County supervisors agreed to a year’s extension of the deadline on a line of credit they offered to the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority to replace roughly 1,800 feet of chainlink fence.
The fence project is in an environmentally and culturally sensitive area along the beachfront at Del Norte County Regional Airport, Director Sean Rosenthal told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. It’s needed to keep elk from getting onto the tarmac, he said.
“Right now we’re in the design phase and that should be approved any day,” he said. “And then we have to get a Coastal (Development) Permit. And, hopefully, we get all of our plant studies done in time for September construction.”
Thumbnail: This conceptual comparison of a new Behavioral Health Campus versus the current Behavioral Health Branch facility was included in the county’s grant application for BHCIP dollars. | Image courtesy of District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey
Shiann Hogan sees many possibilities for Del Norte County’s new Behavioral Health Campus, but one thing it won’t be is a locked facility.
The deputy director for the county Behavioral Health Branch says the new facility will allow for expanded substance abuse and mental health programming. There will be a new sobering center and a mental health crisis respite center and the facility will complement the new EmPATH unit Sutter Coast Hospital is developing.
But those will be voluntary services, Hogan told Redwood Voice Community News on May 11.
Skylar Lambeth was blunt — the bus being late 48 times is inexcusable.
The Del Norte High School student said her first grade has suffered and she’s missing “entire units” of history due to the late bus. Her peers could have made similar statements to the school board, she said Thursday, but they rely on the bus to return home.
“I feel Klamath kids have been forgotten about too many times,” Skylar said. “Klamath kids often get seen as lazy and not caring about grades, but that’s just not true. Us Klamath kids have bright futures, but this takes education away from us and that’s just not fair. This situation could make us fail our finals.”
Thumbnail photo: Crescent City Harbor’s inner boat basin. | Photo by Gavin Van Alstine
Harbor Board Chairman Rick Shepherd insisted that a plan to both make a loan payment to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and address maintenance issues would “save our ass,” though he admitted it was convoluted.
The plan involves a trust account with the county that houses the transiency occupancy tax (TOT) revenue the Measure C has generated for the Harbor District since voters approved it in 2018.
On Wednesday, CCHD Fiscal Officer Sandy Moreno informed commissioners that there is $602,396 in that trust account — more than enough to make two loan payments to the USDA. She proposed using roughly $263,888 to satisfy a delinquent payment the Harbor District should have made to the USDA in September 2025 and using $129,841 to address the district’s maintenance needs.
District 1 Supervisor Darrin Short was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Tolowa Dunes SP Closure: Three county supervisors said they fielded calls and complaints regarding the temporary closure of parts of Tolowa Dunes State Park over the weekend.
The California State Parks North Coast Redwoods District authorized the closure of several access points and trails to allow the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation to observe the Lhuk Rite Ceremony. The annual ceremony celebrates the importance of salmon and its annual return to its river habitat.
Before county supervisors approved a lease agreement concerning modular trailers at Williams Drive, Lonnie Reyman asked that they not forget about probation.
The Del Norte County Probation Department had leveraged its good relationship with the buildings’ owners, the Del Norte County Office of Education, and used the space for training and to hold programs for its adult offenders, the probation chief said Tuesday. According to him, there is no other space available for adult programming.
“Over the last five or six years we’ve worked to try and increase that availability we provide to our adult offenders and to be able to provide those programs directly. That is one of the key places we do that,” Reyman said of the trailers at 250 and 254 Williams Drive in Crescent City. “As the county goes through this transition to use that property in a different manner, that will be something I’ll be watching closely. …”
Portions of Tolowa Dunes State Park will be closed to the public to allow the region’s original inhabitants space to celebrate a cornerstone of their nutritional health and culture.
The Lhuk Rite Ceremony signifies the importance of salmon and celebrates its annual return, according to the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation website. Occurring before any fishing takes place, Tolowa Dee-ni’ adults attended the ceremony to pray for a plentiful harvest.
The partial park closure will take place from 7 a.m. Saturday through 5 p.m. Sunday, according to a Superintendent Order from the North Coast Redwoods District of the California State Parks. It will impact access points at Pala Road, Silva Lane and the Kellogg Trailhead Road, according to the order.
DANCO Communities President Chris Dart said his company is trying to alleviate parking concerns associated with the 36-unit residential development that is expected to replace the old Daly’s building in Downtown Crescent City.
Dart noted that Community System Solutions had already done a lot of design work on The Redwood Downtown. It will now be up to Crescent City 3rd Street LP, a DANCO Communities limited partnership, to move the project forward.
The new developers will be open to “any changes that make sense,” Dart said, including parking.
The Los Angeles-based nonprofit developing Battery Point Apartments has obtained the additional grant dollars it needs to pay its subcontractors and resume construction, its president told Crescent City councilors Monday.
Bill Rice told councilors that Synergy Community Development Corporation closed on an additional $9.7 million in federal HOME Investment Partnership Program dollars from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
In addition to paying its subcontractors by the end of the week, Synergy is bringing in additional construction management to help its general contractor get back to work on the 162-unit affordable housing development at Gary and E streets, Rice said.
A joint investigation is underway following an officer-involved shooting of a dog during an encounter between two Crescent City Police Officers, a Del Norte County Sheriff’s deputy and a 40-year-old man Tuesday evening.
The dog received medical attention following the incident and is doing well, Crescent City Police Chief Richard Griffin told Redwood Voice Community News on Wednesday. The animal was released to another subject that was on the scene.
Officers encountered Crescent City resident Kevin Watson and a 42-year-old woman at about 11:04 p.m. in the parking lot at the Chevron South gas station on U.S. 101. They had two dogs in the vehicle with them, Griffin said. According to him, one appeared to be a pit bull.
