Category Archives: Local Government

Articles, Community News, Law, Local Government

Firefighters Lauded For Response During Officer-Involved Shooting Incident; New CHP Commander Introduces Himself

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Thumbnail photo: Crescent City firefighters Beau Smith, Dave Bowdish and Eugene Starkey received commendations from Fire Chief Kevin Carey for distinguished service after facing a dangerous subject armed with a “knife-type weapon.” | Screenshot

Crescent City Fire Chief Kevin Carey applauded three of his firefighters, not only for facing a dangerous subject armed with a “knife-type weapon,” but for providing aid to that person when law enforcement shot him.

Carey awarded distinguished service commendations to Capt. Beau Smith, Engineer Dave Bowdish and Firefighter Eugene Starkey, who had responded to a call for an individual covered in blood on the beach near Anchor Way on June 27. 

The chief praised their decision to call on law enforcement for help when the patient approached firefighters, saying it showed great courage and situational awareness.

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Articles, Infrastructure, Law, Local Government

Grand Jury Notes Improvement At Jail, Though Facility Is Still In Disrepair

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Thumbnail photo by Amanda Dockter

The Civil Grand Jury painted a rosier picture of the Del Norte County Jail this year, commending the sheriff’s office on steps taken to address the issues last year’s investigation uncovered.

However, after touring the facility in January, five Grand Jurors still had concerns ranging from stained and filthy walls and floors to an inmate property room that was so malodorous some members didn’t want to enter.

Much like last year, Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott acknowledged the truth in the Grand Jury’s report, though he said addressing many of those concerns is outside of his control. As for the unsanitary property room, Scott said the Measure R Oversight Committee has already approved an emergency purchase of a vacuum sealer his staff can use to better store inmates’ belongings.

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Articles, Elections, Local Government

County Clerk-Recorder Invited Grand Jury To Observe Election Night Proceedings

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Photos by Paul Critz

On its face, the Del Norte County Civil Grand Jury’s report on Alissia Northrup’s office might appear mundane.

Unlike other agencies the citizen-led watchdog group delved into, there were no alleged violations of state law to investigate nor were they acting upon a citizen complaint. Del Norte’ county clerk-recorder said she invited the Civil Grand Jury to observe the counting process for mail-in ballots on Nov. 5, 2024

“I wanted to make sure I had someone completely unbiased, someone there that could report out if they saw anything they thought was wrong or inappropriate,” Northrup told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. “It’s another layer of transparency.”

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Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

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

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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 →
Articles, Crescent City, Infrastructure, Local Government, Tribal Affairs

Crescent City Officials Say $2 Million Grant Will Complete Tolowa Interpretive Trail

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Thumbnail photo: A $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation will allow Crescent City to finish the Tolowa Interpretive Trail, city officials said Wednesday. | Screenshot

Crescent City received a $2 million grant that officials say will extend the Tolowa Cultural Trail in Beachfront Park to Battery Point where many Tolowa were imprisoned in the 1850s.

Councilors unanimously accepted the grant from the Mellon Foundation at a special meeting Wednesday. They also approved an agreement with T.B. Penick & Sons Inc. to install lithomosaic basket patterns at the entrance to the visitor center and as a welcome to the Tolowa Cultural Trail.

T.B. Penick & Sons will also create a special lithomosaic pebble pattern at the Tolowa Cultural Trail welcome station, City Manager Eric Wier said.

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Articles, Community News, Environment, Local Government

Proposed Sale Of Pac Shore Properties Prompt BOS Discussion Around Wetland Mitigation

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Thumbnail photo: California Coastal commissioners stopped by the Pacific Shores subdivision during a visit to Del Norte County last year. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday stalled the proposed sale of 18 tax-defaulted properties within the Pacific Shores subdivision to the state, instead directing staff to determine whether they could be used to mitigate wetland damage caused by future infrastructure projects.

Griping about a ratio the California Coastal Commission demanded during a runway safety project at the Del Norte County Regional Airport years ago, District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short asked if it would cost the county to hold onto the 18 properties rather than proceed with the sale. 

“We had to come up with 10 acres for [wetland] mitigation for every one acre we messed around with at the airport. It was plain extortion from the California Coastal Commission,” Short said. “My thought is the parcels we own in and around the swamps — Ruth Compound, whatever you want to call it — there are places there that are buildable. I’m thinking we could use these parcels to mitigate [that].”

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Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government

Del Norte County Board of Supervisors Recap, July 8, 2025

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

Mavris To Work With DA’s Office: Local attorney George Mavris will take on cases for the Del Norte County District Attorney, county supervisors decided Tuesday.

The vote on the consent agenda item was unanimous, but it prompted District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey to ask for an update on the county’s progress on creating a public defender’s department.

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Articles, Crescent City, Local Government

Crescent City Starts Search For Local HR Professional

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Crescent City councilors backed a proposal to recruit local human resources professionals rather than continuing to rely on a third-party consultant after their city manager called the current arrangement effective but not ideal.

The city has had a contract with a Sacramento-based human resources provider following a resignation in December 2023, City Manager Eric Wier said. While that provider was able to meet the city’s HR needs, Wier said the distance proved challenging.

“HR does so many different functions for us as a city,” he said. “Employee relations and having the employees have the ability to go to that person and ask questions about the various HR topics that they might have and having that relationship is very important.”

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Articles, Curry, Local Government

Curry County Looks Outside Organization For Financial Oversight

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

Curry County commissioners took the advice of their director of operations Wednesday and finalized an agreement with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, which will provide third-party oversight to their finances.

Ted Fitzgerald compared the services RVCOG can offer Curry County to the services it received when it worked with the Lane Council of Governments following a ransomware attack in 2023. The county did just hire a new employee in its finance department and the department is getting stronger, Fitzgerald said, but he still wanted professional oversight “to make sure we’re doing things right.”

“The different specialties that exist within the Rogue Valley Council of Governments will be able to help us on a variety of levels,” he told commissioners. “I think it’s going to be a thing [where] we learn how much we need them as we go along, but I want to be sure that we really give it a good chance because every time we have reached out for help from outside entities we’ve gotten it.”

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Articles, Curry, Local Government

Budget Adopted, Curry County Commissioners Discuss Job Descriptions

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Two days after they adopted the county’s 2025-26 budget, Curry County commissioners wanted to get started on finalizing job descriptions and finding people to fill those positions.

New positions include a public works director, an investigator in the District Attorney’s Office, a community resource officer in the Sheriff’s Office and a part-time civil processor and animal control officer, according to Board Chairman Jay Trost. 

Added on as a last-minute agenda item on Wednesday, Trost said he wanted to get a consensus from his colleagues to allow human resources to create those job descriptions and bring them back to the Board by its next meeting in July for approval.

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