Tag Archives: del norte news

Articles, Community News, Health, Housing, Local Government

‘A Warm Dry Bed’: Del Norte Opens Its Emergency Homeless Shelter, Micro Village

Leave a comment
Del Norte County celebrated the opening of its first emergency homeless shelter and micro village on June 9. | Photos by Aisling Bludworth

From the ashes of the old mental health building the emergency shelter and micro village was revealed to the public last week.

Community members came to celebrate the hard work that brought it to fruition.

“It’s really not every day that your career comes full circle, and you literally find yourself helping make plans to burn down your [old] office.” said Shiann Hogan, deputy director for Del Norte County’s Behavioral Health Branch during the June 17 ribbon cutting at the facility on 200 Williams Drive. 

Continue reading ‘A Warm Dry Bed’: Del Norte Opens Its Emergency Homeless Shelter, Micro Village →
Articles, Economy, Local Government

Del Norte CAO Calls General Fund Deficit ‘One Of The Largest In My Career’; Starkey Points Out Budget Errors

2 Comments

Del Norte County’s top administrative official admitted that finding $9.6 million to balance the fiscal year 2026-27 general fund budget was an arduous task that goes beyond sharpening pencils.

County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez affirmed concerns District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey raised Tuesday. But, according to him and according to at least one of Starkey’s colleagues, the “huge deficit for the general fund, one of the largest I’ve seen in my career” can be traced to the Board’s actions in the fall to increase the county’s ability to be market competitive.

When the Board of Supervisors raised wages and approved the county’s new salary structure across all bargaining units in December, retirements increased too, Lopez said. Still, he reminded supervisors that the county’s 2026-27 budget is still preliminary and all the accruals from the current fiscal year that ends June 30 have not yet been realized.

“A lot of the prior year’s revenue will increase the revenue from the general fund side of things so we won’t be $9.5 million out,” Lopez said. “I don’t know where it’s going to land, it’s too early in the process, but the bottomline is we have to have a balanced budget so we will have a balanced budget.”

Continue reading Del Norte CAO Calls General Fund Deficit ‘One Of The Largest In My Career’; Starkey Points Out Budget Errors →
Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government

DN Board of Supervisors Recap, June 23, 2026

Leave a comment

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard was absent. Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

DelNorteCounty.gov? County supervisors authorized Information Technology Director Dan McCorckle to apply for a new delnortecounty.gov web address.

McCorckle’s recommendation to transition to a .gov or a .ca.gov domain name will allow Del Norte to comply with California Assembly Bill 1637, which requires all local agencies to use verified domain names for their public-facing websites and employee email addresses by Jan. 1, 2029. Signed into law in October 2023, AB 1637 aims to prevent “malicious actors” from impersonating county services, according to McCorckle’s staff report.

Continue reading DN Board of Supervisors Recap, June 23, 2026 →
Articles, Community News, Health, Housing, Infrastructure

Del Norte To Cut The Ribbon On Long-Awaited Emergency Shelter, Micro Village

Leave a comment

Thumbnail image courtesy of the Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services

Ranell Brown says she’s expecting a large turnout to cut the ribbon at Del Norte County’s new emergency shelter and micro village on Wednesday.

The result of a collaboration with the county, Del Norte Mission Possible and True North Organizing Network, the shelter’s grand opening comes about a year after the Point in Time Count identified 482 individuals as homeless, according to a Department of Health and Human Services press release.

The campus needs a handful of finishing touches, but Brown, who directs DHHS, said the shelter will begin accepting clients within 30 days of the ribbon cutting.

Continue reading Del Norte To Cut The Ribbon On Long-Awaited Emergency Shelter, Micro Village →
Articles, Arts & Culture, Community News

Chamber Needs Help Putting on Independence Day Celebration

Leave a comment

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Steve Pate-Newberry via the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce

With the United States celebrating 250 years of being a country, Cindy Vosburg is anticipating a large turnout for Crescent City’s Fourth of July festivities.

Vosburg and her team at the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce have been planning the Deck Party, accepting parade entries and figuring out where to set up vendors for the festival in the park. It’s a heavy lift mostly funded through sponsorships from the business community, but this year, the Chamber is asking the general public for help. 

“Last year we were able to raise $63,000 in sponsorships and the event costs us about $70,000 to put on,” Vosburg told Redwood Voice Community News on Monday. “We also make a little bit more money off the bar, the raffle and Cow Chip Bingo. But this year, it’s a really tough year for the business community. We’re about $8,050 short of that $63,000.”

Continue reading Chamber Needs Help Putting on Independence Day Celebration →
Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure, Transportation

CCHD Commissioners Discuss Price With Firms Vying For Citizens Dock Project Manager Role

Leave a comment
The preferred alternative for the Citizens Dock reconstruction project. | Image courtesy of the Crescent City Harbor District

Thumbnail photo: The Crescent City Harbor seeks to replace a condemned seawall and the 70-plus year-old Citizens Dock using $15 million in federal grants. | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews

Harbor Commissioner Gerhard Weber used the same analogy twice this week to describe his take on the three proposals from firms vying for the project manager role in the Citizens Dock reconstruction and seawall replacement.

