Monthly Archives: April 2026

Articles, Education, Infrastructure, Local Government

Del Norte Unified Hits Brakes on SitelogIQ Proposal, Says Savings Potential Not Worth Challenges

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Thumbnail: SitelogIQ representatives proposed installing a solar array near Bess Maxwell Elementary School. | Image courtesy of SitelogIQ

Del Norte education officials decided that waiting 15 to 17 years for substantive savings installing a solar array might bring wasn’t worth committing to a $5 million project even with a $1 million federal rebate.

Reporting back from a March 20 meeting that included officials from the county, the airport and representatives from Pacific Power and SitelogIQ, Del Norte Unified School District Superintendent Jeff Harris said that the community’s utility stated that tying solar into its grid would be difficult.

Meanwhile, quotes DNUSD had received from SitelogIQ were only for solar panels that would be installed at what is currently Del Norte High School’s arboretum near Bess Maxwell Elementary School, Harris told trustees. 

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Articles, Education

DNUSD Board of Trustees Recap, April 9, 2026

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of Michael Hawkins

Trustee Area 5 representative Michael Greer was absent. Among the items the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees discussed Thursday.

School Closure: A leak prompted the Smith River Community Services District to shut the water off at Smith River School on March 3, which in turn forced staff to send students home early, DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris told trustees.

The Board of Trustees approved a request to the California Department of Education to allow DNUSD to receive credit for the instructional time students would have been at Smith River School had the water shutoff not taken place. Noting that the shutoff was outside of its control, Harris said the request would ensure that the district does not lose average daily attendance funding for March 3.

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Articles, Education, Infrastructure, Smith River

Smith River Field Renovation Hits Snag As Trustees Reject Proposals

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Thumbnail photo: Two years ago members of Smith River School’s student government showed the school board the gopher hole-ridden field they and their peers played on. | Courtesy Smith River School’s student government

Two years after Smith River School students described an athletic field riddled with gopher holes and uneven ground and said they raised nearly $3,000 for its renovation, the project has hit a snag.

Two contractors submitted proposals for the work last month. But the Del Norte County Unified School District Board of Trustees was forced to reject both bids. 

The proposal from the lowest bidder, Hemmingsen Construction, lacked supporting documents. Meanwhile, the bid amount from the other contractor, McKinleyville-based Hooven & Co., exceeded the statutory threshold for informal bidding under the California Uniform Public Construction Cost Accounting Act, or CUPCCAA, DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris said Thursday.

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Arts & Culture, Community News

Art Scene: Stories of Steinbeck Art Exhibit, Kamome Festival Art Show, Community Drum Circle

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Here are this week’s Arts Notes from the Del Norte Association of Cultural Awareness (DNACA):

  • April 13: DNACA presents “Stories of Steinbeck,” an art exhibit and lecture by Jenny Rosa. This free event will be held at 6 p.m. at the College of the Redwoods’ Del Norte campus, 883 W. Washington Blvd. in Crescent City. All ages are welcome. 
  •  April 15: DNACA presents a free film screening of Samurai in the Oregon Sky followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Ilana Sol. The screening is a part of this week’s Kamome Festival festivities and will be held at 6 p.m. in the Tapestry Arts Center at the Church of the Nazarene, 224 F. St. in Crescent City. Pre-registration is required to attend. 
  • April 17-18: DNACA presents the Kamome Festival Annual Art Show at the Cultural Center, 1001 Front St. in Crescent City. This year’s theme is “honoring Japanese culture.”
  • April 25: 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.
  • April 25: DNACA, in partnership with True North Organizing Network and Trillium Teen Center, are hosting a Poetry Slam. Poets of any age can participate! Participants must have three poems memorized as there will be three rounds The poets will be randomly picked from the crowd. There is an entrance fee of $1, and the prize for the winner will be the amount collected at the door. This event will also be held in the Tapestry Arts Center, 224 F. St., in Crescent City from 4:30p.m. to 6:00p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m.

Articles, Community News

Crescent City Honors ‘Servant Leader’ Mike Young Whose 53-Year Career Took Him Beyond Del Norte

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Thumbnail photo: Local engineer Mike Young and a child at an orphanage in Haiti exchange a hug during one of his visits with Team Redwood, a Northern California-based group of medical professionals and engineers who helped the country recover from the 2010 earthquake. | Photo courtesy of Carolyn Arellanes.

Eric Wier wouldn’t be Crescent City manager were it not for Mike Young. 

“Mike hired me at the city in 2003,” Wier told the City Council on Monday before they observed a moment of silence for Young, who died on March 21 at 84 years old. “I was able to work with him on so many different projects over the years. He taught me a ton about the water and wastewater systems, and then it was Mike who pushed me to put in an application for city manager.”

Wier chronicled a life that included a career as Crescent City manager in the 1970s, county engineer in the late 1990s and city engineer and public works director in the early 2000s. Young was interim city manager in 2008 and in 2017 just before Wier stepped into his shoes.

