Tag Archives: del norte news

Commenters At City Council Meeting Raise Concern Over DNSO’s Automated License Plate Reader Camera At Northcrest and Washington

Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office’s automated license plate reader camera from Flock Safety at Northcrest Drive led to questions from the public at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting. | Photo by Heather Polen

Del Norte County’s sheriff says he understands the concerns commenters raised before the Crescent City Council on Monday about an automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera at Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard.

But in a rural area with few safeguards and only three deputies on duty during a shift, having “those eyes out there” to foil a kidnapping or any other crime is worth it, he told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday.

“For now, it’s a three-year safeguard,” Sheriff Garrett Scott said of the six Flock Safety cameras his office purchased in May 2025. “If, God forbid, we do have a kidnapping or something horrific at one of our schools or in the more populated areas, they’re a proven resource.”

Continue reading Commenters At City Council Meeting Raise Concern Over DNSO’s Automated License Plate Reader Camera At Northcrest and Washington →

Crescent City Council Recap, Aug. 3, 2026

Thumbnail photo: Del Norte High School’s digital sign. On Monday, the Crescent City Council allowed Crescent Elk Middle School to display an electronic sign of its own. | Photo by Monique Camarena

Councilman Steve Shamblin was absent. Among the items discussed at Monday’s Crescent City Council meeting:

Digital Signs, School Edition: Councilman Jason Greenough voted with the rest of his colleagues to allow Crescent Elk Middle School to display a digital sign, but not before he noted how ridiculous he thought the topic was.

Coming after the City Council in February approved an ordinance governing the size and location they would allow such electronic displays, Greenough said the regulations were unnecessary. Allowing Crescent Elk to have a digital sign is an exception for another governing body, he said.

“We don’t have a huge problem with signs, but we passed an ordinance to regulate them for our businesses and so, well, our businesses and everyone else,” Greenough said. “The schools are an unintended victim of our regulation of everybody’s ability to have just a sign in front of their property.”

Continue reading Crescent City Council Recap, Aug. 3, 2026 →

North Coast Rape Crisis Team To Move To New Location

Thumbnail photo: Courtesy of the North Coast Rape Crisis Team

It took nearly nine months, but Amanda LeBlanc says she may have found a new home for the North Coast Rape Crisis Team’s Del Norte office.

LeBlanc, the nonprofit’s executive director, said her team reached out to their community partners and local realtors trying to find a new commercial space to lease. She looked at a space that may serve her team’s needs on Friday, but will need help to turn it into a safe space for children and adult survivors of sexual assault.

“I’m waiting for the final yes it’s yours, but what we will need help with absolutely are the construction costs because you’re not allowed to use state or federal grant moneys for construction,” LeBlanc told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday. “All of that is going to have to come out of general funds, which is unrestricted funds from individual donors or foundations or from our partners and, perhaps, the community in order to get it set up.”

Continue reading North Coast Rape Crisis Team To Move To New Location →

Airport Director Discusses BCRAA’s Reduced 2026-27 Budget, Line Of Credit From Del Norte County

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Andrew Goff

Two weeks after they extended a line of credit to the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority, Del Norte County supervisors on Tuesday approved an airport authority budget its director said was balanced after “we trimmed and trimmed.”

BCRAA’s 2026-27 budget calls for projected revenues and expenditures of about $6.78 million, down from the $13.73 million the authority’s original 2025-26 budget called for and the $13.74 million that was in its revised budget. 

Fewer grant-funded projects expected this fiscal year is the main reason for the difference, Airport Authority Director Sean Rosenthal told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. Those projects include rehabilitation of Runway 18-36 and the purchase of an airport fire rescue truck, both of which were paid for with Federal Aviation Administration dollars, he said.

“It’s those really large projects that make the airport budget fluctuate so,” he said. “Probably this would be one of the leaner years, but that’s, again, due to the fact that we have less projects than we did last year. The next one will be when we do Runway 12-30 in a few years.”

Continue reading Airport Director Discusses BCRAA’s Reduced 2026-27 Budget, Line Of Credit From Del Norte County →

County Supervisors Vote To Send ‘Very Soft’ Offshore Oil Drilling Opposition Letter Despite Chris Howard’s Objections

Thumbnail photo: Oil platforms off the coast of Seal Beach, Calif. | Photo by Mike Peel via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons License

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard warned his colleagues a third time about sending a letter to the federal government outlining Del Norte County’s opposition to offshore oil drilling.

Del Norte County’s letter is in response to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Section 312 evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program. While he called it mild, Howard said he worried about any fallout the county may experience as a result. He was especially concerned about the $2.1-$2.7 billion tunnel bypass around Last Chance Grade south of Crescent City.

“I’ve expressed concerns about federal funding for our tunnel project and an administration that seems to be very vindictive as it relates to funding projects where communities take an opposition to those federal policies,” Howard said Tuesday.

