Category Archives: Community News

Articles, Community News, Law, Youth

Del Norte Juvenile Offenders Can Be Housed in Mendocino, Supervisors Say

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Four Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday green lit a proposal to house juvenile offenders in Mendocino County. But they urged Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman to use that option as a last resort, with District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short stating that “there’s probably more gang activity prevalent” in Mendocino than in Shasta County.

Del Norte County maintains agreements with Humboldt and Shasta counties to house wards in their juvenile detention facilities. Humboldt is the first option and Shasta is currently the second, though there are times when probation officials there have declined to hold Del Norte youth as well, according to Reyman.

Two Del Norte County youth are being detained, Reyman told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. One is at the Humboldt County Juvenile Hall in Eureka and the other is at the Shasta County Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility in Redding, he said.

Continue reading Del Norte Juvenile Offenders Can Be Housed in Mendocino, Supervisors Say →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Infrastructure

New Harbor Board Pulls Back From Finding Short-Term Solution To Ice Plant Dilemma

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Photo by Paul Critz

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are still committed to securing a long-term source of ice at the port, but they decided that seafood processors will be on their own when this year’s commercial Dungeness season starts.

While ice is a concern for the commercial fishing fleet, it’s mostly the seafood processors who rely on it, Commissioner Rick Shepherd told his colleagues on Dec. 3.

A new set of commissioners last week directed Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker to focus on securing funding from the National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan, a NOAA Fisheries program. The Harbor District would use those grant dollars to entice more seafood processors, particularly those focusing on shrimp, to set up shop at the harbor.

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Articles, Community News, Emergencies, Environment, Science

Cal Poly Humboldt Prof. Discusses Why Today’s 7.0 Temblor Spawned A 6-8 Inch Tsunami In Crescent City

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Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Lori Dengler said she wasn’t surprised that Thursday’s magnitude 7.0 earthquake only produced a tsunami that topped out at roughly 8 inches in Crescent City.

But, while Dengler, geology professor emeritus at Cal Poly Humboldt, is still going through the reports and is speaking with the media about today’s temblor, she said one of the outcomes might be a rethinking of how the U.S. approaches tsunami evacuations.

“The Tsunami National Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska has developed a template for if an earthquake happens here and it’s in this magnitude range, this is what we do,” Dengler, whose expertise is in geophysics, earthquake and tsunami hazards and hazard reduction, told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “Because this earthquake was so relatively close to the coast and their preliminary magnitude was 7.3, it immediately triggered a tsunami warning from basically Santa Cruz to Central Oregon.”

Continue reading Cal Poly Humboldt Prof. Discusses Why Today’s 7.0 Temblor Spawned A 6-8 Inch Tsunami In Crescent City →
Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Local Government

Council Chooses Gateway Design, Urges Staff To Engage With Businesses Before Embarking On Street Name Change

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Nearly 80 percent of those who responded to a Crescent City survey said they preferred a sequence of gateway elements incorporating waves and dolphins to welcome folks to the Beachfront Park area. | Screenshot

After a community outreach campaign netted 561 survey responses and more than 100 shares on Facebook, Crescent City councilors chose a gateway that draws on its residents’ relationship with the ocean.

Seventy-six percent of those who responded to the city’s survey also supported changing Front Street’s name to Beachfront Drive, Crescent City Manager Eric Wier told the Council on Monday. But the potential name change could disadvantage local businesses, Wier said, costing them thousands of dollars.

“The hard costs are somewhere between $7,000 on the low end for the permitting, the licensing, all the changing of business cards — all those types of pieces,” he said, adding that he spoke with two business owners on Front Street. “Then if you get into search engine optimization and the actual loss of revenue if that’s done the wrong way or at the wrong time, it could be tens of thousands of dollars. Upwards of $50,000. It’s not a small item and it should be one that’s dealt with carefully and intentionally.”

Continue reading Council Chooses Gateway Design, Urges Staff To Engage With Businesses Before Embarking On Street Name Change →
Alerts, Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Humboldt

Coastal Del Norte Evacuates Following M7.0 Earthquake Off Humboldt Coast; Tsunami Warning Lifted An Hour Later

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Map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey

Coastal Del Norte County sought higher ground late Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Humboldt County at about 10:44 a.m. and generated tsunami warnings in Northern California and Southern Oregon.

