A lawsuit filed by conservation groups Tuesday seeks to stop a Caltrans widening and straightening project in Del Norte County on routes 199 and 197 due to concerns about its effect on the Smith River Canyon.

The lawsuit claims that Caltrans did not fulfill its environmental analysis requirements under state law for the 197/199 Safe STAA Access Project. It would open the routes to longer and wider trucks, which the groups claim would lead to environmental degradation of the Smith River basin.

The lawsuit cites impacts to old-growth redwoods, protected salmon habitat and the drinking water source for most of Del Norte County that could come from more potential spills and accidents with larger trucks. The suit says that the environmental analysis failed to legally and adequately address these and other concerns under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The suit was filed jointly by the local group Friends of Del Norte, the Arcata-based  Environmental Protection Information Center and  the national Center for Biological Diversity.

“For more than five years our organization has been identifying water quality and safety issues with this ill-conceived project,” said Don Gillespie, president of  Friends of Del Norte, in a press release, “but our comments have fallen on deaf ears. It is really a sign of Caltrans’ intransigence that public interest organizations have to resort to the courts to protect motorist safety and our treasured Smith River.”

Following a heated debate, Supervisor Martha McClure on Tuesday tearfully withdrew her offer to participate in a Sutter Coast Hospital study that will be funded by its parent corporation and that some local physicians believe will be biased.

County supervisors will instead send a letter to Sutter Health representatives stating that unless the corporation seeks alternative funding sources and makes the community more involved, they will not participate in the study, which will focus on the future of Crescent City’s hospital and its potential downsizing to a critical access designation. 

The county will also base its letter on an April 19 letter Sutter Coast Chief of Staff Dr. Gregory Duncan sent to Traci Van, Sutter Health’s director of community benefit. Duncan’s letter outlines the medical staff’s series of concerns, including the fact that the study is being funded by Sutter and that Sutter representatives are pre-screening the consultant to conduct that study.

Sutter Health representatives have asked community members to participate in the study by helping to interview the firms it has pre-screened. 

According to Duncan, outside funding for the study dissolved after Sutter Health released a memorandum in December that reads “we believe Sutter Health is the best partner for us now and in the future.” Sutter Health had asked five community groups and individual members to participate, but once they discovered the study would be funded solely by the corporation, they withdrew their participation, Duncan said.

Local law enforcement authorities and an attorney offered their advice about safety and gun laws Tuesday at a Del Norte Tea Party Patriots forum titled “Surviving in a Violent World.”

Crescent City Police Chief Doug Plack, sheriff’s Commander Tim Athey and attorney Darren McElfresh were on hand to answer questions regarding gun ownership, personal attacks, car theft and burglary, as well as fielding questions from an audience of more than 100 people.

The panel began by explaining that any gun not falling on the banned list from the California Department of Justice is legal to own.

Then came questions regarding concealed weapons permits.

People can apply for a permit at the Sheriff’s Office by filling out an application packet, paying $160 for various fees, taking a gun class offered by the Sheriff’s Office and then meeting personally with Sheriff Dean Wilson, Athey said.

“It’s a simple process,” said Athey.

Panel member went on to explain who is excluded from having a concealed weapons permit: those people with active restraining orders against them, people convicted of felonies, people who have been convicted of certain violence-related misdemeanors or domestic dispute crimes, and anyone who has been ordered for a mental health commitment.

“Those are the main ones that deal with your past criminal history,” said Athey.

Then came questions about when it is legally justifiable to shoot someone burglarizing a home.

Coulter E. Mann

Mann, 32, appeared in the Del Norte Superior Courthouse with a cast on his left leg. After hearing arguments and witness testimony, Judge Philip Schafer ruled Mann would be held to answer  on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with a  blood alcohol content of .08 or above with an injury including a special allegation of registering a BAC over .15 and failing to drive on the correct side of the roadway. 

“Probable cause is established by virtue of a (.20 BAC level),” said Schafer as he delivered his decision.

A prosecution attempt to tack on a second-degree murder charge was denied.

Mann is still on paid administrative leave, but will be resigning June 30 — the end of his contract with the school district, said Superintendent Don Olson.

The School Board will take action toward the resignation next week, Olson said.

Deputy District Attorney Todd Zocchi used California Highway Patrol Officer Ted Luna as his main witness during the hearing. Luna was the responding officer who headed the investigation into the Dec. 21 head-on collision on U.S. Highway 101 near Smith River that killed 67-year-old Klamath resident Kenneth G. Jones and injured Mann. 

Following a heated debate at a previous Board of Supervisors meeting over the public health officer position, Del Norte County will be getting a new public health officer.

Dr. Warren Rehwaldt, who formerly held the position, will take it back June 10, said Dr. Gary Blatnick, director of Del Norte County Health and Human Services, on Tuesday. Rehwaldt will replace Dr. Thomas Martinelli, who had been the public health officer even though he has lived in Santa Barbara for about two years.

