Ron Poole, a deckhand of Tally Ho Sportfishing, gaffs a lingcod Thursday in the abundant North Coast groundfishing territory. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

The weight of being the sole charter boat on this stretch of the sea is in good hands, however, as Craig and Bonnie Strickhouser, who are in their second year of owning the Tally Ho II fishing vessel, have a passion for sharing the ample fishing opportunities the North Coast has to offer.

“This is one of the only places in California you can fish on the ocean with this light of tackle,” Craig Strickhouser said on a recent bottom fishing trip. His clients were using 20-pound test monofilament line and medium-action Ugly Stick rods to catch 20-pound, prehistoric-looking lingcod and a wide array of brightly colored rockfish from depths of more than 100 feet.

Although the slow pace of jigging a lure or bait off the sea floor inherent to bottom fishing can feel flat, light tackle and big fish make for interesting angling, especially when Tally Ho puts its clients on the fish, as Strickhouser frequently does. Back-to-back hook-ups and several people fighting fish simultaneously are common occurrences.

A big part of that excitement comes with the territory.  

A quillback rockfish. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

Bicyclist, 13, reports he saw mountain lion on road

A teenager riding his bike said he came across a mountain lion on Sandmann Road off Parkway Drive on Thursday evening — the second reported human-cougar encounter near Crescent City in two weeks.

13-year-old Richie England was riding his bike around 8 p.m. when a mountain lion stepped out of a wooded area onto the road about 40 yards ahead, walking away from him, said Rich England Sr., Richie’s father, who was on his bike about 60 yards behind his son. England’s wife and daughter were walking behind him.

“I heard him yelling and screaming,” said England, a counselor for Crescent Elk Middle School. “He’s standing there on his bike with his hands in the air.”

England recalled his son yelled back toward him, “Dad, there’s a mountain lion. It’s right there.”

His son estimated the animal was 7 feet long, England said.

Richie England said Friday night he wasn’t too worried about an attack, but the animal had his attention.

“It scared me, but I know that there’s not very many attacks,” said Richie, a Redwood Elementary School student.

City and county leaders will discuss proposal on Tuesday 

County and city elected officials on Tuesday will discuss an ordinance that would target party hosts who allow underage drinking to occur on their property.

Students involved in Del Norte High School’s Friday Night Live Council teamed up with local law enforcement, county and city officials to draft a social host ordinance. If passed, the ordinance would fine adults who own, rent or lease property who knowingly allow underage drinking to occur. It would allow the city and county to charge for emergency and law enforcement response costs and authorizes officers to issue citations.

Gary Blatnick, the county’s director of Health and Human Services, and Holly Merrifield, a student representative of the Friday Night Live Council, introduced the ordinance to county supervisors at their May 14 meeting. Following Tuesday’s discussion, the ordinance will be on a Crescent City Council agenda in June.

“We’ve been working on this social host ordinance for about a year and a half,” Merrifield said. “So it’s been a long time in coming. It’s nice to have the support of the Board of Supervisors and City Council.”

More than 40 California counties and cities have passed social host ordinances, according to Blatnick. Social hosting is defined as adults in private settings providing alcohol or allowing underage drinking among underage people who aren’t part of their families. Even though underage drinking is already illegal, these laws can provide an extra deterrent through fines, community service and even jail time, Blatnick said.

In Crescent City, the tsunami capital of the Lower 48, people might have frequently asked questions:

Where can I quickly find a map of the tsunami evacuation zones?

How can I prepare my home and family before a disaster strikes? 

How could I become more involved in emergency and disaster planning in Del Norte County?

A new one-stop website, PrepareDelNorte.com, answers all of those questions and provides much more information related to disaster planning in the county.

The home page features daily weather conditions, a rolling calendar of disaster preparation events, and in the event of an actual emergency, a red banner will decorate the top of the page to inform the community.

Maps of tsunami evacuation zones from Gold Beach to Eureka are offered under the “Tsunami Zone” tab.

Under the Emergency Resources section of PrepareDelNorte.com, you can find quick and easy links for Del Norte County tsunami and flood watches and warnings, earthquakes in the last hour or 24 hours, power outages, road closures and forest fires. There is even a list of links on how to prepare emergency supply kits.

The slew of organizations that comprise Del Norte’s active disaster and emergency response community is also represented, each with its own section that will include information on upcoming events and classes and information on how to get involved.

Del Norte County’s preliminary April unemployment rate was 11.3 percent, down 0.9 percentage points from the revised March rate (12.2 percent) and down 2.1 percentage points from a year-ago rate (13.4 percent).

