_{Thumbnail: Rock delivery and minor grading on Childs Avenue is among a list of planned repairs to unmaintained county roads for the upcoming fiscal year. | Photo courtesy of Del Norte County}

Four Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday agreed to finance repairs to public roads the county doesn’t maintain for a second year. They also supported a proposal to use that allocation as an incentive to get residents to take on that responsibility themselves.

That policy pitch came from County Engineer Jon Olson. He acknowledged that residents weren’t receptive to a proposed benefit assessment to pay for those repairs about 15 years ago, but, he said, an up-front investment might get them to change their minds.

“This Board is spending $50,000,” Olson said. “That could be the leverage or the carrot that we need to get people to take responsibility long term for the roads that they’re responsible to maintain instead of just spending out $50,000 each year.”

The Board of Supervisors approved the allocation of $50,000 in its 2025-26 budget for repairs to the following roads: Lake Street north of Washington; Childs Avenue west of Kern and Lake streets, south of Murphy; State Street west of Olive Street; and Darby Street from Hodge to Iler streets.

Those repairs are estimated to cost a total of $35,000, according to Olson. The remaining $15,000 in that allocation would act as a buffer if those repairs wind up costing more, he said.

Board Chairman Joey Borges, however, asked Olson to add Carole Lane to the list.

District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey was absent.

“All these projects, until we start removing the brush … you don’t know what you’re getting into,” Olson said. “We haven’t done extensive investigations beforehand.”

Del Norte County’s Road Division maintains about 300 miles of public roads. Public roads that aren’t part of that system cannot be repaired using Road Division dollars, however. According to Olson’s staff report, responsibility for maintaining those public roads falls onto property owners.

Last year, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to prioritize repairs to public roads that had been inaccessible to first responders. On Tuesday, Olson said a massive water-filled pothole on Darby Street north of Dodane resulted in the loss of an ambulance.

At about $35,000, those repairs were among the most expensive on last year’s list. The Roads Division reopened ditches, cleared brush, re-established culverts and filled in the pothole, turning Darby into a passable gravel road, Olson said.

Among this year’s projects, Olson’s report calls for grading and ditch work on Lake Street, State Street and Darby Street.

Minor grading and rock delivery is slated for Childs Avenue.

Olson also showed pictures of a concrete barrier on State Street that had been trying to prevent people from dumping garbage in the area.

District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short said there’s a thoroughfare in that area that allows vehicles to access the wooded area for the purposes of dumping. He asked Olson if he would work with county code enforcement to conduct cleanup activity and to try to block that thoroughfare.

Olson said Del Norte County would need to obtain a coastal development permit to erect such a barrier, which can get costly.

As for getting property owners to shoulder the responsibility of those road repairs themselves, Olson offered private and public mechanisms.

A road maintenance agreement among property owners agreeing to contribute a specific amount toward repairs would be the easiest private mechanism, Olson said. Del Norte County would conduct the initial improvements and the homeowners would be responsible for future maintenance.

“We would essentially be out of the loop beyond that, but we could participate by putting together some templates as far as an agreement to easily distribute,” he said.

Another private arrangement for residents to shoulder the burden of those repairs would be a homeowners’ association, though Olson said “it’s outside of what I think we ought to offer as helping to establish.”

On the public side of things, Olson said each option requires a formal vote among those owning property on county unmaintained roads. One option would be to establish a county service area, which has broad authority that can include providing police services or lighting. Olson said an example would be the county connecting to Crescent City’s sewer system.

Another option would be establishing a permanent road division, which would include a special benefit assessment.

“Again, the homeowners using the roads and the property owners, they would have to vote to say, ‘Yes, we’re willing to tax ourselves,’” Olson told supervisors. “And those funds would be set aside specifically for those particular repairs.”

A third option is establishing a road maintenance district, which Olson said was very restrictive on how much funding could be raised for repairs.

“If we were to do something in the public arena, I would recommend a permanent road division as it has a lot of flexibility,” Olson said. “And, again, we would be offering an investment up front to help bring [their] road to some standard and then they would continue to maintain that in the future.”

District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson, who pointed out that many residents in his district are renters, not owners, asked Olson if the county could expand its existing services area to offer road maintenance in addition to city sewer and water access.

Olson said that was an option. He pointed to Humboldt County, which had created a countywide permanent road division, but property owners would still need to vote on it.

In Humboldt County, new subdivisions must be part of the county permanent road division and set aside funds for long-term maintenance, Olson said.

“Even if they are adopting that road into the county-maintained road system, they’ll use gas taxes and, above and beyond that, they’ll spend those special assessment dollars on additional paving or planned maintenance,” he said. “To get on a cycle that’s above and beyond regular road maintenance or what we can afford just with the gas tax.”

A final suggestion was a revolving fund. According to Olson, the Board would approve a certain amount of funding and would loan it out to a specific road.

“Only if those neighbors say yes we want to improve our road, and we have a whole suite of options to bring it all the way up to road standard or some lesser standard, there would be an opportunity to make targeted investments that don’t do Band-aid type of repairs,” Olson said. “Then [they’re] paying those funds back over time through their tax bill.”

Supervisors asked Olson to come back with a formal proposal.