Category Archives: Community News

Articles, Community News, Local Government

Starkey, Howard Will Represent Del Norte at NACo Conference In July; Supes Set Cannabis Tax Rates

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

NACo Conference: District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey will go to Philadelphia in July as one of two Del Norte County representatives at the National Association of Counties annual legislative conference.

Starkey’s District 3 colleague, Chris Howard, will also attend the conference, which will be held July 11-14. The full Board unanimously approved the use of budgeted county travel dollars for the trip, though an estimated cost for attending the conference wasn’t included on the meeting agenda.

Continue reading Starkey, Howard Will Represent Del Norte at NACo Conference In July; Supes Set Cannabis Tax Rates →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Economy

CCHD Court Washington-Based Seafood Buyers Though Space On Citizens Dock Is Limited

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Thumbnail: Crescent City Harbor commissioners are working with two seafood buyers who hope to lease hoists on Citizens Dock. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are hoping to accommodate two Washington-based seafood buyers who submitted competing letters of intent to take over hoists Global Quality Foods had operated on Citizens Dock.

Commissioner Rick Shepherd, a long-time commercial fisherman, told representatives with Fathom Seafoods, of Tacoma, and Ocean Gold Seafoods, of Westport, that he hoped they could split the two hoists Global Quality Foods once operated.

“That would be the ultimate,” he said last week. “And it would only be for this winter and maybe next winter and the winter after next. Then you would [have] a permanent hoist with trucks being able to go right up to it. A state-of-the-art hoist on land instead of out on the dock.”

Continue reading CCHD Court Washington-Based Seafood Buyers Though Space On Citizens Dock Is Limited →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Infrastructure

CCHD Commissioners Allow Pacific Seafood To Keep Hoist, Building Leases Despite Ice Plant Controversy

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Thumbnail: Harbor Commissioners last week decided against terminating hoist and building leases with Pacific Seafood despite the company’s decision in October to cease operating the ice plant. | Photo by Paul Critz

Though they terminated one buyer’s lease due to delinquent rent, Crescent City Harbor commissioners decided against doing the same for Pacific Seafood despite their harbormaster’s concerns with the way they’ve conducted business lately.

In his staff report, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker had recommended terminating the processor’s building and hoist leases due to delinquent rent. At a Harbor District meeting last week, he said Pacific Seafood submitted a $43,000 check, thereby “curing the default,” but he still had concerns.

For one thing, the harbormaster said, the processor isn’t using one of the three hoists it leases. There’s a stipulation in their hoist lease with the Harbor District that 14-days of non-use could be viewed as breaching their contract. Rademaker also brought up Pacific Seafood’s decision in October to cease operating the ice plant at the end of Citizens Dock. The processor pulled their equipment out of the building in November.

Continue reading CCHD Commissioners Allow Pacific Seafood To Keep Hoist, Building Leases Despite Ice Plant Controversy →
Articles, Community News, Curry, Law, Local Government

Curry County Commissioners Seek Legal Help To End Dispute With Sheriff

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Thumbnail: Curry County Sheriff’s seal. Right: Curry County’s seal.

Curry County commissioners are seeking help from a judge to reopen communications with Sheriff John Ward.

The Board of Commissioners filed a declaratory judgment suit against the sheriff in Curry County Circuit Court on Jan. 13, the county announced Wednesday. Officials say they hope to “resolve long-standing disagreements” with the sheriff about their roles and responsibilities.

“Filing suit was an option of last resort that was taken after the Board and county legal counsel made multiple requests for cooperation, information and records from the sheriff’s office that were not satisfactorily fulfilled,” the county stated in its press release.

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Articles, Community News, Local Government

Crescent City Council Moves Forward with Preferred 2025 Downtown Farmers & Artisans Market Location

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of Del Norte & Tribal Lands Community Food Council.

The Wednesday farmers market will be under new management and in a new home when the season starts this June.

Crescent City councilors gave their blessing to the Del Norte and Tribal Lands Community Food Council to move the Downtown Farmers & Artisans Market to the old Bank of America parking lot at 2nd and H streets for the 2025 season.

“I just want to encourage everybody that in the Bank of America parking lot, there is great potential, great growth for that farmers market,” said Cristina’s Mexican Restaurant owner Claudia Hooper, who was a neighbor to its previous 3rd and K street location. “And an opportunity for a lot of people, who we don’t necessarily think of, that will be able to use that farmers market.”

During the start of its 2024 season, the downtown market, then operated by the Downtown Divas, was set up at the parking lot adjacent to the Del Norte County Library at Front and K streets. But due to the active construction along Front Street, the Divas determined it could no longer continue in that location, according to the city staff report. 

