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Del Norte Board of Supervisors Recap, Aug. 26, 2025

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Thumbnail photo: Members of the Del Norte Sheriff’s Posse raised $10,000 to bring Otis, a 1954 Ford police car, back to the community last month. | Photo courtesy of the Del Norte Sheriff’s Posse

Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

Supervisors accept “Otis”: Though the vehicle has already been purchased, Del Norte County supervisors officially accepted Otis on Tuesday.

The 1954 Ford police car has been in movies, including the 1996 crime flick “Mulholland Falls,” according to Sheriff Garrett Scott’s staff report. Over the summer, the Del Norte Sheriff’s Posse, the nonprofit organization supporting the sheriff’s office, raised $10,000 to buy the vehicle. 

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Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government, Transportation

Del Norte Supervisors Extend Line of Credit To Airport Authority Due To Cash Flow Emergency

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of Andrew Goff

With one of their colleagues conjuring up images of plane vs. elk collisions on the runway, Del Norte County supervisors authorized a line of credit that will allow the local airport authority to weather a cash flow emergency.

It’s an emergency tied to three grant-funded projects that are currently underway at the Del Norte County Airport. According to District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard, the emergency represents an oversight on the part of the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority and its former airport director Ryan Cooley.

Howard, however, pinned much of the blame on Cooley, who in 2023 had secured contributions from the joint powers authority’s member agencies to help to meet a 5% match tied to the $8 million Federal Aviation Administration grant-funded runway rehabilitation project.

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Articles, Crime, Local Government

Judge Denies Motion To Reduce Del Norte ACAO’s Hit & Run, DUI Charges; Hooper Allegedly Had 0.198 BAC, CHP Officer Testifies

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Thumbnail photo by Heather Polen

Hooper | Courtesy LinkedIn

After viewing video footage from Elk Valley Casino and hearing from the alleged victim in the case, a Del Norte County Judge denied a motion to reduce hit and run and driving under the influence charges against County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper from felonies to misdemeanors.

During a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, Judge Karen Olson said it would be up to the people to decide whether the charges against Hooper should be reduced. 

“[It’s] not in the interest of justice,” Olson said. “Accountability and justice go hand-in-hand regardless of how many Board of Supervisor members or sheriffs you know. This is not a core issue of the case. Reducing charges may occur in the future, but that is on the people.”

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Articles, Crescent City, Crime, Emergencies, Law

Three Children Are Safe After Law Enforcement Arrest Male Suspect Following Hours-Long Standoff

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Thumbnail photo: Law enforcement with the Crescent City Police Department, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, Pelican Bay State Prison’s CERT Team and others secure the scene after an hours-long standoff ended with four children being taken into protective custody and a male and female suspect arrested. | Photo by Heather Polen

Four children are in protective custody Monday evening after officers from multiple agencies engaged in a standoff with a 50-year-old man that lasted more than seven hours.

Three of the youngsters, ages 1, 2 and 4, were in the Crescent City apartment with Robert William Thraen when officers responded to the area to conduct a welfare check at about 10:30 a.m., Police Chief Richard Griffin told Redwood Voice Community News. 

Griffin said they were able to get the children to safety and arrest the suspect after he decided to have his officers break the window to open the front door — a technique he called a breach and hold. 

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Articles, Community News, Emergencies, Klamath, Tribal Affairs

Del Norte Ambulance Will Station A Vehicle, Crew In Klamath

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of Del Norte Ambulance

(Updated at 5:07 p.m. to clarify that it was Walter Lara Jr. that helped facilitate a partnership between the Yurok Tribe and Del Norte Ambulance to open a station in Klamath.]

Del Norte Ambulance’s operations manager confirmed a statement District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson made earlier this month — the emergency medical provider will have an ambulance and a crew stationed in Klamath.

“We are working with the Yurok Housing Authority on a partnership for securing housing for us on a trial basis of one year while we place one of our four ambulances there,” Charles Tweed told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. “Two people will be staffed in that ambulance at any given time.”

