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SERVING DEL NORTE COUNTY SINCE 1879 Crescent City, CA

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2025

www.triplicate.com

Del Norte Triplicate moving May 1 “Fewer of our customers are coming in to our ofﬁces to do business,” Warren said. “As it is, our customers already are placing classiﬁed ads and legal notices, obituaries and subscriptions mostly online.” Country Media Inc., which publishes 10 community newspapers in Oregon and Northern Cal-

The Del Norte Triplicate is moving May 1 from its current location to the Curry Coastal Pilot ofﬁce in Brookings. “Our employees will still be working in Crescent City and Del Norte County, but those employees will work remotely,” said Country Media’s Chief Executive, Joe Warren.

ifornia, “is beginning to create a collection of hub locations where we can create and produce multiple newspapers,” Warren said. “In Tillamook, Oregon, for example, we oversee news reporting and ad sales not only for the Headlight Herald, but also for our adjacent newspapers in Cannon Beach and Manzanita.”

He added that for years the Del Norte Triplicate and the Curry Coastal Pilot have been operated in unison, sharing a classiﬁed ad section, production and other resources. Warren said The Triplicate will continue to arrive on Wednesday each week. -Staff

Fire Board Deadlocked on Commissioner Vacancy Melvin Haggard and Jon Maxwell, both long-experienced ﬁreﬁghters applied for the position. Just three commissioners were on hand to make the appointment. Gregorio had resigned and Commissioner Dave Short was absent from the Monday last meeting. With two highly qual-

BY ROGER GITLIN Country Media Inc.

The Crescent City Fire Protection District (CFPD) interviewed two highly qualiﬁed candidates for the vacant commissioner position, created by the unexpected resignation of Joe Gregorio.

iﬁed candidates throwing their hats into the ring, it was not surprising the vote was split, 2-1. A quorum of three votes is necessary to pass any item on the Agenda. The CFPD will adjourn to a Special Meeting before May 3. It was standing- room

only in the CFPD conference room. Some individual audience members expressed concern the identical list of questions for each candidate left one question of the list: Over the last several years, how has the ﬁre department adjusted to less actual ﬁre calls and more Health-re-

lated calls that might overlap with 9-1-1 Del Norte Ambulance services. Ex-commissioner Gregorio stated his reason for retiring from the CFPD was to spend more time with his aspiring athletic grandaughter.

Anatomy of a Board of Supervisors Meeting on his government activities at a Board meeting. • 10:25 am PUBLIC SPEAKER(S) Public Comments, one public speaker spoke against the Request for initiating a Request for Proposal seeking new 9-11 Emergency Ambulance Service currently being provided by Del Norte Ambulance and, in the speaker’s opinion, the lack of wisdom in taking this course of action • The inefficiency of spending $50,000 to temporarily fix a few non-county maintained roads. The speaker underscored the word temporary because the pothole repairs may only last one year and gas road tax is not fairly distributed. • No other public speakers addressed the Board. The lone speaker brought to the attention these valid points to Board members. Did anyone of five heed his opinion on these critical issues? Unlikely! • 10:31: Two Ceremonial items: Proclamation of National Public Health Week, April 7-13; Proclamation in Recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month for April.

BY ROGER GITLIN Country Media, Inc.

Some news days are slow…some are even S L O W E R. On the very surface, the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors conducted a short meeting, April 8. In the public interest, The Triplicate reports a dearth of any substantive Del Norte news. Still, one must see if a perhaps an uninterested public should know what’s going on in the community? Below is the anatomy of the 53 minute Tuesday last meeting. • 10:00am: Pledge of Allegiance, Moment of Silence, Roll Call attendance. • 10:02am: No report out of Closed Session. • 10:03am Supervisors deliver summaries of each reports occurring from the previous week. Four of the supervisors responded: Valerie Starkey; Chris Howard; Darrin Short; and Dean Wilson. Chairman Joey Borges did not deliver a report on his activities for the previous week…and to date, from the time of taking his Oath, has never delivered a public report

