Category Archives: Crescent City

Crescent City Has A New Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, And Other Items From The Dec. 16, 2024 Meeting

The Tolowa Interpretive Walk at Beachfront Park will feature a redwood tree, a burden basket and a canoe with kiosks focusing on their origin story, culture and the atrocities they lived through at the hands of white settlers. | Image courtesy of Crescent City

Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting

New Council, New Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem:

A new Crescent City Council appointed Ray Altman as the new mayor with Isaiah Wright taking on the job of mayor pro tem.

Altman had been mayor pro tem under Blake Inscore, who finished out his final two years on the City Council on Monday. Wright had been mayor in 2023.

Continue reading Crescent City Has A New Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, And Other Items From The Dec. 16, 2024 Meeting

With Park Improvements Underway, Crescent City Looks To Its Downtown

Don Arambula, an urban designer with Crandall Arambula PC, floated some ideas for a revitalized Downtown Crescent City on Monday. | Screenshot

Don Arambula showed a new City Council how his firm could help revitalize its downtown area by comparing Crescent City to Whitefish, Montana.

Arambula, project manager, principal planner and urban designer for the Portland-based Crandall Arambula, PC, said Monday when his firm began working on a master plan for Whitefish’s downtown business district, the city wanted to “lean into its visitor potential.” Though it’s a bit larger than Crescent City, Arambula drew a comparison, saying it, too, is on a national park’s doorstep.

“They’ve found that people want to come to Whitefish and experience a unique condition. If they’re from Georgia, they don’t want to see the same things they left in Georgia,” he said. “They wanted to have a sense of the culture and the place, and that’s really one of the founding principles we had for this project. And we suspect something like this would be appropriate also for Crescent City.”

Continue reading With Park Improvements Underway, Crescent City Looks To Its Downtown

Inscore, Feola Pass Torch to New Councilors In Heartwarming Ceremony

The board chambers were filled with an outpouring of love Monday. Monday was the last day that Mayor Blake Inscore and Kelly Schellong-Feola were members of the Crescent City Council. The meeting started with a PowerPoint presentation from City Manager Eric Wier about the accomplishments of the two outgoing councilors over the past ten years of service. This PowerPoint was not a straightforward affair, it instead took on the air of a roast. As Wier continued through the slideshow, the audience was treated to a number of amusing pictures caught of Inscore and some surprise pictures of Schellong-Feola.

“Time has a way of changing people and it’s always interesting to see how time does affect people,” Wier said, “and a lot of times you see aging with presidents and whatnot, I don’t know what to say about this aging process.” This statement was punctuated with two images juxtaposing Inscore’s appearance at the beginning of his mayoral term with his appearance at the end.

Following this hazing of Inscore, the flood of public comments on their tenure began. Many members of the First Baptist Church of Crescent City spoke to his commitment to his work as a pastor, as a mayor of Crescent City, and as a family man. A sentiment that cropped up again and again during these comments is that no one ever felt neglected by Inscore in these arenas of his life. He was always there to listen, to consider, and to move forward when he had his facts straight.

Continue reading Inscore, Feola Pass Torch to New Councilors In Heartwarming Ceremony

‘She will be an asset to the community later, the dog and Jenna’; Future K9 Hero Juno Needs Help

Jenna Phillips and her K9 partner Juno — seen here in the middle with Catherine Schneider (left) and Gloria Bobertz — earned their AKC Canine Good Citizenship certification on Nov. 18. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City Police Department. Thumbnail photo courtesy of GoFundMe.

Jenna Phillips can already see herself as a new officer working at the Crescent City Police Department with her canine partner Juno.

At 16 years old, Jenna is a sergeant in the CCPD Explorers Program and is a member of its volunteer K9 crew. Juno, a cattle dog Labrador mix, has appeared at “multiple fundraisers for different things” and has taught youngsters about canine safety.

Juno just passed her AKC Canine Good Citizenship qualification test with flying colors.

“One day, she will be able to be deployed and help find missing persons,” Jenna wrote.

