Crescent City councilors approved bike pump track rules ahead of its Saturday grand opening.

The new rules require users to wear a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads and states that kids under age 12 must be under adult supervision, City Attorney Martha Rice said Monday. The regulations set the facility’s hours from dawn to dusk and limit its use to “non-motorized wheeled devices.”

Anyone flouting those rules will either be suspended from the facility or receive an administrative citation, Rice said. Though the ordinance won’t take effect for another 30 days, the rules will be posted at the pump track’s entrance.

The pump track grand opening will start at 11 a.m. Saturday at Beachfront Park and will include giveaways and riding demonstrations. Kids are also urged to bring their helmets and bicycles. The city and the Del Norte Trail Alliance are sponsoring the event.

• City councilors accepted a $450,000 donation from the Del Norte Healthcare District to resurface KidTown and to install exercise stations along the one-mile loop that’s slated to go into Beachfront Park. That donation will augment Proposition 68 funding the city received for Beachfront Park’s big expansion, which includes a bike pump track, amphitheater, waterfront plaza, Tolowa interpretive walk and a one-mile loop. About $300,000 will be used to replace the wood chips at KidTown with a cushioned safety surface. The other $150,000 will install exercise stations that fixed low-maintenance equipment. City Manager Eric Wier said this equipment might include bars for pull-ups.

• City councilors accepted yet another grant associated with Beachfront Park. Crescent City received $300,000 Art in California Parks dollars for its Tolowa Interpretive Walk project.
  The project grew out of a suggestion from Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation member Sheryl Steinruck at a workshop in 2019 and included collaboration from the TdN, Elk Valley Rancheria and Tolowa Nation, Wier said. Though it called for three nodes consisting of redwoods, a canoe and salmon and a burden basket, the city manager said the $300,000 will only fund two of those three components.

He said the Art in California Parks grant won’t fund the burden basket.

• Finally, though it’s not in the bank yet, Crescent City’s receipt of $7.9 million in state dollars to shore up Pebble Beach Drive is all-but assured, according to Wier.
  These dollars come from a budget amendment California Gov. Gavin Newsom approved on Sept. 30, Weir said. The funding will be used for repairing the scenic drive between 7th and 8th streets months after a January storm caused the bank to give way. That emergency project is expected to cost about $5 million, Wier said.
  The rest of that $7.9 million allocation will go towards a larger project to stabilize the bluff between Sixth Street and the Preston Island access road. That project is expected to cost about $30 million.
  While Crescent City is eligible for Federal Highway Administration grant funds, they won’t be available until after the project is completed if Congress approves the reimbursement. City staff have been working with Caltrans and State Sen. Mike McGuire for the last few months to overcome this hurdle, according to Wier.
  Tidewater Contractors, with help from its subcontractor Geostabilization International and COWI, the engineer of record, began construction on the emergency project last month.