SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946 www.currypilot.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022
Brookings, Oregon
The best cranberries are grown right here By SEAN DOYLE For The Pilot
One of the things that makes Bandon beautiful, fabulous, vibrant and unique is the local cranberry business. The industry is part of Bandon’s identity. Cranberry farmers are a valued (and colorful) part of the local culture and economy. Cranberries and cranberry farmers in Port Orford, Sixes, Langlois and Bandon are an integral part of the social fabric that binds people, families and communities on the southern Oregon coast. Unfortunately, cranberry farming in Oregon is currently in decline. Locally there are fewer cranberry farmers, there is less bogland in production and the next generation of Bandon bog men and women are not firmly in place to maintain and expand the vital Oregon coastal cranberry business. The industry needs a boost. Firming cranberry prices will help, but more support is needed for the industry to thrive. Some say Bandon cranberries are the best cranberries in America. We agree! And if we can get cranberry buyers across America (and Asia) to recognize the brand “Bandon Cranberries” as the premier American cranberry (the coolest, funniest, happi-
est, healthiest berry), then demand will increase, and Bandon cranberry farmers can command premium prices. How can we promote “Bandon Cranberries”, so they fetch premium prices? Branding and marketing. Oregon’s largest company (Nike) and Bandon’s largest employer (Bandon Dunes) uses logos to identify and market their products. The Oregon coastal cranberry industry could benefit from a unifying and identifying brand stamp. A logo to distinguish “Bandon Cranberries” from all the other berries. This brandmark could be displayed on every Bandon cranberry farm, shipping container, package, giftbox, bumper-sticker, label, advert and tee shirt. Every product that utilizes local cranberries could proudly display the “Bandon Cranberries” logo to showcase our premier berries and unique community. How can we establish a logo and unifying brand stamp for the Bandon Cranberry business? Sara Osborne of Peters’ Cranberries in association with BandonsBestBerries will sponsor a “Bandon Cranberries” Logo Contest with a cash prize. A committee of local cranberry growers and artists will judge the contest, choose a Bandon Cranberry
Brandmark and award $1,200 in cash prizes. Peters’ Cranberries and BBB will stamp or stencil the new Bandon Cranberries logo on all goods. (Contest details to follow in Coffee Break). How can hard-working Bandon cranberry farmers avoid being divided, manipulated and underpaid? How can independent berry farmers and larger corporate interests work better together for mutual prosperity? We don’t have all the answers on how to revitalize the Oregon coastal cranberry business, but with help from local artists we will come up with a beautiful, eye-catching Bandon Cranberry logo, for all to use to help build a unified brand. State and Federal money can also help Bandon farmers. The Oregon Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant Program could potentially pay for a nationwide Bandon cranberry marketing campaign. Oregon politicians could do more. There are elections in November. Are there politicians who will fight for coastal cranberry farmers? Is there a candidate who backs funding for a nearby container loading facility, so “Bandon Cranberries” can be shipped More Berries, Page A2
Radio Rescue: National Host returns to save local station By JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
It’s full-circle for Delilah. The national syndicated radio host has purchased KDUN Radio, a 50,000-watt AM station in Reedsport. It is the station where Delilah, as a teenager, got her start after accepting a job by the then-station owners Jerome and Steve Kenegy. Today, Delilah is heard by over 12 million listeners weekly on over 160 radio stations across the United States and internationally on the Armed Forces Network in Japan, Korea and Central Europe, on the iHeart Radio app, and through her podcast. “My whole professional life has been amazing and has allowed me to have an amazing opportunities and to go to great places, meet wonderful people
and it all started here,” she said. “And when the opportunity came to buy the station I couldn’t say no.” Community connector As a 40-year radio broadcast veteran, Delilah acknowledges that radio has been challenged over the past few years. “But nationally, over 85% of people still listen to radio at least once a day,” she said. “It is the most used media in America, so we have had some challenges, but we are still growing. In communities like Reedsport, especially, radio is vitally important, so important that people have a voice, so important that they have a way to connect, so important that they have an opportunity to communicate with each other and radio is the More Radio, Page A3
KDUN owner Delilah and her station engineer and radio host Bob Larson.
Courtesy photo
Chief White's past facilitates Cancel culture claims his love for the community Curry County cats By MICHAEL COMBEST For The Pilot
In the summer of 2018, Jordan White and his wife Natalie visited Gold Beach during a restorative 4,000mile road trip from Montana after the unexpected loss of White’s mother earlier that year. Looking for a fresh start, the Whites chose to visit Curry County for its coastline and contacted local law enforcement for a meet-and-greet. Unbeknownst to the Whites, the sheriff’s office was hiring. The elapsed time from the first handshake with Curry County Sheriff John Ward to a signed offer letter was a total of five days
and included a weekend. In those five days, Ward became acquainted with Jordan White’s resume, background, and person, even interviewing his wife Natalie. What Ward found was a person who was practically engineered for the needs of Gold Beach and Curry County. This new face in town was a builder; an innovator; a level head; and a rare, frontiersman brand of “The Right Stuff” that NASA and novels have us attribute only to astronauts. Any person who would need to fit in well in the oceanside city of Gold Beach and county of
Curry would need to be familiar with things no plainsman could likely ever experience in our nation’s center stripe: ocean-based industry and hazards, happenings in the remotest of rugged places, forest fires, the timber/lumber industry, and know how to deal with very tough people in very tough situations, all while setting a public example of leadership in the capacity of resident and citizen. Many people might think that if a sheriff’s deputy arrests the bad guys, then they are doing their job. That may be true, but there is much more to it than that, particularly More White, Page A8
The north shore of the Gold Beach jetty has been home to a community project – the care, feeding, and housing for stray and feral cats. The love, care and affection the local cat lovers have lavished on the community’s least-wanted felines extended into medical care, neutering, re-housing the best candidates, etc. There have been three decades of community service dealing with litters of kittens that have been dropped off at the whimsical lighthouse and tiny village of houses at the mouth of the bay at Gold Beach. Tragically, all of this has come to an end. The cats are being carefully trapped and relocated. The quaint little village
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that was built for the cats is being trucked off to a landfill by the end of February. It appears that 30 years of community cat care has evaporated because of broken lines of communication. The land that the jetty cats occupy More Cats, Page A2
INDEX Crossword................................................ A10 Classifieds.......................................... A5 Crossword Answers............................ A8
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