WILLITS, CA., 11/6/26 — Mendocino County offered to move Mark Walker’s folk-art sculptures into a Willits park. It would pour a concrete base, put up a fence and take care of them for five years. But it wouldn’t pay if someone broke them or got hurt on them.
The Willits City Council turned the offer down Oct. 28, 5-0, according to a Willits Community TV recording of the meeting.
The seven sculptures stand along Highway 101 south of Willits. Among them are an ox cart, a man, an ox and a mule. Walker donated them to Mendocino County in 1988, according to the city staff report. He also gave the land under them and an endowment for their care. They’re part of the Mendocino County Museum’s collection.
The museum wanted to move them to Highway 20 Park, near the pinwheel sculptures, where drivers on Highway 20 would see them. The city’s Arts in Public Spaces Committee backed the idea Oct. 6.
The museum planned to pay with endowment money set aside for the project, the staff report says. It would raise more from nonprofit and community partners if necessary and asked the city for no money.
“What the county committed to paying is the cost of relocating the sculptures to the park, the concrete base, and then some type of appropriate fencing around the display,” Community and Economic Development Director Dusty Duley told the council.
The county’s terms would have made the city pay for vandalism, accidental damage and damage done by others. The city would also have taken responsibility for injuries tied to anyone using the sculptures, including people who weren’t supposed to. The staff report says those terms could create “unquantified City costs.” It says no city money had been set aside to cover them.
Mayor Tom Allman said the park has no parking. People would pull over on the highway or fill up nearby businesses to see the pieces, he said. “And there’s no parking there. And, you know, if you build it, they will come,” he said.
Council member Gerardo Gonzalez said the art already in the park doesn’t lend itself to being jumped on, “whereas the ox and man there might prove too tempting.”
“I guess having been a cop for 30 years, you always figure out how people might mess with something,” Gonzalez said. Repairs would fall to city crews, he said, and “We’re not art restoration experts at Public Works.”
Vice Mayor Matthew Alaniz said the park sprinklers would soak the lower half of the sculptures every day.
Council member Bruce Burton said the pieces belong at the museum. “And I think that the county is looking for a soft landing for themselves,” Burton said. “I’m not all that sympathetic.”
Burton moved to thank the county and pass. Gonzalez seconded.
Robin Leler spoke during public comment. She is one of two candidates for two open council seats on the Nov. 3 ballot. She asked for plaques that tell the history behind the sculptures, wherever they end up. As she understands it, Walker used mules to haul tanoak bark for sale, Leler said. Stripping the bark killed oaks that were a food source for Indigenous people, she said.
A private hangar for REACH’s helicopter
The council also voted 5-0 Oct. 28 to let Larry Brooks of Redwood Valley build a private hangar at Willits Municipal Airport. Brooks does business as Brooksville LLC. The hangar would be 50 by 60 feet, south of the airport’s existing buildings.
Brooks would own the hangar and sublease it to REACH Air Medical Services to store and maintain its equipment, according to the staff report.
REACH runs an air ambulance helicopter base in Willits, called REACH 18. “Currently they do not have a home for their helicopter,” Public Works Director Davey Bowles told the council. REACH subleases space in a neighboring hangar, he said, and “it’s not the most efficient use of the space with the other tenant that’s there.”
Brooks would pay to build the hangar. Bowles put the project at about $750,000. The city would lease him the ground for about 50 years, at a rent to be set later. When the term ends, the owner can keep leasing at new rates or end the lease. If the lease ends, the building becomes city property, Bowles said.
The city’s cost for now is about $1,000 to amend its airport layout plan for the Federal Aviation Administration, Bowles estimated. A resident asked whether the lease could cover that. Bowles said the city didn’t do that with the last private hangar. He said it could write that kind of cost recovery into agreements from now on.
Burton asked who pays property tax on a private building on city land. City staff said any tax assessed on the building falls to the tenant.
The approval goes to Brooks alone. Before anything is built, the FAA has to approve the change to the airport layout plan, according to the resolution. The council also has to approve a hangar lease, and Brooks needs building permits.
Brooks told the council he owns Northwest Construction Inc. He and builder Jay Fraser said the work would go to local people. “Almost everybody involved in this construction project will be local,” Fraser said.
Resident Jacob Lawrence asked what the city gets out of the deal. “The public benefit is that we have REACH in Willits, and we didn’t used to have REACH helicopter in Willits,” Allman said.
Interim city manager’s last meeting
Oct. 28 was the last council meeting for interim City Manager James Conner. “I feel like we’re in a better place than when I arrived,” Conner told the council. Allman called him “a steady captain of the ship.”