Board:
Josh Cook
Leslie Castellano
Terra Freedman
Julie Fulkerson
Richard Green
Kimberly Keisling
Ron Kuhnel
Michele McKeegan
Morgan McMahon
Joel Mielke
Elizabeth Murguia
Wendell ‘Fritz’ Schautz
Jim Thomas
Minnie Wolf
Stan Wong, Volunteer of the Century

Our Story:

In 1996 in the wake of a series of hearings on crime, many Eurekans have become deeply discouraged about their ability to build a more livable community. Keep Eureka Beautiful was founded that year to promote a livable community.

Our Mission:

To educate all sectors of the community about the importance of beautification
To motivate individuals to take personal responsibility for making Eureka a more beautiful and livable city
To advance and support policies and programs that promote beautification
To undertake beautification initiatives where appropriate

Goals & Objectives:

To restore and rebuild civic pride
To foster the confidence that each of us has the capacity and the responsibility to make a difference
To encourage property owners to improve their buildings, landscaping and streetscapes
To advocate a beautification agenda for city and county government

Promoting beautification as an essential building block in preventing crime, calming traffic and promoting economic development. This requires a sustained educational effort, since beautification is viewed by some as purely decorative and inessential. That we have been successful in making the connection between economic prosperity and beautification was evident in the fact that the Eureka Chamber of Commerce presented us with a special award for city beautification in 2001.

Commitment to Volunteerism: As an all-volunteer effort, our effectiveness depends entirely on the dedication of our volunteers and on our commitment to working collaboratively with a host of community members and organizations while positioning beautification as a non-partisan issue.

Program Highlights:

Award of merit program six to nine annual awards–ranging from “special effort” (to a woman whose small front yard in a low-income housing project is packed with colorful flowers) to “beautification pioneer” (to a local nurseryman with a 20-year history of donating trees on Arbor Day)–are given annually. Presented at City Council meetings, the awards are broadcast over cable television and receive excellent local news coverage. The bronze plaques awarded to winners are themselves part of our public awareness campaign as they pop up on buildings all over town. Finally, winners over the years are featured on posters hanging in City Hall.

Advocating for beautification:

We encourage businesses and government entities to beautify their properties, especially on the Hwy 101 corridor. We have successfully lobbied both the County Board of Supervisors and the City Council to block new and remove existing billboards and participated in the County General Plan update to ensure that it will limit both size and placement of billboards. We have worked with CalTrans to install landscaping at the south entrance to the city.

Advocating for pro-beautification policies:

This includes beefing up and extending City of Eureka design review and landscape standards, working with Main Street Eureka to revise parking requirements to encourage people to live downtown, and advocating for control of urban sprawl in the county.
Street Tree Program: In 2005, we launched a community-wide street tree program; by the end of 2010 we had planted over 550 trees in sidewalks, front yards and public parks.

Trees for Eureka:

Color brochure encouraging residents to plant street and front yard trees.
Victorian Gardens Brochure: Color brochure encouraging residents and business owners to plant bold and colorful gardens in this Victorian Seaport.