Category Archives: CC Harbor

CCHD Commissioners Move Forward With Search For RV Park Developers

Thumbnail image: An example site plan from the Harbor District’s request for proposals packet for Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks. | Courtesy the CCHD

Despite appearing to favor one proposal, Crescent City Harbormaster Mike Rademaker assured commissioners that narrowing down options for redeveloping the port’s two RV parks won’t be a unilateral decision on his part.

It’s an assurance that assuaged most commissioners’ concerns on Monday, particularly when Rademaker brought up a scoring process that they all would participate in. 

But Annie Nehmer said she was worried that a provision in a request for proposals that allows the Harbor District to start negotiating with a developer before a 21-day window for submissions was up may discourage competition.

Continue reading CCHD Commissioners Move Forward With Search For RV Park Developers

Moffatt & Nichol Engineer Discusses Next The Harbor’s Steps On Tsunami Recovery Road

Thumbnail photo: Crescent City Harbor’s H Dock took the brunt of the impact from the Kamchatka tsunami on July 30. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Though a 10-day window for an emergency declaration is drawing to a close, coastal engineer Rob Sloop urged Crescent City Harbor commissioners to factor the area’s vulnerability to tsunamis into their losses following last week’s surges.

“You’re suffering now from a long-term bias that this is a dangerous harbor so that needs to go into your equation of loss,” he said Friday. “When we talk about how much this may cost, there’s the structure. But there’s the people and then there’s the loss of revenue — all of those things compound.” 

Sloop, vice president for Moffatt & Nichol, the architect firm spearheading the rebuild of Citizens Dock, sought to help harbor commissioners figure out their next steps after the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake produced a tsunami that barreled into the harbor in the wee hours of July 30.

Continue reading Moffatt & Nichol Engineer Discusses Next The Harbor’s Steps On Tsunami Recovery Road

Though One is On The Table, Commissioners Seek More Proposals for RV Parks

Thumbnail image: An example site plan from the Harbor District’s request for proposals packet for Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks. | Courtesy the CCHD

Crescent City Harbor commissioners said they wanted to continue seeking other options for redeveloping the port’s two RV parks despite a warning from Harbormaster Mike Rademaker that doing so might put an existing proposal in jeopardy.

Rademaker said he was worried that the Board of Commissioners was turning its back on Orange County-based developers Sean McGraw and Scott Lawhon, who had presented a plan for revitalizing Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks on June 25.

Rademaker was especially concerned about a potential performance bond that may be included with the Harbor District’s request for proposals, though it’s not finalized yet. He suggested making the inclusion of a performance bond in any proposal to redevelop the RV parks optional.

Continue reading Though One is On The Table, Commissioners Seek More Proposals for RV Parks

Chris Howard Asks About Harbor’s 2% TOT Allocation And Whether Del Norte Could ‘Take It Back’

Thumbnail photo: A voter-approved transiency occupancy tax measure back in 2018 allows the Crescent City Harbor District to continue to pay off the USDA loan that funded the inner boat basin rebuild following tsunamis in 2006 and 2011. | Photo by Gavin Van Alstine

After learning that Del Norte County could see more than $1 million in revenue from transient occupancy taxes, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard brought the Crescent City Harbor District into the discussion.

Does the county have to give 2% of its overall 10% TOT to the harbor even though voters in 2018 stated that it should, Howard asked county Treasurer/Tax Collector Barbara Lopez on Monday.

“Is it to the point where we couldn’t take back that allocation?” Howard asked. “It’s a question that was brought up to me recently given all the stuff going on down there.”

Continue reading Chris Howard Asks About Harbor’s 2% TOT Allocation And Whether Del Norte Could ‘Take It Back’

Del Norte OES Manager Says Gasquet Neighbors Group Stepped Up During Tsunami Emergency; Scientists Start Collecting, Analyzing Data

Thumbnail photo: Wednesday’s tsunamis lifted H Dock off its pilings, temporarily submerging it, resulting in separation of its segments. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Two days after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake near the Russian Far East sent tsunami surges into the Crescent City Harbor, Del Norte County’s emergency services manager posted a big thank you on Facebook.

Deborah Otenburg praised first responders, local law enforcement, the city, school district and tribal partners as well as the county health and human services and building maintenance departments, which set up a temporary evacuation point at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Crescent City.

Otenburg also lauded the Gasquet Neighbors Helping Neighbors group and the Gasquet American Legion Hall — unusual recipients of her thanks when the only areas in immediate danger for most of Wednesday were the harbor, beaches and the Elk Creek, Klamath and Smith River mouths.

Continue reading Del Norte OES Manager Says Gasquet Neighbors Group Stepped Up During Tsunami Emergency; Scientists Start Collecting, Analyzing Data

Local Activist Raises Concerns Over Inappropriate Language in CCHD Patrol Logs

Thumbnail photo by Gavin Van Alstine

Updated at 1:32 p.m. Saturday to include more information about how Linda Sutter and Redwood Voice obtained the patrol logs and to remove the names of the individual patrolmen named in the logs from the article. To view the Harbor District Patrol logs for December 2024 2025, click here.

Linda Sutter says she was acting on a tip when she requested copies of the Crescent City Harbor patrol logs under the California Public Records Act. 