Continue reading Crescent City Council Moves Forward with Preferred 2025 Downtown Farmers & Artisans Market Location →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Infrastructure

Harbor District Tour Uncovers Challenges With Whaler Island Groin And Sea Level Rise

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Thumbnail photo: Moffatt & Nichol representative Younes Nouri discusses the Citizens Dock and seawall reconstruction projects during a tour of Crescent City Harbor property on Wednesday. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Though their tour of the Crescent City Harbor District meant to show its potential, Mike Bahr and Younes Nouri delivered unwelcome news on Wednesday — the port lost out on FEMA disaster dollars to shore up the storm-ravaged Whaler Island Groin.

Despite showing the federal agency images of damage the groin took during severe storms in January 2023, FEMA officials declined the Harbor District’s request for disaster assistance, saying the district couldn’t show enough records that it had maintained the structure before the storm, according to Nouri, project manager and coastal engineer with Moffatt & Nichol.

“They want to see what it looked like before that storm happened and then what it looked like after,” he said. “It’s like an insurance adjuster.”

Continue reading Harbor District Tour Uncovers Challenges With Whaler Island Groin And Sea Level Rise →
Alerts, CC Harbor, Community News, Infrastructure

Crescent City Harbor Workshop, Tour To Focus On Development Opportunities

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Thumbnail photo by Amanda Dockter

Two weeks into their renewed contract with the Crescent City Harbor District, representatives of Community System Solutions will lead a workshop and a tour of the port on Wednesday.

CSS representatives will be joined by Moffat & Nichol project managers and Steve Opp, managing director for Commercial Real Estate Development Enterprises, or CREDE.

The workshop’s goal is to provide commissioners and the public a “complete overview” of the construction projects underway at the harbor and to help the Harbor District Board figure out how to spend $1 million in leftover federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program dollars.

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Articles, Community News, Education

DNUSD’s Classified Staff Reject Tentative Agreement; District, DNTA Begin Mediation Process

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Thumbnail image includes the DNUSD and CSEA logos taken from the district’s Facebook page and Great Northern Chapter #178’s Facebook page.

Negotiations between Del Norte Unified School District and the union that represents its classified employees are set to start over after members of the union’s local chapter rejected a tentative agreement.

The rejection of the proposed agreement between DNUSD and the California School Employees Association Great Northern Chapter #178 comes as contract discussions between the district and the Del Norte Teachers Association head toward mediation.

It also prompted Jenna Lussier, lead negotiator for CSEA Great Northern #178, to step down from the union’s negotiating team.

Continue reading DNUSD’s Classified Staff Reject Tentative Agreement; District, DNTA Begin Mediation Process →
Activism, Articles, Community News, Crescent City

Crescent City People’s March Calls For Unity, Safeguarding the Vulnerable As Trump Starts Second Term

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Thumbnail photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews; video by Bryce Evans, Gavin Van Alstine and Ethan Caudill-DeRego

Hilda Yepes Contreras fought back tears as she described how anti-immigration rhetoric during the first Trump administration reached her family.

“My grandson, he was 8 and he was in school and kids went up to him and said that he needed to go back to Mexico,” she said. “And he said, ‘But I don’t live there. I live here.’ And they said, ‘Well, you need to go back or you’re going to get your head cut off.’”

Speaking to more than 100 people at the Crescent City Cultural Center on Saturday — ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration — Yepes Contreras said her family wasn’t alone in enduring the racist rhetoric that was the norm the last time Trump was in the White House.

Continue reading Crescent City People’s March Calls For Unity, Safeguarding the Vulnerable As Trump Starts Second Term →
Articles, Community News, Local Government

Del Norte Supes Trade CalPERS Trust For Private Firm; CAO Says County Isn’t Leaving Pension Plan

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Thumbnail image by Paul Critz

Del Norte County supervisors backed a proposal to transfer roughly $1 million out of a California Public Employees Retirement System-managed trust to a private firm after a representative assured them that the county wasn’t abandoning the state’s pension program.

Matt Spooner, senior consultant with Public Agencies Retirement Service (PARS), said Del Norte County wasn’t leaving CalPERS’ defined benefits program, which offers pension and other retirement benefits to its employees.

Instead, county officials are seeking to establish a trust fund with PARS that would offer greater flexibility when it comes to paying  its share of those pensions and other retirement benefits, Spooner told supervisors Tuesday.

Continue reading Del Norte Supes Trade CalPERS Trust For Private Firm; CAO Says County Isn’t Leaving Pension Plan →