Thumbnail image courtesy of the Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services
Transportation commissioners provided support for two Del Norte County projects on Tuesday, including one associated with its emergency homeless shelter and micro village campus.
The Del Norte Local Transportation Commission awarded a total of $572,240 to Del Norte County for the Williams Drive Access Improvement for Vulnerable Road Users Project. According to the DNLTC’s staff report, $492,240 is coming from Regional Surface Transportation Program funding and $80,000 is coming from Transportation Development Act dollars.
Del Norte received two Highway Safety Improvement Program grants totaling $441,260, but the estimated project cost is more than $1 million, Assistant County Engineer Rosanna Bower said in a Sept. 22 letter to the commission. The $572,240 funding shortfall includes a required local match for the two grants of $49,030, she said.
“The project includes the construction of a multi-use path along Williams Drive from U.S. 101 to the end of the county-maintained road that will protect vulnerable road users accessing the Williams Drive Emergency Shelter and Micro Village and Williams Drive Youth Opportunities Center,” Bower wrote.
On Tuesday, Bower told commissioners that the county had applied for three HSIP grants and was only awarded two.
Del Norte County has been developing a 60-bed emergency homeless shelter and a 50-unit micro home village on county-owned property on Williams Drive in Crescent City using a $10.8 million Encampment Resolution Funding program grant.
In February, Health and Human Services Director Ranell Brown told Redwood Voice Community News that individuals could be occupying both the shelter and the micro village by September.
However, in an email to Redwood Voice on Monday, Brown said the shelter is expected to be finished within about two weeks with a goal of opening in December.
“The delays were due to weather, permits and contractors’ availability,” she said. “We continue to work on the micro-village and hope to have it completed in the next couple of months.”
The 60-bed shelter will be occupied first followed by the micro village once it’s completed, Brown said in her email. Del Norte Mission Possible and the Coordinated Entry System will facilitate resident selection, she said.
“There aren’t any specific limitations on initial occupancy, but it will take some time to get all the occupants assessed and the beds filled,” Brown told Redwood Voice.
Also on Tuesday, transportation commissioners contributed $111,110 to Del Norte County for a guardrail assessment project.
“We’re doing an assessment of all the guardrails existing in the county and proceeding with the replacement of some of them,” Bower told commissioners.
Del Norte County had received $999,990 in Highway Safety Improvement Program grant dollars for the project. However, the project’s total estimated cost is about $1.2 million, Bower stated in another letter to the Transportation Commission. The $111,110 would be the county’s contribution toward the project, she said.
