Category Archives: Community News

Articles, Community News, Local Government

Starkey Snubbed For Board Chair, Nomination Fails To Get A Second

January 14, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

Though she congratulated her colleague Joey Borges, Valerie Starkey didn’t hide her disappointment at being passed over for chair of the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.

Starkey, who was sworn into her second term as representative of Del Norte County District 2 earlier this month, was nominated on Tuesday to preside over the Board’s meetings by District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short. That nomination died due to lack of a second.

“I’m only responsible for District 2 and District 2 has supported me and I know where I stand with them,” Starkey told Redwood Voice Community News. “But we go where the need is — we don’t just work in our districts. I have to say that if the supervisors in districts 3, 4 and 5 are not confident in my abilities, then that’s between them and their constituents.”

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Articles, CC Harbor, Community News

Crescent City Harbor Adopts Guidelines For Public Comment

January 13, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Thumbnail photo by Amanda Dockter}

Crescent City Harbor commissioners hadn’t gotten that far in their agenda last Tuesday when Board President Gerhard Weber asked a public commenter to leave.

The commenter, Alicia Williams, had stepped up to the podium a second time seeking to rebut statements a previous speaker had made concerning invocations at public meetings. She refused to step down after Weber reminded her multiple times that she had already spoken.

Weber wound up telling Williams to leave, saying she was disrupting the meeting.

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Articles, CC Harbor, Community News

CC Harbor Board Will Include Prayer At Its Meetings; Intention Is To ‘Recognize There Is A Higher Power Above Us,’ Commissioner States

January 10, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz}

Though one public participant questioned the point and another warned of lawsuits, Crescent City Harbor commissioners on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to incorporate prayer into their bi-monthly meetings.

The proposal came from one of the Board’s newest members, John Evans, who pointed out that the United States Congress starts its sessions with an invocation.

Evans said he didn’t want to exclude any particular faith and proposed holding the invocation before the meetings started.

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Articles, Community News, Youth

Del Norte High School Students Welcome Friends From Across the Ocean

January 9, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Students from Del Norte High hosted their peers from Takata High School this week. A student delegation of nine visited from Rikuzentakata, Japan to further the sister school relationship between the two communities. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews}

The relationship between Del Norte and Takata high schools entered a new chapter Monday when a delegation of students from Rikuzentakata touched down in Crescent City for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the plane circled the runway for more than an hour due to fog, nine students and two teachers stepped off the tarmac to an enthusiastic welcome from their host families, the Del Norte High School Japan Club and Kamome Foundation members.

Before they accompanied their host families to pick up their luggage, each student received a gift from their American counterparts, former Japan Club members who are now in college.

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Articles, Community News, Law, Local Government

DNSO’s New & Improved Online Database Goes Live

January 9, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Screenshot of the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office new online information system.}

Del Norte County’s online jail inmate database is available to the public once again following an upgrade that took nearly three months to complete.

The new system went live on Tuesday and features a mapping tool that allows users to track calls for service. As the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office gets more use out of it, people will be able to track police activity within specific time frames, Lt. Kyle Stevens told Redwood Voice Community News.

“We switched over, I believe, towards the end of October so it’s only got about two to three months worth of information,” he said, referring to the public-facing portion of the system. “As the year goes on, it’ll get more and more robust.”

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Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Environment

CC Harbor Officials May Ask McGuire To Help Support Commercial Fishing; Crab Season Starts Jan. 15

January 7, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_Thumbnail _{photo by Paul Critz}

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are expected to ask State Sen. Mike McGuire to support Del Norte and Humboldt counties’ commercial fishing fleets.

The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will discuss sending a letter to McGuire, who represents the North Coast and is the highest-ranking member of the California State Senate.

Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said he expects commissioners to discuss the substance of the letter and then he intends to reach out to the Humboldt Bay Harbor District to coordinate on a joint message to the state senator.

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Articles, Community News, Education

Contract Negotiations Between Del Norte Teachers Association, DNUSD Stuck Over Salary Increases

January 6, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Thumbnail: Del Norte Teachers Association and Del Norte Unified School District logos.}

Contract negotiations between the union representing local teachers and Del Norte Unified School District have hit an impasse with a dispute over salaries being the primary roadblock.

DNUSD is offering a one-time cash bonus of $750 per certificated employee. Del Norte Teachers Association negotiators are pushing for ongoing salary increases for union members. But with COVID dollars having run out and the potential for millions in budget cuts in the next few months, DNUSD officials say the district can’t afford the union’s ask.

DNTA President Amber Tiedeken-Cron, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade history and math at Smith River School, doesn’t buy that explanation.

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Articles, Community News, Law, Youth

CCPD’s Volunteer K9 Team Brings Eclectic Skill Set To Del Norte; Juno’s Recovery Continues

January 3, 2025 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{Thumbnail: Cain, a member of Crescent City Police Department’s volunteer K9 team, works on his human remains detection skills at the Lake Earl Wildlife Area. Above: The human members of the K9 crew, Cathy Schneider, Jenna Phillips and Gloria Bobertz pose with their canine counterparts. | Photos courtesy of Gloria Bobertz}

Cathy Schneider and Gloria Bobertz began working with canines for different reasons, but they have the same philosophy in mind — a good dog never wants to stop.

They don’t have to instill this maxim in their 16-year-old colleague Jenna Phillips. Her dog, Juno, is still going despite being struck by a car last month.

“She’s starting to get up on her own,” Jenna said. “She can take a bunch of steps and she goes back down. The swelling has gone down a bunch. The bruises are gone. The infection in her belly is gone, and she’s more playful.”

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Articles, Community News, Weather

This Weekend Was All Wet; Atmospheric River Dropped Nearly 2 Inches of Rain on Crescent City

December 31, 2024 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

_{A rain-soaked Middle Fork Smith River at the Nels Christensen Memorial Bridge on Sunday. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews}

The atmospheric river that drenched the North Coast and Southern Oregon over the last few days dumped nearly 2 inches of rain on Jack McNamara Field between Thursday and Saturday, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The bulk of the rain — about 1.57 inches — fell on Saturday, meteorologist Edward Swafford told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday.

With the ground already saturated, water runoff brought the Smith River within a half-inch of minor flood stage at the Dr. Fine Bridge on Sunday, according to the National Water Prediction Service. The NWS issued a flood warning for the area near the bridge at 8:39 a.m. Sunday, warning that flooding was likely near the quarry on South Bank Road. That flood warning was canceled at 11:55 p.m., the Del Norte Office of Emergency Services posted on Facebook.

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Articles, Community News, Health

Breathing New Life Into the Local Fight Against Sexual Assault; Del Norte SART Team Wins Grant For Nurses, Training, Interviewing Equipment

December 27, 2024 Jessica Cejnar Andrews Leave a comment

Thumbnail: Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin awards A’Lissa Scott and Amanda LeBlanc a certificate of commendation on Dec. 2 for their part in resurrecting the Del Norte Sexual Assault Response Team.

Scrawled on a whiteboard inside A’Lissa Scott’s office at the Del Norte County Courthouse is the following quote: “Children of all ages can tell us what they know if we ask them the right questions in the right way.”

Taken from a manual on the best practices of child forensic interviewing, the 30-year-old quote reminds Scott and her colleague Amanda LeBlanc that much of their job is about allowing, and trusting, sexual assault survivors to make the decision that’s right for them.

“One big thing about mentoring is there is no victim-blaming. That went out in the ‘70s or ‘80s, or it should have,” said Scott, a field investigator in the county’s Victim Witness Center. “We bring kids in that are going to have to testify and if they say, ‘I don’t want to do this’ We are never going to force them to testify.”

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