By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – September 24, 2021 Seems as though Crescent City's current version of ineptitude resides within the august walls of the Harbor District's Board Meetings lately. Fresh from the questionable activities surrounding the District's venture into RV Parks where suddenly there is an immediate need for high end accommodations at Redwood Harbor Village, and Bayside RV Park, the Harbor quietly revealed that the inner Basins have not been dredged for a decade and the material from previous dredging needs to be disposed of from their current location in the harbor's dredge ponds. Unfortunately the Harbor District does not appear to have the appropriate permits. But the follies do not end there. The projected annuals savings from the "New" solar panels has not lived up to hype showing a mere $8,000 in savings instead of the $35,000 projected. And finally to put a period on the ineptitude, seems the board was not paying attention to the fact that they did not receive ballots for the recently completed Fire Protection Assessment election until it was too late to cast their ballots. A mere $666 in fees the District will have to dig up annually. Most of the controversy surrounding the harbor's decision to sign on to its RV park redevelopment plan is what happens to current residents. While this was being sorted out an obvious question came to mind. How much need is there for the harbor to provide rental cabins and spiffy, shiny, Airstream trailers for the high end vacationers in the Crescent City Harbor? Hate to say this but Crescent City's Harbor might just not be the "destination" spot on California's northern coast for the rich and famous, especially from October on. But hey, who's paying attention to that little detail. On to the next stumble. The Harbor District has ten years of accumulation in its dredging ponds, and the need for more dredging in both inner basins, but no place to put it. Seems that the illustrious Northern California Regional Water Quality Control Board is making life difficult for the Harbor Board by classifying the spoils as "toxic waste", go figure. Not only is the nearest site for disposal of such waste ninety miles south, but the expense is not something the Harbor has factored in to their luxurious life style. Hence ten years of hand sitting and now the harbor has no idea how to solve the problem in the immediate future. Naturally it isn't their fault, it has to be someone else. Fashion Blacksmith anyone? And the train wreck continues…. We have heard all the hype about how the District was going to "make" a killing with solar power. Someone else was going to install it, maintain it, and the harbor was going to get its power bill reduced substantially. Thousands of dollars in savings, maybe even eliminate that expense altogether. The $8,000 reduction of the District's power bill from a bit over sixty thousand to fifty two thousand in five months is nothing to sneeze at, but $35,000 would have been much better. Wow $1600 per month, a bit over $19,000 for the year. Perhaps cleaning the solar panels themselves might just be the ticket. Oh, that's a job for the contractor. Wonder how much of an increase the harbor's electric bill will see when the freezers kick in and the sun vanishes behind the clouds for months at a time? The gravy on the pot roast came in June when the Crescent Fire Protection's new fee assessment passed by $19.20 and the Harbor Board didn't get their ballots to make their wish known. If someone would have been paying attention, the District could have cast provisional ballots on the day of election, but were asleep at the switch. Too much "heavy" decision making apparently. Now instead of behaving responsibly and voting, something that is clearly a foreign notion for the Board, they have elected to sue the FIRE Protection District in an effort to restore their voting power. More unnecessary legal expense? They voted in the previous October election with "NO" votes. Will the outcome change once again? Although the Harbor Board is not alone in their utter incompetence, the local citizenry can't seem to catch a break for awhile now. Times have been especially difficult for many in the community over the past couple of years, hence one would hope that all boards, authorities, and commissions would be mindful of that fact. Expensive blunders, poor priorities, and bad management should be dealt with quickly and lessons should be learned. That isn't happening in this County.