Sea Cruise event approved By David Hayes The Triplicate
Ray Bocock has only been president of the Northern Knights Car Club for five weeks. Yet, he’s been thrust into helping plan the biggest outdoor event of the year not canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 29th Annual Sea Cruise will be held over Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 9-10. “I think it is important to
have Sea Cruise. It benefits the entire city,” Bocock said. “The entire town has been suffering, worrying. All it does is eat, sleep COVID. Now they get a chance to come out and see cars.” The community went through disappointing cancellations of the July 4 celebration and annual county fair earlier this summer. But during the virtual chamber mixer held Aug. 20 via Zoom, Cindy Vosburg and Larry Timpe had good news — Sea Cruise
2020 is a go. The event is sponsored by the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce. Vosburg is executive director and Timpe is board president. “We’re so excited to be able to do this,” Timpe said. “There will be little changes to it. Cars will be spread out a little more than they were in the past, but it’s a great activity for the entire community.” Vosburg said Del Norte
County Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt, who gave the event his blessing, categorized it a “a mobile outdoor museum event.” Rehwaldt approved the chamber’s plan for Sea Cruise because there won’t be any social gatherings in between the Show ’n’ Shine Friday night and the main car show Saturday, Vosburg said. In addition, to adhere to state and county social distancing guidelines, participants and spectators
will be required to wear masks. “The chamber and Northern Knights are more than happy to do what they ask,” Vosburg said of the health department’s requirements. Both Vosburg and Bocock are expecting classic car owners to be excited to get involved in a car show that hasn’t been cancelled. Bocock pointed to the record turnout at the Lucky 7 Casino’s annual MDA Benefit Car
Please see Event, Page A3
County health doctor reports virus testing agreement By David Hayes The Triplicate
David Hayes Photos, The Triplicate
Summer maintenance more demanding due to COVID-19
Maintenance facility specialists Shawn Schubert (right) and Anthony Allen spread new wood chips on the Joe Hamilton kindergarten play-
By David Hayes The Triplicate
Usually, Steve Morgan’s job gets easier when the students are not around during the summer. However, the demand on Del Norte Unified School District’s director of facilities and construction and his crews was more challenging this year since students were sent home in March because of the COVID-19 shutdown. And although classes will resume in the district next Monday, Aug. 31, with only a distance-learning option, preparations for on campus classes continued throughout the summer. Typically, Morgan has a to-do list of 12 or more pages to keep his crews busy through the summer. But this year the tasks of his 27 custodians, eight maintenance specialist and five groundskeepers were even more complex with the added burden
of safety measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “DNUSD personnel have had to deal with those things that also have taken some of them away from work during COVID-19, such as child care, elder care and other COVID-19 health care priorities,” he said. To prepare the campuses for an eventual return of students, Morgan had to craft an action plan that would pass scrutiny by both the state’s and Del Norte County’s Departments of Public Health. Custodian shifts were split into night and day crews to clean and disinfect over 500,000 square feet of interior facilities. A large task by his maintenance specialists accomplishes both COVID-19 precautions and scheduled upkeep — the annual cleaning of the condensing coils and replacement of all the filters in each HVAC unit atop district buildings. That’s between 40 and 50 at Del Norte High School
District ready for distance learning By David Hayes The Triplicate
Activities are ramping up at the Del Norte Unified School District. Superintendent Jeff Harris updated the community in his weekly Monday video address. The first day for certificated staff was actually last Wednesday, Aug. 19, Harris said. “We had about 253 certificated staff who joined us for the first day of professional development and looking at the safety procedures and protocols we’re putting into place for COVID-19 making it safe for our staff to alone, with another 20 to 30 at 15 other campuses and the district office. Then beyond the annual checklist, are the big-ticket items contractors are brought in to accomplish. The DNUSD Board of Trustees approved about $450,000 to replace failing HVAC units — 14 at Redwood and nine at Smith River. Usually, HVAC units last 15-20 years. The ones replaced were 23 and 27 years old, having considerably outlasted their life expectancy, Morgan said. Trustees approved another $350,000 to replace six failed, smaller BARD HAVC units at Bess Maxwell and Pine Grove. Another big project Morgan and crew tacked was replacement of fire alarms at Pine Grove school. Fire alarms at two other schools — Joe Hamilton and Smith River — were replaced last year and Crescent Elk was two years ago. Next
come back.” Staff also touched on distance learning requirements under SB98 that families will experience and what standards will look like on the first day for students Aug. 31. Harris said most of the district’s classified staff returned to work Friday, Aug. 21, focusing on safety and COVID-19 training and responses. “As of today, all staff are engaged in planning the best start we can have to the start of this year,” he added. He reminded parents that the Board of Trustees approved the Please see Activities, Page A3
year, Margaret Keating and Sunset High School will be next in line to get their alarms updated. “The Facilities and Construction Department has successfully completed many Summer 2020 and COVID-19 projects, and are working hard to successfully re-open the school facilities for students and staff in the next few weeks,” Morgan said. He said he is proud of the way his crews have accomplished so much under such scrutiny. “Ninety-nine percent of them are really good people who really care about the kids and cleaning up after everybody. It’s a challenging job. They do a good job and they don’t complain,” Morgan said. “Now with COVID-19, now they have to be even more diligent. Even before COVID-19 they were diligent because of flu season. Same worries. Germs and viruses. I’m so grateful to work with this team. They’re hard working and they care.”
State officials have approved a plan to allow Del Norte and Humboldt counties to combine efforts with United Indian Health Services to speed up processing COVID-19 tests. Dr. Warren Rehwaldt, Del Norte’s health officer, updated the county’s Board of Supervisors about testing on Aug. 25. He said that while the state has brought in extra testing equipment free of charge, the closest lab in Humboldt County has been cramped for space. UIHS has a moderate-complexity lab at its Potawot Health Village in Arcata. Rehwaldt said this lab is able to perform inhouse polymerase chain reaction testing, which can determine if someone is positive for the novel coronavirus. He said this is in addition to the antibody testing they offer to essential workers, which helps them determine if they had been positive for COVID-19. Because UIHS services clients in both counties, they offered to partner with both Humboldt and Del Norte, allowing greater testing capacity, Rehwaldt said. “We jumped at the chance,” he said of the UIHS offer. He said testing locally will save time and effort of shipping samples out to labs as far as the other end of the state. “They’ve really stepped up to improve their lab service and partnering with them allows both counties to improve lab service across the board,” Rehwaldt said. “This solution, partnering two counties and United Indian Health Services, improves access for all residents of both counties and it improves services for tribes within the counties,”” he said. “It’s a win-win scenario.”
Update: COVID-19 cases, testing The Triplicate
Information for this weekly COVID-19 update for Curry and Del Norte counties is gathered just before the Thursday morning print deadline. Curry County’s case total case numbers remain the same as a week ago since no new cases have been reported since Wednesday, Aug. 19. But Del Norte County reported nine new cases between Aug. 21 and yesterday morning. These cases included two among employees of Castle Rock Charter School. According to the Del Norte Unified School District, both cases were confirmed Aug. 21, but were unrelated. “They are in two different segments of the school,” said Superintendent Jeff Harris in his weekly video presentation Monday, Aug. 24. “The two contacts may have come from two completely differ