Tag Archives: del norte

Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government, Transportation

After AB 1014, County Supervisors, Residents Seek To Slow Speedsters on Fred Haight

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Thumbnail photo: County supervisors and residents are seeking to potentially lower the speed limit on Fred Haight Drive near the Smith River townsite. | Photo courtesy of Michelle Carrillo

Michelle Carrillo rejected the idea that hearing a person’s lived experience isn’t data.

Appearing before Del Norte County supervisors about three weeks after a car struck and killed her family’s dog near their Fred Haight Drive home, Carrillo said that she spent a month speaking with neighbors who shared stories of near misses and dead animals. It may be qualitative data, but it’s still data, she said Tuesday, and taking no action to try to reduce speeds on the Smith River thoroughfare was untenable.

“We’re in an agricultural area of the county with multiple uses happening at once from farm equipment, school activities, residential driveways, pedestrians and through traffic,” Carrillo said. “I understand there are certain things we have to figure out there and it’s not going to be a uniform speed across the whole road, that makes sense, but 50 on any section of that road does not make sense.”

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Articles, Infrastructure, Transportation

Elk Valley Cross Roundabout, STAA 199/197 Start Construction in April; Highway Closures Anticipated

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Thumbnail photo: After Caltrans announced Tuesday that a project to install a roundabout at U.S. 199 and Elk Valley Cross Road will start in April, Del Norte Local Transportation Commissioner Executive Director Tamera Leighton said the intersection is “probably the most dangerous place to be” in the county. | Map courtesy of the DNLTC

Calling herself a “data girl,” Tamera Leighton highlighted the role accurate statistics play in making safety improvements on local roads. 

Addressing negative Facebook chatter regarding a roundabout slated to be installed at Elk Valley Cross Road and U.S. 199 this spring, the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission executive director said her family drives these roads too.

“That intersection is probably the most dangerous place to be in Del Norte County,” Leighton said, adding that a 2020 study of the Elk Valley Cross Road corridor found that the intersection’s collision rate is 811% greater than the statewide average for similar intersections. “Since this document was produced, my son’s car was totaled at this intersection. My first cousin was in a serious collision a few months ago. She still hasn’t been able to go back to work. It’s my job, sure, but it’s also my family. It’s your families.”

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Articles, Infrastructure, Local Government

Del Norte Supes Recap For Jan. 27, 2026

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Thumbnail image: Screenshot

Among the items discussed at Tuesday’s Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting:

Welcome to California: The Board of Supervisors congratulated Caltrans representative Julia Peterson after she unveiled new California welcome signs that they said were far superior to Oregon’s.

Peterson showed supervisors an early rendering of the signs created after a public survey showed that the most favored themes were bears and elk. Three-dimensional bears will grace the sign on U.S. 199 while elk and salmon will welcome motorists driving south on U.S. 101, she said. 

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Articles, CC Harbor, Infrastructure, Local Government

Citizens Dock, Seawall Projects Up For Discussion at Wednesday’s CCHD Meeting

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Crescent City Harbor commissioners are expected to take a final step toward starting a $15 million project to replace Citizens Dock and an adjacent seawall this spring.

The Harbor Board will consider adopting a mitigated negative declaration Wednesday based on a 709-page study of its potential environmental impacts. The study includes two phases of the Citizens Dock rebuild, though the Harbor District doesn’t have the funding to complete the second phase, according to Community System Solutions CEO Mike Bahr.

It also includes a construction project near the small boat ramp off Anchor Way to mitigate potential habitat loss as a result, Bahr told commissioners during a public hearing held Jan. 14.

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Arts & Culture, Community News

Art Scene: Golden West Winds Quintet, Valentines Drum Circle, Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation Display

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• The Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association will bring the United States Air Force’s Golden West Winds Quintet to the Crescent Elk Auditorium for a free concert at 3 p.m. Saturday.

• Mombo Hernandez will lead a community drum circle from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 14 at the former Church of the Nazarene, 224 F Street in Crescent City. Drums will be provided or bring your own. Suggested donations of $5 to $20 are requested.

• Live-size Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation posters will be on display at the Del Norte County Regional Airport through April 9 in celebration of the Tolowa interpretive walk coming to Beachfront Park.

• Tickets are on sale for DNACA’s next concert, The Derina Harvey Band. The award-winning Celtic rock group will be at the Crescent Elk Auditorium at 3 p.m. March 15. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $23 for seniors and veterans and $20 for students and are available at DNACA.Eventbrite.com.

