Thumbnail photos: District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short and District 2 Supervisor Joey Borges. Borges and Short will serve another year as chair and vice chair of the Board of Supervisors.
Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:
Borges, Short ‘Keep It Going’: District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey ended the long pause that followed Chris Howard’s nomination of Joey Borges for another year as Board chairman.
Howard, who represents Del Norte County District 3, praised Borges’ efficiency in running county meetings, saying he’s done a “wonderful job” over the past 12 months. Though she has yet to serve in the chair position since she first took her seat in 2021, Starkey said she couldn’t think of a reason why Borges shouldn’t continue in the role. Her initial plan was to nominate District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short to the chair position since he’s been the vice chair for the past year, but decided to second Howard’s original motion.
“The bottomline is Joey did a great job as chair and I think what Chris Howard said was pretty accurate and I liked the flow this year,” Starkey told Redwood Voice Community News. “There was no reason for me not to agree that Joey shouldn’t do it other than I was going to nominate Darrin.”
Howard also nominated Short to continue as vice chair for another year.
Road Maintenance Termination: County supervisors approved a resolution terminating county road maintenance for several local roads.
Those roads include Del Ponte Street, Gatliff Road, Del Norte Street, Crescent Street, a portion of McBeth Way, Del Norte Way, Siskiyou Way, Alder Lane, Laurel Lane, a portion of Trinity Way and Illinois Valley Road.
Most roads are in the flood plain near the old Klamath townsite, while others are in the flood plain outside the levee near Klamath Glen, according to County Engineer Jon Olson. Illinois Valley Road is a Forest Service road that is only accessible from O’Brien through Takilma in Oregon.
Del Norte County hasn’t maintained most of those roads for several years, according to County Engineer Jon Olson. The Illinois Valley Road, also known on Google Earth as the Takilma Road, is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service, not the county, he said. The road serves one developed area, he said.
The Board’s action will cost the county about $3,000 in the loss of state funding based on the number of vehicle registrations and the number of miles of roads maintained within the county, Olson said. However, it does mitigate the county’s liability by posting signs that state the roads aren’t maintained.
Smith River CSD Infrastructure: Smith River Community Services District Rachel Sarina said she welcomed the county’s assistance in repairing what District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard called “tired infrastructure” within their boundaries.
The Board on Tuesday agreed to appoint Howard and Borges to a committee with the water district in Smith River, stating that it will focus on capacity issues and outdated infrastructure. According to Howard, those issues have hampered the development of homes in “one of the only places we have in this county to expand residentially.”
“We thought it would be important, in order to have a conversation of this nature, to form a two-by-two in order to have the conversation and be able to report back to the Board in a transparent and productive manner,” he said.
This comes as the Smith River CSD has expanded its area of service via the Local Agency Formation Commission, said District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson.
Sarina thanked Howard for bringing the issue to the table.
“We really appreciate this formal designation of this two-by-two,” she said. “We look forward to having the discussion
Partnership For The Performing Arts: Supervisors Howard and Starkey were pegged to sit on any stakeholder committees that are affiliated with efforts to establish a performing arts center in Del Norte County.
Howard said creating a two-by-two committee could help the nonprofit spearheading the project find pathways for funding and encourage the community’s support.
According to Michelle Carrillo, who is affiliated with the Partnership for the Performing Arts, the 800-seat venue proposed for the Del Norte High campus is currently in the “active planning” stage. The nonprofit is working on a feasibility study on the project with a third-party provider, which is gauging the funding needed to build the project and keep it sustainable.
“This is about collaboration,” Carrillo said. “Having county leaders and staff at the table early helps us move faster and avoid misalignment and design a facility that truly serves our countywide goals around economic vitality, education, youth and cultural access and community safety in times of disaster as a gathering place.”
Nick Rail, founder and president of the Partnership of the Performing Arts, said most of the project’s funding will come from private sources including corporations and foundations. He noted that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in Brookings in September, a performance that generated a 25% profit for the organization.
Rail noted that the organization lucked out that it didn’t rain during the concert, which was held at Azalea Park. A performing arts center will allow cultural activities, town meetings as well as fundraisers and wedding receptions, he said.
Lake Earl Breach: Supervisors granted engineering staff permission to seek the state and federal permits needed to breach lakes Earl and Tolowa to alleviate flooding.
According to a staff report from County Engineer Jon Olson, the lagoons’ elevation as of 10 a.m. Dec. 29 was 8.4 feet. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife allows for mechanically breaching the sand bar between the lakes and the Pacific Ocean when the water surface reaches or exceeds 8 feet between Sept. 1 and Feb. 15.
Mechanical breaching is permissible again on Feb. 15 if the lake exceeds 5 feet.
Despite “preferred alternative” outlined in CDFW’s Lake Earl Wildlife Area Management Plan, the California Coastal Commission, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board typically don’t issue emergency permits until lake levels are at 9 feet and there is physical evidence of flooding on Kellogg Road or on Lower Lake Road.
