January 7, 2020
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Riverside rescue
Emergency services agencies, including the Gasquet Fire Department and the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team, respond Sunday to a report of an SUV that ran off U.S. Highway 101 and into the Smith River. Photo courtesy Gasquet Fire Department.
SUV goes from road to the Smith River A
n SUV reportedly drove off U.S. Highway 199 at about 8 a.m. Sunday, down an embankment and partly into the
Middle Fork Smith River near Patrick Creek Road. A variety of passersby helped an occupant out of the vehicle after the crash,
according to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) incident report. CHP said the Del Norte County Sheriff ’s Office
search and rescue team used a 100-foot cable to pull the vehicle from the water. Minor crash injuries were reported. The cause re-
mained under investigation Monday morning. Highway 101 was reopened within two hours.
Roseburg man killed in hit-and-run accident A
37-year-old Roseburg man was struck at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday by a hit-and-run driver while he was walking southbound on the west shoulder of U.S. Highway 101, north of Timbers Boulevard in Smith River. The man later died from
his injuries, according to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) press release. CHP said the vehicle was traveling southbound as it fled the accident. The pedestrian was taken to Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City by Del Norte Ambulance and subsequent-
ly life-flighted to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, where he died. The cause of the accident remained under investigation Monday morning. The victim’s name had not yet been released pending notification to next of kin, according to CHP.
First responders arrived on the scene Sunday night of a hit-and-run accident on U.S. Highway 101 near Timbers Boulevard in Smith River. Photo by Stephen Chittock.
Sutter Health settles lawsuit
Mayor takes his stock of Crescent City A
Staff Report
s the calendar turned over to a new decade, The Triplicate asked Blake Inscore, now in his fourth term as Crescent City’s mayor, about the year just ended and what’s next for the city in 2020. Some of his responses were edited for brevity. The Triplicate: So, how was 2019? Mayor Blake Inscore: I think 2019 was a good year. There were a lot of things that happened. We
moved to contract operations at the wastewater treatment plant. They have brought a level of expertise in what they can do, and I think we’re going to see some efficiencies. It was a tough decision, obviously, because it affected employees. I think it was a good decision and it will serve us well going into the future. We put together some master plans, such as the 10year fire master plan. It will be a fundamental change in how we will do staffing, with the idea of generating enough revenue to be able to bring on some paid captain
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By David Hayes Staff Writer
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Mayor Blake Inscore. positions so a fire chief is not responding to every call. Putting those things in place means we’re going to have to generate revenue, be it through parcel assessment
throughout the fire district or a sales tax measure in the city. If we want to provide the same level of service More Mayor on Page A3
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atients of Crescent City’s Sutter Coast Hospital, a subsidiary of not-for-profit Sutter Health, headquartered in Sacramento, may well have more billing and pricing options thanks to the resolution of a class-action lawsuit that has been percolating in the courts for more than five years. Sutter Health agreed Dec. 20 to a $575-million settlement in an antitrust case filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and co-plaintiffs United Food and Commercial Workers International Union & Employers Benefit Trust (UEBT).
The two had accused the healthcare provider of using its market dominance in northern California to illegally drive up prices. UEBT filed the lawsuit April 7, 2014 representing employers, unions and local governments whose workers use Sutter services, alleging that Sutter had imposed “price secrecy, all-or-nothing, and anti-tiering provisions in its contracts with the health plans, and that its restrictive conduct violated the Cartwright Act and Unfair Competition Law.” Sutter Health officials at the Crescent City facility referred to a statement released by Sutter Health More Lawsuit on Page A4
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