About Del Norte County, CA

The California Endowment to invest millions of dollars into Del Norte County over the next 10 years.

If you live in Del Norte County and have not heard about the California Endowments Healthy Communities Initiative, you will very soon as the Endowment begins to pump money into the community.

The California Endowment was formed 10 years ago when Blue Cross made the decision to go from a non-profit company to a for-profit. When this change was made, Blue Cross was required to form this non-profit endowment which has been investing money, by way of grants, to programs all over the state of California for 10 years.

These grants were making an impact, but the Endowment decided the way to have a long-term, lasting impact would be a long-term investment in some of the neediest areas of the state.The Endowment envisioned the Healthy Community Initiative and chose 14 areas of the state that will benefit from this initiative, but more importantly, the areas chosen showed the promise of a brighter tomorrow by way of a strong commitment from the community, both government and private citizens, to work toward permanent solutions to their problems.

Del Norte County and Tribal Lands is one of the 14 communities chosen for the Healthy Community Initiative. Del Norte County, once a thriving timber and fishing community has been severely impacted in the last 20-30 years by the loss of those industries. The largest employer at present, government agencies, far exceeds the average for the rest of the state. The Healthy Communities Initiative will look for long term solutions in bridging the gap in health care, the high school graduation rate, employment issues, and more.

The California Endowments commitment is for 10 years. In the first 3 years the Endowment projects investing $500,000 to $3,000,000 a year, years 3-6, the Endowment projects the investment to increase and then taper off in years 7-10.

Folks, in a community the size of Del Norte County, population 29,000, this is HUGE! If you aren't involved in the process, get involved. I have become involved and have been impressed by the amount of top notch people who are participating in the process. This is exciting stuff and is going to transform our county now and for future generations.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who have given hours and hours of their time to bring this initiative to Del Norte County.

Client testimonial for RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods agent Fran Gatti in Crescent City, CA.

One of the positive outcomes of the real estate market decline has been the opportunity for buyer's who have been priced out of the market.

I inadvertently seem to have found a niche in helping first time home buyer's, especially single woman my age - not telling you what that is - purchase a home.

Handing the keys to a home buyer is exciting, but handing them to a first time home buyer who NEVER thought they would be able to afford a home...ever, well that's priceless.

Following is an email I received from a wonderful woman who purchased her first home last week.

In September of 2009 I started looking for my first home. My loan was approved and I contacted a local real estate agent in Crescent City to help me. After almost 3 months I found myself getting more and more frustrated with the process, and I started wondering if I'd ever get an accepted offer on a house. After many disappointments, I decided it was time to change agents and see if my luck changed. I contacted Fran Gatti and that was the best decision I could have made. She kept me informed throughout the process and really worked hard for me. I finally felt like I could relax, because I found an agent that was looking out for me. Thanks to Fran I'm sitting in my new home and I couldn't be happier.


Amy Simonetti

Give me a call if you think you are priced out of the market. You may be surprised what we can do for you at RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods.

The first annual RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods Client Appreciation Event was a huge success!

On Friday, January 8, 2010, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, my office had a client appreciation event to thank all our wonderful clients.

Not only did we thank our clients, but we introduced our newest agent, Ana Hartwick, who joined our office just a few days before the big event.

RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods couldn't be happier. Ana is a wonderful addition to the RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods team.

Ana is consistently a top producing agent with a stellar reputation for being friendly, prompt and professional and will compliment and be an asset to the rest of the RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods staff.

Our Client Appreciation Event was quite a success. We invited our clients to drop by and celebrate with over 400 invitations being sent out. Our staff thought we would be lucky to get even half of the invitees to attend, but our best estimates are that a minimum of 250 clients and support professionals, i.e. title people, lenders, appraisers, etc. attended.

The venue we chose for this event was the Hampton Inn in Crescent City situated on the ocean. Our guests got to watch a beautiful sunset over the Pacific and dine on the finest spread many guests say they have ever seen.

There was fabulous music, a large screen T.V. playing a DVD of our clients listings and we raffled off some wonderful gifts.

I was honored to have my Broker/Owner's present me with a plaque for being the number one producer in Del Norte County both in volume and number of sales for 2009.

Bob and Michelle Barber prepared all the food for the event AND decorated. They did a top notch job and we can not thank them enough.

If you missed the invitation only event, cheer up, we are going to have one again. You have to be a client to attend though, so come on in and see what we can do for you at RE/MAX Coastal Redwoods!

It is after Christmas and I am still on my family vacation in Seattle, WA. The home of Active Rain believe it or not. Well, being on vacation and visiting my family, I have realized something important that I mostly forget during the rest of the year when I am frantically working. I realize that we have to take time out to invest in ourselves and our families the way we put all that effort into our jobs and work because without those family moments and enjoying personal happiness, then what is the point of all that hard work?

After hanging out with the cousins, nieces and nephews all day yesterday and taking them to see the new Alvin and the Chipmonks movie as well as ice skating (something that I have not done before) in Bellevue, it dawned on me that these few and precious moments are what we will remember for the rest of our lives, not our routine jobs or the next sale. And on our death beds, these few precious moments are probably what we will ultimately remember as we lay there reflecting on our lives.

