Category Archives: Crescent City

Crescent City Takes First Step On Long Path Toward Revitalizing Its Downtown

Thumbnail image courtesy of Crescent City; YouTube video by Heather Polen

Karen Betlejewski choked up a little when she described her dad’s impression of Downtown Crescent City as a 40-plus year resident returning home after being away.

“He said, ‘I wanted to cry,’” she told a gathering of business owners, elected officials and other stakeholders with interest in the downtown area.

Betlejewski, who manages the Del Norte County Historical Society’s museum and says “she’s into old,” said she enjoys shopping in Downtown Crescent City and she loves the people. But the vacant buildings make the area look sad.

“You know that it just needs help,” she said. “And I would like to see that.”

Don Arambula agreed. The project manager, principal planner and urban designer for Portland-based Crandall Arambula PC presented a preliminary assessment to Betlejewski and about 80 other residents on Wednesday.

Continue reading Crescent City Takes First Step On Long Path Toward Revitalizing Its Downtown

Three Children Are Safe After Law Enforcement Arrest Male Suspect Following Hours-Long Standoff

Thumbnail photo: Law enforcement with the Crescent City Police Department, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office, Pelican Bay State Prison’s CERT Team and others secure the scene after an hours-long standoff ended with four children being taken into protective custody and a male and female suspect arrested. | Photo by Heather Polen

Four children are in protective custody Monday evening after officers from multiple agencies engaged in a standoff with a 50-year-old man that lasted more than seven hours.

Three of the youngsters, ages 1, 2 and 4, were in the Crescent City apartment with Robert William Thraen when officers responded to the area to conduct a welfare check at about 10:30 a.m., Police Chief Richard Griffin told Redwood Voice Community News. 

Griffin said they were able to get the children to safety and arrest the suspect after he decided to have his officers break the window to open the front door — a technique he called a breach and hold. 

Continue reading Three Children Are Safe After Law Enforcement Arrest Male Suspect Following Hours-Long Standoff

Blake Inscore To Be Guest Speaker At Sister Cities International Summit in Japan; Delegation Will Visit Iwate Prefecture

Thumbnail photo: A delegation from Rikuzentakata celebrates the inaugural Kamome Festival in Crescent City in 2023. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Blake Inscore called his guest speaker role at a Sister Cities International Summit in Japan his “last big push for tourism as well as for our community” before he moves onto the next chapter of his life.

Part of the World’s Expo 2025 in Osaka, Inscore said every U.S./Japan Sister City was invited to attend the summit, which will be held from Sept. 16-19. His opportunity to re-tell the story of Crescent City’s evolving friendship with Rikuzentakata not only puts it on as large a world stage as the Tokyo Olympics did back in 2021, it represents what many Sister Cities don’t have.

“Sister Cities International has been very intrigued and they want us to show how a Sister City can work together with government-to-government relationships,” Inscore told the Crescent City Council on Monday. “[Many Sister Cities] don’t have a city council or a mayor or anybody else that’s engaged with wanting to see this happen. And, frankly, this is a win for us.”

Continue reading Blake Inscore To Be Guest Speaker At Sister Cities International Summit in Japan; Delegation Will Visit Iwate Prefecture

Crescent City Leaders Reaffirm Support For Permanent Mining Ban On North Fork Smith River

Thumbnail image shows map of the proposed 58,000-acre expansion of the Smith River National Recreation Area. | Image courtesy of Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office.

More than eight years after the Obama Administration issued a 20-year mining ban for the North Fork Smith River in Oregon, the Crescent City Council reaffirmed its support for legislation that would make that prohibition permanent.

Four councilors on Monday agreed to draft a letter to U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkely and Ron Wyden, who represent Oregon, reminding them that the Smith River is where Del Norte County’s drinking water comes from and that they’ve advocated for protecting its headwaters for more than a decade. Councilor Daran Dooley was absent.

