Willits Council Rejects Highway 20 Sculpture Plan, OKs Airport Hangar for Air Ambulance

WILLITS, Calif. — The Willits City Council declined Oct. 28 to move a set of roadside sculptures to a city park and signed off on a privately built hangar at the municipal airport, closing out the interim city manager's tenure with a pair of unanimous votes.

The council voted 5-0 against a Mendocino County Museum proposal to relocate the Mark Walker sculptures — now sited along the Highway 101 grade — to the city's Highway 20 park, a site some have taken to calling Sculpture Park. Members cited the lack of parking, questions over long-term liability, and doubts about how the weathered metal pieces would hold up in the open.

Community Development Director Dusty Duley told the council the city's Arts in Public Spaces Committee saw value in making the sculptures more visible to passing traffic but recommended the city develop a master plan for the park rather than add art piecemeal. Under the county's offer, Duley said, the county would pay to move the sculptures, pour a concrete base, and install fencing, but the county's proposed terms would leave the city responsible for vandalism, damage, and injury claims once the pieces were installed.

Mayor Tom Allman said the Highway 20 site has no parking and warned that visitors could pull over and park illegally, creating a hazard, or crowd the adjacent gas station, creating a nuisance. "If you build it, they will come," he said. Council Member Bruce Burton said the location was not appropriate for art and described the county's pitch as a search for "a soft landing." Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz questioned whether the sculptures would survive daily contact with park sprinklers and said the city's public works crews are "not art restoration experts."

Four residents spoke, most favoring the county museum as the sculptures' permanent home. Robin Leler said the pieces reference local history — the practice of stripping bark from tanoaks to intentionally kill the trees and deprive Indigenous people of a food source — and deserve interpretive plaques wherever they end up.

Karen Mattson, administrator of the Mendocino County Museum, attended as the museum's representative but declined to add comment, deferring to the council.

Burton moved to thank the county for the offer and decline it; Council Member Gerardo Gonzalez seconded. The vote was 5-0.

Airport Hangar Approved for REACH Helicopter

The council then voted 5-0 to authorize construction of a privately owned, 50-by-60-foot hangar south of the existing facilities at Willits Municipal Airport. Public Works Director Davey Bowles said the hangar would be built and owned by a private party and subleased to REACH Air Medical Services, whose helicopter now subleases space in an adjacent hangar.

Bowles said the owner would lease the land from the city for 50 years before the building reverts to city ownership — the same arrangement used for prior private hangars. The city's only near-term cost, he said, is about $1,000 to amend the airport layout plan for submittal to the Federal Aviation Administration. A formal lease will return to the council after engineering and FAA review.

Resident Jacob Lawrence, who introduced himself as "Big Jake," pressed the council on how the deal would benefit a city that is "broke." Allman said the chief public benefit was keeping REACH's air ambulance based in Willits. The applicant and his builder, Jay Fraser, told the council the project would be built with local labor. Resident Nici Caldwell asked whether the city's $1,000 cost could be recovered through the lease; Bowles said that language wasn't in past hangar agreements but would be appropriate going forward. Burton raised the question of who pays property taxes on a private building on public land, and Bowles said he would make sure the lease assigns any assessed taxes to REACH.

Conner's Last Meeting

Interim City Manager James Conner, a former police chief, delivered his final report. "I feel like we're in a better place than when I arrived," he said. Allman called him "a steady captain of the ship."

Other Business

• The council voted 5-0 to approve its consent calendar, which included the Oct. 14 meeting minutes and a resolution recommending Olga O'Neal, the city's current representative, for reappointment to the Mendocino County Library Advisory Board.
• Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz read a prepared statement withdrawing his earlier request to formally evaluate City Attorney H. James Lance, saying the council lacks an evaluation framework and has higher priorities. Alaniz, who chairs the city's Financial Advisory Committee, said the panel reviewed first-quarter spending last week and will now meet every other month, with the next meeting set for the third week of December.
• Mayor Allman said the city has eight fewer employees than it did two years ago but is still delivering services, pointing to 26 building permits approved in the past two months and a narrowing deficit. He thanked city workers for staying through the restructuring and acknowledged that raises are overdue.
• Bowles said the 250,000-gallon clear water tank planned for the wastewater treatment plant is in engineering with LACO, with fabrication expected to be released between February and March and installation projected for July or August.

Allman said the council's November regular meeting will move to Tuesday, Nov. 10, because of the Veterans Day holiday. The council adjourned at about 7:36 p.m. after a closed session on labor negotiations.