WEEKEND EDITION
Inside Health and Wellness Special Section Guide and Fitness 2020 Health Norte Counties Curry & Del
Friday January 31, 2020
www.currypilot.com
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
Brookings, Oregon
No change to Mill Beach camping Council considered adding it to state parks no-camping list
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Brian Williams Editor
ill Beach will not be added to the Oregon State Parks’ no-camping list after a tight vote by the Brookings City Council. The motion to start the process of Oregon State Parks prohibiting all camping on the beach that sits within Brookings city limits failed due to a 3-2 vote Monday, Jan. 27. Councilors Bill Hamilton, Brent
Hodges and John McKinney voted against it. “The little bit of rights and liberties that we have are just slowly taken away from us and to take another one away to me I am not in favor of at all,” Hodges said. Mayor Jake Pieper and Ron Hedenskog were in favor of the camping prohibition and acknowledged that their stance on Mill Beach had changed over time. “It is frustrating the neighborhood,
there is a lot of unlawful activity taking place, trash was mentioned, defacing and damage to restrooms,” Hedenskog said. “I am inclined right now to install this no-camping until we get a grip on the unlawful activity that is going on and then sometime down in the future the City Council could ask to open it back up.” The City of Brookings is responsible for the Mill Beach Access, while More Camping on Page A3
Mill Beach. Photo by Brian Williams.
Grand opening in Brookings
Homeless count taken Tuesday in Curry County Brian Williams Editor
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(Top left) Owners Hal and Lori Panter cut a giant cash register ribbon to officially open their new Grocery Outlet store on Jan. 30 while staff looked on and the crowd cheered. ( Top right) More than 200 people turned out, some as early as 7 a.m., for the grand re-opening. (Bottom) Mayor Jake Pieper and City Manager Janell Howard welcomed the store to the City of Brookings. Photos by Linda Pinkham.
Brookings girls wrestle their way to Kids State Championship L
Linda Pinkham Staff Writer
exie and Leila Newman won titles at the Oregon Kids State Championship 2020 in Salem. The Jan. 25 meet draws more than 1,700 Oregon kids each year. Lexie is 11 years old and has been wrestling for 3 years. Her younger sister Leila is 8 years old; this is her first full season. Lexie also won first last year, according to coach Mike Espinoza. One difference this year is that they had separate brackets for girls and didn’t have to wrestle boys this year, although they wrestle boys at home. The brackets are based on age, with several weights within each age bracket.
Leila Newman, 8, won the state wrestling championship for her age and weight in the first full season she participated in. Photo courtesy of Tiffanie Newman.
Index
Classifieds.................A7-12 Crosswords...............A4 Calendar....................A8 Comics......................A4 Art Scene..................A8-9
Weather HIGH LOW
Thurs 55 49
Tues 54 49
More Wrestle on Page A3
Lexie Newman, 11, won her second state wrestling championship in her age and weight class. Photo courtesy of Tiffanie Newman.
Past four days
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“Lexie came home from school one day and asked if she could join the mat club,” said dad, Chris Newman. Her best friend Alex Ortiz is a member of the club, and Ortiz’s father Bernard is one of the middle school’s coaches, along with John Christopher and principal Marco Thorson. “We took her and she fell in love from the first day,” said mom, Tiffanie Newman. “The program introduces them to the sport. The opportunity for scholarships is so big right now, especially for girls.” “The coaches are great. If it wasn’t for the coaches, it wouldn’t have been possible,” she said. “They teach them
Mon 53 49
5-day forecast, tides and complete weather: Page A8
Tides HIGH LOW HIGH LOW
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olunteers from non-profits, churches and other groups were stationed Tuesday in Brookings and Gold Beach to count homeless in Curry County for the annual Point in Time Count. The people were organized by the Curry Homeless Coalition. CHC was contracted by Oregon Coast Community Action, which oversees the count for both Coos and Curry counties. “We had such a great outpouring of volunteers this year,” said CHC Director Beth Barker-Hidalgo. The Point in Time Count is done every year, tallying as many homeless individuals as possible in communities throughout the nation. The count provides information to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homeless were being counted Jan. 28 at St. Tim’s Episcopal Church and the Curry County Resource Center in Brookings and at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Gold Beach. A count was held in Port Orford last week. Lunch is served at St. Tim’s, the Brookings Harbor Food Bank is across the street from the resource center on Railroad Street and there is a food pantry at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Dave Hubbard led the Point in Time count Tuesday, Jan. 28, at St. Tim’s Episcopal Church in Brookings. Homeless were being counted in Curry County and received a backpack. Photo by Brian Williams. “We try to co-locate with other service providers that they already seek on a regular basis,” Barker-Hidalgo said. Dave Hubbard, who works with veterans through Oregon Coast Community Action, manned the count at St. Tim’s. “What we will be giving out is a backpack some snacks, some hygiene products, socks, scarf, some gloves, hat, basically stuff to try to keep you warm, keep you fed, and to carry the stuff in,” Hubbard said. “Each one of the backpacks has a resource guide in there so they can reach out when they are ready.” Hubbard knows all too well what the homeless are going through. Since turning his life around, he has been helping with the Point in Time Counts for the past four years. “I know where those individuals are coming from and that is part of where my passion comes from,” he said. “It was some random individual that reached a hand out to help me up out of the place that I was in. That basically saved my life.” Hubbard thought more people would be counted this year than in past years. “Just seeing how things are going, we may get more participation this year,” Hubbard said. In addition to counting people at the locations, volunteers went out and did “brush counts” in each community. They ran out of backpacks in Brookings and got more More Homeless on Page A3
Sunrise/Sunset RISE SET
Fri 7:30 5:31
Sat 7:29 5:32
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Sun 7:28 5:33
Mon 7:26 5:35
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