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SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946 www.currypilot.com

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022

Brookings voters to decide on gas tax hike By BREEANA LAUGHLIN The Pilot

The Brookings City Council is moving forward with plans to place a 5-cent motor vehicle gas tax on the November ballot. Council members instructed

the city manager to construct a ballot measure for the motor vehicle fuel sales tax during their council meeting on July 11. If passed, the fuel tax would replace a current 4-cent fuel tax, which is set to expire on June 30, 2023. The new fuel tax would

become effective July 1, 2023, and last for five years. Funds created by the gas tax would raise revenue for construction, reconstruction, improvement, repair, maintenance, operation and use of the public streets system in the city.

“It’s important to understand we aren’t trying to raise your gas costs for nothing – especially at a time when gas costs are where they are at,” Brookings city councilmember Brad Alcorn said Please see GAS TAX Page A3

Beswick celebrates 100th birthday in style By BREEANA LAUGHLIN The Pilot

Photo by Breeana Laughlin/The Pilot

Edith Beswick is all dressed up and ready for a party to celebrate her 100th birthday this week in Brookings.

Edith Beswick is a successful businesswoman, mother and grandmother. Her family said she has accomplished many things throughout her life – both personally and professionally. On Wednesday, June 12, Edith reached another major milestone. She celebrated her 100th birthday. Edith prepared for her birthday by getting her hair done at her neighbor’s salon. Her daughter, Kathy Mcgehee, hosted the party for her mother in the Brookings home they share. Edith’s son, Jay Beswick, came from Florence to celebrate the occasion. Edith’s granddaughter Ashley Mcgehee made sure to spoil her grandmother, buying her colorful decorations and a birthday hat. Edith’s other grandchildren joined the celebration via a Zoom call from their homes in Los Angeles, New Mexico and Hawaii. “I love my children and my grandchildren,” Edith said. “I love being a mother and I love being a grandparent.” Edith’s granddaughter Ashley, who also lives in Brookings, said her grandmother has made a tremendous impact on her life. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her – that’s for sure. Grandma has supported me in so

many different ways,” she said. Ashley’s grandmother helped her finance her first house at the ripe age of 22. “She has also been a great emotional support through the years. She is very accepting and loving,” Ashley said. Ashley spent her childhood summers with her grandmother Edith and her grandfather Leo Beswick – Edith’s longtime husband who passed away in 2001. “I have very fond memories of chasing frogs in their pond, and of them teaching me how to garden,” Ashley said. “But the most important thing my grandmother taught me was to be a fierce, independent woman because she always has been a fierce, independent woman.” This sentiment was echoed by Edith’s son, Jay, and daughter, Kathy. They said their mother always taught them they could do anything they put their minds to, and encouraged them to try again when something didn’t work out the way they planned. Edith retired as a teacher’s assistant in 1965. She also owned and managed many properties throughout her career, her children said. “She’s always had a good mind for business – doing her own taxes and paperwork,” Kathy said. Edith has also been a very Please see 100TH Page A2

Local brothers turn hot idea into coffee empire By DANIEL GOUDELOCK Country Media

It has been 30 years since dairy farmers Dane and Travis Boersma started slinging coffee from their pop-up stand along the highway in Grants Pass. Since the early 1990s, Dutch Bros Coffee has grown to more than 500 shops drive-through outlets in 14 states. Dutch Bros continues to make a splash in small and big communities while growing its next generation of workers and leaders. In 2004, Grants Pass native Tony Jantzer started working at a Dutch Bros in Woodland California. “Growing up and seeing what Travis and Dave did in the drive-thru coffee business was amazing, especially since a lot of people were skeptical of it because it was such a new concept,” Jantzer said. Jantzer knew once he started working there that becoming a franchise owner for Dutch Bros is what he wanted to do. After a few years of working to get the feeling right, Jantzer began working towards breaking ground on a site to open his own Dutch Bros in California. “I used to ride my bike up to the original drive through. Dane and Travis Boersma “would be jamming out coffees as well as the tunes.” Jantzer remembers Please see DUTCH BROS Page A9

Photo by Daniel Goudelock

Thirty years after brothers Dane and Travis Boersma started Dutch Bros, the company is thriving, including at its location in Harbor.

Brookings, Oregon

Brookings police investigating murder of 16-year-old By BREEANA LAUGHLIN The Pilot

The Brookings Police Department and the Major Crimes Team are actively investigating the homicide of a 16-year-old male who was found dead Monday morning. A 9-1-1 call came in the early morning hours of Monday, July 11, reporting an individual laying in the roadway on Hemlock Street near Fern Street, according to a press release from the city of Brookings Police Department. Brookings police reportedly Please see MURDER Page A2

Kotek trying to become the nation’s first lesbian governor By ELLIS CONKLIN Guest Article

Tina Kotek is trying to make political history – again. If elected in November, she will become America’s first lesbian governor, this, after becoming the nation’s first lesbian speaker of a state House of Representatives in 2013, a job she held longer than anyone in Oregon history. The 55-year-old Kotek also seeks to keep one of the country’s longest streaks by electing a Democrat to a state’s highest office. Not since incumbent Gov. Victor Atiyeh crushed Ted Kulongoski in a landslide 40 years ago has the Republican Party won the governorship in Oregon. That’s 10 gubernatorial elections ago. Utah is tied with the Beaver State, having also chosen a governor from the same party – albeit the GOP – since 1982. In an interview recently at a picnic table in northeast Portland’s Columbia Park, not far from the home she shares with her wife Aimee Kotek Wilson, Kotek said, “I am running because I want things to work in Oregon.” A public advocate for the Oregon Food Bank before being elected to the state House, Kotek went on, “None of us are outsiders. We’ve all worked for a longtime in Oregon politics, but the question is, ‘Who has style and the persistence to get things done?” She added: “Housing and homelessness are by far the biggest concerns Oregonians have,” and will likely be the driving force – particularly finding solutions to building affordable housing, as well s workforce housing in the heavy tourist-driven areas of the state – when the campaigns move into high gear after Labor Day. Kotek, gets high praise for her legislative know-how. Under her leadership, Democrats were able Please see KOTEK Page A2

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