The comparable, not seasonally adjusted California rate (8.5 percent) is down 0.9 percentage points as well. In spite of the month-over rate drop, Del Norte slipped from 34th- to 37th-best among the 58 counties statewide, according to the North Coast Region of the state Labor Market Information Division.

Some surrounding county rates include Siskiyou (12.9 percent), Shasta (11.1 percent), Trinity (13.7 percent), and Humboldt (8.4 percent). Marin (4.6 percent) has the lowest April rate and Imperial County the highest (24 percent).

A “Help Wanted” classified that ran for two weeks in the Del Norte Triplicate and Curry Coastal Pilot newspapers seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

At least one Pilot reader lost $1,800 to the scam — and several others nearly did, too. 

“We’re getting a lot of scam ads and we do a pretty good job of screening them out, but this one slipped through,” said Cindy Vosburg, advertising director for both newspapers.

The newspapers are not legally responsible for what happens to victims of any advertising scams, but Vosburg wanted to warn readers about what happened so that others don’t fall victim. 

Vosburg said both newspapers receive emails almost daily from scam artists wanting to place classifieds ads for jobs such “mystery shoppers” or to sell purebred or designer-type dogs.

“Bulldogs are the most popular purebred scam,” Vosburg said. “We don’t run any mystery shopper ads, real or not, because we can’t tell the difference.”

The newspapers’ advertising staff ignores such ads, and investigates others that appear legitimate but raise red flags, such as the one that was published in the Triplicate and Pilot.

The classified ad that was published read:

County supervisors on Tuesday approved the use of up to $70,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to repair the elevator tower at the Redwood Cove Apartments.

The tower’s outside facade and support structures on the second and third floors have needed repair for more than two years, said Charlaine Mazzei, executive director of the Del Norte Senior Center and the Redwood Cove Community Center.

“We’ve got an engineer on board,” Mazzei said. “SHN Engineering is in the process of putting a bid package together. As soon as we get the OK from this board and (the state Department of Housing and Community Development) to use the funding, I can ask them to finish that up.”

Four members of the Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the project. Supervisor Martha McClure, who sits on the Del Norte Senior Center Board of Directors, recused herself.

The CDBG “program income” money approved for the project comes in the form of repayment of housing rehabilitation, business assistance and micro-enterprise loans originally made with CDBG funds, according to the county’s staff report. These loan repayments are deposited into a revolving loan account to be used for additional loans.

In 2010, the CDBG program adopted a policy that allows program income funds to be used for other CDBG-eligible activities that are not revolving loans and are not being funded by an active grant, according to the staff report.

Chief probation officer currently not on the job

With his embezzlement case resolved in court, Del Norte County Chief Probation Officer Tom Crowell is now the subject of a separate investigation being coordinated by Del Norte Superior Court Judge William Follett.

Follett holds the authority for appointing and removing chief probation officers.

Meanwhile, Crowell has not been at his post since last week, and an employee at the Del Norte County Probation Office said it was undetermined when he would return.

County Administrative Officer Jay Sarina declined to comment about Crowell’s job status, except to say he wasn’t on administrative leave.

Sarina did say Crowell’s status with the county is considered “active in the sense he is the chief probation officer.”

The Triplicate sent a public records request earlier in the week to County Counsel Gretchen Stuhr about Crowell’s status, but she has not replied.

Here are excerpts from the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office call logs for May 10–May 16.

Friday, May 10

• At 1:17 p.m. a report of a single vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 101 near Washington Blvd.

Sunday, May 12

• At 1:23 p.m. a report of a burglary on the 6800 block of Lake Earl Drive.

Monday, May 13

• At 1:43 p.m. a report of a vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 101 near Vista Point.

• At 7:07 p.m. a report of a stolen vehicle on Kellogg Road.

Tuesday, May 14

• At 12:22 a.m. a report of a vehicle accident on Morehead Road.

Here are excerpts from the Crescent City Police Department call logs for May 10–May 16. 

Friday, May 10

• At 1:35 p.m. an arrest for disorderly conduct near 9th and K streets.

• At 4:53 p.m. a warrant arrest on the 300 block of U.S. Highway 101.

• At 7:00 p.m. a warrant arrest on the 500 block of U.S. Highway 101.

• At 10:21 p.m. a warrant arrest on the 600 block of G Street.

Saturday, May 11

• At 3:34 p.m. an arrest for disorderly conduct on the east end of 5th Street.

• At 5:43 p.m. an arrest for public intoxication near 3rd and N streets.