This news comes about two weeks after an independent consultant, EndPoint EMS Consulting LLC, delivered an analysis of Del Norte County’s emergency medical system, finding that Klamath residents often waited up to 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive during an emergency.

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Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Local Government

Blake Inscore To Be Guest Speaker At Sister Cities International Summit in Japan; Delegation Will Visit Iwate Prefecture

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Thumbnail photo: A delegation from Rikuzentakata celebrates the inaugural Kamome Festival in Crescent City in 2023. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Blake Inscore called his guest speaker role at a Sister Cities International Summit in Japan his “last big push for tourism as well as for our community” before he moves onto the next chapter of his life.

Part of the World’s Expo 2025 in Osaka, Inscore said every U.S./Japan Sister City was invited to attend the summit, which will be held from Sept. 16-19. His opportunity to re-tell the story of Crescent City’s evolving friendship with Rikuzentakata not only puts it on as large a world stage as the Tokyo Olympics did back in 2021, it represents what many Sister Cities don’t have.

“Sister Cities International has been very intrigued and they want us to show how a Sister City can work together with government-to-government relationships,” Inscore told the Crescent City Council on Monday. “[Many Sister Cities] don’t have a city council or a mayor or anybody else that’s engaged with wanting to see this happen. And, frankly, this is a win for us.”

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Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Curry, Environment

Crescent City Leaders Reaffirm Support For Permanent Mining Ban On North Fork Smith River

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Thumbnail image shows map of the proposed 58,000-acre expansion of the Smith River National Recreation Area. | Image courtesy of Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office.

More than eight years after the Obama Administration issued a 20-year mining ban for the North Fork Smith River in Oregon, the Crescent City Council reaffirmed its support for legislation that would make that prohibition permanent.

Four councilors on Monday agreed to draft a letter to U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkely and Ron Wyden, who represent Oregon, reminding them that the Smith River is where Del Norte County’s drinking water comes from and that they’ve advocated for protecting its headwaters for more than a decade. Councilor Daran Dooley was absent.

But though Grant Werschkull, executive director of the Smith River Alliance, said such legislation is necessary for the January 2017 mineral withdrawal order to be permanent, he’s not sure if it will be approved this year.

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Articles, Crescent City, Crime, Curry

CCPD Helps Curry County Sheriff Apprehend Man Suspected Of Abusing Children

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Thumbnail photo by Ken Lund via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License

Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin credited the purchase of a Cellebrite Forensic Analyzer for being able to help the Curry County Sheriff’s Office track down a Texas man suspected of abusing children.

Appearing before the Crescent City Council on Monday, Griffin said that Curry County Sheriff John Ward had posted a press release to his agency’s Facebook page, thanking Crescent City for helping with the forensics in a recent Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce case.

According to Ward’s press release, he and Sgt. Zane Van Zelf arrested 32-year-old Matthew Arthur Anderson at his home in the central part of Curry County on Aug. 7. Gold Beach Police Sgt. David Vershall assisted them.

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Articles, Crescent City, Infrastructure, Local Government

Crescent City Council Recap, Aug. 18, 2025

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Thumbnail photo: Construction began on the Fred Endert Municipal Pool’s roof on Monday. | courtesy of Andrew Goff

Councilman Daran Dooley was absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting:

CDBG grant: City Councilors authorized staff to establish a new fund for the $1.8 million it received in 2024 Community Development Block Grant dollars.

According to City Manager Eric Wier, about $300,000 of that money will go toward the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods for its Pacific Pantry program while another $1.5 million will be used to establish a business loan program.

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Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

‘I’m His Right Hand’; Sandy Moreno Stays On As CCHD’s Financial Advisor

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Sandy Moreno successfully convinced three harbor commissioners that she’s “imminently qualified” to stay on as financial advisor. 

But her justification last week for why she denied access to a U.S. Department of Agriculture document to a member of the public nearly resulted in the ejection of another member of the public from the Crescent City Harbor District’s Aug. 13 meeting when she protested.

“To have a person that you’re employing telling you they are the boss is heinous. It’s just heinous and it’s inappropriate,” Stephanie Abrams said when she was allowed to speak.

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