WEEKEND EDITION
FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
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Brookings, Oregon
Brad Alcorn ready to serve Brookings Appointed to City Council on April 6 during special meeting BRIAN WILLIAMS The Pilot
B ALCORN
rad Alcorn could have spent retirement enjoying the outdoors. After devoting 34 years to serving his hometown as a peace officer with the Fresno Police Department, no one would have
begrudged him for hanging a gone fishing sign. Spend a couple of minutes with Alcorn, 57, and it becomes clear he wants to give back to the community. He’s spent the past couple of years, sitting on the City of Brookings Parks and Recreation Commission and the Curry
County Budget Committee and working with Sheriff John Ward to bring a K9 program into the department. “Anytime you have the opportunity to help your community like this as long as I am physically capable I will certainly do it,” Alcorn said.
He became even more immersed in the community after being appointed to the Brookings City Council during a special meeting on April 6, filling the Position 1 seat vacated by Bill Hamilton. He received the oath of office from City Manager Janell Howard that night.
COVID-19
“I take that oath seriously. I am all in. I am 100 percent committed,” Alcorn said. “I’m not doing this to say I’m going to be running for this office. I haven’t committed to that choice, but what I am committed to is I’m committed to doing this job to the best of my ability and to making sure More Alcorn on Page 6
Gold Beach extends emergency declaration LINDA PINKHAM The Pilot
for the health network have occurred as volumes of business have dropped as the COVID-19 virus has become the focus of hospitals across the country, and elective surgeries and procedures were canceled to preserve personal protective equipment needed for hospital workers across the state to safely treat coronavirus patients. In addition to not performing elective procedures, patients have avoided coming to the clinics for routine doctor visits. “Because of the financial situation that we found ourselves in we have been needing to make very significant and very painful decisions as it would relate to our employees, who we consider family,” Williams said. “We have gone into a significant costreduction plan and that would
Gold Beach city councilors unanimously extended the city’s resolution R192010 emergency declaration “until further notice” at their regular “virtual” meeting on Apr. 6. Conditions that led to the Council emergency declaration on March 24 “have declined, rather than improved,” according to the staff recommendation in the board packet. The original emergency declaration mirrored the statewide school closure date of Apr. 28, but it’s likely the schools will not reopen this school year. Uncertainty about what the governor plans to do as the state begins to eventually ramp up led to the decision to not choose a specific date. Instead of having to potentially extend it several times, the resolution can be rescinded at any time. In other business, the council moved the budget committee meeting dates from Apr. 23-24 to May 1314. The council also made the gas tax measure withdrawal from the ballot official by councilors voting their approval. The measure had been pulled on the last day to withdraw, Mar. 18, with the approval of Mayor Karl Popoff. “Given the uncertainty right now because of the pandemic, we just didn't think it was reasonable or prudent to proceed on the May ballot,” said City Administrator Jodi Fritts when she announced the withdrawal of the measure last month. “As things
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Brian Williams, The Pilot
Curry Health Network CEO Ginny Williams addressed the financial figures for the organization for the previous quarter and passed along news of CARES Act funding.
Financial roller coaster Curry Health Network CEO addressed the good and the bad LINDA PINKHAM AND BRIAN WILLIAMS The Pilot It’s been a rough couple of weeks for everyone involved with Curry Health Network. Curry Health Network CEO Ginny Williams spent nearly two hours at a special board of director’s meeting on Thursday, April 9, explaining the dismal financial figures for the organization for the previous quarter and the difficult cost-reduction actions the organization took to remain solvent. The following night, April 10, after another special board meeting, Williams went live on CHN’s Facebook page for nearly 30 minutes, answering questions, but shared some positive news related to its finances. CHN lists six locations on its website — Curry General Hos-
pital, Curry Medical Practice and Curry Medical West in Gold Beach; Curry Medical Center in Brookings; and Curry Family Medical in Port Orford. Williams said that even with their cost-reduction plan if they had not received significant help, CHN would have “run out of cash by June.” Fortunately, some of the work behind the scenes is starting to pay off as CHN learned it received a portion of the CARES Act. “They distributed $30 billion directly to hospitals and Curry Health Network received approximately $957,000 today,” Williams said on April 10. “In addition, we’ve submitted our application and our loan for the SBA portion of the CARES Act, we’ve been approved for $4.4 million.” Of that $4.4 million, Williams
said $770,000 is estimated that CHN will have to repay, but it won’t have to start repayment for six months. The terms of the loan are 1 percent interest and it can be paid over two years, she explained. Also, Advanced Health and AllCare Health will be distributing early some incentive funds to every hospital that they work with where they have members. “Knowing the funding sources that we have and that have been committed to us I feel very, very confident that Curry Health Network will be here now and long into the future,” Williams said. And I can’t wait for the day where we have all of our providers too busy and not able to see everybody because we have a thriving organization.” Cutting Expenses The larger financial woes
Brookings, Harbor firefighters making birthday house calls LINDA PINKHAM The Pilot Staying home is hard for all of us during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order, but what if it’s your child’s birthday, with no party or friends? Calling the Brookings or Harbor fire departments isn’t usually the right solution for social isolation, but these are special times. “In these long days of homeschooling and isolation, we would like to announce a special birthday gift,” say Facebook posts from both Brookings and Harbor firefighters to parents and guardians.
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“If your Pre-K through high school child has an April or May birthday, we want to be a part of it. This will include a fire truck visiting your house with lights and air horns, wishing your child a happy birthday! We will let the whole neighborhood know it’s your child’s special day.” Both fire departments want to help your children celebrate their “at home isolation birthday parties.” The visit does not include a ride on a fire truck but the firefighters say, “It’s the next best thing! We will not be exiting the truck or allowing anyone inside it at this
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time, but we think this will brighten their day regardless! Get in touch and we will do our best to make it happen. A tip of the helmet to Brookings Fire, South Dakota for the fun idea!” A friend tagged engineer/ firefighter Caitlyn Barbic at work one day with a birthday visit post by the Brookings, S.D., firefighters, thinking it was Brookings, Ore. An easy mistake that now has both local groups of firefighters doing lots of visits. “We went to seven houses last Sunday,” Barbic said. “I’ve had messages from people in Hiouchi and Fort Dick, California and all the
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Juliet enjoyed her special birthday visit on April 2 from the Harbor Fire District. Photo courtesy of Harbor Fire
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way on top of Cape Ferrelo Road here. It’s a great idea for other departments to do in the surrounding areas.” Another couple of ideas to brighten up the celebration, even more, are to decorate the yard with balloons and signs and organize a drive-by parade of your child’s friends. To arrange a visit from either Brookings or Harbor fire departments, call Brookings Chief Jim Watson at 541-469-1142 or Capt. J. Lee at 541-469-1141 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. In Harbor, call EngineerFirefighter Caitlyn Barbic at 541-254-1182.
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