Category Archives: Local Government

Articles, Local Government, Youth

Staff Vacancies, Increased Detention Costs, Relocation of Juvenile Services Pose Challenges to Del Norte Probation, Chief Says

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Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Del Norte Probation Department

Though his department has an overall vacancy rate of 33%, Lonnie Reyman said Del Norte County probation will be screening more than 20 potential new recruits.

The county’s probation chief offered this ray of optimism as part of an otherwise complex budget report to the Board of Supervisors on Monday. 

Probation and Re-entry Services, which includes the Youth Opportunity Center and detention services, is also expecting an uptick in the number of juvenile offenders that are in custody and are expecting the cost to house them to increase, he said.

Continue reading Staff Vacancies, Increased Detention Costs, Relocation of Juvenile Services Pose Challenges to Del Norte Probation, Chief Says →
Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

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

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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’ →
Articles, Curry, Elections, Local Government

Recalls Filed Against Hollinger, Trost; Petitioners Claim Curry County Commissioners Created a ‘Culture of Fear’

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Friday’s special Curry County Board of Commissioners meeting

Jay Trost and Patrick Hollinger went on the offensive against the chief petitioners seeking to oust them from the Curry County Board of Commissioners.

After spending about 45 minutes of a special meeting Friday touting their accomplishments, Trost and Hollinger went through each petition, taking issue with both the grievances they raise and the individuals raising them.

Trost said he viewed the petition against him, filed by Curry County jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn, as opposition to the Board’s “not adhering to a mentality of status quo.”

Continue reading Recalls Filed Against Hollinger, Trost; Petitioners Claim Curry County Commissioners Created a ‘Culture of Fear’ →
Articles, CC Harbor, Community News, Emergencies, Infrastructure, Local Government

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

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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 →
Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

Local Activist Raises Concerns Over Inappropriate Language in CCHD Patrol Logs

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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 →
Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

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

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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 →
Articles, Community News, Economy, Health, Infrastructure, Local Government

Lobbyist Talks One Big Beautiful Bill, SRS, EAS and Last Chance Grade With Del Norte Supervisors

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Thumbnail photo: Passengers board Advanced Air’s inaugural flight from Crescent City to Hawthorne on March 17, 2024. | Pnoto by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Nearly three weeks after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, Greg Burns helped Del Norte County supervisors unpack how it may affect their constituents.

Burns, a representative with Thorn Run Partners, Del Norte’s advocate in Washington D.C., started his presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday by mentioning a program not included in the legislation — the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act.

The lobbyist touched on the Essential Air Service Program, the Community Development Block Grant program, a funding proposal from California’s senators on behalf of the Veterans Memorial Hall as well as the Last Chance Grade project’s long-awaited final environmental clearance.

Continue reading Lobbyist Talks One Big Beautiful Bill, SRS, EAS and Last Chance Grade With Del Norte Supervisors →
Articles, Community News, Local Government

Supes Tap Into Previous SRS Allocation to Award Funds to Search and Rescue and Gasquet FPD

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Thumbnail photo: Del Norte Search and Rescue volunteers in May returned to an area where a Smith River woman went missing while picking mushrooms in January 2024. | Photo courtesy of Del Norte Search and Rescue

An earlier authorization will enable Del Norte County supervisors to award federal Title III dollars to Search and Rescue as well as the Gasquet Fire Protection District, according to Community Development Director Heidi Kunstal.

Kunstal had initially asked the Board to choose between the two agencies. But on Tuesday, she told supervisors that a different pot of Title III dollars might be more appropriate for Search & Rescue, which sought $45,361 to buy a Ford F150. 

After assuring them that she would bring SAR’s application and a separate report back to the Board at its first meeting in August, supervisors directed Kunstal to proceed with processing Gasquet Fire Protection District’s request for $47,511.50 for Atlas 1200 repeaters and other equipment at the Camp Six communications site.

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Articles, Environment, Local Government

Supervisors Raise Concerns About Proposed Timber Harvest, Sells 18 Pacific Shores lots to State of California

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Thumbnail photo: California Coastal Commissioners met with California Department of Fish and Wildlife Scientists and Smith River Alliance representatives at Pacific Shores last year. | File photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

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

Timber Harvest Near Hunter Creek Subdivision: 

Supervisors agreed to send a letter to Cal Fire outlining their concerns that a Green Diamond timber harvest plan could impact drinking water and increase wildfire risk in the Hunter Creek Subdivision.

The proposed letter came from District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson, who said he attended a presentation the timber company held for residents in the Klamath area subdivision. Green Diamond’s West Tepo Timber Harvesting Plan encompasses 294 acres, 60 percent of which will be clearcut, he said. Forty percent of those 294 acres will be set aside for selective harvesting, Wilson said.

Continue reading Supervisors Raise Concerns About Proposed Timber Harvest, Sells 18 Pacific Shores lots to State of California →
Articles, Infrastructure, Law, Local Government

Though Immediate Focus Will Be Juvenile Probation, Study To Determine Whether Del Norte Could House ‘Justice Services’ Separate From Courthouse

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Thumbnail photo: Though it’s owned by the state, the Del Norte County Courthouse houses the District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department. | Amanda Dockter

Pointing out that Del Norte County has 23 youth under its supervision, according to her most recent statistics, District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey said a feasibility study to determine how their needs would be met during the rehabilitation of the county jail seemed unnecessary.

Coming about a month after she and her colleagues approved a proposal to house adult inmates at the Youth Opportunity Center building while the jail is under construction, Starkey said Tuesday she worried that having to go through a feasibility study would delay the process.

“I feel it’s one extra layer,” she said before voting against the county’s proposal. “And I don’t know necessarily why we’re doing this now and in this process.”

Continue reading Though Immediate Focus Will Be Juvenile Probation, Study To Determine Whether Del Norte Could House ‘Justice Services’ Separate From Courthouse →