In April, Blatnick said he and County Administrative Officer Jay Sarina had been talking with Rehwaldt and other physicians about the possibility of hiring a public health officer who lived within the county if that was the direction the Board of Supervisors wanted to take.

The public health officer serves as the county’s medical and public health authority to enforce local health orders, ordinances and statutes. The officer assesses the health status of the community, provides medical direction to the Public Health Department and helps plan local environmental and public health service and education programs.

Martinelli was hired as public health officer in 2005 and saw Del Norte County through outbreaks of H1N1, or swine flu, four years ago, and pertussis, or whooping cough, three years ago. He moved to Santa Barbara in October 2011, but said he still keeps a home in Del Norte and spends about a week each month here.

A Gasquet man died after a motorcycle crash in which he went off U.S. Highway 199 and down a steep embankment on Saturday, authorities said.

Between the hours of 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., Donald L. Hartwig, 56, was driving his 2004 Harley Davidson northbound on the highway south of Hardscrabble Creek when he went off the roadway, authorities said.

He sustained fatal injuries as a result.

Hartwig had been reported missing after he got separated from a friend while they were on a motorcycle ride, said sheriff’s Commander Bill Steven.

Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue aided in locating the man’s body.

Class members, from left, Cole Ives, Tori Wilderson and Cynthia Gil check out a “victim” during disaster training. Del Norte Triplicate / Bryant Anderson

The high-schoolers, trained as Community Emergency Response Teams (federally organized first responder certification), broke off into smaller groups to search for the missing persons, which in this practice emergency scenario were mannequins hidden under bushes and decks across CR’s campus by the students’ teacher, Melody Pope.

Pope, who teaches health career-related classes at Del Norte High School, reminded her students to follow the protocol they’ve learned by searching in groups of two.

Soon enough a group of students, armed with CERT backpacks filled with emergency supplies, found a body (mannequin), evaluated its condition and placed colored tape on it to indicate the health status: red indicating life-threatening injuries in need of immediate care, green meaning the victim has minor injuries (“walking wounded,” Pope says), yellow meaning unconscious or in need of urgent care, and black meaning dead.

“We saved a life today,” said 18-year-old senior Cole Ives with a knowing smirk as he held the body in his arms.

Jokes aside, the CERT program is a serious community asset.

“We have a couple of young men that will be joining the Search and Rescue team” after they graduate from Del Norte High School this spring, Pope said.  “How nice is it for them to walk right out of high school and help the community by joining that sort of team?”

CERT classes were first developed and implemented by the Los Angeles Fire Department in the wake of the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake; the idea was picked up by FEMA and classes were made available nationally in 1993.

Sutter Coast plans to hire firm to help analyze the options

County supervisors today will hear from Sutter Coast Hospital’s chief of medical staff and discuss participating in a study on the hospital’s future.

Sutter Coast representatives asked a group of community members, including a local businessman and a Curry County commissioner, to participate in the study, according to Dr. Gregory Duncan, the chief of medical staff. Five people declined due to concerns that the study will be biased, he said.

The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors will discuss asking District 2 Supervisor Martha McClure to participate in this study, according to the meeting agenda.

Duncan has emerged as a vocal opponent of the hospital’s attempted “regionalization,” which would involve replacing its local Board of Directors with a regional one. His claim that this could lead to downsizing the hospital has prompted a public outcry against the move. 

In a letter to the supervisors, Duncan said the hospital’s Board of Directors initially approved a collaboratively funded study. But now that the outside source withdrew its funding, Sutter is currently the only funding source, he said.

“Sutter wants this study to provide for their long-term plans for the hospital,” Duncan said.

Sutter officials have talked with several national firms that specialize in rural health and California law to conduct this study, said Sutter Coast spokeswoman Beth Liles. After listening to four presentations, a group of community members will decide which firm should conduct the study.

‘We thought it was weird too,’ official says of incident 

The off-duty park ranger who escaped injury during a mountain lion attack Thursday evening on Crescent Beach was back to work Monday.

His name has not been released by State and National Parks at his request.

The ranger was fishing south of the Crescent Beach picnic area around 7:30 p.m. when he saw his dog being chased by a mountain lion, according to the parks.

The lion then attacked the ranger, who hit the animal with his fishing pole and kicked it, the parks state.

Authorities from California Department of Fish and Wildlife located what it called a “sub-adult” animal near the attack location at around 9 p.m. and killed it.

The carcass was sent to a forensics lab in Sacramento for analysis. Test results are not yet available.

It is suspected that the lion was recently sent on its own, and because mountain lions have very big territories there is speculation that it was “pushed to the edge of the earth,” said Candace Tinkler, chief interpretive ranger for Redwood National and State Parks.

She also speculated that the mountain lion may have been hungry and acting out of desperation, or it could have been attracted by elk that are known to frequent the adjacent inland area.

“We thought it was weird, too,” said Tinkler. “Most of us wouldn’t dream that we would be walking down the beach and encounter a mountain lion.”