By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – April 26, 2022
One often wonders who is running the shop in the Harbor, the Commission
or everyone who has a fantasy to peddle. Its not as though the Harbor
doesn’t have plenty of balls in the air already, they now take time out
to get “involved” with stream restoration that quite frankly is
expensively ambitious, yet doesn’t seem to measure up as one of those
“vital” concerns for the community. Replacing “failing” culverts likely
costing millions, with bridges in the Elk Creek Watershed is first and
foremost on everyone’s mind in Del Norte County without question. Got
to watch out for that major Tsunami impacting the wet lands East of
Highway 101 and the resulting deluge of sediment that will descend into
the harbor. Under the auspices of the Smith River Alliance,
manufacturers of all sorts of environmental disasters, they are heading
up a collage of government agencies, including the Crescent City Harbor
to “address” the Elk Creek “nightmare”.
They, the Harbor, have time to draft meaningless letters about sediment
disasters in the future, but seem to have little time to address the
more pressing problem of what will Alex Lemus do with the 50 to 80
tenant relocations necessary in order to begin converting the recent
property leases he negotiated with the harbor into income producing
projects. Seems that after two years of negotiations, Mr. Lemus has
realized, belatedly, that this may not be as simple as he envisioned. A
distinct lack of affordable options for relocating the current occupants
of Redwood Harbor Village and Bayside RV Parks have joined the party.
Stalling Mr. Lemus’ visions of a fast buck, the developer will likely
have to go back to a drawing board where he has few options for
relocation of the aforementioned residents.
One thing is certain, Mr. Lemus is quick on his feet to swiftly change
direction on the fly, in order to begin generating income by putting
together a plan for a twenty four space fenced, high end RV park where
only overflow spaces have previously existed. Mr’ Lemus hopes to have
cleared the ground, fenced, electrified and watered the park for summer
traffic. Likely an astounding feat of legerdemain, yet it still leaves
his current relocation problem without a solution. Something to further
hone his skills of magic on over the next year. In the meantime he will
likely get a taste of what it is like to expect the haute couture of the
RV crowd to occupy his current endevour in Del Norte County in the
Winter. And this is considered a feasible direction for the Harbor
Commission to be taking?
While not much of what the current board does in the harbor equates to
“common sense”, financial solvency just might be upper most on the
Commission’s mind. If Mr. Lemus finds his problems insurmountable and
scurries back to San Diego, or Florida, where ever he calls home, how
will the Harbor either pay to clean up the mess left behind, and repair
the damage in trust with their current occupants, or simply find the
same lesson with ideas of grandeur coming back to haunt them? Keeping
in mind that commissioners Brian Stone, and Wes White, with the addition
of Harbormaster Tim Petrick, are the driving force behind this train
wreck. Mr. Stone fancy’s himself capable of becoming a member of the
County’s Board of Supervisors in June. His stumbles as Harbor
Commissioner should be a lesson for all of District Four’s voters who
not to vote for…
In the mean time it would behoove the Harbor Commission to begin
planning for the “what if” if Renewable Energy follows Lemus’ previous
endevour into bankruptcy before his grand vision is off the ground.
Maybe set aside a bit of that bed tax money if possible to fore stall
likely catastrophe. Clearly some one needs to hold some hands, as the
Commission seems incapable of conducting business that makes sense for
the continued financial health at Harbor. It has been suggested, that
the harbor jettison the ideas formulated by previous president Brian
Stone and concentrate on a path forward that might actually work.
Monterey Bay relocation is definitely not a good look.
It’s all about the tourists. Move out the harbor’s RV Park residents to refurbish it for tourists. Let’s get scooters because the tourists will use them. Let’s fix up Beachfront Park so the tourists will have something to do and stay longer. Use our tax money to give to Chamber of Commerce and some other agency to promote tourism. Not sure if we need more tourism promotion; we’re barely into Spring and the motels are full and I see license plates from every state. Reading article in Wild Rivers Outpost last night about Lemus’s plans for harbor sickened me. Appears I won’t be going to harbor or Crescent Beach much longer. It’s for the tourists. Several times last summer I couldn’t even find a parking spot at Crescent Beach. It appears to only get worse. Let’s have more concern about the people who live here. For example the parking spots by the 2 gates on Pebble Beach Drive west of the airport could use filling in again. Maybe if I point out the tourists park there, which they do, it would become a priority. And Sam I share your concern who will clean up the mess Lemus will create when he finds out his plans don’t work and he walks away. On the subject of the harbor, my wife was walking our 2 dogs near the Marina Saturday and 2 Labs saw them and came up from the boats and attacked them. With the help of a man he was able to get them away. He came back and told my wife they came from a boat and the owner, who never showed up, said he hoped nobody was hurt. Then the man told my wife people live on the boats and they let their dogs roam free. Sounded like he was implying she had no business there. He drove off in a truck with Oregon plates by the way. So someone from Oregon is implying we shouldn’t be there. How about the tourists that stay in nearby motels who walk their dogs there? So now the Marina isn’t a safe place. I wasn’t aware there were people living on the boats. I suppose I will get the standard reply, “If you don’t like it move.”