Trevor Fritz, 8, stands amid pumpkins on his family’s patch in Fort Dick. (The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson)

Driving down Morehead Road in Fort Dick, there’s the familiar scene of cattle grazing on grass that grows heartily during the wet months and fuels the agricultural community in this part of Del Norte County.

Suddenly, orange spheres dot the freshly tilled brown earth.

Just in time for Halloween, it’s an experimental pumpkin patch on about one acre at Brock Land and Cattle. Diane Brock and her family decided to try it out this year to see how well the bulbous gourds would grow on their land.

“It’s a good spot,” Brock said. “You can see it from the road and it’s easy to get to.”

Proposed changes to downtown businesses assessment rates will be considered at the Crescent City Council meeting Monday.

At the same meeting, a public hearing will be held on an appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of a veterans monument at the S curve off of U.S. Highway 101.

Business Improvement District board members have come up with changes to the assessment rates that each business has to pay or risk losing its business license.

“This is a requirement of the state law that governs business improvement districts,” said City Manager Rod Butler. “There’s a detailed, specific process we have to go through if we’re making changes to the basis of the assessments.”

Proposals needed to build excitement for major grant, program officer says

Local residents residents are being invited to join a conversation that could bring a lot of money to Del Norte County.

The California Endowment recently chose Del Norte — along with a small portion of Humboldt County because Yurok tribal lands were included — and 13 other areas across California to take part in the endowment’s “Building Healthy Communities” program.

Over the next 10 years, the endowment will provide grants to all 14 sites that could total up to $1 billion for various health-related initiatives.

A Crescent City man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges that he threatened in an e-mail to kill President Obama and members of his family.

The Triplicate reported last week that John Gimbel, 59, had been arrested in Crescent City by federal agents.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday that an indictment issued Tuesday said Gimbel e-mailed a message Sept. 28 bearing a subject line that read, in part, “Kill the president” ... then write ‘fed s-’ on his chest with a felt tip.”

Obama arrived in San Franciso Thurdsay for fundraisers at the St. Francis Hotel.

First it was batteries, and now the authority is taking aim at hypodermic needles, which were banned from normal disposal methods in 2008.

“Needles are really the scariest product we know of,” said authority director Kevin Hendrick. “If not handled correctly they end up in the garbage, and sometimes in garbage collectors. There’s nothing more scary than getting poked by a used needle.”

Hendrick feels that part of the problem is a lack of public education on proper needle disposal.

“They have to be inside one of those red plastic sharps containers,” Hendrick said. “The way it is right now, needles have to be put in one of those sharps containers, and then delivered to the Transfer Station. They can’t be thrown in the trash even in a sharps container.”

The authority is asking for retailers of hypodermic needles and lancets to provide proper disposal receptacles and take-back services.

The public is invited to the event, especially families with kids 6-13. The  theme is “Drug-free is the key.” There will be games, activities and prizes.

The event is being coordinated by Friday Night Live and the Del Norte County Public Health Department.

Red Ribbon Week is a national event celebrating being drug-free. It was created in 1988 in memory of federal narcotics agent Enriqué “Kiki” Camarena, who was killed in 1985 while attempting to uncover a narcotics pipeline from  Mexico, according to the DEA Red Ribbon Week Web site.

Participants wear red ribbons to pledge to be ‘drug-free’ and to remember Camarena.

Chris Holland D.O., left, and Elie Hobeika M.D. attend a reception Wednesday night at the Hampton Inn. The Daily Triplicate/Rick Postal

Hobeika obtained his medical degree from the Lebanese University of Beirut Medical School. He completed residencies at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut and at Eastern Virginia Medical Center in Virginia Beach, Va.

• Dr. Christian Holland, an internist at Open Door Community Health.

Holland obtained his D.O. degree from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, and completed residencies at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Riverside County Regional Medical Center.

A third doctor was unable to be at the reception due to a flight delay. Dr. Carla Nelson, a pediatrician, will begin work at Sutter Coast Community Clinic after completing her residency in pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, in November.

Visitors, from left, Justine Guyton and Meade Scrimsher of St. Louis and Cindy Guyton of Medford get a little too close to the action on Preston Island off Pebble Beach Drive on Wednesday. After getting soaked, they kept their distance. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

The main part of the storm that originated in the Pacific Ocean swept in early Tuesday, but the show didn’t really start in Del Norte until Tuesday night at around 10–11 p.m.

“A thunderstorm rolled through and picked up the wind and really heavy rain,” said Jeff Tonkin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka.

At about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, 8,300 customers in the region lost power, said Monte Mendenhall, a regional community manager for Pacific Power.

Power was restored to most people “in bits and pieces” later in the morning, he said.