TRP116

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Thank You

SERVING DEL NORTE COUNTY SINCE 1879

Thank you for your support thru the last 4 years. It has been an honor to serve my community.

-Lori

Paid for by Cowan for DNC supervisor district 2, 2020 ID #1420947

www.triplicate.com

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2020

Crescent City, CA

Donors show no fear at blood drive By David Hayes The Triplicate

For Dee Vallee, it’s scary how much the pandemic has caused a decline in donors contributing to the region’s blood supply. “Two weeks ago, we were so critical, our shelves were so empty. It was scary,” said Vallee, donor recruiter for the Northern California Community Blood Bank. “I’ve never been so scared in all the time that I’ve been doing it. We put out a plea.” The 29th Annual Halloween Blood Drive Oct. 30 couldn’t have come at a better time to alleviate her fears. Vallee said typically the goal is to attract 100 donors to the event. But due to coronavirus precautions, cleanup and disinfecting time between donors has slowed the turnaround time. So they were shooting for 75. Instead, they but shot past that and got 80 who signed up and 68 who were able to contribute units.

“That’s amazing,” Vallee said. “Even though we got 68 total units, they all came in, donated their time, including 12 first timers. Hopefully they’ll become regulars.” She explained that it remains a struggle for the blood bank to host drives during the pandemic — they’ve had to cancel 135 drives because of COVID since March. “Some of our regular donors are older. They don’t want to come in. They haven’t come in since March,” Vallee said. “Getting first-time donors is so important. And on big drives like this people who have never donated do come in.” Crescent City resident Levi Sackett, 30, dropped in to donate for the first time in several years. “One of my friends mentioned I should donate blood. Heard was a blood drive on Halloween,” he said. Like Sackett, many first time

donors hear of the events on the radio. Vallee said in the past, other first timers are recruited from the high schools and colleges. But with both the Del Norte High School and College of the Redwoods campuses closed to in-person student learning, Vallee said that represents a loss of 25% of their annual blood donations. The California Community Blood Bank had to cancel their spring blood drives and with rare exceptions, all their fall drives as well. “So we have been trying to think of ideas to bring people in,” she said. “Like the ‘Battle of the Badge’ we had in Eureka, where all the law enforcement officers participated, from police to the sheriff’s office to parole.” The blood bank still sends a bloodmobile up to Crescent City the first and third Tuesday of the month and to Walmart on the second Friday.

Please see Donors, Page A3

Photos by David Hayes

Kristynn Bertolini, 24, of Crescent City, channels her inner Wonder Woman to donate heroically at the Northern California Community Blood Bank’s annual Halloween Blood Drive Oct. 30 at the Del Norte County Fair Grounds.

Hair raising Halloween happenings All the goblins and ghouls in the Del Norte community turned out in their finest Halloween getups Oct. 31 at various events around the region, including The Del Norte County Library’s Drive Through and the CHP’s and Gasket American Legion’s Trunk or Treats.

Tallies have clear leaders in county races By David Hayes The Triplicate

A pair of emergency personnel worked to the bone man each end of Crescent City Fire Department’s ladder truck at the CHP’s Truck or Treat Oct. 31.

Aubree Say, 4, from Crescent City, looks to make sure her treat made it into her bag from a shoot manned by the Humane Society.

Joey and Alicia Wilson give a treat to Keegan Wilson, 9, at the Gasquet American Legion Trunk or Treat event Oct. 31.

Longtime resident brought on to manage grand opening of latest Harbor Freight Tools store By David Hayes The Triplicate

In 2006, Michael Ekkart was hired on as a regular flooring associate when Home Depot debuted in Crescent City after renovating the old Kmart building. Ekkart would work his way up to assistant manager before moving across Northcrest Drive to turn around the Dollar Store as its manager in 2014. Now, two doors down, Ekkart cut the ribbon Oct. 31 officially opening the latest addition to Crescent City’s community, Harbor Freight Tools, the 115th in California.

INDEX Crosswords..............................................A5 Crossword Answers..................................B3 Classifieds................................................B1

Ekkart said his experience leaned more toward clothes rather than crowbars. “I’m coming from a different type of store than what I’m used to. I used to work for Macy’s, Old Navy and other department stores,” Ekkart said. “But this is the best of all worlds.” The 16,000 square foot Harbor Freight Tools is stocked with hand and power tools, with equipment for automotive repair to generators. Ekkart said the key difference between Harbor Freight and other home improvement stores is his company cuts out the middle man, dealing directly with the manufacturers

which cuts their costs and transfers the savings directly to the customer. Joining the grand opening were members of both the Northern Knights and Curry County Cruisers car clubs. Tom Lee of the Curry County Cruisers said it’s always fun to have an excuse to get their members out. “It’s nice to have a Harbor Freight. It has a lot of variety. Most of the stuff they have is very good and very reasonable,” he said. “But it’s just fun to come into a tool store.” Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore said this was an exciting

development for the community. “We should all be thankful,” Inscore said over the occasional rumbling engine of a hotrod. “Anytime we can do business, we’re talking new jobs. And this year, as crazy as it has been, we’re actually seeing things move forward. It’s a good thing for all of us.” Roger Gitlin, District 1 Supervisor, touted the creation of 35 new jobs at Harbor Freight Tools. “This is a shining star in our community,” Gitlin said. Army veteran and Crescent City native, Joe Burrell, was hired as as logistics manager, or, Please see Store, Page A3

In a room littered with supporters at 8 p.m. on election night at the Del Norte County Republican headquarters, Crescent City Council incumbent Jason’s Greenough’s first call to share the initial vote tally was to his mom, Roxanne. He said he was excited to share with her that the initial results were nearly as much as his total the first time he was elected to office. While he contends he’s not out of the woods yet and is optimistic the results are going in his favor, Greenough said his priorities haven’t changed for his second term. “I don’t want to change what I’ve been doing the last four years. I ran on being a business-friendly voice, beautifying the city and getting as balanced a budget as we can and be fiscally responsible with people’s money,” Greenough said. “I’m humbled by the initial results. I wasn’t expecting it to go as well as it did,” he added. “I’m grateful to the people of Crescent City for their support.” Greenough’s lead would hold up to when the Election’s Office final tally was released at 9:46 p.m. With six candidates and the top three vote getters taking the three available seats on the City Council, Greenough had 483 votes, Alexander Campbell in second with 445 and Raymond Altman third at 377. Beau Smith was in fourth at 361, Herman Rinkel next with 289 votes and Eric Gill with 171 votes. County Clerk Alissia Northup said the elections office began processing ballots about a week ago, with about 50 percent of the ballots they’ve received counted. That does not include all the early vote-by-mail ballots, the vote by mail ballots dropped off at polling locations or provisional ballots. She said usually her office has 30 days to certify the election. “But because of COVID and special legislation, we have to take ballots postmarked by election day up to Nov. 20,” Northup said. “Hopefully we’ll have an update on our website by Friday and a number, the raw count, to

Please see Election, Page A8

FORECAST TIDES

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

51 43

50 41

SUNDAY

51 38

HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

Friday Saturday Sunday 3:57 AM 5:02 AM 6:02 AM 8:31 AM 9:42 AM 11:07 AM 2:11 PM 3:12 PM 4:29 PM 9:44 PM 10:44 PM 11:45 PM

$1.50


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