CCP 112219

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WEEKEND EDITION

Friday November 22 2019 www.currypilot.com

Brookings, Oregon

SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946

Town hall meeting

Health-care hope for veterans U

Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor

.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Roseburg Health Care System Director Keith Allen is meeting with veterans throughout the region over the next few months to outline how the VA is addressing their health-care issues. “The one thing I hope the most is that

they’ll understand we are rebuilding and that I really want the veterans to choose the VA,” Allen said. During a town hall Wednesday night at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Brookings, Allen acknowledged that the VA’s rebuilding will be a challenging effort. “We understand that health care in rural areas is scarce and the community is becoming saturated, so it is going to be a struggle for us. We are looking to see how we are

going to do that,” he said. Allen said his plan includes partnering with community organizations to improve health-care service and access to physicians. “We are really working to recruit physicians to come here and stay here,” Allen said. One aspect of that effort, he said, will be partnering with Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg to allow interns to connect with the Veterans Administration for health-care training. “Hopefully, by exposing them to

the VA health-care system and what we have to offer, we will be able to keep some of those interns and rotate them through the rural facilities.” Allen acknowledged that this area’s affordable-housing challenge poses another physician recruiting issue. “But I can mitigate some of that with pay incentives and More Veterans on Page A6

‘King tides’

are seen for Nov. 25-27 Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor

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oastWatch is predicting “king tides” for Nov. 25 through Nov. 27, and soliciting photos of the tides from volunteers. CoastWatch is a citizens’ monitoring group that coordinates Oregon’s participation in an international science project to document, through photography, the highest reach of the highest tides along the state’s coast. The group’s volunteer coordinator, Jessie Jones, said the height of king tides vary every year, depending on whether they are accompanied by rain and snow. Jones said the tide charts for Brookings/Chetco predict an 8.2-foot tide on Nov. 25, 8.3 on the 26th, and 8.2 on the 27th. “Seeing that the average is about 7 (feet) for that month, these will likely be pretty good tides,” Jones said. “A tidal range up to 10.1 feet is pretty typical for the Oregon coast in the winter, so if there’s rain happening, that predicted 8.2 or 8.3 could easily be 10 feet or more.” The international monitoring project began in Australia. The king tides arrive when the sun, moon and earth are in alignment, causing a stronger-than-usual gravitational pull. This is the 10th year that Oregon has participated in the international citizen science effort. The project is sponsored by the CoastWatch program of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, and the Oregon Coastal Management Program of the Department of Land Conservation and Development, along with local partners. The other two high-tide sequences this winter on which the project’s volunteers will focus occur Jan. 10-12 and Feb. 8-10, 2020. Anyone with a camera can participate, but is encouraged to take safety precautions when taking photos of the ocean tides. At high tide on any of the three project days

(top) Recent king tides fill the Coquille River Valley. Photo courtesy Rena Olson. (bottom) King tides at Coos County’s Horsfall Beach. Photo courtesy Susan Ferguson.

More Tides on Page A6

Emergency county phone upgrade OK’d

Lack of growers

Christmas tree shortage hits Oregon Y

Linda Pinkham Staff Writer

Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor

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ou’ll likely find fewer Christmas trees to choose from this holiday. Oregon State University Christmas tree specialist Chal Landgren said that’s because the number of growers has dwindled to an estimated 400 statewide. “In 2018-19, the Christmas trees were overproduced,” said Landgren. “There were too many for the market, causing many growers to leave the market because the business competition was too great. “We’ll see about 4.2 million trees produced this season, which is about the same as last year but lower than six years ago. The value of those trees is approximately $90 million annually.” Landgren said he expects the trend of growers leaving the business to shift over the next few A Christmas tree shortage in Oregon follows an exit of growers from the industry. Photo by Jeremy C. Ruark.

More Shortage on Page A2

Index

Classifieds.................B3-8 Comics......................A4 Crosswords...............A4 Calendar...................B1-2

Weather HIGH LOW

Thurs 60 43

Past four days

Wed 63 47

precipitated when the county offices’ phone system failed last week … again. Most departments were unable to receive incoming calls, including the sheriff’s department. The county has been unable to retrieve voicemails left on the system since the phone system’s failure was discovered Nov. 12. The system already was teetering at “end of life” when is suffered a hardware failure several months ago, which caused the shutdown then of “a good portion of the system that provided redundancy and

Tues 56 47

Mon 60 48

5-day forecast, tides and complete weather: Page B1

Tides LOW HIGH LOW HIGH

Call us 541-813-1717

Fri 1:17 AM 7:52 AM 2:21 PM 8:13 PM

Sat Sun 2:11 AM 3:01 AM 8:34 AM 9:15 AM 3:14 PM 4:03 PM 9:19 PM 10:18 PM

Fax 541-813-1931

urry County commissioners okayed an emergency upgrade Nov. 20 to the county’s telephone system, even though they don’t have the funds right now – about $57,000 - to pay for it. An earlier plan, discussed last month, had been to budget for the phone system upgrade over the coming year. Instead, county staff now have applied for a loan through Business Oregon to cover the upgrade costs while county officials continue to budget funds to finance it. More County on Page A5 This latest action was

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Sat 7:17 4:49

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