Continue reading ‘She will be an asset to the community later, the dog and Jenna’; Future K9 Hero Juno Needs Help

Crescent City Featured Magazine That Generates 7.9 Million Digital Page Views Annually; And Other Crescent City Council Actions On Dec. 4, 2024

Castle Rock is one of the photos featured in an article in the Yosemite National Park Journal. | Photo courtesy of Visit Del Norte

Though it wasn’t an item they were asked to approve, Crescent City councilors learned that $3,700 in money set aside to market the community paid for an ad in a magazine with a 550,000 annual print circulation.

The half-page ad and an article featuring photos of Castle Rock, the redwoods and Battery Point Lighthouse will appear in the Yosemite National Park Journal, City Manager Eric Wier told councilors on Monday.

Published by Outside Interactive Inc., the magazine aims to help readers plan a road trip to Yosemite National Park and other communities in the region, including the California coast.

Continue reading Crescent City Featured Magazine That Generates 7.9 Million Digital Page Views Annually; And Other Crescent City Council Actions On Dec. 4, 2024

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

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

Transportation Officials Seek Public Input South Beach Climate Change Resiliency Plan

Photo courtesy of the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission

Transportation officials are holding the second of two public meetings today to come up with a plan that ensures U.S. 101 and Anchor Way continue to function in the face of rising sea level and extreme weather associated with climate change.

These meetings are part of a joint effort between the Crescent City Harbor District, Elk Valley Rancheria and the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission to create a South Beach Climate Resilience Plan.

Caltrans District 1, Del Norte County, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as consultants GHD and GreenDOT are also participating in the project, DNLTC Executive Director Tamera Leighton said.

Caltrans is expected to take over the project on June 30, 2025, when the planning phase is completed, Leighton said. Today’s meeting, which will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Elk Valley Rancheria, will give people the opportunity to learn more about why a resiliency project is necessary and will enable them to provide input, she said.

Continue reading Transportation Officials Seek Public Input South Beach Climate Change Resiliency Plan

Crescent City Council Praises Friendlier Cultural Center, But Says Design Should Reflect Whole Community

Cultural Center concept art designed by Greenworks Planning Consultants architect Ben Johnson, courtesy of Crescent City.

Crescent City councilors applauded the friendlier Cultural Center architect Ben Johnson and his team at Greenworks Planning Consultants presented them on Monday.

Johnson’s vision removes the second of two staircases and adds a walkway that takes visitors to an entry plaza. But rather than incorporating a Tolowa basket pattern into the entry plaza — a proposed introduction to the interpretive walk at neighboring Beachfront Park — councilors wanted a design that represents the whole community.

“The entryway needs to be communicated that this is an entry point for all people,” Mayor Blake Inscore said. “None of this is meant to undermine or take away from the amazing work or this being the ancestral home of the Tolowa people. The point is we’re talking about an entryway going into a public building that’s for everyone, including people from all over the world.”

Continue reading Crescent City Council Praises Friendlier Cultural Center, But Says Design Should Reflect Whole Community

Though Concerned About Usage, Crescent City Council Finalizes Pool Partnership With Brookings Nonprofit

Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore supported a partnership with South Coast Community Aquatics in Brookings to give Del Norters a place to swim while the Fred Endert Municipal Pool undergoes renovations starting next month.

But he said he was apprehensive about committing $35,000 toward the arrangement without having a better sense of how many people would actually be willing to swim in an outdoor swimming pool from December through February.

“When we talked about this initially with the extended closure we talked about how we were going to do some cost adjustments whether that is to not renew people’s passes or give them that extra period of time that we’re closed — are we still going to do that?” Inscore asked city staff Monday. “What if a person goes up and goes for a couple of times and realizes it’s not warm enough [or] it’s too far? How are we going to track that for a person who tries this and it doesn’t work for them and other people are now getting a three-month, four-month bump on their annual pass?”

Continue reading Though Concerned About Usage, Crescent City Council Finalizes Pool Partnership With Brookings Nonprofit