Continue reading County Supervisors Vote To Send ‘Very Soft’ Offshore Oil Drilling Opposition Letter Despite Chris Howard’s Objections →

Judge Rejects Request to Evaluate Defendant’s Mental Competency in Dante Romannose-Jones Case

Thumbnail photo by Amanda Dockter

A Del Norte County judge denied a request to determine if the 27-year-old man accused of killing 13-year-old Dante Romannose-Jones when he was still a teenager himself is competent enough to assist in his own defense.

During a hearing in juvenile court on Wednesday, Crescent City attorney James Fallman asked to have his client, Nathan Feliz, evaluated by a psychiatrist for competency. 

Fallman told Judge Darrin McElfresh that the defendant, who was 16 years old in 2015 when Romannose-Jones was shot and killed in Klamath, ended a conversation mid-sentence when he tried to discuss options with him.

Continue reading Judge Rejects Request to Evaluate Defendant’s Mental Competency in Dante Romannose-Jones Case →

Arrest Made In 11-Year-Old Shooting Death of Klamath Teenager

(Updated at 5:15 p.m. to include input from Del Norte County Sheriff Garrett Scott.)

A 27-year-old man faces a similar murder charge he received 11 years ago in connection with the homicide of Klamath teenager Dante Romannose-Jones.

Nathan Feliz, who was 16 years old when Dante was shot and killed, was arrested in Ukiah on Monday, the Redheaded Blackbelt’s Lisa Music reported. According to Del Norte County District Attorney Katherine Micks, Feliz’s current charge — murder with a special allegation of use of a firearm — originated in juvenile court.

Feliz appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon, Micks said. His next hearing is scheduled for July 30 before Del Norte County Superior Court Judge Darrin McElfresh, she said.

Continue reading Arrest Made In 11-Year-Old Shooting Death of Klamath Teenager →

Schmidt, Nehmer object to doing business with LLC created to manage Harbor District RV parks

Thumbnail photo: Bayside RV Park at the Crescent City Harbor is one of two that a new limited liability company, Crescent City Beach Village LLC, will redevelop and manage. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

A nine-month long courtship between the Crescent City Harbor District and BSD Property Management was nearly derailed over what the investment manager said is standard procedure for a new business.

But after CCHD commissioners Dan Schmidt and Annie Nehmer balked at entering into a lease agreement with Crescent City Beach Village LLC, the limited liability company created to operate the harbor’s RV parks, Daniel Dahan said without trust, the relationship was doomed.

“If you always have to come back and say, ‘Why did you do this? Why is this? Why is that?’ not as an interest, but as a fear, that’s not a good relationship,” he said Wednesday. “That’s not a healthy marriage.”

Continue reading Schmidt, Nehmer object to doing business with LLC created to manage Harbor District RV parks →

‘I’ve Been In Good Spirits’; Though He’s Still Struggling With the Loss Of His Hand, Jason Turner Says He’s Optimistic About the Future

Thumbnail photo courtesy of GoFundMe

Jason Turner didn’t have time to see what he grabbed before it exploded.

The father of seven and his girlfriend, Pamala Ganfield, were spending a post-holiday afternoon at the beach north of Crescent City. As they walked along the beach, Pamala picked up some trash, putting it in a pile to retrieve before they left, when something round and shiny caught Turner’s eye.

“We walked close to the water’s edge, there was a little bit of sand over it, but it was fairly close to where the water would get us,” he said. “To me, it looked like a lead sinker with something on it and I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be cool,’ and that’s the last thing that happened.”

Two weeks after the July 5 explosion at Point St. George forced doctors at U.C. Davis Medical Center to amputate his left hand, Turner is back home in Klamath. He says he’s slowly getting used to his new life, including figuring out how to maneuver a game controller to play Fortnite, but he has a long road of surgeries, doctors visits, occupational and physical therapies ahead of him.

Continue reading ‘I’ve Been In Good Spirits’; Though He’s Still Struggling With the Loss Of His Hand, Jason Turner Says He’s Optimistic About the Future →

With Pac Power Unable To Support A Microgrid, SitelogIQ Proposes Solar Panels For The Jail, Flynn Center

Thumbnail image: SitelogIQ had proposed using photovoltaic solar panels and battery backup to create a microgrid in the northern area of Crescent City that would power the school district, Sutter Coast Hospital, the airport and the Crescent Fire and Rescue fire hall. | Image courtesy of SitelogIQ

Two years after outlining microgrid projects that would keep Del Norte County’s critical infrastructure functioning during a power outage, SitelogIQ representatives told supervisors that a facilities-based approach would be more feasible.

Despite spearheading successful projects in Pacific, Gas & Electric territory, including four in Humboldt County, SitelogIQ’s governor affairs and community development representative Kristy Coughlin said Del Norte County’s utility, Pacific Power, would be unable to manage a microgrid.

“Pacific Power determined they did not have the capacity, resources, personnel or infrastructure to support a community microgrid,” Coughlin told supervisors on Tuesday, adding that the company had met with Pacific Power in March.

Continue reading With Pac Power Unable To Support A Microgrid, SitelogIQ Proposes Solar Panels For The Jail, Flynn Center →