Thumbnail photo: Crescent City Manager Eric Wier told councilors last week that the city doesn’t have the staff to keep its Val Polyanin art exhibit open. | File photo by Amanda Dockter
Crescent City 2026-27 budget workshop
Eric Wier warned councilors to brace for difficult decisions as they and staff look to make Crescent City’s 2026-27 budget and general fund work amid stagnant revenues and increased costs.
At a 3-hour and 18-minute budget workshop on Wednesday, the city manager and his staff recommended holding off on filling several vacancies within the public works, police and fire departments.
Councilors and staff discussed whether the city could contribute funding for airport projects, if sending planning commissioners to League of California Cities training was feasible and whether other funding could be found to avoid skipping special events and swim camps at the pool this fiscal year.
Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte Fire Safe Council held a workshop in March 2025 to teach people how to harden their properties against wildfire. | File photo by Ethan Caudill-DeRego
A special district previously focused on agricultural issues in the Smith River and Fort Dick areas received the green light to annex all of Del Norte County into its jurisdiction on Monday.
The Del Norte Resource Conservation District’s expanded boundaries allows for greater collaboration with organizations focusing on wildfire resiliency, stream and forest health restoration and those that support new farmers, District Manager Becky Crockett told Redwood Voice Community News.
The expanded boundaries also means the Del Norte RCD can pursue state and federal grant dollars, which in turn can lead to larger projects, she said.
Thumbnail: This conceptual comparison of a new Behavioral Health Campus versus the current Behavioral Health Branch facility was included in the county’s grant application for BHCIP dollars. | Image courtesy of District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey
Shiann Hogan sees many possibilities for Del Norte County’s new Behavioral Health Campus, but one thing it won’t be is a locked facility.
The deputy director for the county Behavioral Health Branch says the new facility will allow for expanded substance abuse and mental health programming. There will be a new sobering center and a mental health crisis respite center and the facility will complement the new EmPATH unit Sutter Coast Hospital is developing.
But those will be voluntary services, Hogan told Redwood Voice Community News on May 11.
Despite calling Axon the “best company out there,” Police Chief Richard Griffin couldn’t convince everyone on the City Council that entering into a 10-year contract for Tasers, body cameras, dashboard cameras and data storage was the best thing for Crescent City.
According to Griffin, Axon has great equipment, their data storage capabilities frees up the city’s server and allows for easy searching. The company also offers the ability to upgrade to new cameras and Tasers without needing to pay extra, the chief said.
Appointed Councilman Steve Shamblin had misgivings.
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.
District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Tolowa Dunes SP Closure: Three county supervisors said they fielded calls and complaints regarding the temporary closure of parts of Tolowa Dunes State Park over the weekend.
The California State Parks North Coast Redwoods District authorized the closure of several access points and trails to allow the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation to observe the Lhuk Rite Ceremony. The annual ceremony celebrates the importance of salmon and its annual return to its river habitat.
Before county supervisors approved a lease agreement concerning modular trailers at Williams Drive, Lonnie Reyman asked that they not forget about probation.
The Del Norte County Probation Department had leveraged its good relationship with the buildings’ owners, the Del Norte County Office of Education, and used the space for training and to hold programs for its adult offenders, the probation chief said Tuesday. According to him, there is no other space available for adult programming.
“Over the last five or six years we’ve worked to try and increase that availability we provide to our adult offenders and to be able to provide those programs directly. That is one of the key places we do that,” Reyman said of the trailers at 250 and 254 Williams Drive in Crescent City. “As the county goes through this transition to use that property in a different manner, that will be something I’ll be watching closely. …”
Congressional candidates Tim Geist and Paul Saulsbury and Assembly candidate Michael Greer fielded questions from Redwood Voice producers Monique Camarena and Aisling Bludworth on April 23. | Photos by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Michael Greer’s confident that Del Norte will vote for him — they have in the past and things haven’t changed, he says.
The Republican candidate for California’s Assembly District 2 is not only the current Trustee Area 5 representative on the Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees, he ran against incumbent Chris Rogers two years ago. Though he lost the district in November 2024, Greer received more votes in Del Norte County than his opponent. Greer said that Del Norte County voters know when he says he’ll do something, he’ll deliver.
“I’m a doer,” he said. “If I have something going through legislation, I’m going to push it and I’m going to do it until I get it done. It’s that simple.”
Del Norte County District 3 Supervisor candidates Chris Howard and Lupe Gutierrez sat down with Redwood Voice youth producers Monique Camarena and Aisling Bludworth for an evening conversation last week. | Photos by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Lupe Gutierrez said she was surprised when people urged her to run for the District 3 supervisor seat.
They were adamant that it shouldn’t go unopposed, she said, which is why she’s challenging incumbent Chris Howard. She says she’s got the character to take on the job and one of her goals is to urge more youth to participate in the government process.
“I’m so disappointed when I look at the demographics and I see that they, the ages of 18 to 45, just don’t participate as much as the older people do,” Gutierrez said. “And sometimes I wonder about that and I know they’re disenchanted. I would really love to bring them back into the government so they can be effective in their own decisions because right now other people are making their decisions for them.”
Thumbnail photo: Bayside RV Park is one of two RV parks at the Crescent City Harbor that developer Daniel Dahan and his company BSD Property Management will revitalize and manage. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews
Daniel Dahan’s relationship with local engineer Lee Tromble and his company’s management of White Rock Resort in Smith River stood him in good stead with the Crescent City Harbor District Board.
Despite skepticism from the public, who urged them to go slow, warning that the Long Beach-based developer has a history of judgments against him, commissioners unanimously selected his firm, BSD Property Management, to revitalize and operate Bayside RV Park and Redwood Harbor Village RV Park.
The Board submitted their votes on paper to their clerk Kristina Hanks on Tuesday. Hanks then read their decision into the record.