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Articles, Crescent City, Infrastructure, Local Government

Crescent City Council Takes First Step Toward Raising Water, Sewer Rates; Prop 218 Protest Process Starts

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Thumbnail photo: Sewer rates for customers within Crescent City limits go toward the conveyance and treatment of their wastewater. | Photo by James Brooks

Linda Sutter vowed to fight planned water and sewer rate increases, telling Crescent City councilors that she’ll be “pounding pavement and getting the signatures” to keep them from going through.

But City Manager Eric Wier corrected a statement Sutter made on Monday about the community’s low-income housing developments and what she said was the expectation that “everybody else who works or gets a decent wage (will) pay for all those people.”

Using Danco Communities’ Harbor Point Apartments as an example, Wier said the developers of the 26-unit senior apartment building paid more than $100,000 in sewer rate connections. The property owners will pay monthly sewer charges based on their water consumption, the city manager said.

“The individual might not be paying that directly because they don’t have an account individually, but that apartment complex does through a master meter,” he said. “The owner of the apartment complex pays that large bill for all those sewer connections. They absolutely pay their equitable fair share for that development.”

Continue reading Crescent City Council Takes First Step Toward Raising Water, Sewer Rates; Prop 218 Protest Process Starts →
Articles, Infrastructure, Transportation

Residents On 197/199 Corridor Call For Renewed Public Comment As Construction On STAA Project Looms

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Map courtesy of Caltrans District 1

Residents living in the Hiouchi, Gasquet and Patrick Creek areas say there hasn’t been enough public outreach to allay concerns about the long-awaited effort to bring State Route 197 and U.S. 199 up to federal trucking standards.

Caltrans is expecting to start bringing in equipment and putting up construction signs as early as May 11, 197/199 Safe STAA Access Project Manager Izzy Konopa told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday.

But Kiley Hudson, who purchased property in the Washington Flat area north of Patrick Creek Lodge with her partner James about a month ago, said the last time there was a significant public comment period on the project was in 2010.

“We just found out about this project they’ve been trying to push for 20 years,” Hudson said. “A lot of the community is either in the dark or they haven’t had the opportunity to express their concerns.”

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Articles, Education

DNUSD’s Classified Employees Union Levees No Confidence Vote Against Transportation Director

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Thumbnail photo by Persephone Rose

Before handing over the results of a vote of no confidence against the transportation director, Shawn Michael Schubert, president of CSEA Great Northern 178, urged Del Norte Unified School District trustees to listen to their bus drivers.

A few minutes later, those bus drivers described “serious operational deficiencies” they say are occurring under Christopher Armington’s leadership. Those deficiencies include a failure to show up to work on time, a lack of communication, rescheduled or canceled training sessions and routes not being properly reviewed.

In one instance, according to Trish Melvin, a bus driver who was hired in 2021, Armington’s failure to show up for work resulted in a student standing on U.S. 101 for three hours waiting for a bus.

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Articles, In Media Res, Just For Fun

Fostering Community Through Tabletop Gaming

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Photos by Aisling Bludworth.

The sounds of mirth filled the air at the Brookings Elks Lodge 1934 last weekend, as over 538 people dove headfirst into the world of tabletop gaming. Attendance has been steadily growing since its origin in 2023 at the Chetco Grange. At the Grange Hall people were packed wall to wall for a one-day event they weren’t sure would ever come around again. The event was a way to meet like-minded people, which is sorely needed in an area as isolated as we are. 

Harbor Game Convention devised by Ian Crockett was originally focused on three core areas of tabletop gaming: board games, tabletop roleplaying games, and trading card games. The first year there were so many cosplayers, people who create costumes of fictional characters, at the event that the next year there was a cosplay contest. In this way, the history of the event mirrors the history of tabletop gaming as the convention has greatly expanded its scope in the few years it has been running. Outside vendors have started sponsoring events. The Kobold’s Lair, which I work for, is a local gaming shop that ran two Magic the Gathering events each day of Harbor Game Con that sold out each day. This convention is filling a need in our community, and giving our youth something positive to do. 

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Articles, Education, Fort Dick, Infrastructure

Redwood School Is In For Some Overdue Upgrades This Summer; Project Will Cost $2.7 Million

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Thumbnail photo by Heather Polen

Redwood School will be under construction for much of the summer and possibly into the fall as Del Norte Unified School District embarks on a $2.7 million modernization project.

Work will include reroofing four buildings as well as the school’s covered walkways, The school will be repainted and all the electric panels, feeders and main switchboards will be upgraded, according to a March 26 staff report from DNUSD Maintenance and Operations Director Josh McCubbin.

“The existing roofing systems on buildings A, F, G-L, N and the covered walkways have reached the end of their useful life and require replacement to prevent water intrusion, protect structural components and reduce the likelihood of costly emergency repairs that could disrupt school operations,” he stated.

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