MIDWEEK EDITION
Connecting Kids and Super Heroes P B1 see
age
Wednesday August 21, 2019
www.currypilot.com
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
Brookings, Oregon
All downhill
Back to school: filling out the forms
Carol Hungerford Publisher
Touchdown! We have more writers in place
H
ow is it possible that the mornings already are beginning to feel like fall, the trees are turning colors and school is about to start? Throughout, the new owners of your community newspapers since July 1 continue to make progress in establishing a solid foundation for the long-term success of both the Curry Coastal Pilot and the Del Norte Triplicate. On the news side, Jessica Goddard has joined the reporting team in Crescent City. A California native, Jessica brings with her broad experience in website design and maintenance, photography, news writing and event planning. A graduate in journalism from Biola University in La Mirada, Jessica was a prolific writer for The Chimes student newspaper, which sharpened her ability to get to the core of a story on deadline. While attending university, she also worked as a barista. Who wouldn’t hire someone whose resume includes skills in photography, writing, editing … and latte art! Jessica joins David Hayes at The Triplicate, who started his journalism career with the U.S. Navy. More recently, he worked for several years at the Issaquah Press in a suburb of Seattle. For 17 years he had progressive experience as both a reporter and page designer. Dave’s work earned the Issaquah Press multiple awards, including three Washington Newspaper Association first-place general excellence awards, highly regarded honors. We are fortunate to have Dave bring his background and passion for journalism to Crescent City. Their counterparts in Brookings now are Jeremy Ruark and Linda Pinkham. You may remember we recruited Jeremy away from two of Country Media’s newspapers in Columbia County, Oregon, where he was serving as both the editor and publisher. You have seen his byline as editor of The Pilot since early July. He now has a permanent address in Brookings and is staying on. Linda has been a property owner and part-time resident in Gold Beach for 12 years. Now living there full-time, she brings her previous experience in publications management to The Pilot. Having begun her journalism career at the Medford Mail Tribune, Linda has used More Carol on Page A3
Index
Classifieds.................B4-8 Comics......................B4 Crosswords...............B4 Obituaries.................A5
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Triptych Construction, LLC worker Will Duffield reaches to pull out gorse from the cliff along Rainbow Rock north of Brookings. Photo by Jeremy C. Ruark.
Cliff rappelling to get at pesky gorse T
raffic in both directions on U.S. Highway 101, north of Brookings at Harris Beach, was routed around a worksite this week during an invasive weed-abatement project. Two workers repelled down Rainbow Rock, a steep cliff on the east side of the highway, to clear patches of gorse, a state-listed noxious weed that’s highly flammable and difficult to control once established, said Curry County Soil and Water Conservation District technical coordinator Erin Minster. She said gorse seeds can remain viable for 30 years or more. The work that began Aug. 19 was expected to last five days. ODOT is controlling nearby traffic and said there had been minimal delays. The conservation district and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) have partnered to remove gorse on the steep cliff adjacent to U.S. Highway 101. Both organizations are
part of the Gorse Action Group, whose mission is “to control and reduce the spread of gorse, minimize the impact of gorse on our economy and natural resources, and provide a successful process to share with others facing gorse infestations.” Minster said gorse is found primarily in the Bandon area along the regional Oregon coast, although infestations have been found around the Harris Beach area north to Lone Ranch. “The cliff removal is a demonstration project to gauge the efficacy of that proposed treatment technique,” Minster said. ODOT has contracted with Triptych Construction, LLC of Glide, Oregon to conduct cliff work that includes rock scaling and brush removal on steep slopes. “The method involves workers on ropes rappelling their way down the cliff, removing the gorse bushes with power tools, then applying herbicide to the stump,” Minster said. “This is known as cut-stump application, which greatly minimizes the
amount of herbicide applied.” Minster said the removal of gorse on steep slopes and cliffs had not been tried previously, “but the technique is needed at numerous sites along the Oregon coast.” She said the cliff at Rainbow Rock was chosen as a good demonstration site. “Gorse seeds can eject up to 30 feet from the bush, thus landing on the highway, allowing transport to other locales,” said Minster. “(Rainbow Rock) is a simple slope with one major plane, thus making for a more-simple approach. “The location is highly visible, which makes it a good candidate for bringing awareness to the need for gorse control.” The eradication project is funded primarily by ODOT, with additional funding provided by Wild Rivers Coast Alliance for documentation and monitoring. Specific cost figures for the project were unavailable at press time. For more information about gorse, go to gorseactiongroup.org.
rossing the ’T’s and dotting the ‘I’s kept parents busy while their children scarred sound the gymnasium and cafeteria at Brookings Kalmiopsis Elementary School on Back To School Registration Day. The Brookings-Harbor School District event, held on Thursday, Aug. 15, drew first-time students and those who are moving from grace to grade. “This will be the first time for my son going into the first game,” Gabriel Francis, of Brookings, said. “He is excited, so I don’t need to encourage him. He is ready to go!” Francis said the event was well organized, but a bit challenging. “There is a lot of paperwork,” he said. Lindsey Stout, of Brookings, escorted her two daughters, Sierra, 11, and Emmy, 8, into the school gymnasium to register for classes. “We have been here since kindergarten, so we are used to this routine,” Lindsey said. “We are very excited because Emmy is going into the third grad and Sierra is a little more nervous, but excited because she is going into middle school.” “It is going to be a different change,” Sierra said. Azalea Middle School Principal Nicole Medrano said the registration process gives administrator a chance to meet the new students, greet all the returning students and build relations. “Some of them may be a little nervous, so it is really exciting to have that oneon-one interaction here, and what we are doing online, More School on Page A3
100 years strong W
David Hayes Staff writer
henever there’s a cheese competition somewhere in the world, it’s a good bet the name Rumiano will be among those acclaimed. The Crescent City business at 511 9th St., in its fourth-generation of ownership, now with Joby Rumiano in charge, has recently added another seven awards to its office walls. Which, frankly, you might expect of Rumiano Cheese Co., which titles itself Cali-
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Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor
Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor
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fornia’s oldest family-owned cheese factory. Yet the family’s reputation didn’t get its origin in cheese. Rather, it was the milk. Joby Rumiano figures everyone has heard the old tales from their own grandparents or great-grandparents … about the milkman making daily deliveries of fresh milk and taking the empty bottles to recycle. He wonders how many stop to think what happened to that milk supply when it got hot in the dead of summer? “The demand got to be pretty high for milk,” said
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Rumino. “But what do you do when there’s no demand? “That’s kinda how the whole cheese factory started back in the early 1900s.” The year was 1919 when Italian brothers Richard, Fred and John Rumiano purchased a small dairy in Willows, California, about 300 miles south of Crescent City. They shifted the emphasis on production to making cheese and grew to be the biggest cheese factory in California by the mid-1930s. Then, they sold all but More Cheese on Page A2
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Rumiano Cheese Co. is run by third-generation owner Baird (right) and his son Joby Rumiano, now the fourth-generation owner of the Crescent City business. Photo by David Hayes.
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