDMO.

“Well everybody is losing their funding, I mean at the meeting last Tuesday night, that’s all they did is what if, what if, what if? We don’t know until the idiots on the east coast wake up,” Reimers said.

“It’s a good lesson for the public to learn not to rely on the federal government to take care of them,” Pedersen said. “We’ve all gotten to the point of who is going to take care of me? Do something, get out, take care of yourself,” Pedersen said.

“Well nobody I know who’s well fed in Humboldt County wants anybody else in Humboldt County to go hungry so good people step up,” Loving said.

“We’ve got to learn that we’ve got to take care of ourselves, take care of our community, and not rely on the federal government,” Pedersen said.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to step up and live our values, right?” Loving said.

Humboldt County Engineer Ben Loots presented the Supervisors with an application to work in the right-of-way from MidAmerican Energy Company.

MidAmerican Energy is installing a 40-foot pole approximately 170 feet north of the centerline of Highway 3 at the east right-of-way of Utah Avenue in line with the existing overhead lines and underground conduit.

Supervisor Bob Rasmussen also questioned Loots on installing snow fences in several areas. Rasmussen had been approached by several constituents requesting snow fence be installed.

Loots stated they will work on snow fences once the farmers are done putting anhydrous on the fields and the crops are out.

Read the full story in this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent!