Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson French tour guides stop first at Battery Point Lighthouse.

The representatives of seven French businesses flew into San Francisco on Sunday to take their own tour and familiarize themselves with Northern California’s attractions, said Jeff Parmer, executive director of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce. 

Local tourism representatives met the travelers at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park on Wednesday and took them to Battery Point Lighthouse, Pebble Beach Drive and Ocean World, Parmer said. Stout Grove was another possibility, he said, along with a wine and cheese social at the home of county Supervisor Roger Gitlin.

Lt. Christopher Acosta during a media tour of Pelican Bay State Prison in 2011. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

All  government communications employees are eligible for the statewide award.

Acosta was recognized for his efforts over the past year after two hunger strikes in 2011 led by inmates housed in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit caused an outpouring of media requests for prison tours.

“I didn’t do this by myself,” said Acosta after receiving his award last week. “We all did this together.”

His primary function as public information officer is scheduling tours for media, universities, legislators and other law enforcement agencies. He must coordinate with various prison departments to ensure a smooth visit from attaining gate passes to having inmates pulled for interviews, all while maintaining the safety of the visitors.

Acosta has spent 21 of his 23 years with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at Pelican Bay, and was a correctional officer for 15 years. 

“I spent a lot of time as a correctional officer,” said Acosta. “I always say those guys are where the rubber meets the road. They’re in the trenches.”

That’s where he learned the inner workings of the prison and gained a solid foundation of historical knowledge, he said.

“I stayed an officer for 15 years working pretty much everywhere,” said Acosta.

Three of the main governing bodies in Del Norte County will meet on the same day at nearly the same time today.

The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors and the Crescent City Council will discuss the future of the Solid Waste Management Authority at a joint meeting.

Council members and supervisors will also discuss a proposed “social host” ordinance that targets homeowners who allow underage drinking to occur on their property, and a memorandum of understanding between the city and county for sharing resources.

According to the county’s staff report, the joint meeting will focus on a request of the Solid Waste Management Authority Board to conduct an independent analysis   of privatization of the authority.

The joint meeting will take place at 5 p.m. at the Flynn Center at 981 H St. An agenda is available at www.crescentcity.org. Meetings are streamed live at media.co.del-norte.ca.us.

Jonsun Baker talks beans with Mary Peacock Elementary students recently. Baker now works for the county. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

A $550,000 Network for a Healthy California grant, which funded Del Norte County Unified School District’s Nutrition Project, is set to end in September. Former Nutrition Project Coordinator Deborah Kravitz and 11 other staff members received layoff notices following the School Board’s April 25 meeting.

But Kravitz will continue to work for the district as its director of food services starting in July. She replaces retiring director Judy Wangerin. 

In her new position, Kravitz said she will use her decade of experience on the Nutrition Project to bring back its core programs, especially Harvest of the Month and garden-enhanced nutrition education. She said she is also working with the University of California’s Cooperative Extension program, as well as Del Norte County’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to make sure local youths continue to receive nutrition education.

The county’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) had also received state funding to conduct nutrition education and obesity prevention, Kravitz said. Del Norte County currently shares about $250,000 in funding with Siskiyou and Trinity counties to do similar work. 

“I will continually be on the lookout for ways we might be able to be funded by different grants,” Kravitz said. “Network (money) funded the school district’s Harvest of the Month program, where we had 125 classrooms participating and over 4,000 kids. That goes away unless we can find another funding source.”

Del Norte County Superior Court felony and misdemeanor sentencings for the week of May 3-9 include:

• Paul Lawrence Fisher, 29, Smith River, was sentenced to 270 days in County Jail, three years probation and fined $350 for obstructing/resisting an officer

• Cara Lynn Baker, 45, Crescent City, was sentenced to 30 days in County Jail for a probation violation

• Destinie Wettengel, 19, Crescent City, was fined $400 for disturbing the peace

• Donald Ira Baker, 45, Crescent City, was sentenced to three years probation and fined $661 for theft/larceny 

• Jonathon Ray Vinje, 25, Crescent City, was sentenced to three years probation and fined $1,030 for obstructing/resisting a police officer

• Damian Travis Allen, 20, Crescent City, was sentenced to 180 days in County Jail for a probation violation

• Jerry Lynn Pennington, 57, Crescent City, was sentenced to 30 days in County Jail, three years probation and fined $620 for a felony failure to appear

• Seth Harlan Bauer, 29, Crescent City, was sentenced to one day in County Jail, three years probation and fined $620 for resisting arrest

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).