Category Archives: Articles

Articles, CC Harbor, Crescent City, Law

Sheriff Says He Won’t ‘Give A Lot of Breaks’ On Illegal Fireworks This Year; Blake Inscore To Be Grand Marshal In Parade

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce

Del Norte County’s sheriff plans to come down heavy on criminal charges against those  who test the community’s resolve on curtailing the use of illegal fireworks.

Though a new social media campaign launched last week mentions increased administrative fines and penalties for the sale, possession and use of mortars, sky rockets and other unsafe pyrotechnics, those who flout state law could face misdemeanor or felony charges, Sheriff Garrett Scott said.

“The bottomline is it’s easier for us to focus more on state laws than it is on local laws just for the teeth,” Scott said Monday. “This time we’re trying to make an impact and make this community safe. And so this year, we’re not going to be giving a lot of breaks.”

Continue reading Sheriff Says He Won’t ‘Give A Lot of Breaks’ On Illegal Fireworks This Year; Blake Inscore To Be Grand Marshal In Parade →
Articles, Health

Sutter Coast Hospital To Break Ground On EmPATH Unit Next Month

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Thumbnail photo by Persephone Rose

Nearly six months after Del Norte County rolled out its new Providing Access to Hope program, Behavioral Health Director Shiann Hogan briefly mentioned Sutter Coast Hospital’s new EmPATH unit.

Hogan had brought her staff and the clients they serve before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to commemorate May as Mental Health Awareness Month. In addition to thanking her team — “the ones doing the daily work to improve lives” — Hogan said the hospital’s latest development is one of several new treatment options that will be available on the North Coast.

“Yesterday it was announced by the governor many projects that are going to be funded through the Prop 1 BCHIP funds,” she said, referring to the Proposition 1 Bond Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program.

Continue reading Sutter Coast Hospital To Break Ground On EmPATH Unit Next Month →
Articles, Economy, Local Government, Smith River, Tribal Affairs

DN Supervisor Calls Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s Latest Fee-to-Trust Application An ‘Erosion Of Our Tax Base’

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Thumbnail photo by Persephone Rose

Del Norte County could lose $162,000 in revenue, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard said, urging his colleagues to oppose what he called “an erosion of our tax base” — the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s latest fee-to-trust land acquisition efforts.

The properties the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation seeks to place into trust are close to three miles away from its boundaries in the Smith River townsite, Howard told his colleagues Tuesday, and are homes that “generate a substantial amount of revenue to the general fund.”

Howard called on his colleagues to reach out to any contacts they might have within the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as their national representatives.

Continue reading DN Supervisor Calls Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s Latest Fee-to-Trust Application An ‘Erosion Of Our Tax Base’ →
Articles, Arts & Culture, Community News

‘Sketch Comedy Experiment’: Not Your Typical LRT Production

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Thumbnail photo: The cast of Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s ‘Sketch Comedy Experiment’ prepares for the production’s opening night, which will be held at the Cultural Center on Friday. | Photo and video by Monique Camarena

The jury’s still out on whether Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s new production embodies the definition of insanity, but preparing for it was definitely loony, or so Elizabeth Coburn says.

Coburn is one of the producers for LRT’s “Sketch Comedy Experiment” which makes its second appearance at the Crescent City Cultural Center starting Friday. It’s a departure from the organization’s usual repertoire, but Coburn is hoping to get the same results as the previous demonstration.

“From most of the responses we got, the audience really enjoyed it,” she said, adding that she and longtime LRT thespian Howard R. Patterson wrote the sketches for the experiment’s debut in November. “Howard’s goal when he wanted to put a sketch comedy together was to replicate what was done on Saturday Night Live, but on stage in front of an audience. That’s definitely what we heard from the audience [members] that we spoke to. That’s what they felt like.”

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Articles, Health, Youth

Meeting New Medi-Cal Requirements For Incarcerated Youth Is Challenging Even With A $1.5 Million Grant, Del Norte’s Chief Probation Officer Says

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Though his office was awarded a $1.5 million grant that will allow youth in their care to either connect or reconnect with Medi-Cal upon release from a detention facility, Lonnie Reyman isn’t thrilled.

Reyman, Del Norte County’s chief probation officer, told supervisors on Tuesday that he’ll likely use the CalAIM PATH 3 grant to hire a consultant to help create a plan for implementing the state-mandated program. But having to suddenly navigate the nuances of the “healthcare world” while relying on technical assistance from those who are also still figuring the program out is irritating, he said.

Reyman used a conversation he had during an October technical assistance call with teams from the University of California, Davis who, he said, were working with the state to help guide him and other counties through the program.