“I think I walked into a Mercedes dealership with Kia money,” Weber told GHD Senior Planner Adam Wagschal on Wednesday when he found out that the firm’s cost estimate for pre-construction work would be about $4,000 shy of the Harbor District’s budget for the project manager position in general. “Maybe we made a major mistake with our budget because we have budgeted $350,000 and now we’re hearing that it gets us down for the first part, but not actual construction.”

Weber and his colleagues on the Crescent City Harbor District Board heard proposals from Kimley-Horn representatives on Monday and from GHD and Redstone Bridge Sovereign on Wednesday. All three firms have at least one person on staff that has worked with the Crescent City Harbor District in the past.

Continue reading CCHD Commissioners Discuss Price With Firms Vying For Citizens Dock Project Manager Role →
Articles, CC Harbor

Fashion Blacksmith Owner Agrees To Revision That Reduces Harbor District’s Settlement Payment This Year

Leave a comment

Thumbnail photo by Gavin Van Alstine

Two years after the Crescent City Harbor District entered into a settlement agreement with Fashion Blacksmith, the parties negotiated a revision that reduces the district’s payment for this year and divides it into two installments.

Reporting out from a closed session meeting on Wednesday, Board President Rick Shepherd said CCHD will pay a total of $162,500 to its former tenant in two installments of $62,500 and $100,000 this year. The Harbor District was due to pay $362,500 to Fashion Blacksmith, Shepherd said.

According to the agreement, the remaining portion of the CCHD’s payment this year will be amortized over the remaining terms of the settlement agreement, between 2027 and 2034 with 5% interest.

Continue reading Fashion Blacksmith Owner Agrees To Revision That Reduces Harbor District’s Settlement Payment This Year →
Articles, Emergencies, Transportation

Rock Slide Closes South Fork Road, Blocks Big Flat, Boulder Creek Resident From 199

Leave a comment

Thumbnail photo courtesy of Joe Gillespie

Above map courtesy of the Del Norte County Roads Division.

South Fork Road is closed until further notice due to a rockslide between the Rock Creek and Boulder Creek areas that occurred early Friday morning.

Joe Gillespie, who has lived in the Rock Creek subdivision for about 36 years, said the slide occurred at about 5 a.m. It’s less than half a mile upstream from his home and while his access to U.S. 199 is still open, he said Boulder Creek and Big Flat residents will need to take French Hill Road to get to the highway.

“That’s like an hour and a half detour,” Gillespie said of the county maintained road that drops down into Gasquet. “They do a pretty good job of keeping it open in case of situations like these.”

Continue reading Rock Slide Closes South Fork Road, Blocks Big Flat, Boulder Creek Resident From 199 →
Articles, Community News, Crescent City, Just For Fun

Del Norte Marks America’s 250th Birthday By Celebrating ‘The Decades We’ve Been A Community’

Leave a comment

Above photo: Del Norte County’s public health nurses and those who gave out COVID-19 vaccines were the grand marshals in the 2021 Independence Day parade | Photo by Jessica Cejnar Andrews. Thumbnail photo: Members of the Crescent City Emblem Club wrapped themselves up in the flag for the 1998 Independence Day parade as shown on the Triplicate’s front page. | Photo by Aisling Bludworth

Valerie Starkey still remembers the Bicentennial at Beachfront Park, and while she doesn’t want to out do that celebration, she hopes the Semiquincentennial will be just as memorable.

“Two hundred and fifty years — that’s a huge milestone for this country,” she said. “We are really celebrating something that’s special to Del Norte County. It’s special to the nation. I think we all felt that way.”

The Del Norte County District 2 supervisor heads the Fourth of July committee for the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce. This year instead of asking the community to select a theme for the festivities in Downtown Crescent City, Starkey and her colleagues wanted to recognize “the decades that we’ve been a community together.”

Continue reading Del Norte Marks America’s 250th Birthday By Celebrating ‘The Decades We’ve Been A Community’ →
Articles, Environment, Parks

Del Norte Hopes To Make Neighborly Relationship With U.S. Forest Service Official

Leave a comment

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard referred to a historical failure to secure resources for wildfire mitigation and recreation as a major reason a Good Neighbor Authority Agreement with the U.S. Forest Service would be good for Del Norte County.

In response to skepticism from county resident and frequent commenter Sam Strait, Howard said the county could use the agreement as a way to get funding to organizations spearheading projects focusing on fuel reduction, watershed and forest restoration as well as trail development. He mentioned the Del Norte Fire Safe Council and the Del Norte Resource Conservation District specifically.

“There are a lot of these Good Neighbor Authorities being put in place throughout the State of California and the Pacific Northwest right now,” Howard said Tuesday. “I’m incredibly encouraged by the open door we’ve seen now with the Six Rivers National Forest, in particular with the staff at the Gasquet Ranger district, in helping us shape what this document looks like.”

Continue reading Del Norte Hopes To Make Neighborly Relationship With U.S. Forest Service Official →