The earthquake struck about 61.5 miles off the coast of Ferndale at a depth of 6.21 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

As of about 11 a.m., the Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services were advising people in the inundation zone to evacuate to an area north of 9th Street in Crescent City, Emergency Services Manager Deborah Otenberg told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. At the time, she said, surges were predicted to come ashore at about 11:20 a.m.

Continue reading Coastal Del Norte Evacuates Following M7.0 Earthquake Off Humboldt Coast; Tsunami Warning Lifted An Hour Later →
Articles, Brookings, Community News, Local Government

Brookings Repeals ‘Benevolent Meal Service Ordinance’ Following St. Tim’s Court Victory

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Photo courtesy of Bernie Lindley

Nine months after a federal judge sided with St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, the Brookings City Council last week repealed the ordinance that prompted the church to sue back in 2022.

Councilors unanimously approved an ordinance repealing its benevolent meal service ordinance without comment at their Nov. 25 meeting. The decision comes after the city reached a settlement agreement with St. Timothy’s that had it paying $357,000 to Stoel Rives LLP, the law firm that represented the church before U.S. Magistrate Mark D. Clarke in Medford on Feb. 15, and $43,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Repealing the benevolent meal service ordinance was part of that settlement agreement, the church’s pastor, Rev. Bernie Lindley told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday.

Continue reading Brookings Repeals ‘Benevolent Meal Service Ordinance’ Following St. Tim’s Court Victory →
Articles, Community News, Education

From Broken Axles to Warped Brake Rotors, DNUSD Staff Raise Concerns Over Vehicle Breakdowns

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Photo by Persephone Corvid Rose

A trailer’s broken axle added more drama to the Del Norte High School marching band’s tale of triumph at the Festival of Bands field show in Eugene earlier last month.

But Music Director Dan Sedgwick says the axle is an example of several concerns he and other faculty have raised regarding the safety of vehicles transporting students to and from activities outside of Del Norte County.

Sedgwick, his wife Lisa Sedgwick, who teaches at Mary Peacock Elementary School, and his colleague in the music department at Del Norte High, Collin Kirkwood, described warped brake rotors, leaking brake fluid, a bus that ran out of diesel exhaust fluid and seat belts held together with duct tape.

Continue reading From Broken Axles to Warped Brake Rotors, DNUSD Staff Raise Concerns Over Vehicle Breakdowns →
Articles, Community News, Curry, Law

Curry County Law Enforcement Levy Proponents Say It’ll Free Up General Fund Dollars, Commissioners, Staff Still Have Questions

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The spokesperson for a Curry County citizens’ group behind a proposed law enforcement levy broke the numbers down for elected officials on Monday, stating if voters approve the measure, $1.2 million could go back into the general fund.

But commissioners were no closer to supporting a levy than they were at last Thursday’s regular meeting when they said they were uncertain about how many patrol deputies it would fund.

On Monday, commissioners, staff and the few residents who showed up to the workshop had more questions for Georgia Cockerham, who spoke along with Sheriff’s Lt. Jeremy Krohn, in favor of the levy. They asked if they would consider using the levy to fund correctional deputies or if they thought about paying for a detective who could follow up on cases patrol deputies initially respond to.

Continue reading Curry County Law Enforcement Levy Proponents Say It’ll Free Up General Fund Dollars, Commissioners, Staff Still Have Questions →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Economy

Pacific Seafood Said It Was Going To Take Ice Plant Equipment, Harbor Locked Them Out — Briefly

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

(Updated at 9:16 a.m. Wednesday to correct an error. Pacific Seafood sold about 1,300 tons of ice last year, according to Interim Harbormaster Mike Rademaker.)

Mike Rademaker thought the Crescent City Harbor’s potential takeover of the ice plant was a good solution given the impending crab season — until the plant’s previous operator decided it was going to remove the equipment.

The interim harbormaster received this news Nov. 5, about a month after Pacific Seafood vacated the premises. With the Harbor District’s legal counsel stating that its previous tenant had abandoned its equipment when it ceased operations, Rademaker locked them out of the building.

But that lockout was short-lived, he told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday.

Continue reading Pacific Seafood Said It Was Going To Take Ice Plant Equipment, Harbor Locked Them Out — Briefly →