So for the new coming year, I will prioritize my Business action plan as well and my own personal time, and the time spent with family and friends. Sometimes we as real estate agents tend to work so hard and get wrapped up in chasing our next deals or joggling multiple deals that we forget to stop and smell the roses for instance, and remember why we do what we do. I think that by scheduling time off from work will also help us to rejuvenate our energies and strength for when we do work, so that we do not burn ourselves out of business and enjoy our work more.

So for the coming new year, I toast to all my real estate professional friends out there and my clients and future clients, to always remember what are the important things in life and to give yourself time to spend with your family and friends and to yourself, as well as your work. Happy New Years!

I was made aware of the following post because the group, Californian's for Alternatives to Toxics, called to ask me if they could use the picture in this article from one of my many postson Tolowa Dunes State Park. If you have never been to Del Norte County, it is comprised of many state, national and county parks, and land protected by Fish and Game.

Tolowa Duneshas got to be one of the most beautiful locations in California, where Lake Tolowa meets the Pacific Ocean. It breaches itself, or is breached by man, several times a year and creates quite the lovely spectacle as the fresh water lake empties into the sea.

My husband and I routinely see pelicans, sea gulls, sea lions, geese, ducks, osprey, and so much more. It is a little difficult to find Lake Tolowa, so we are usually the only people there. If you haven't been there and you live in Del Norte County, you need to go.

Here is the Californian's for Alternatives to Toxics poston what is going on at Tolowa Dunes State Park. Please check out their website if this interests you to see how you can help.

Thank you,

Fran

Defying Court Ruling, State Parks Aims Hazardous Sprays At Coastal Wildlands

Despite being trounced by CATs in the Court of Appeal for a similar project, the California Department of Parks and Recreation (CDPR) is trying to slip another terrible herbicide spray plan past the public- adding to the mounting evidence that the agency considers itself above state law.

Avoiding a full environmental analysis, the state agency plans to kill invasive plants with broad-spectrum, non-selective herbicides at two Del Norte County sites: the sensitive dune ecosystem at Tolowa Dunes State Park and the Fish & Game-managed wetlands of the Lake Earl Wildlife Area.

Only months ago, CDPR lost in court to CATs for similarly failing to do a thorough examination of its plans to spray the invasive purple loosestrife weed along the Eel River. These plans are on a growing list of CDPR projects undertaken without adequate analysis and public notice.

- Incessant Spraying -

Its current proposal at Tolowa Dunes includes the use of two herbicides, imazapyr-also proposed on the Eel River--and glyphosate.

Imazapyr remains toxic and mobilein soil for up to a year and a half; repeat applications are likely to compound this toxicity. Glyphosate adversely alters soil ecosystems and recently has been linked to reproductive damagein mammals. But CDPR wants to do multiple spray applications to 323 acres for a minimum of three years--and up to an undetermined length of time.

CATs believes the Tolowa Dunes project is in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it fails to analyze how the toxic herbicides could affect the 61 special status plants and the 37 special status animals there, along with soil organisms and wetland water quality (see CATs' critique of the Tolowa Negative Declaration).

In an apparent surreptitious move, the spray plan was issued as part of a Mitigated Negative Declaration in mid-September for public comment, but was never posted on the CDPR webpage. CATs was not notified as an interested party.

While the lack of transparency is disturbing, it came as no surprise considering CDPR's track record statewide - which includes a rise in the use of Notice of Exemptions, Negative Declarations and Mitigated Negative Declarations in place of full environmental analysis and complete public participation.

- Why Use Killer Chemicals? -

It was such tactics that prompted the Court of Appeal to rule in favor of CATs and its assertion that CDPR failed to do adequate environmental analysis for the purple loosestrife project on the Eel. There, just as at Tolowa Dunes, CDPR planned to spray the invasive plant with imazapyr as the primary treatment without adequate consideration of non-chemical, environmentally appropriate alternatives.

Learning of CATs' Purple loosestrife lawsuit, people throughout California have contacted CATs about similar projects revealing an apparent pattern of the state agency's abuse of CEQA.

Examples include a Notice of Exemption in Mendocino County that allowed a bluff overlooking the ocean in Jug Handle State Park to be scraped down to bare soil and then sprayed to remove gorse and broom. Such scorched-earth practices also threaten Southern California parks, such as the removal of 100-year-old orange and lemon groves at Citrus State Historic Park so the soil could be graded and fumigated with an extremely toxic pesticide.

Neither of these activities was posted on the CEQA clearinghouse website for the public or environmental organizations to review because each was deemed non-significant by CDPR.

Though CDPR may claim to use herbicides sparingly, these projects highlight the agency's chemical habit and likelihood to jump on the herbicide treadmill for invasive weed management in other state parks.

CATs will remain diligent in its mission to watchdog the activities of government agencies and bring information about projects that include pesticide use to its members and the public.

- What You Can Do -

--Familiarize yourself with the CEQA process (http://www.ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/more/faq.html)

--Visit the California Clearinghouse to find proposed projects in parks near you (http://www.opr.ca.gov/index.php?a=sch/sch.html)

--see CATs' analysis of the Tolowa Negative Declaration(212 kb pdf file)

--Go to the State Parks website (http://www.parks.ca.gov/) or visit your local headquarters and ask about management practices that include pesticides. It's public information.

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(* photo by Fran Gatti) (CAT used my picture, gave me this credit and linked back to my post)!