Continue reading Meeting New Medi-Cal Requirements For Incarcerated Youth Is Challenging Even With A $1.5 Million Grant, Del Norte’s Chief Probation Officer Says →
Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government

Supervisors Renew Advocacy For Secure Rural Schools, And Other Del Norte County News

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

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

• Secure Rural Schools: Supervisors reaffirmed their support for a century-old program that brought nearly $1.4 million to Del Norte County in 2023. 

Acting on information from District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short, the Board authorized a support letter for the Secure Rural Schools Act to U.S. senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Congressman Jared Huffman.

Continue reading Supervisors Renew Advocacy For Secure Rural Schools, And Other Del Norte County News →
Articles, Community News, Education

Meet Del Norte’s Lunch Lady

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Julie Bjorkstrand is a self-described “worrier,” a trait that comes in handy when you’re in charge of feeding nearly 2,000 kids every day.  

“I worry where there’s often no need to worry just because I like to think ahead,” she says, taking a seat at the small conference table in her office. The spring sun streams through the windows. Outside, a lawnmower whines in the adjacent Mike Whalen Field. It’s a decidedly non-stressful office, belying the myriad concerns Bjorkstrand encounters daily as Del Norte Unified School District’s Nutrition Services Director. Has she found the best vendors for the mix of prepackaged and fresh fare students get? What if the funding goes away? What if Last Chance Grade slides into the sea? 

“I’d rather be unsurprised by bad news,” Bjorkstrand says, “and have had a moment to think about if this happens, what next? What do we do after that?”

Bjorkstrand has been Nutrition Services Director since 2020. Before that, she served as the admin to her predecessor, Deb Kravitz. For seven years, she worked alongside Kravitz, learning the role of director, helping develop relationships with local food producers, making sure the district was able to provide quality nutrition to its students. “I learned a lot from her,” Bjorkstrand says of Kravitz, “oh, absolutely!”

Continue reading Meet Del Norte’s Lunch Lady →
Articles, Community News, Education

DNUSD Foregoes Issuing Final Layoff Notices For Most Positions; District Still Has Funding Challenges, Superintendent Says

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Pine Grove School | Photo by Amanda Dockter

Del Norte Unified School District has been able to forego issuing final layoff notices to most of its certificated and classified staff members, Superintendent Jeff Harris said.

But since many of those positions will continue to be paid for through one-time grant dollars, DNUSD may find itself in the same boat again next year, Harris told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday.

“We’ve lost about 450 students since 2019,” he said, echoing a statement from a press release the district issued Feb. 28. “Losing 450 students would be the equivalent, at this point, of closing ‘O Me-nok, Mountain, Sunset and Bess Maxwell schools. What that means is that prior to 2020, we had a certain number of teachers. And, today, we have approximately, I think it’s 21 teachers more than we had before the pandemic even though we’ve lost 450 students.”

Continue reading DNUSD Foregoes Issuing Final Layoff Notices For Most Positions; District Still Has Funding Challenges, Superintendent Says →
Articles, Curry, Infrastructure, Law, Local Government, Regional News

Curry County Removed Lead Paint At Jail, Waiting On New Bunks

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

Though he didn’t speak up earlier, Curry County’s director of operations said complying with a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be “a lot to ask” when there’s only 16 beds in the jail.

About a month after the discovery of lead paint in its bunk beds prompted the Board of Commissioners to cut the jail’s capacity from 35 to 16 beds, Ted Fitzgerald, who also acts as county counsel, said the county was still waiting on permanent replacements.

“We still have the temporaries in there until we get the permanence delivered,” he said, referring to temporary bunk beds Curry County borrowed from Josephine County shortly after he notified commissioners of the lead paint concerns at an emergency meeting April 4. “The old bunks have been cleared. Maintenance went in there and cut them out. They were metal, installed directly into the concrete, and so, in order to keep things safe, we had to cut the metal and then grind the concrete down…”

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Articles, Curry, Local Government

Curry County BOC Issues Tighter Controls Over Website, Social Media After Staff Member Made ‘Unauthorized Changes’

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Curry County’s director of operations said he withdrew administrative and editing privileges from nearly all employees after an individual made “unauthorized changes” to the county’s website.

Ted Fitzgerald, who is also county counsel, asked the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday to approve a new policy that limits administrative privileges to one person. The new policy also requires those manning Facebook pages for individual departments to register with Human Resources so the county can vet information being posted.

Fitzgerald said he included a social media component to the policy after determining that statistics posted to the Curry County Justice Facebook page were inaccurate.

Continue reading Curry County BOC Issues Tighter Controls Over Website, Social Media After Staff Member Made ‘Unauthorized Changes’ →