County moves toward noise ordinance BY DAVID RUPKALVIS The Pilot
Curry County moved a step closer to having a noise ordinance after commissioners unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance. A second reading must be approved before the ordinance will become law. David Fortman, code enforcement officer for the county, said having an ordinance will give code enforcement another tool to help local residents. “Code enforcement currently enforces ordinances about barking dogs,” he said. “Let me tell you, people get very, very angry on both
sides. We’re in a community and a county that’s gone from rural and agriculture to one that has neighbors close by.” Having those close neighbors means things done in the past, like starting work early in the morning or finishing late at night, can now be a nuisance. The ordinance does not allow construction work before 7 a.m. It does have an exemption for the lumber industry. No lawn mowing would be allowed after 8 p.m. and no heavy equipment use or detonation would be allowed after 5 p.m. “This isn’t going to make everyone happy,” Fortman said. “I think it gives us the tools. What I’m looking for is how do you want it
enforced.” Commissioner Chris Paasch, who spearheaded the effort to create an ordinance for the board of commissioners, said enforcement should start with education. “I think when we started this conversation, my intent was that we don’t have too much policing,” he said. “A lot of this is subjective. It has to be up to the code enforcement personnel. It’s a subjective thing.” Paasch said he would prefer the county give warnings first, with the option for stronger action if needed. Fortman said a very small percentage of noise complaints are intentional or repetitive, so education would be appropriate. The
small number that are a recurring problem could face fines under the ordinance. The county began considering an ordinance when a woman came before commissioners and complained about an ongoing problem where she lives. She said the constant thumping of music next door, day and night, has become almost unbearable. “The woman that came before the board has a chronic problem, and this gives us a tool to deal with it,” Fortman said. He said a lot of things will go into play when code enforcement is considering whether something is a violation or not. He explained they will consider the volume of the
noise, the distance from others, time of day and whether it’s repetitive. After presenting the ordinance to commissioners, they agreed to move forward with one change. Rather than limit things like lawnmowers at a set time, they asked to change it to one hour before sunset. Fortman also pointed out the ordinance does include an option to get a permit for the county for special events. The permit would allow noise, such as music, later with approval by the county. Paasch made a motion to approve the first reading of the ordinance and Vice-Chair John Herzog seconded it. The motion passed unanimously.
Curry has spike in COVID cases BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
Harriet Opsahl and Cornelius Daigan have run the Oceanside Diner in Brookings for 23 years.
Zack Demars, The Pilot
Oceanside Diner feeds the early crowd BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
600,000 plates is a lot of breakfasts. But for Harriet Opsahl and Cornelius Daigan Jr., the number’s been a career in the making. The pair have been serving up diner fare from Brookings’ Oceanside Diner for 23 years, making a name for themselves among a community of fishermen, river guides and other early risers by opening
their doors each day well before sunrise. “That crowd needs somebody,” Daigan, the restaurant’s chef, said of the choice to focus on serving the crack-of-dawn clientele. COVID-19 has been hard for the diner, like it has been for all restaurants, but Opsahl and Daigan have been appreciating the recent loosening of restrictions and have continued to find ways to serve their community through it all.
“The servers got laid off in March when we started this,” Opsahl said. “We’ve never been shut down before. So, I can’t think of anything like this.” Now, it’s just the two of them who open and run the restaurant each morning. Their culinary careers began together in Del Norte County: After several decades as a teacher in Riverside, California, Opsahl moved to Smith River. There, she began working for an area nonprofit job
connector program. Meanwhile, Daigan, a Crescent City native, was also making a career change: After years as a logger and commercial fisherman, he enrolled at San Francisco’s California Culinary Academy. He got some big-name job offers, but said he decided to turn them down. “I just wanted something more mellower,” Daigan said. More Diner, Page A3
Gold Beach considers playground options BY ZACK DEMARS The Pilot
The play structure at Gold Beach’s Buffington Park remains closed as the ongoing pandemic keeps city officials under the pressure of state COVID-19 requirements. During a city council meeting Feb. 1, city officials and a city resident discussed possibilities for seeing the Kid Kastle reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, but didn’t yet come to a resolution to
make that happen. “It’s just hard right now, with all of the COVID restrictions, there’s so many things we can’t do,” City Administrator Jodi Fritts told counselors and attendees during the meeting. “The big thing for myself and (Public Works) Superintendent (Will) Newdall is that our job is risk management for the city. Our insurance company does not cover claims like this, and they were very specific.” More Playground, Page A3
Zack Demars, The Pilot
The Kid Kastle at Gold Beach’s Buffington Park has been closed for all of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Curry County reported its sixth death connected to COVID-19 last week. According to the Oregon Health Authority, an 85-year-old man in the county died with the virus Jan. 26. He had some kind of underlying conditions, according to Curry County Public Health. The announcement came during a week of increasing cases of the virus in the county. It’ll remain in the state’s low-risk category of restrictions for the coming week — but just barely, according to the state’s latest data. For the Jan. 24 to Feb. 6 time period, county officials reported 29 cases of COVID-19 in the county. One more case, and the county would have met the threshold for a higher degree of pandemic restrictions under state guidance. Twenty-three cases came between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8, according to CCPH. That week, the department reported new cases of the virus every day. Two of those cases came from south Curry County, while 21 came from central Curry County. According to CCPH, eight of the central county cases are within the same family, and four are from the Central Curry School District. The rest were attributed to household spread or close contacts. On Feb. 5, the school district reported a case of the virus among a staff member at Riley Creek Elementary School. “The health and wellness of our students and staff are of utmost importance to us,” Superintendent Tim Wilson wrote in an announcement about the cases. “In partnership with Curry County Public Health, outreach to the people who were in direct contact with this individual has already begun. Any person who has not been contacted but is concerned they may have been exposed to the virus should self-observe for symptoms or call the school if you have any questions.” The possible exposures meant all third-grade students were quarantined away from school through Feb. 12 for distance learning and will return to campus Feb. 16. Meanwhile, the county’s vaccination effort against the virus is continuing. With 1,715 people having received at least one dose of the vaccine, Curry County’s per-person rate of vaccination so far exceeds Coos, Curry, Douglas and Josephine counties, according to the More COVID, Page A3