Community Coordinator
Quarterly Report
July-September 2006
Report by: Steve Hill

Over 1,000 Visitors to the 2006, 2nd Annual Celebrate Smith River Festival were greeted with a beautiful summer afternoon. On hand were 49 booths featuring local artisans, food, clothing and information on the services provided in Del Norte County. The Festival was sponsored by CASA and the Smith River Community. The entertainment, food and festivities began at 9:00 am and concluded at 6:30 pm.

National Emergency Grant
Storm Restoration Project 2006

In early June of 2006, The One Stop Center began planning and organizing work crews consisting of dislocated and long term unemployed workers in the Del Norte area to assist in the clean up and repair of areas damaged by the winter storm damage to Del Norte County.
This program is funded by the Department of Labor to repair damage caused by winter storms/flooding January 2006.

Activities and Services provided by the Work Crews include:

• Debris removal
• Clear trailhead access
• Repair of walking trails
• Repair of road damage
• Replacement of supportive structures
• Repair to historic sites

Current Restoration Projects include:

• Crescent City Harbor
• California State Parks
  (Jed Smith, Mill Creek, Lake Earl)
• Kamp Klamath (Public land trailheads)
• Yurok Reservation
• Battery Point Lighthouse
• Cal Trans

Future Restoration projects include:

• Smith River Rancheria
• Other Projects are currently being explored.

Total funding for this program is $322,000.00.
Total Labor Hours supported by this program will be 20,000.

As of September 12, 34 individuals in six work crews have worked on 8 restoration projects.

Del Norte Resource Conservation District
Grand Opening

Established in August of 2005, by the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, the Del Norte Resource Conservation District (DNRCD) provides local leadership to help people within the district to conserve, improve, and sustain their natural resources and environment and the area’s economic viability.

Steven Hill and Dan Burgess, Natural Resource Program Manager from RHS, attended the Grand Opening of the Del Norte Conservation District Center in Smith River. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with the folks from the RCD and others in the farming community of Smith River and discuss the impact of the flood zone surrounding Lake Earl, and the Smith River, on the local private land owners and farmers and the shortage of available farm workers in the area.

Tailgate Food Distribution
At Rural Human Services

For the fourth time this season, a tractor trailer filled with product arrived in Crescent City to distribute to those in need.
The goods provided by California Emergency Foodlink were collected under the state wide agricultural food rescue program Donate-Don’t Dump.

• Distributed in June 6,780 Lbs to 323 local individuals and family members.
• Distributed in July 12,811 lbs to 246 local individuals and family members.
• Distributed in August 13,450 lbs to 313 local individuals and family members.
  

September 19th, 11,194 lbs of fresh vegetables, fruits and dry goods were distributed to 183 local residents in need.
The list of food distributed today included:

• 3,619 lbs of fresh Mushrooms and Corn.
• 4,062 lbs of fresh Plums and Apples.
• 2,299 lbs of fresh Potatoes.
• 1,214 lbs of Tortillas, Breads, and Chips.

A total of 44,235 lbs have been distributed to date.

The final distribution of the season is scheduled for October 17th at 1:00 pm and will be held across the street from the RHS parking lot.

A total of 429 job applicant’s attended the weekend job fair August 11-13, 2006.

New jobs created in the community included:
20 Home Depot Staff Transfers
100 Local Hires

One Stop Center Staff contributed 1,054 labor hours to the entire Home Depot hiring process.