What she found prompted her to not only inform harbor commissioners, it was enough to take her before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.

“I pulled a random log for the month of December,” said Sutter, a community activist, frequent public commenter before both governing bodies as well as a 2024 candidate for the Harbor District Board. “I wanted to read how they write their reports.”

For three minutes on June 22, Sutter, naming names, told supervisors that CCHD patrolmen regularly call a Bayside RV Park tenant “shower nazi” in their reports with one employee saying he told her that he was “checking for skin walkers.”

Sutter recounted the patrolmen’s disgust with the sea lions on the old U.S. Coast Guard dock, with one member in the logs saying they should be arrested for “malicious fecal distribution.” She also took issue with other language patrol staff used in the logs, including “tweakie—twack” and “noisy hoe.”

Continue reading Local Activist Raises Concerns Over Inappropriate Language in CCHD Patrol Logs

Kamchatka Tsunami May Have Caused More Damage to Crescent City Harbor Than Thought, Assessment Continues

Thumbnail photo: Crescent City Harbor and Pacific Power staff assess damage done to H Dock from a series of tsunami surges spawned by an 8.8 earthquake near the Kamchatka Peninsula. | Photo by Heather Polen.

Crescent City Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said a series of tsunami surges that swept into the inner boat basin may have caused “closer to $1 million” in damage on Wednesday.

H Dock bore the brunt of the energy, Rademaker said, but the concrete structure of the docks are “mostly still in good shape.”

“The metal connecting plates are sheared all over,” he said via text message just after noon on Wednesday, “and the 1.5 inch electric cabling will have to be completely replaced.”

Continue reading Kamchatka Tsunami May Have Caused More Damage to Crescent City Harbor Than Thought, Assessment Continues

Del Norte County Weathers Tsunami With Minimal Damage; CCHD’s H Dock Did Its Job, Harbormaster Says

Thumbnail photo: The National Weather Service noted surge of 3.6 feet at about 4 a.m. Wednesday, enough to generate minor coastal flooding and inundation. | Image courtesy of the National Weather Service

The Crescent City Harbor District’s sacrificial dock did its job, taking the brunt of the energy spawned by a series of tsunami surges that arrived early Wednesday morning.

No injuries were reported from the tsunami, which occurred following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the east coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker said during a community briefing at about 8 a.m. Wednesday. But H Dock sustained significant damage.

“At approximately 2:40 a.m. we noticed a surge of water several feet in height,” he said. “That caused the decking of H Dock to lift along its pilings. As the water level rose, the decking lodged on the pilings and was eventually submerged, [which] resulted in major structural failure and the complete separation of the dock.” 

Continue reading Del Norte County Weathers Tsunami With Minimal Damage; CCHD’s H Dock Did Its Job, Harbormaster Says

Crescent City Harbor Board Approves Months-Old Meeting Minutes Amid Debate Over Their Accuracy

Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Despite appearing on a portion of the agenda dedicated to routine items, the approval of minutes from seven Crescent City Harbor District meetings on Wednesday drew debate from a handful of public commenters.

One member of the public, Del Norte Triplicate Editor Roger Gitlin, a former Del Norte County supervisor, cited Rosenberg’s Rules of Order and said that even if a commissioner was absent from a meeting, if they had read the minutes and could attest to reading them, they could approve the minutes.

Another member of the public, Stephanie Abrams, argued that the minutes should be read aloud at a following meeting so those who weren’t able to attend could get up to speed on what was discussed.

A third commenter, Joe “Hank” Akin, president of the Big Rock Community Services District, pointed out that one set of minutes was from Jan. 22.

“They’re up to seven months old, who knows if they’re accurate?” Akin said. “And you’re going to vote on them. That in itself is troubling to me.”

Continue reading Crescent City Harbor Board Approves Months-Old Meeting Minutes Amid Debate Over Their Accuracy

Davis-Based Attorney Accuses Triplicate Editor of Bias, Says Roger Gitlin Published ‘False Statements of Fact’ About CCHD Commissioner Annie Nehmer

Thumbnail photo: Roger Gitlin, editor of the Del Norte Triplicate, comments at a June 2 Crescent City Council meeting. | Screenshot

Annie Nehmer

Editor’s note: The author of this article worked for the Del Norte Triplicate from 2012 to 2019. Her employment with the Triplicate ended when Country Media became the newspaper’s owners.

Paul Nicholas Boylan says his job is to make sure his client, Crescent City Harbor Commissioner Annie Nehmer, gets a fair shake in the local press and, up until last week, the Davis-based attorney thought that would be achieved.

Those hopes were dashed, however, after Del Norte Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin published an article July 9 under the headline “Harbor Commissioner Sues Herself.” The article came after Boylan raised concerns about the appearance of bias in Gitlin’s questions to his client.

Boylan says he had also received assurances from Joe Warren, chief executive of Country Media Inc., which owns the Triplicate, that Gitlin would submit questions to Nehmer, providing her with a chance to comment before publishing further pieces. This never happened, the attorney said.

Continue reading Davis-Based Attorney Accuses Triplicate Editor of Bias, Says Roger Gitlin Published ‘False Statements of Fact’ About CCHD Commissioner Annie Nehmer