Though he shared Candace Tinkler’s sentiments concerning vacation rentals, Crescent City Councilman Steve Shamblin couldn’t convince his colleagues that ensuring “everyone’s paying their fair share” was common sense.
Shamblin, and Tinkler, the city’s mayor pro tem, argued for an ordinance that would capture the addresses of Airbnbs, VRBOs and other short-term rentals operating within city limits. But after the city manager and finance director on Tuesday concluded that short-term rentals make up about 2.8% of Crescent City’s overall housing stock, councilors Jason Greenough and Ray Altman said enacting stronger regulations was a waste of time.
“The city should mind its own business and leave property owners alone,” Altman said, repeating a statement he made about two months ago. “Staff should be working on stuff that’s way more important.”
School board officials are set to meet Tuesday morning to discuss appointing John Pritchett to the vacant Trustee Area 1 position.
The meeting will be held at 8 a.m. at the Del Norte County Unified School District office, 301 W. Washington Boulevard. Trustees will interview Pritchett for the position, which has been vacant since Don McArthur retired in July. If he is appointed, Pritchett will serve through the end of the position’s current term which ends in December, according to DNUSD Director of Communications Michael Hawkins.
Pritchett was general manager for Del Norte Ambulance for about 20 years and had been the editor of the Daily Triplicate before that. He is the announcer for the Del Norte High School football and basketball games on KPOD and is a member of the Del Norte Fair Board and Sutter Coast Hospital Board of Directors.
Crescent City’s police chief convinced policymakers Tuesday that the automated license plate reader cameras installed in his department’s patrol vehicles are not the Flock Safety cameras residents raised concerns about last month.
Richard Griffin told city councilors that the Axon ALPR devices the Crescent City Police Department uses helped a dementia patient get home to Southern Oregon and a MythBusters host recover a stolen vehicle.
They’re not stationary like the six Flock Safety cameras the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office has posted throughout the community, he said. Any agency that wants access to the data must go through him.
Eleven weeks after he presented county supervisors with a recommended general fund budget that included a $9.6 million deficit, Del Norte’s top administrative official said staff found additional resources to make an accelerated payment associated with the former Bar-O Boys Ranch.
But County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez blamed timing issues when District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey asked why that recommended $500,000 accelerated payment to the Bar-O Boys Ranch fund wasn’t included in the staff report she and her colleagues received Tuesday.
Lopez said he and others on the budget team also received last-minute information concerning the 2025-26 ending fund balance that would allow for the additional payment.
Here are this week’s Arts Notes from the Del Norte Association of Cultural Awareness (DNACA):
Oct. 17: DNACA is hosting a Community Drum Circle instructed by Mombo Hernandez at 1:30 p.m. at the Tapestry Arts Center, 224 F. St. in Crescent City. Hand drums and percussion instruments will be provided or you may bring your own. All ages are welcome.
On display until Oct. 22: DNACA presents a variety of local artwork at the 35th Annual Juried Multimedia Exhibition in the Del Norte County Courthouse, 450 H St. in Crescent City. The courthouse is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
On display until Oct. 22: DNACA presents Painting the Music– a collection of paintings of musical artists by local artist Marcia Morgan. Her portraits paired with musicians’ lyrics can be viewed on the second-floor mezzanine of the Del Norte County Airport, 1650 Dale Rupert Rd. in Crescent City.
On display until Dec. 10: DNACA showcases the dreamlike artwork of artist Susan Moore. View her exhibition at the College of the Redwoods’ Del Norte Campus, 883 W. Washington Blvd. in Crescent City between the business hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Thumbnail photo: Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office and jail. | Redwood Voice
Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:
Measure R funds for jail rehabilitation: Four supervisors agreed to use about $2 million in unallocated Measure R dollars to make up a funding gap in the ongoing jail rehabilitation project.
But at least two representatives, District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short and his District 2 colleague Valerie Starkey, were confused at the term “Justice Campus” County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez used in his board report for Tuesday. Starkey abstained from voting.
In response to their concerns, Lopez brought up the Board’s approved use last year of Measure R dollars as gap funding for the jail project and also brought up a proposal to build a designated building for the Del Norte County District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department.
Thumbnail photo: Inside the Del Norte County Regional Airport terminal. Photo by James Brooks
Sean Rosenthal unveiled a five-year list of capital improvement projects he said may be eligible for $15.5 million in federal funding.
But, while the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority would be responsible for a 5% local match for most projects, things are different for a long-awaited rehabilitation of a fuel farm at Jack McNamara Field, the airport authority director told commissioners Thursday.
About $600,000 in Airport Infrastructure Grant dollars are available for the fuel farm project, Rosenthal said. Though the total estimated cost for the project is $1.2 million, the airport director told commissioners that figure isn’t finalized. Still, BCRAA will be responsible for figuring out how to pay for what the AIG grant doesn’t cover, he said.
As the second phase of its downtown revitalization plan takes shape, Crescent City is now eyeing U.S. 101.
The city is pursuing a Caltrans Partnership Planning Grant to complete its U.S. Highway 101 Multimodal Land Use Plan with help from the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission.
The land-use plan for the highway corridor will analyze motorized and non motorized uses between Wilson Avenue and Anchor Way, Crescent City Manager Eric Wier told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday.
Thumbnail photo: Work has already begun on the 197/199 Safe STAA Access project, particularly on State Route 197 and on U.S. 199 near the Patrick Creek Narrows. | Photo courtesy of Caltrans District 1
Though Caltrans pushed its plans to close parts of the highway for the 197/199 Safe STAA Access project back to January, Tamera Leighton went back to 2021 and the landslide at Last Chance Grade when thinking about how to manage traffic.
Leighton, executive director of the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission, mentioned the queue of cars that would form near South Beach and proceeded down U.S. 101 when the highway reopened at specific times to traffic.
In January, when Caltrans starts work on U.S. 199 in the narrows and has to close the road for hours at a time, Leighton said cars could queue up at the east end of the four-lane freeway past Gasquet.
Thumbnail image: A Gasquet property owner seeks to subdivide a 40-acre parcel off into two lots as well as extend an existing road that serves the parcel. | Image courtesy of Del Norte County
A Gasquet property owner received the go-ahead last week to extend a private road as part of his plan to subdivide the 40-acre parcel.
Ron MacMaster contradicted two of his neighbors at the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 25 meeting and said he has no plans to build a mobile home park. Though the county’s zoning laws allow the property to be subdivided into 21 lots, MacMaster said he’s planning on subdividing it into two lots.
“As far as the road goes, it’s my understanding that’s my property, so my two neighbors shouldn’t be impacted by this at all,” he said. “Right now it’s a dirt road. If it gets gravel and asphalt it’ll keep the dust down. It’ll be an improvement.”
