_{Thumbnail photo: Del Norte Triplicate owner Dan Schmidt addresses Crescent City’s proposed policy for creating an alternative process for publishing public notices at the Council’s Oct. 20 meeting. | Screenshot}

Despite Dan Schmidt’s assurance that Del Norte has a newspaper of general circulation, county supervisors followed the city’s footsteps Tuesday to create a plan B for posting public notices.

Schmidt pointed out that the Del Norte Triplicate has served Crescent City and Del Norte County for since 1879. Though he recently purchased the newspaper from previous owners Country Media Inc., Schmidt said he is in the process of putting his sixth publication out.

“The adjudication status as a newspaper of general circulation is the most valuable and perhaps the only asset a newspaper has. It’s the asset that I drained my 401k to acquire,” he said, handing a copy of that adjudication to the clerk of the Board on Tuesday. “We know the circumstances of why it was shut down. I could have stopped for three or four weeks and taken time to get my act together. I decided to keep on going. Keep on publishing and just today we’re putting together our sixth issue.”

_{Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz}

District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

Board Approves 2025-26 Final Budget: Four county supervisors approved Del Norte County’s 2025-26 final recommended budget about two weeks after they learned that 25% of its positions are vacant and overall base salaries are 10% under market median.

The final step in a process that included a 14-day public hearing window and two budget workshops, the total 2025-26 recommended budget is $249,475,247 with a general fund budget of $45,460,804, according to a staff report from County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez and Auditor-Controller Clinton Schaad.