SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
www.currypilot.com
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2020
Brookings, Oregon
County moves to ‘extreme risk’ BY DAVID RUPKALVIS The Pilot
COVID-19 roared through Curry County over the weekend as 20 new cases were reported Saturday, including a second outbreak at the Sea View Assisted Living Center in Harbor. Curry County Public Health Administrator Sherrie Ward issued a press release that showed nine of the 20 cases were linked to staff and residents at Sea View.
Nine additional cases came from residents in the southern area of the county with two from the northern area. Sea View Assisted Living Center had an outbreak earlier this year, and both deaths reported from Curry County were people living at Sea View. Ward said the county reached out to Sea View to ensure they had a plan in place for isolating anyone who has COVID or COVID symptoms. Contact
tracing is working to find any other residents who might have had contact with the impacted individuals. As of Dec. 14, there were 220 COVID cases in Curry County since the beginning of the pandemic, with 82 active cases. With the increase in cases, Curry County will move to the extreme risk area effective Friday. In the extreme risk category, more restrictions will be added. Changes include:
• Restaurants may no longer offer indoor dining. Outdoor dining will be allowed, but with a limit of 50 people, a maximum of six people per table from two households. • Indoor recreation and fitness establishments must close. This includes gyms, indoor recreational sports, indoor pools and indoor dance, among other things. • Outdoor recreation and fitness establishments will still be allowed, up to 50 people.
• Outdoor entertainment establishments, like zoos, gardens and outdoor event spaces, will be limited to a maximum of 50 people. • Long-term care centers will be limited to outdoor visitation only. • Offices must close to the public and require remote work if able. • Outdoor social gatherings will be limited to six people, with a maximum of two households.
Wally’s house gets permanent location BY LINDA PINKHAM The Pilot
who stopped him, recognizing his backpack and gave him the inspiration to find it. After she’d stopped him and shown him that she was carrying a copy of the book, he decided to send the book to six name publishers and asked them to publish and market it professionally. Within days, he got multiple offers — and one from the publishing house he was most excited about, Page Publishing.
The Child Abuse Intervention Center for Curry County, Wally’s House, has been gifted full title to and independent ownership of its facility in Gold Beach. Due to the generosity of benefactress Jeri Honeycutt, Wally’s House got its start as an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in August 2016. Honeycutt donated the use of a single-family home in Gold Beach to serve as a facility focused on the reduction of trauma to children who had suffered abuse. It was named Wally’s House in remembrance of her loving husband, Wally Honeycutt. No longer having to be shuffled from the basement of the courthouse to the sheriff’s department, to medical professionals and to social service representatives, children would instead find themselves in a quiet home-like atmosphere with comfortable furnishings, snacks and juice, books and toys. Thanks to state-of-the-art secure video recording, the children need tell their story only once, with any community partner interactions happening within the comfort of Wally’s House. The services of the organization were first started by Barbara Eels and others as the nonprofit Curry Child Advocacy Team in the late ’90s to help with child abuse investigations. They eventually began operating out of three rooms in the basement of the courthouse with a director’s office, interview room and a meeting room. After Eels left, the organization was brought in under the district attorney’s office. Antunes explained many child advocacy centers around the state operate under district attorneys, juvenile departments, hospitals and as complete stand-alones and a medical model. “We are not quite a medical model yet but we’ll get there,” said Executive Director Jackalene Antunes. Antunes started with the county in 2014 as a half-time employee doing interviewing, grant writing and coordinating the multi-disciplinary team. She received training and became a forensic interviewer. Previously, she had worked in residential
More Hartwick, Page A4
More House, Page A9
Zack Demars photos, The Pilot
Volunteers in Brookings unloaded 39 boxes of memorial wreaths into pickups Tuesday to move to the W.J. Ward Memorial Cemetery for the city’s first Wreaths Across America Ceremony.
Wreaths arrive ahead of memorial event BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
As a truck driver, Robert Graves has plenty of time to think about what it means to live in America. He crisscrosses the country all the time, and this week was no exception. But this time, he — and his puppy, Christopher Robin, who joined him in the cab of his truck along the way — was volunteering his time to deliver boxes upon boxes of wreaths. “America is a wonderful, mys-
terious place, if you take the time to contemplate it,” Graves said. On a soggy Tuesday morning, Graves had come all the way from his home in Georgia to take part in a nationwide event that’s found a home in Brookings. He and a small group of volunteers from the Brookings chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America unloaded 39 boxes from a semi-trailer and into pickup trucks to bring them to their final resting place, the W.J. Ward Memorial Cemetery. More Wreaths, Page A7
Robert Graves, left, delivered 351 wreaths to Debbie Salzman, center, and Don Bemis, the organizers of Saturday’s Wreaths Across America event.
Publisher picks up Billy Hartwicks’ story got bright green and purple shapes all over — and for the book he wrote about his “Invisible Backpack.” A year ago, the former Crescent City teacher and principal self-published the book, a collection of rhythmical writings telling his life’s story. Since then, he’d been traveling around the west, promoting it. At the time he launched the book on Amazon, he didn’t quite know what his next step would be. But one of those people
Former educator shares his story to help others BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
Zack Demars, The Pilot
After struggling with Tourette’s syndrome and depression, Billy Hartwick has found a second calling by using his book to help others.
FORECAST
INDEX Crosswords........................................ A8 Crossword Answers............................ B3 Classifieds.......................................... B1
FRIDAY
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BROOKINGS — Billy Hartwick has found his next step. In the past year, he’s been stopped on the street multiple times. People know him for his very visible backpack — it’s
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