Thumbnail image: The 57-acre “Sand Spit Property” the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation is seeking to acquire. |Image courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:
Trust Acquisition Opposition: County supervisors approved a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs opposing the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation’s efforts to acquire 57 acres of undeveloped land just outside its boundaries in Smith River.
Known as the “Sand Spit Property,” the parcel is located on the south side of the Smith River estuary near the river mouth.
The TdN aims to conduct habitat restoration on the property and make it available to tribal members to gather resources for ceremonial and other cultural uses, according to a March 6 notification from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In its letter to Ryan Hunter, acting regional director for the BIA’s Pacific Regional Office, the Board of Supervisors states that the TdN’s proposed trust acquisition to remove the parcel from the local tax roles. According to the letter, the 57-acre parcel generated about $4,290.46 in property taxes and $292.28 in special assessments for the College of the Redwoods and Del Norte Unified School District.
The letter also cites the Board’s no net loss policy to protect Del Norte’s “shrinking taxable land base.”
“Accepting these parcels into trust would not only eliminate critical property tax revenues, but also limit the county’s ability to ensure thoughtful coordinated land use planning,” the letter states.
Opioid Settlement: County supervisors unanimously voted to join a new opioid settlement agreement, this one focusing on smaller manufacturers and distributors, according to County Counsel Jacqueline Roberts, who reported out of closed session.
The case is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, according to the Board’s Tuesday agenda. The defendants include Associated Pharmacies Inc. and American Associated Pharmacies; J.M. Smith Corporation; Louisiana Wholesale Drug Company; Morris and Dickson Co.; North Carolina Mutual Wholesale Drug Company Inc.; and United Natural Foods Inc. including its subsidiaries SuperValu and Advantage Logistics.
This case is part of the National Opioids Litigation efforts.
General Plan: Community Development Director Heidi Kunstal urged county supervisors to spend a year or two identifying funding sources and “preplanning” for the next comprehensive update of the county’s general plan.
A state-mandated outline of the physical development within Del Norte, Kunstal told supervisors that her staff have begun updating one component of the general plan — the safety element. The general plan was last updated in 2003, she said.
Del Norte’s Local Coastal Program, its land-use document concerning the county’s coastal areas, hasn’t had an update since it was certified in 1984. Ideally, both should be updated at the same time, Kunstal told supervisors.
“I think it would be prudent for us to update our Local Coastal Program,” she said. “I think there are some policies we could probably benefit from for people who are planning on developing coastal properties. It might give our planning division and planning commission more tools to recommend approval for projects that, for now, unfortunately, have to be appealed to the Coastal Commission.”
District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard called the general plan update a heavy lift for the Community Development Department and urged his colleagues to think about that when they develop the 2026-27 budget.
His colleague, District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson said he was also concerned about a loss of expertise.
Part-time probation positions:
County supervisors approved two new job classifications for a probation special investigator and a program provider that Chief Probation Officer Lonnie Reyman said would allow for more flexibility at the Youth Opportunity Center.
According to the staff report, these are “extrahelp part-time temporary job classifications,” which allows the Probation Department to pay program facilitators at the Youth Opportunity Center.
Though she said the two job classifications aren’t part of Del Norte County Employee Association SEIU 1021, its new chapter president Amy Lefreniere warned supervisors against “rubber stamping.”
“I do work in a branch that has been able to successfully utilize those extra-help positions and recognize the crucial roles that they can fill,” she said. “However, we want to make sure that we aren’t just rubber stamping extra-help positions and full-time jobs turning into part-time jobs.”
