Category Archives: Infrastructure

Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure, Transportation

CCHD Commissioners Discuss Price With Firms Vying For Citizens Dock Project Manager Role

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The preferred alternative for the Citizens Dock reconstruction project. | Image courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Thumbnail photo: The Crescent City Harbor seeks to replace a condemned seawall and the 70-plus year-old Citizens Dock using $15 million in federal grants. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Harbor Commissioner Gerhard Weber used the same analogy twice this week to describe his take on the three proposals from firms vying for the project manager role in the Citizens Dock reconstruction and seawall replacement.

“I think I walked into a Mercedes dealership with Kia money,” Weber told GHD Senior Planner Adam Wagschal on Wednesday when he found out that the firm’s cost estimate for pre-construction work would be about $4,000 shy of the Harbor District’s budget for the project manager position in general. “Maybe we made a major mistake with our budget because we have budgeted $350,000 and now we’re hearing that it gets us down for the first part, but not actual construction.”

Weber and his colleagues on the Crescent City Harbor District Board heard proposals from Kimley-Horn representatives on Monday and from GHD and Redstone Bridge Sovereign on Wednesday. All three firms have at least one person on staff that has worked with the Crescent City Harbor District in the past.

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Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government

City Officials Pursue $50 Million Forgivable Loan For Major Sewer Plant Upgrade

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Thumbnail photo by James Brooks

Following a public hearing and the adoption of increased sewer rates, Crescent City City Manager Eric Wier said staff have begun pursuing the state funding connected to the utility’s next phase.

The next phase involves installing the infrastructure the sewer plant needs to meet updated National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit regulations. 

After fining the city $228,000 for not complying with those stricter permitting regulations last year, the state has given Crescent City five, potentially 10 years, to make those upgrades, according to Wier. 

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Articles, Crescent City, Infrastructure, Local Government

Protest Efforts Fail To Stop City Water, Sewer Rate Increases

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Thumbnail photo: Margaret Sargent on Monday speaks out in opposition of Crescent City’s plan to increase water and sewer rates. | Photo by Aisling Bludworth

A Proposition 218 protest failed to halt water and sewer rate increases in Crescent City on Monday despite an effort to collect signatures by a local group who says residents can’t afford them.

Though he didn’t specify if it was water or sewer, county resident David Olkowski, said at $95.38, his bill currently consumes about 16.95% of his social security income. It’s set to account for about 30% of his monthly social security at $171.92 when the rate adjustments take effect next month.

“The assistance we get from the many food banks are dwarfed by these rate increases,” he said. “The savings from our gardens, growing vegetables, fruit trees and produce, berries, are dwarfed by these rate increases.”

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Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure

Harbor District Leaders Meet Firms Vying For Citizens Dock, Seawall Project Manager Role

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Thumbnail photo: Harbor commissioners met the firms hoping to provide project management during the reconstruction of Citizens Dock and replacement of its adjacent seawall. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Harbor commissioners met two of the three firms that have offered to fill the project manager role in the rebuild of Citizens Dock and its adjacent seawall.

It’s another step toward construction for the U.S. Maritime Administration-funded project. But, while the project management services fee will be paid for with grant dollars, the firms’ proposals exceed the $250,000 to $350,000 that was originally budgeted for the position. 

However, that budgeted amount wasn’t included in the original request for proposals, Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr told commissioners Wednesday.

“We wanted to see what the proposers would propose for what they believed the scope of work for the project manager would be and what those costs would be,” he said.

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Articles, CC Harbor, Crescent City, Infrastructure, Local Government

Three CCHD Commissioners Abstain In Vote To Oppose City Water, Sewer Hikes; Bearing Cost Will Be Difficult, Board Chair Says, But ‘Rates Are Valid’

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Thumbnail photo: Crescent City wastewater treatment plant | Photo by James Brooks

Three harbor commissioners declined taking a position on whether or not Crescent City’s water and sewer rates should increase.

Chairman Rick Shepherd, Vice Chairman John Evans and their colleague Gerhard Weber abstained from a vote to oppose the proposed rate increases. Though they toured the sewer plant with City Manager Eric Wier, Shepherd and Evans said taking a position on the issue would be difficult for them.

