Tag Archives: crescent city news

Mary Dorman Wins Crescent City’s ‘Service Above Self’ Award; Measure S Paving Project is Under Way; Councilors Approve ADU Update

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. 

Continue reading Mary Dorman Wins Crescent City’s ‘Service Above Self’ Award; Measure S Paving Project is Under Way; Councilors Approve ADU Update

Crescent City Seeks Caltrans Grant To Tame U.S. 101 ‘Concrete Jungle’

Thumbnail: Crescent City is pursuing a Caltrans grant that would make its highway corridor safer for all modes of transportation and tie its downtown area to the Crescent City Harbor. | Screenshot

As Crescent City focuses on revitalizing its downtown, City Manager Eric Wier asked councilors to give a thought to the highway corridor.

Describing M and L streets as a hardscape dominated by pavement, sidewalks and buildings, Wier urged councilors to pursue a Caltrans grant aimed at addressing all modes of transportation. He envisioned more greenery, possibly reducing the number of lanes on the northbound side and building wider sidewalks in order to reduce the amount of highway someone has to cross to get to Safeway.

“A big part of the experience when you come into Crescent City is that highway corridor,” Wier said. “It is the downtown, but it’s not really part of the downtown. You have Caltrans and highway facilities coming through there so it really does need its own plan.”

Continue reading Crescent City Seeks Caltrans Grant To Tame U.S. 101 ‘Concrete Jungle’

Here’s Your Sign? Crescent City Council Mulls Changes To Regulations

Thumbnail photo: The Tsunami Lane Bowling Alley received a permit for its digital sign about a year ago, however the sign has characteristics that aren’t allowed in the Crescent City Municipal Code, City Attorney Martha Rice said. | Photo by Heather Polen

Candace Tinkler was at odds with her colleagues as well as the Planning Commission over a proposal regarding signs on Crescent City’s main drag

A Planning Commission proposal to allow digital signs that are up to 100-square-feet within city limits would lead to distracted motorists, light pollution and visual blight, the mayor pro tem said Monday. Furthermore, she warned, the City Council would be torpedoing its vision for Downtown Crescent City.

“We’re trying hard to move forward, to modernize and improve, not only the safety, but the looks of our community,” Tinkler said, listing the community’s expansion of Beachfront Park, its Front Street improvements and the downtown visioning plan Crescent City staff sought community input on last week. “One of the things that concerns me is that as a town whose economy depends a lot on tourism, these kinds of signs, when they accumulate, it’s a lot of commercialism and it detracts from the idea that we are a distinct community.”

Continue reading Here’s Your Sign? Crescent City Council Mulls Changes To Regulations

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.

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

Del Norte Supervisors Support City Grants, Discuss DHHS Contracts, Retirement Benefit Policy

Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short and his District 3 colleague Chris Howard were absent. Among the items discussed at Wednesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

Grant confusion: Three supervisors endorsed two Crescent City grant proposals, though it took a last-minute visit from City Manager Eric Wier for them to arrive at that conclusion.

Supervisors agreed to sign a letter of support for Crescent City’s efforts to obtain a Sustainable Planning Grant through Caltrans for its Redwood Highway Multi-Modal Transportation & Land Use Plan. They also approved a support letter for the city’s pursuit of California Ocean Protection Council grant dollars for its Coastal Resiliency Plan.

Continue reading Del Norte Supervisors Support City Grants, Discuss DHHS Contracts, Retirement Benefit Policy

Restoring Elk Creek Would Enhance Crescent City’s Ability to Withstand Flood, Tsunami, Smith River Alliance’s Grant Werschkull Says

Thumbnail: Aerial shot of the Elk Creek watershed looking west toward the Pacific Ocean. | Photo courtesy of Smith River Alliance and Stillwater Sciences

Smith River Alliance Co-Director Grant Werschkull acknowledged that breathing new life into Elk Creek’s wetlands could be an economic boon for Crescent City.

But to illustrate his point that restoring the tidal channels and swales would make a difference during a tsunami or a flood, he pointed councilors to a 2015 New Yorker article about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the massive earthquakes it is capable of generating and its threat to coastal communities like Crescent City.

“The title is the ‘Really Big One’,” Werschkull said, referring to the article. “Seismologists, the experts that we have, participated in that (article) and it talks about how we are right now at a date when it is timely that it could happen.”

Continue reading Restoring Elk Creek Would Enhance Crescent City’s Ability to Withstand Flood, Tsunami, Smith River Alliance’s Grant Werschkull Says

Greenough Urges Councilors To Reach Out to U.S. Senators To End Government Shutdown

Thumbnail: Marina MacNeil and Dominique Richcreek, staff members at Pacific Pantry, distributes food in Smith River in this September 2024 photo. Pacific Pantry has expanded its hours in the wake of uncertain SNAP benefits as a result of the federal government shutdown. | File photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Crescent City Councilor Jason Greenough argued that writing to the U.S. senators who represent California, urging them to help end the federal government shutdown wasn’t political.

In response to concerns from his colleague Candace Tinkler, Greenough pointed to the disruption in food stamps, potential impacts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds the Crescent City Housing Authority, as well as federal employees who are going without pay.

“Our senators have both decided to continue to vote to keep the government shutdown,” Greenough told his colleagues on Monday. “So we at least need to have a discussion about communicating with them to hopefully get this fixed if it is still shut down by our next meeting.”’

Continue reading Greenough Urges Councilors To Reach Out to U.S. Senators To End Government Shutdown

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.

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

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.”

Continue reading Crescent City Creates Plan B For Public Notices if Newspaper Folds

US DOT Secures Funding to Keep EAS Service Going Till November; Local Airport Authority Still Assessing ‘Best Options’

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Andrew Goff

Though the federal government shutdown continues, the U.S. Department of Transportation granted a reprieve that will allow commercial air service in Del Norte County to continue through November.

In a notice Border Coast Regional Airport Authority Director Sean Rosenthal said he received Wednesday morning, the DOT stated that it has secured additional funding to support both the Essential Air Service and Alternative Essential Air Service programs. As a result, air carriers and communities receiving those subsidies must continue to fulfill their obligations “until such time as the Department notifies them otherwise.”

According to the notice, carriers who serve rural communities under the Essential Air Service — including Advanced Air, which flies from Crescent City to Oakland and to Southern California  — will be able to provide service through Nov. 2.

Continue reading US DOT Secures Funding to Keep EAS Service Going Till November; Local Airport Authority Still Assessing ‘Best Options’