Articles, CC Harbor

Harbor Staff Working To Raise Partially Submerged Vessel In Its Marina

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Thumbnail photo: A commercial fishing vessel, the Flo, was found partially submerged in the Crescent City Harbor’s marina early Friday morning. | Photo by Heather Polen

Harbor District staff are using salvage lift bags and a dive team to raise a partially submerged commercial fishing vessel currently located at E Dock in the port’s marina.

The fishing vessel is owned by Andrew Griffin, a local fisherman, Harbormaster Mike Rademaker told the Board of Commissioners via email on Friday. The cause is still under investigation. In addition to trying to stabilize the vessel, staff have deployed an oil-containment boom around the boat as a precaution, Rademaker said.

A CCHD maintenance worker found the partially submerged vessel earlier Friday, Griffin told Redwood Voice Community News. 

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Articles, CC Harbor, Local Government

RV Park Proposals Spark Discussion Over Harbormaster’s Living Situation

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Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz

Crescent City Harbor commissioners rejected proposals from two Orange County developers eager to revitalize Bayside and Redwood Harbor Village RV parks, Chairman Rick Shepherd announced Wednesday.

The Board’s rejection of proposals from Sean McGraw and Scott Lawhon doesn’t mean that further negotiations couldn’t be had with either developer, according to Harbormaster Mike Rademaker. For now, a request for proposals commissioners approved in August is still active, he told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday.

“Not much has been stated publicly after several closed session deliberations over several months,” Rademaker said, calling the move cautious. “This public statement reflects the Board’s conclusion that, after sufficient review, the proposals were not yet close to terms the district could accept.”

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Community News, Youth

Job Listing: Redwood Voice Producer

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Position Description

The Media Producer & Youth Media Mentor supports youth development through hands-on media creation and instruction. This role combines content production with mentoring and teaching youth participants skills in video, audio, and digital editing across multiple media formats. 

Send resumes to Executive Director Heather Polen at heather.p.kfug@gmail.com.

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Articles, Community News, Youth

Junior Livestock Auction Purchasers Say Bandon-Based Butcher Let Their Meat Spoil; State Officials Say They’re Working To ‘Make Buyers Whole’

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Thumbnail photo: One of the hog exhibits youth raised to show to judges at the 2025 Del Norte County Fair. | Photo by Heather Polen

At least one person says she wants her money back after she and her husband purchased a steer from the Del Norte County Fair’s Junior Livestock Auction in August only to be told not to eat the meat when she received it two months later.

Patty and Harry Adams successfully bid on a steer a local Future Farmers of America youth raised, paying $17,665 for the animal. They sent it to Bussmann Mobile Ranch Butchering in Bandon, one of two butchers the fairgrounds offered to auction participants for processing.

“You bid, you buy, you pay and then the fair makes the arrangements as far as transportation with each butcher. We just walked away knowing our animal was going up to the butcher and was going to be processed,” Patty Adams told Redwood Voice Community News of the livestock auction which was held on Aug. 2 this year. “But usually you’re communicated with from the butcher or the processor within that month. I thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard from someone by the end of August.”

Continue reading Junior Livestock Auction Purchasers Say Bandon-Based Butcher Let Their Meat Spoil; State Officials Say They’re Working To ‘Make Buyers Whole’ →
Articles, Environment

DN Fire Safe Council Coordinator Presents ‘Broad Landscape Style’ Wildfire Mitigation Strategy

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Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte Fire Safe Council hosted a prescribed burn workshop in March 2025 aimed at helping residents learn how to harden their home against wildfire. | File photo by Ethan Caudill-Derego

Noting that staffing capacity within the U.S. Forest Service is a challenge when it comes to wildfire mitigation, Aaron Babcock outlined a “broad landscape style” approach that stretches from the Klamath River in the south to the Oregon border in the north.

The Smith-to-Klamath Shared Stewardship Initiative would focus on state, federal, local and tribal partnerships within Del Norte County who are ready to “help perform the stuff that needs to be done as far as wildfire mitigation,” the Del Norte Fire Safe Council county coordinator told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. 

The “stuff” includes about 30,000 acres of shaded fuel breaks with 9,500 acres centered around communities impacted by wildfire, Babcock said. The initiative also aims to conduct prescribed burns on about 100,000 acres, he said.

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