But though Grant Werschkull, executive director of the Smith River Alliance, said such legislation is necessary for the January 2017 mineral withdrawal order to be permanent, he’s not sure if it will be approved this year.

Continue reading Crescent City Leaders Reaffirm Support For Permanent Mining Ban On North Fork Smith River

CCPD Helps Curry County Sheriff Apprehend Man Suspected Of Abusing Children

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

Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin credited the purchase of a Cellebrite Forensic Analyzer for being able to help the Curry County Sheriff’s Office track down a Texas man suspected of abusing children.

Appearing before the Crescent City Council on Monday, Griffin said that Curry County Sheriff John Ward had posted a press release to his agency’s Facebook page, thanking Crescent City for helping with the forensics in a recent Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce case.

According to Ward’s press release, he and Sgt. Zane Van Zelf arrested 32-year-old Matthew Arthur Anderson at his home in the central part of Curry County on Aug. 7. Gold Beach Police Sgt. David Vershall assisted them.

Continue reading CCPD Helps Curry County Sheriff Apprehend Man Suspected Of Abusing Children

Crescent City Council Recap, Aug. 18, 2025

Thumbnail photo: Construction began on the Fred Endert Municipal Pool’s roof on Monday. | courtesy of Andrew Goff

Councilman Daran Dooley was absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting:

CDBG grant: City Councilors authorized staff to establish a new fund for the $1.8 million it received in 2024 Community Development Block Grant dollars.

According to City Manager Eric Wier, about $300,000 of that money will go toward the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods for its Pacific Pantry program while another $1.5 million will be used to establish a business loan program.

Continue reading Crescent City Council Recap, Aug. 18, 2025

LRT Shows Del Norte A Loverly Time; My Fair Lady Opens Friday

Thumbnail: Rebecca and Phillip Dyke are Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins in LRT’s production of “My Fair Lady.” | Photo by Heather Polen

(Updated at 2 p.m. to correct an error. General admission tickets to My Fair Lady are $20, NOT $70.)

Rex Harrison may be iconic as Henry Higgins, having played the phonetician into the 1980s, but Phillip Dyke says his version will be different.

“I’m more of a singer than he is, that’s one major difference,” he told Redwood Voice Community News. “It’s always hard to critique your own work, but one of the things I try to do as an actor for any role is not spend too much time looking at the work of other actors who have performed the roles previously because I don’t want to be copying the work they’re doing.”


Dyke will star alongside his wife Rebecca in Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s production of My Fair Lady, which will open on Friday. LRT’s interpretation of Lerner and Lowe’s musical will be a return to the organization’s old stomping grounds at the Crescent Elk Auditorium, it’s also the first time LRT has taken on such a large-scale production since their performance of Honk in 2016.

Continue reading LRT Shows Del Norte A Loverly Time; My Fair Lady Opens Friday

Crescent City Council Approves Small But Significant ‘Kick Off Moment’ For Tolowa Cultural Trail At Beachfront Park

Thumbnail photo: The canoe node will be one of the first interpretive elements to be constructed as part of the Tolowa Cultural Trail feature at Beachfront Park. | Image courtesy of Crescent City

Crescent City councilors on Monday approved an agreement with the contractor that will lay the groundwork for the Tolowa Cultural Trail at Beachfront Park.

The city’s agreement with Tidewater Contractors to do the excavation, grading and improvements needed to install the first three interpretive elements seems small, especially after the City Council accepted a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation earlier this month.

But Public Works Director Dave Yeager pointed out that it’s taken roughly five years of collaboration, public outreach and pursuing and cobbling together funding from eight different grants to get the city to the “kick off moment” for the project.

“We’re breaking ground as we say with this project,” he told councilors, adding that Crescent City is managing eight grants connected with the Tolowa Cultural Trail. “This is a very small segment, but as the city manager also mentioned, we need to get some of this installed by Nov. 30.”

Continue reading Crescent City Council Approves Small But Significant ‘Kick Off Moment’ For Tolowa Cultural Trail At Beachfront Park

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