Category Archives: Crescent City

Steve Shamblin Appointed To Vacant Crescent City Council Seat

Thumbnail photo: The Crescent City Council appointed Planning Commission Chair Steve Shamblin to the seat Daran Dooley left behind in October. | screenshot

Three of the four remaining Crescent City councilors on Tuesday chose the chairman of the city planning commission over a former fire captain to fill the seat Daran Dooley vacated in October.

With Mayor Pro Tem Candace Tinkler praising his resume, the Council appointed Steve Shamblin to serve through the certification of the November 2026 General Election.

“I did read Mr. Shamblin’s resume and I have worked with him in previous committees so I do agree that he really does his homework,” Tinkler said. “He didn’t mention this, but I know from his resume that he also has education in urban planning, which I think is very useful.”

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Crescent City Councilors Seek To Fill Vacancy, Approve Water Well Project, Sea Rise Grant Application

Crescent City Councilor Jason Greenough was absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s meeting:

Vacancy: Crescent City is accepting applications to fill the vacant seat left behind by Daran Dooley, who resigned in October. Applications will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Dec. 1. The City Council will then conduct interviews with a goal of swearing a candidate in at its regular meeting Dec. 15, City Manager Eric Wier said. Applications can be obtained by visiting www.crescentcity.org. 

Water redundancy: Councilors awarded a $272,900 contract to GHD to design and provide project management for a redundant water well that could be used if tapping into the Smith River isn’t an option.

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Crescent City To Set Cap On Cannabis Retailers, Disallow Indoor Cultivation

Thumbnail photo by Jennifer Martin via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License.

Crescent City councilors endorsed a Planning Commission request to modify the city’s commercial cannabis law to disallow indoor cultivation within city limits.

But, while planning commissioners also recommended limiting the number of retailers to eight, councilors opted for a stricter cap.

“As long as these business owners are obeying the rules and acting professionally, limiting it to five would be very reasonable,” Mayor Pro Tem Candace Tinkler told her colleagues Monday.

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Crescent City Makes Provisions for Nine Families Impacted By Early End to COVID-Era Housing Program

Thumbnail photo: Members of the former Crescent City Council, the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors and the Crescent City Planning Commission break ground on Battery Point Apartments in this Sept. 10 file photo. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

The earlier-than-anticipated end of a COVID-era program will push some families ahead of the line when it comes to obtaining Section 8 housing vouchers.

Nine families are currently being housed through the Emergency Housing Voucher  (EHV) program, which was created in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, Crescent City Housing Authority Director Megan Miller said Monday.

With the program’s funding expected to run out four years earlier than anticipated, however, the City Council, acting as the Housing Authority Board of Directors, approved transitioning those nine families into the Housing Choice Voucher program.

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Crescent City Creates Plan B For Public Notices if Newspaper Folds

Thumbnail: Dan Schmidt, the Del Norte Triplicate’s new owner, speaks to a city plan Monday to have an alternate available for publishing public notices should Crescent City be without a newspaper. | Screenshot.

Though the Del Norte Triplicate’s new owner felt it was unnecessary, Crescent City councilors adopted a backup when it comes to publishing public notices should the community be without a newspaper.

Dan Schmidt said Monday that he and his wife Phyllis have put a newspaper out every week since taking over the Triplicate about a month ago. They’re currently working on the fifth issue. A month ago the city’s ordinance would have made sense, he said, but the community still has a newspaper of general circulation.

“You don’t need to pretend that it’s going to go away,” Schmidt told the City Council. “I’m going to be here awhile, I plan to, and we’ll keep putting the paper out.”

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Start Your Engines: Sea Cruise Rolls Into Town Friday, Saturday

Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Bayside resident Alan Billinger took home the Best of Show and Best Paint for his 1940 Mercury convertible at last year’s Sea Cruise Car Show. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce

Those looking for a quiet stroll along the water with shorebirds for company should steer clear of Crescent City on Saturday.

Hundreds of hot rods, rat rods, muscle cars, trucks, Mustangs, Corvettes and motorcycles will dot Beachfront Park and at noon, they’ll wake up.

“We’re going to let the town know we’re here,” Crescent City-Del Norte County Executive Director Cindy Vosburg said. “You’ll have 200 to 300 vehicles start at once, revving their engines.”

The Rumble at Noon is a new feature of the 34th annual Sea Cruise Outdoor Car Show. Del Norte’s tribute to chrome, rubber and community starts with the Show & Shine and a sanctioned two-way cruise on Friday in Downtown Crescent City.

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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.

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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. 

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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.”

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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.

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