SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
www.currypilot.com
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020
Brookings, Oregon
Commissioners form housing committee BY DAVID RUPKALVIS The Pilot
More than a year after declaring a state of emergency due to a lack of housing in Curry County, the board of commissioners took another baby step toward finding a solution last week. During a regular meeting, the board voted unanimously to create a Housing Committee, with the goal of moving forward with actually getting new housing built and available for people. “We’ve talked about having a Housing Committee, we talked about how we would do with all the issues we’re facing now with housing,” Board Chair Chris Paasch said. “I think we’re at the point now with all the changes featured in housing and with all
the homeless issues, especially with COVID going on. I’d like to talk to the board and get the board’s thoughts on a housing authority. We did decide on a state of emergency on housing, so I think it’s in our best interest to move on this.” Commissioner Court Boice agreed with Paasch, saying it is time to move forward. “We have all been worried about this for a long time,” Boice said. “I like the idea. This is something that’s overdue and can maybe get us some resources. We’re making a little progress in workforce housing but not much, certainly not much with the homeless. If we have a very cold winter are we going to be able to help people?” Julie Schmelzer, the director of operations for Curry County,
said having an official county committee could be a big step toward getting funding or other resources. She explained when the county had an ad hoc task force on housing, she filled out a grant application only to find out the county was not eligible because there was no official county committee. Curry County resident David Barnes talked to commissioners, telling them creating another committee would accomplish little. “You have a plan already,” Barnes said. “There’s all kinds of housing and homeless organizations who work on this. This is just another group of people who are going to come together, sit down, talk a lot and write up another plan. You’ve talked about this enough. The next thing
that needs to happen is someone needs to identify a piece of property to put something on and build a building on it. Why talk about it more?” Schmelzer said the county has identified some properties, some the county owns and some in private hands. She said even some hotels are on the list, but there is still work to do before the county can act. “Having a committee where you have people directly impacted by the housing crisis partner with agencies and you have staff there to actually facilitate it and make it happen is really the only thing I can think of to move it along,” Schmelzer said. “We’ve had this emergency declaration for over a year now and literally nothing has happened.” After discussing the issue,
commissioners voted unanimously to form the committee. Applications for members are being accepted now, and Schmelzer said she hopes to get members chosen quickly. The ordinance approved by the commission shows committee members will consist of a housing coordinator, a business owner, a senior citizen, a resident representing the disabled community, a veteran, a resident that has experienced homelessness, a member of the faith based community, a member from the educational sector, a contractor, a real estate agent and one at-large member each from northern, central and southern Curry County. Commissioners are expected to pick members at their Dec. 16 meeting.
Steelhead fin clips tell us a lot BY LINDA PINKHAM The Pilot
Linda Pinkham Photos, The Pilot
Local landmarks dot the landscape in the Christmas village served by the Stout Railway.
Stout Mountain Railway sports linear design BY LINDA PINKHAM The Pilot
Charities benefit from prison work BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
National landmarks were assembled with three-dimensional puzzles containing hundreds of pieces. the wide-open former grocery store backThe displays encompass all the different ground. All the controllers for the different railway scales. The G-scale railroad has a tracks are lined up behind the murals. cable car that climbs up into the Christmas “Last year, the murals went around the disMore Railway, Page A3 plays,“ he said. “This time it’s all one-sided.”
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Crosswords........................................ A8 Crossword Answers............................ B3 Classifieds.......................................... B1
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Pelican Bay
Tony Parrish is back laying track this week for the Stout Mountain Railway Christmas display, a Brookings tradition for 13 years. This year has provided a few additional challenges to meet social distancing requirements in designing the theme, Playground of Imagination. The model railroads will span across 100 feet of window front in the Brookings-Harbor Shopping Center and will run from 2 to 6 p.m., Dec. 12 through 24. The first hurdle to overcome was to change the height of all the sawhorses underneath the train tables so they would be level with the window ledges. “I had to take all of our 24-inch sawhorses and get them to 30 inches,” Parrish said. “I had to design it so I could get to it.” Usually the train displays are in the middle of the room, which allows Parrish to walk around the displays to clean the tracks and make adjustments, but that’s not the case this year with the model railroads close to the glass with just enough wiggle room for him to get in between if he needs to make any adjustments. Each of the window displays also needed a mural backdrop to screen the displays from
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Chetco River steelhead anglers can help the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife by engaging in some citizen science this year. Annually, ODFW releases up to 50,000 yearling hatchery steelhead into the Chetco River to provide additional angling opportunity for adult hatchery steelhead. Anglers can tell a hatchery steelhead from a wild steelhead by a missing adipose fin. This is the mark most used by fishery managers to identify hatchery fish. This year, anglers may find some additional fin clip marks. Over the past two years, ODFW has released juvenile hatchery steelhead with these two additional marks: in 2019 a right ventral fin was clipped, and in 2020 a left ventral fin was clipped. Chetco winter steelhead typically spend two or three years in the ocean prior to returning to spawn, with most returning after two years.
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Pelican Bay inmates will be funding a handful of Christmas wishes this year, after the Pelican Bay Athletic Organization handed out checks to two different gift-giving charities last week. The organization raises funds from inmates at the Pelican Bay State Prison. The organization brings in food from restaurants and grocery stores, and inmates purchase the food with money they earn in jobs while incarcerated.
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Christmas Trees
Beautiful Douglas & Noble Fir Trees!
711 Chetco Avenue, Brookings • 541-469-3139 • Hours: Mon - Friday 7:30 - 5:30, Saturday 8 - 4, Sunday 9 - 4