Shepherd echoed points Wier has made to the Crescent City Council — that it’s been about 10 years since water and sewer rates have increased and that the sewer system is in dire financial straits. But, Shepherd also noted that the increased water and sewer rates may cost the Crescent City Harbor District $10,000 to $12,000 a year.

Continue reading Three CCHD Commissioners Abstain In Vote To Oppose City Water, Sewer Hikes; Bearing Cost Will Be Difficult, Board Chair Says, But ‘Rates Are Valid’ →
Articles, Infrastructure, Transportation

Del Norte Supervisors Extend Deadline On Line of Credit to Airport Authority For Wildlife Fence Project

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of Andrew Goff

County supervisors agreed to a year’s extension of the deadline on a line of credit they offered to the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority to replace roughly 1,800 feet of chainlink fence.

The fence project is in an environmentally and culturally sensitive area along the beachfront at Del Norte County Regional Airport, Director Sean Rosenthal told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. It’s needed to keep elk from getting onto the tarmac, he said.

“Right now we’re in the design phase and that should be approved any day,” he said. “And then we have to get a Coastal (Development) Permit. And, hopefully, we get all of our plant studies done in time for September construction.”

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Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure

Permitting Delays Have CCHD Pondering Other Construction Options For Citizens Dock, Seawall

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Thumbnail photo: Conditions on a seawall that’s been slated for replacement have worsened as the Crescent City Harbor District seeks final in-water construction permits needed to start project. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

The Crescent City Harbor District’s efforts to reconstruct Citizens Dock and replace a failing seawall have run into a permitting delay that may limit the amount of in-water construction that can be completed this year.

The CCHD Board of Commissioners received this piece of news with frustration on Wednesday with Gerhard Weber pointing out that state and federal agencies have known for the last two years that the project would require in-water work permits.

Harbormaster Mike Rademaker noted that the environmental review phase had already been delayed due to changes to California’s seismic safety standards. This new obstacle comes as the already-condemned seawall’s conditions have worsened.

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Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure, Local Government

Harbor District Proposes New Plan To Make USDA Loan Payment And Fund Maintenance Needs

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Thumbnail photo: Crescent City Harbor’s inner boat basin. | Photo by Gavin Van Alstine

Harbor Board Chairman Rick Shepherd insisted that a plan to both make a loan payment to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and address maintenance issues would “save our ass,” though he admitted it was convoluted.

The plan involves a trust account with the county that houses the transiency occupancy tax (TOT) revenue the Measure C has generated for the Harbor District since voters approved it in 2018.

On Wednesday, CCHD Fiscal Officer Sandy Moreno informed commissioners that there is $602,396 in that trust account — more than enough to make two loan payments to the USDA. She proposed using roughly $263,888 to satisfy a delinquent payment the Harbor District should have made to the USDA in September 2025 and using $129,841 to address the district’s maintenance needs.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Infrastructure

DANCO Communities To Take Over The Redwood Downtown Mixed-Use Development

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Thumbnail image courtesy of City of Crescent City

DANCO Communities President Chris Dart said his company is trying to alleviate parking concerns associated with the 36-unit residential development that is expected to replace the old Daly’s building in Downtown Crescent City.

Dart noted that Community System Solutions had already done a lot of design work on The Redwood Downtown. It will now be up to Crescent City 3rd Street LP, a DANCO Communities limited partnership, to move the project forward. 

The new developers will be open to “any changes that make sense,” Dart said, including parking.

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Articles, Crescent City, Housing, Infrastructure

Developer Says Construction Will Resume on Battery Point Apartments

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Thumbnail photo by James Brooks

The Los Angeles-based nonprofit developing Battery Point Apartments has obtained the additional grant dollars it needs to pay its subcontractors and resume construction, its president told Crescent City councilors Monday.

Bill Rice told councilors that Synergy Community Development Corporation closed on an additional $9.7 million in federal HOME Investment Partnership Program dollars from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. 

In addition to paying its subcontractors by the end of the week, Synergy is bringing in additional construction management to help its general contractor get back to work on the 162-unit affordable housing development at Gary and E streets, Rice said.

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