Election to fill Slert’s seat would cost $20K

The City Council is hiring.

Last night it took the first step toward replacing Councilman Charles Slert, whose resignation is effective Jan 5.

The Council opted to forgo a costly special election less than a year before the term expires and instead will take applications over the next three weeks, choosing a successor by majority vote before the deadline of February 4.

Santa’s Workshop still needs presents for nearly 300 children in Del Norte County this Christmas.

“I need 285 presents as we speak,” said Ron Phillips, “head elf” of Santa’s Workshop, on Monday.

There were 1,286 applications to Rural Human Services’ Santa’s Workshop program for children’s presents, said Phillips, the special projects coordinator for RHS.

Homegrown Cal-Ore Life Flight merged with Reach Air Medical Services of Santa Rosa earlier this month.

The merger creates a comprehensive network of air and medical transportation in California and Oregon, said Cal-Ore CEO Dan Brattain, who will join the Reach Medical Holdings, LLC board of directors.

All of Cal-Ore’s 70 employees will join the ranks of Reach’s 300-employee roster.

A local man has been sentenced for siphoning more than 325 gallons of fuel from local gas stations last spring.

Derek Leishman, 25, of Crescent City, was sentenced to two years in county jail, two years in a rehabilitation program and fined $625 for receiving stolen property, conspiracy to commit burglary, grand theft and conspiracy of grand theft.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, sponsored by The Redwood Community Action Agency, is offering free tax preparation services in Del Norte and Humboldt counties.

To be eligible for free tax help, your 2011 income must be less than $50,000. Citizenship is not a requirement. Spanish and Portuguese-speaking tax preparers will  be available.

Prison pulls out all the stops for schoolchildren

Santa Claus, who also spends time as a prison sergeant, is greeted by Smith River schoolchildren at the school Friday. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Children playing basketball and soccer and frolicking on the jungle gym stopped in their tracks when Santa Claus stepped out of a Pelican Bay State Prison Fire Truck that pulled onto the playground.

They hugged him from all sides and pulled at his beard while cheering.

“Has everyone been nice?” he asked the pint-sized crowd.

“Yeah,” they shouted back.

Service to honor anniversary Tues.

The first American merchant ship to be attacked by the Japanese during World War II broke apart on the sea stacks of Crescent City 70 years ago.

Many Del Norters already know the story of the S.S. Emidio, which was attacked 200 miles north of San Francisco by a Japanese submarine. 

A ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of this attack will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Beachfront Park, next to a section of the S.S. Emidio’s hull, which marks where the ship’s bow landed in the harbor.

Change means new focus for local firm

 After several years of unprofitability and periodic layoffs, Hambro Group is permanently closing all three of its particleboard manufacturing plants, including Hambro Forest Products in Crescent City, Humboldt Flakeboard Panels in Arcata and Blue Ridge Panels in North Carolina. 

Company CEO Wes White announced plans “to move the Hambro Group’s focus from one heavily based upon wood products, specifically particleboard production, to one of ‘eco-friendly’ and transportation businesses,” in a Dec. 9 letter sent to customers and suppliers.

Hambro Group includes five entities outside of particleboard manufacturing, which offer services like trucking, hauling garbage and sludge, and composting fertilizer.

Fines, restitution and additional prison time

A second Pelican Bay State Prison inmate has been  sentenced in connection with a January assault on three correctional officers.

Omar Cardenas, 20, was sentenced to 10 years additional prison time after pleading guilty to battery on a correctional officer with special allegations of great bodily injury and use of a deadly weapon, another count of battery on a correctional officer and possession of a weapon by a prisoner.

He originally faced 10  felony accounts, including conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of attempted murder.