CONSENT AGENDA: 10:45am, The Board handled a total of of 18 items. 13 of those items appeared on CONSENT on a single vote on which the Board, by a 5-0 vote, approved the multiple items. There were two public comments at the dais; the ﬁrst speaker requested more than three minutes to discuss and disclose details of several of the Consent items. The Board allows only three minutes total for the 13 Consent items. Eight items were requested from the Dept. of Health and Human Service. The public speaker also referenced many new hires who were coming aboard at higher step levels which the speaker felt was unfair and disrespectful to the current long-term employees. • Eight of those Consent items requested came from the County’s largest department, Dept. of Health and Human Services. The items all needed Board approval of those Consent items. Some involved funding. Some did not involve funds, needed approval by the Board • The speaker asked

Chairman Borges to allow more time to explain and disclose the nature of these Consent Agenda items. Not successful! The Chairman did not recognize the speaker’s request. Unless individual members wish to learn details of these undisclosed CONSENT items, the information was not discussed, merely a single vote, rarely if ever opposed, voting 5-0 approval. The CONSENT items that were not discussed or shared with the public included • Item four, Approve and Adopt a Side Letter Agreement between Del Norte Count and the Sheriff Employees Association, • Items 5-7 involving the salary step increases, a amendment for the Mobile Crisis Unit, • Item Nine, Attached Agreement with the DNUSD for Foster Youth Education Services, • Item 10, DHHS Agreement with Cal Poly Humboldt for Social Work on one year Program, • Item 11, renewal MOU for cash assistance program (CAPI), requested by DHHS, and item 13,

Chief Probation Ofﬁcer submission of Public Safety Realignment plan . • The above items were not discussed with public • GENERAL GOVERNMENT: 10:50 am, review and approve Step 1 for the County Administrative Ofﬁcer (Neal Lopez) for 25 years of continuous service for Del Norte, pursuant to the Appointed Department Head Resolution, requested by the Director of Health and Human Service The public speaker shared his concern with supervisors that even though supervisors were aware of the Consent, the failure of supervisors to adequately share their knowledge, creating a censorship concern with the public. The speaker asked the Board for explanations as to why the item is on the Consent Agenda, the cost of the item, how many folks are impacted and the success (or

failure) of the item. Union Representative Norma Williams addressed the Board echoing the previous speaker’s concern new employees were being hired at higher step which Williams felt acknowledged the lower wages being paid to all County employees. She underscored her claim the County is underpaying its rank and ﬁle employees. The Consent Agenda passed, again, on a unanimous 5-0 vote. • BUDGET TRANSFERS, 10:52am • LETTERS • ADJOURMENT, 10:53 Length of meeting: 53 minutes. Indeed, it was a very S L O W day at the Board of Supervisors.

Crescent Harbor Vision Plan

The Crescent City Harbor District listened to a Vision Plan presented TCA Architects of Irvine. Director of Planning Chris Williams presented an impressive power point presentation displaying a comprehensive ﬁve phase development plan addressing the following: • Phase 1:Catalyst adjacent areas surrounding the Harbor. • Phase 2: Anchor Hotels. • Phase 3: RV Park Reposition • Phase 4: Missing Middle and Anchor. • Phase 5: Beautiﬁcation and Future Phases Commissioners have allocated $55,000 for architectural services only, to be paid over several installments. No time schedule was announced by the Harbor.

Harbormaster Mike Radamaker updated the community on all current projects. • Revitalization of both RV parks will expediently develop revenue. The Elks partnership is promoting the RV projects. The RV model cannot be underscored. RV tenants support local restaurants businesses and portal to the Harbor. • Supporting the refurbishment of the boat basin • An announcement will made shortly on the individual who be over-

seeing commercial vessel operations and taking over the former Fashion black

Smith building. • A Concert series has been announced coming

June 28 • Work is proceeding on Citizens Dock rebuild. En-

vironmental compliance should be ﬁnished in a few weeks.

Photo courtesy. TCA Architects

INDEX

Phone Number: 707-460-6727

Opinion

• Address: 445 Elk Valley Road, Crescent City, CA 95531 • Email: Circulation@CountryMedia.net

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