Category Archives: Crescent City

Crescent City Council Roundup, Feb. 3, 2024

The previous City Council, plus new councilmember Candace Tinkler, cut the ribbon on a reconstructed Front Street in November. | Photo by Amanda Dockter

Crescent City Councilor Candace Tinkler was absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s meeting:

Front Street Notice of Completion: Four members of the City Council marked the official end of the Front Street reconstruction project, authorizing the city manager to sign and file a notice of completion for the stretch between G and Play.

This action comes about three months after the former Council reopened the road to traffic on Nov. 6. The project was possible through a total of about $2.2 million from multiple funding sources including Measure S, the American Rescue Plan Act, Senate Bill 1 dollars as well as the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission and the city’s general fund.

Continue reading Crescent City Council Roundup, Feb. 3, 2024

Pressed By Triplicate Editor Roger Gitlin, Crescent City Council Will Consider Public Prayer

Del Norte Triplicate News Editor Roger Gitlin says his goal is to get all major government bodies in Del Norte County to open their meetings with an invocation. | Screenshot

Crescent City Councilors agreed to discuss a proposal to incorporate prayer into its meetings.

Former supervisor and Del Norte Triplicate news editor Roger Gitlin made the request. In a public comment that went longer than the three minutes normally allotted to speakers, Gitlin said several times that his ask wasn’t “a religious thing.” He pointed out that the Crescent City Harbor District Board three weeks ago voted to hold an invocation prior to its meetings. Gitlin said he’s also encouraging the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors to do the same.

“This was substantiated and supported in April 2014 in a Supreme Court case, the City of Greece, New York vs. another party [that] allowed for denominational and non-denominational prayer,” he said. “I want to make it very clear that our Assembly, State Senate, House of Representatives and the United States Senate also invoke an invocation and it’s a very simple one: It’s a matter of a few lines and it invokes the name of God. [It states] ‘give us the courage, the experience and the wisdom to make decisions which benefit our citizenry.’ That’s about all of it.”

Continue reading Pressed By Triplicate Editor Roger Gitlin, Crescent City Council Will Consider Public Prayer

Crescent City Pursues Grant To Get ‘Redwood Discovery Center’ Shovel Ready

Concept art of the Redwood Discovery Center’s interior. | Screenshot

Crescent City is pursuing grant dollars that would ultimately lead to putting the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, Redwood National and State Parks and Redwood Parks Conservancy’s visitor centers under one roof.

The city is seeking $985,000 in California Jobs First “catalyst” dollars that will pay for the environmental documents, plans, specifications and estimates needed to get the endeavor ready for construction. Its aim is to turn the Cultural Center into a regional landmark, City Manager Eric Wier told councilors on Monday.

But Crescent City is competing against about 50 other applicants from Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino and Lake counties, and only nine will receive grant funding, Wier said.

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

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.

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CCPD Are Searching For An Alleged Carjacking Suspect

A man whose “possible first name” is Andrew is wanted after allegedly brandishing a firearm and stealing a car at the Safeway parking lot, according to CCPD Chief Richard Griffin. | Photo courtesy CCPD

Crescent City police are searching for a man they brandished a firearm in the Safeway parking lot before encountering police this morning and then stealing a vehicle with an 18-year-old man inside of it.

The vehicle and 18-year-old was later found at Foursquare Church, according to Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin. He said the incident took place just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

The suspect’s possible first name is Andrew, Griffin said. According to the police chief, the suspect had fled west on Macken Avenue after abandoning the stolen vehicle. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached.

Police are urging the public to call dispatch at (707) 464-4191 to report any sightings.

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.”

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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.

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‘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