Blue Lake: Insurance Crisis Takes Fun Out of This Town

Welcome signs at the entrance to this hamlet along the Mad River deep in a Northern California redwood forest, are posted with notices proclaiming: “Sorry, we’re closed.”

Miss Bertha Perigot Memorial Park, the town-owned roller-skating rink, the community hall, playground, picnic grove, baseball diamond, tennis, horseshoe and basketball courts are padlocked and posted: “No Trespassing. Closed.”

For three months the American flag flew upside down over the Town Hall in the international symbol of distress, although the Blue Lake City Council changed that last week after protests by veterans groups.

Despite the decision to right the flag, “the town’s distress has no way lessened,” said Bobbi Ricca, 43, the $15-a-month mayor.

Four of the 11 town employees have been fired. Building permits are not being issued. The town street sweeper, street roller and back hoe are no longer used.

Blue Lake, population 1,242, is caught up in the same liability insurance crisis that has affected other public agencies throughout the state. Insurance companies say they have canceled or raised premiums on insurance policies for public agencies because huge court awards make such policies losing propositions.

While most cities have been able to get insurance, albeit at a higher rate than they had previously paid, Blue Lake officials say they can find no company that will write it a policy at any price.

After its $12,000-a-year liability policy ran out last Christmas, the town council voted to show its distress by flying the U.S. flag upside down. Each day, Town Clerk Karen Nessler, 44, would raise and lower the flag upside down.

But a March 21 demonstration by members of the Blue Lake VFW post at the Town Hall flag pole prompted the council to reverse its decision.

Rodger Comstock, 67, Humbolt County VFW commander, told the council that more than 2,000 members of the 12 VFW posts in the county were “outraged over the disrespect for the American flag flying upside down on the Blue Lake flag pole.”

Although the flag is flying right again, Blue Lake remains distressed.

Peggy Dickerson, 62, the town’s fiscal officer, and Town Clerk Nessler are spending much of their time these days peering out the back windows of Town Hall watching for trespassers in Perigot Park across the street. “Kids keep climbing over the fence to use a playground and park. They have nowhere else to go. But, we’ve got to chase them away because if somebody gets hurt the town is liable,” Dickerson said with a sigh.

Donnie Snider, 27, was the Park and Recreation Department’s $450-a-month maintenance man. Since the crisis, he has been reduced to the $150-a-month caretaker of recreational facilities. He has the chore of chasing off trespassers.

“Why doesn’t the town post signs saying ‘Enter at Your Own Risk’?” Bubba Evernden, 18, asked Snider as Evernden and three other youths were asked to leave the park. Snider explained that even with that kind of a sign, an injured person could still sue the town.

“The roller rink is closed. We can’t play basketball, baseball or tennis. We hang out at the grocery store and they kick us out. We can’t go anywhere in this town,” lamented Ken Carey, 18.

Carey told how the horseshoes and stakes were removed from the park’s horseshoe pit “because the mayor thought somebody might fall on a stake or someone might get hit with a horseshoe and would sue.”

Blue Birds, Cub Scouts, Church Ladies Boutique School, Blue Lake Elementary School basketball team and many other local groups have no place to go. Wedding receptions and family reunions are no longer permitted in the community hall or in the park. There are no picnics in the picnic grove.

The predicament has been the talk of the town all year.

It was the subject of a lively discussion at the Logger, the local watering hole, where bartender Karen Chesley, 30, told loggers Dennis Howard, 35, and Marvin Cook, 38, one way that she was coping with the crisis. She said she was driving her son Jeff, 12, to Eureka, 20 miles to the south, three times a week to play baseball because the playground in Blue Lake is closed.

“Cities and towns all over the state, all across America, are having similar problems with liability insurance,” said Mayor Ricca. “Blue Lake cannot survive if this continues. We need emergency legislation now. The behavior of the insurance companies is unacceptable.

“As it is, we will continue to operate our water and sewer services, and that’s about it. No recreation, no repairs, no development. We’re a small town on hold.”

President Reagan will ask Congress to cap soaring insurance costs. Page 6.