April 14, 2009 09:18 am
As a journalist, I like to have all my questions answered. As a hiker, I’m usually satisfied to finish a journey with some mysteries still unsolved, leaving the potential for future discoveries on a return trip.
Since I write about many of my hikes in the newspaper, these predilections sometimes clash. So it was when I emerged from a section of the Coastal Trail from Damnation Creek up to Enderts Beach. Much of the trail followed the original Redwood Highway, built in the ’20s and abandoned in the ’30s.
Last Saturday, I wrote about the trail’s haunting atmosphere, emanating from the knowledge that many decades ago, early automobiles cruised along the same route. It’s about a seven-mile stretch, and for at least a couple of those miles, the hiking trail leaves the old highway at a point where the road hugged the ocean bluffs so tightly that sections of it fell into the sea.
Therein lay the mystery. I was watching closely as I walked north on the Coastal Trail, and I never could discern exactly where the paths diverged a couple miles south of Nickel Creek. A quaint mystery to further investigate someday, my inner-hiker told me. A pesky hole in the story that demands filling, said my inner-journalist.
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March 21, 2009 11:29 am
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Well, there they go again! I have been reading with interest the latest
“flap” about the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority. As a past
District 3 supervisor (1991-94), the first chairperson of the Authority
and member of the Solid Waste Task Force since its inception, I feel an
obligation to clear up some inaccurate collegial facts.
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March 17, 2009 09:55 am
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“Like a Hurricane,” a Neil Young song, was playing as I drove through the windswept rain to get a Sunday paper. Maybe I should have listened closer.
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March 14, 2009 09:46 am
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We should thank our lucky stars for Roger “Bronc” McCovey and the
Jaycees Basketball Tournament. At a time when it seems far easier to
disagree than find common ground, recent developments on the local
sports scene brought us together, at least in Del Norte County.
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March 12, 2009 08:22 am
 Gerry Hemmingson
First of all, it was my decision and my decision alone to form an ad hoc committee at the Board of Supervisors meeting (ad hoc committees, are used when an objective needs consideration and no standing committee within said organization can absorb that issue into its scope).
I would like to assist in making Supervisor Mike Sullivan’s tasks a little less controversial. During the board meeting at which I made my decision, Supervisor Sullivan had no knowledge of my intention. I picked Supervisor Sullivan because I have complete confidence that he will do an excellent job, and until recently he sat on the SWMA Board.
I am concerned that I have made the City Council members a little uneasy at my, supposedly, leaving them out. That was not my intention, as a matter of fact I hope the mayor would appoint a member or two to sit on the committee, along with their city manager (who was invited and attended the initial committee meeting). At a previous meeting that I attended with two City Council members, and where the SWMA was discussed, I didn’t feel they had much interest at that time. I would like to apologize to any of the City Council members who think they were intentionally left out. I don’t want my decision to affect the working relationship we (the Board of Supervisors and City Council) have worked so hard to achieve. It was 100 percent my idea and I take full responsibility.
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March 07, 2009 10:28 am
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Sometimes, a tight deadline is just the ticket to produce the best work.
If it seemed like the fix was on when the Del Norte Local Transportation
Commission took mere minutes Thursday to choose which city and
county transportation projects would go to the top of the list for
federal stimulus money, that’s because it was.
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February 28, 2009 12:03 pm
February 24, 2009 08:58 am
Gerry Hemmingsen, chairman of the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, has appointed Supervisor Mike Sullivan to form an ad hoc committee to “study the justification of the Solid Waste Management Authority.” The first meeting of Supervisor Sullivan’s Committee is today, but it will be closed to the public.
I have read in The Daily Triplicate that Supervisor Sullivan’s committee will evaluate whether Del Norte County should withdraw from its partnership with Crescent City on the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority. It is not clear to me what specific reason there is for this urgent scrutiny, but I am not concerned about any honest, objective analysis of our services or finances.
We have a balanced budget and earn revenue sufficient to pay all of our costs, without relying on any tax funding or subsidy from the city or the county. The Transfer Station is open seven days a week and we provide a quality service for a fair price. We hire courteous and well trained staff and our service contracts with private companies pump more than $5 million back into our local economy each year.
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February 14, 2009 10:15 am
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Opinion 
