Issuu

SERVING DEL NORTE COUNTY SINCE 1879 Crescent City, CA

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2025

www.triplicate.com

Harbor Commissioners Firm Up Contract with Harbormaster

www.triplicate.com

Disruptions Continue... maker responsible for contributing to this condition. She said,“ The Harbor is on a trajectory to be bankrupt in four to nine months.” Rademacker has served as the interim harbormaster for six months, effective October 1, 2024 and running through the end of May. During the interim period, the harbormaster has cut expenses and bolstered revenue signiﬁcantly, as reported in the May 28 Triplicate. Nonetheless, a small group of disgruntled individuals, including Nehmer continue to attack Rademaker for events he could not control or is responsible for. Former Del Norte supervisor Gerry Hemingsen was one of the individuals who called for the dismissal of the harbormaster. Hemmingsen stated from the dias he could see no progress on-going on harbor projects and called for commissioners to curtail the ﬁve year contract

BY ROGER GITLIN Country Media, Inc.

The Crescent City Harbor Commission has ironed out details of the new five year Harbormaster contract • The contract offered and acknowledged by Harbormaster Mike Rademaker is $114,000 per annum, with a buy out clause of three to six months salary. • Rademaker waived his medical benefits package of approximately $16,000 to be supplanted by a housing allowance equal to the medical benefits package. • The contract is effective immediately. The vote to confirm Rademaker’s permanent status was 4-1, with Commissioner Annie Nehmer dissenting. Nehmer shared with those in attendance, her belief of the imminent demise of the harbor’s financial status and held Rade-

ence seat, demanding immediate answers to his questions. His behavior was out of order but not acknowledged by the Board Chairman. The facts are clear. Rademaker inherited massive debt from the loss of the Fashion Please see HARBOR Page 4

File photo

Harbormaster Mike Rademaker

Babe to Get a Facelift

Sutter Breaks Ground on New Unit to those in Behavioral Health Crisis

BY ROGER GITLIN Country Media, Inc.

Trees of Mystery in Klamath will soon give Babe the Ox a complete makeover. North Coast Fabricators of Eureka will handle the “surgery.” The mystery of 73 year Babe, long time loyal partner to Paul Bunyan won’t be a mystery too much longer. The iconic duo have been welcoming visitors to Trees for decades. The one absolute is Babe Courtesy photo

will remain “.” Babe Blue Inside that beautiful body, Babe will receive new lungs, heart, liver, pancreas and lots of baling wire to hold him together. The restaurant across the 101 has been renamed the Blue Ox Café with a complete new menu open for business for lunch and dinner, closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Check out Trees of Mystery, the Blue Ox Café, in Klamath.

Courtesy photos

Babe to receive a complete makeover

City and Fire Department Show Their Cards…

Michael Lane, CEO Sutter Coast Hospital

Potholes or Professional Fire Department

BY ROGER GITLIN Country Media, Inc.

This past Monday, the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Sutter Coast Hospital (SCH) Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing (EmPATH) Unit is now underway. The Unit will serve the Behavioral and Psychiatric needs for children and adults experiencing acute psychiatric crises. EmPath is expected to be complete within 10 months. The Unit will encompass 3,000 sq. ft. The design features a calming environment with the aim to stabilize patients in a more appropriate setting. The unit follows a nationally recognized care model known to reduce wait times and improve outcomes. Funding for the project was $4 million which comes from Proposition 1. SCH also received an additional $2 million grant from Please see CRISIS Page 3

INDEX

Opinion

“down to one or two years.” His comments were preceded by snide comments directed at a member of the audience. Another disgruntled speaker accused Rademaker of lying and misrepresenting the harbor’s dire ﬁnancial status. And another individual yelled from his audi-

Is the Crescent City Fire and Rescue moving to an all-paid Fire department? That question was posed to City Manager Eric Wier and Fire Chief Kevin Carey, in a May 6th email with no response from either. In the shadow of the appointments of three paid City captain positions, last year and the approval of an ofﬁcial bargaining unit for the paid captains, The Triplicate posed the following queries to Wier and Carey: • Do the City and Fire Department anticipate more ﬁre / rescue employees? If Yes, please share with the public the costs associated with growing the Department. • What is the funding source to transition from an all-volun-

Phone Number: (707) 460-8655

teer Fire department to a paid employee department. The response to these questions was crickets. Apparently, the cat is out of the bag and, perhaps without intending to “show the cards,” Fire Chief Carey plans to grow his department, asking the City Council, at the recent City Budget Workshop, support for hiring a Lieutenant administrator to oversee operations at a cost of $130,000 per annum. The Triplicate asked how the co-funding by the City and Crescent Fire Protection District will be handled. What will be the impact on a beleaguered public? More crickets…If the City and CFPD move forward on this transition like a big city department, wouldn’t the City be expected to tell the public? Funding to pay for an all-paid

department would possibly call for an increase in the sales tax and/or property tax assessment. Will this possible expansion affect how the City and County addresses the plethora of potholes on city and county streets? Additionally, The County supports a full vetting of Del Norte Ambulance (DNAMB) to consider reconsider replacing the four decades old DNAMB, with emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. Funds have been

dispersed to consultant EndPoint for $97,000 and expected to exceed $160,000 before the 2028 decision on DNAMB’s future. And no emergency has been articulated by DHHS. This is a continuing story. Courtesy photo

Plethora of potholes

• Address: 519 Chetco Avenue, Unit 7, Brookings, OR 97415 • Email: Circulation@CountryMedia.net

Classifieds Crossword Answers Crossword Puzzle

Community Calendar