An investigation is underway into the death of an inmate who died at the Del Norte County Jail on Thursday.
Tyrel Grant, 31, was pronounced deceased by sheriff’s deputy coroners despite receiving medical assistance from corrections staff and medical personnel, according to a Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office post on Facebook. Corrections staff were notified that Grant was having a medical emergency at about 6:30 a.m. Paramedics also responded to the jail to administer medical aid, according to the sheriff’s office.
Grant had been in custody at the jail since Nov. 17, DNSO Capt. Kyle Stevens told Redwood Voice Community News. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery and a post-release community supervision violation.
The Redwood Downtown, a mixed-use development proposed by Community System Solutions, would include residential and retail units. The developer said he plans to demolish the old Daly’s building to make way for the project. | Images courtesy of Community System Solutions
City Manager Eric Wier said plans to demolish the old Daly’s building and replace it with a development that includes affordable housing could be the key to revitalizing Crescent City’s downtown.
Councilors were enthusiastic about the proposal, especially when the developer, Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr assured them that the city would be protected should it not materialize and the state asks for its grant dollars back.
Bahr said construction would start on The Redwood Downtown development at 3rd and J streets in March or April 2027. His goal is to have a ribbon cutting about a year later. Bahr also assured councilors that the complex would align with its downtown masterplan.
Despite opposing Crescent City’s commercial cannabis ordinance five years ago, Councilor Jason Greenough argued that limiting the number of businesses selling it was unnecessary.
“It seems like the market is regulating itself,” he said Monday. “We’re not being inundated with cannabis shops on every corner, so I’m confused why this is even before the Council again.”
Greenough, who was absent when his colleagues first considered a Planning Commission recommendation on Nov. 17 to make changes to the city’s cannabis regulations, urged the City Council to remove the proposed limitation.
Thumbnail photo: Mary Dorman, community volunteer liaison with the American Red Cross’s Northern California chapter, received Crescent City’s Service Above Self award on Monday. | Screenshot
Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting.
Service Above Self:
City Manager Eric Wier applauded Mary Dorman’s readiness to assist Del Norters with everyday disasters, saying she best exemplifies former fire chief Steve Wakefield’s personal motto of service above self.
Dorman, community volunteer leader with the American Red Cross’s Northern California chapter, often acts as a liaison between that organization and the Del Norte Emergency Operations Center, Wier said.
Thumbnail image: District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard urged his colleagues on Tuesday to advocate for the tunnel project around Last Chance Grade in the Board’s 2026 Legislative Platform. | Image Courtesy of Caltrans District 1.
Days after he returned from a visit to Japan, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard touted that country’s tunnel-building prowess when he urged his colleagues to step up advocacy for Last Chance Grade.
During a discussion of the county’s 2026 Legislative Platform on Tuesday, Howard said he wanted to explore how Japan’s innovative techniques could apply to the Last Chance Grade tunnel project. He also told his colleagues that Caltrans still needs a Coastal Development Permit from the California Coastal Commission for the project despite completing nearly a decade of environmental studies.
Howard asked Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper to include advocacy for an exemption from that hurdle in the platform.
Thumbnail photo: Del Norte High School senior Elle Jacot painted two Kamome replicas for the Boats of Hope art tour. One will be headed to Rikuzentakata during a student exchange in January. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce
Four years after the friendship between Del Norte and Rikuzentakata found an international stage at the Tokyo Olympics, replicas of the fishing vessel that sparked the relationship will be featured in a local art tour.
The Boats of Hope art tour will feature seven mini Kamomes placed at various places throughout Del Norte County. The project is spearheaded by the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce as well as Carol Zocchi, advisor for Del Norte High School’s Japan Club.
Zocchi put out a call for students interested in pitching a design and inspiration for their boat to seven partner agencies, according to a chamber press release. The students were also able to earn an artist stipend.
Del Norte County supervisors took a first step toward implementing a salary schedule they say will make wages more competitive, starting on Tuesday with their unrepresented county employees.
County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez said he hopes to bring revised salary schedules and wage adjustments for the county’s represented bargaining groups before the Board on Dec. 9.
“We’re trying to get everybody implemented at the same time, which will be the 19th of December,” Lopez told Redwood Voice Community News. “The pay period begins the 19th of December and we want everybody on the same ship when this whole thing gets established.”
District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors Meeting:
County Supervisors Compensation: Supervisors approved an ordinance that set their biweekly compensation rate at $2,277.67 regardless of how many terms they serve in office. The ordinance adds language to a provision in county code that justifies an extra $100 the Board chair receives, which is also paid biweekly.
It also offers a cost of living adjustment for county supervisors that will be between 2.5% and 4% each year based on the Western Region Consumer Price Index. According to the county’s staff report, the Board of Supervisors will be required to review this COLA every three years starting in 2029 and can, by a four-fifths vote, waive that adjustment.
Thumbnail photo: Jaime Matteoli, Caltrans’ Last Chance Grade corridor manager, and Caltrans District 1 Director Matt Brady visit with Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism during a recent visit. | Photo courtesy of Chris Howard. Above:Caltrans chose a 1-mile long tunnel out of several alternatives for rerouting U.S. 101 around the slide at Last Chance Grade. | Image courtesy of Caltrans District 1
Matteoli said he hopes to gain some wisdom from the lessons his colleagues across the Pacific have learned as Caltrans begins refining its design for the 1-mile long tunnel at the Last Chance Grade landslide south of Crescent City.
But he called the trip special for another reason: The Japanese people still remember the role a handful of Del Norte High School students played in bringing a 20-foot fishing vessel home to Rikuzentakata two years after the 2011 tsunami.
“To stand by Kamome and visit the site of Rikuzentakata — it was on our way past the tunnel project in the Sanriku expressway — I felt proud of our community, proud of the youth,” Matteoli told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday. “It all started with young people providing an act of kindness to the people of Japan. We heard from many people, including the vice minister of MLIT, who expressed gratitude for their support.”
Thumbnail photo: Denise Doyle-Schnacker volunteers at the Community Thanksgiving Dinner in 2022. While all the volunteer slots are taken for this year’s dinner, monetary donations are always welcome and appreciated, Crescent City Foursquare Church Pastor Roger Bodenstab says.
With 160 people signed up, Foursquare Church no longer needs volunteers to heat up and dish out a Thanksgiving meal for Del Norte on Thursday.
But its pastor, Roger Bodenstab, says the church is prepared to serve roughly 1,000 meals and could always use donations.
“The need is always financial,” he told Redwood Voice Community News. “We order everything in bulk and we’re using the Crescent Elk kitchen to prepare the food. Everything is done in bulk to get it done efficiently and effectively.”
