CCP 718 by C.M.I.

Azalea Festival recognized You can watch the show online Pages 5

SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023

Swing TIME Who We Are

SWING TIME FIDDLER PLAYS AT 88

ELLIOT SCHWARZ Country Media, Inc.

wing, the big band jazz music indigenous to the United States, popular from the 1930s through the 1950s, is now a Brookings staple as a violin and upright bass duo. Eighty-eight-year-old violinist Shirley Hyatt and bass player Dan Hannum are the Swing Time Duo currently gigging at Khun Thai restaurant Friday nights, and the at the Manley Art Center through August. Shirley began training as a classical violinist at age five.

“I really hated that whole pressure that was put on me to, to perform as a classical violinist, she told The Pilot. “So, I stopped playing for 25 years.” Changing course That was when a friend suggested she “…might have fun playing fiddle. And I thought, well, I don’t know how I can have fun playing this.” But then, having moved to Palo Alto, she said “there’s lot of good music in the Bay Area, so I got acquainted with people who were playing bluegrass and I really liked that. So, when I came up here, I looked for musicians and that’s how I started playing with other musicians here in town. I had several incarnations with different groups.” Eventually Shirley began playing with a local group, Giraffes on a Raft along

with John Boyd. John knew Dan and, as Dan tells it, “he discovered that I was a musician and he was looking for a bass player and, brought me over. They had had a, a bass who moved away, so I took that guy’s place, and they were doing a similar kind of music to Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks, kind of a little bit of country, flavor originals and classic swing and even up into a little bit of lightweight Beatles stuff. “And it was pretty fun,” Dan said. “We played around town. They had been together for two See MUSIC, Page 10

Brookings, Oregon

Transient camping solutions sought

Issue first addressed by Council in 2018 ELLIOT SCHWARZ Country Media, Inc. In yet another attempt to grapple with solutions to homeless camps on public lands the Brookings City Council is reviewing proactive approaches to transient camping in the city. During workshop July 10, the council discussed a staff report on a potential temporary transient camp area near the city’s public works yard. As Public Works Director Tony Baron read from the staff report explaining that the proposal was temporary solution in partnership with local non-profit organizations, Brookings Mayor Ron Hedenskog asked Baron to “…define.” temporary.” Baron earlier explained that staff would “…continue to pursue a long-term solution, such as acquiring property elsewhere.” And temporary meant “as long as it takes for us to find another piece of property that’s more suitable.” The issue was first addressed I feel like this is at city council an important meetings and subject for the workshops in city to consider. September 2018. Since then, when Brookings Mayor a consensus was Ron Hedenskog reached to move, a task force was created to address the problem, considering, among other concerns, changes to the municipal code. There have been numerous discussions with the city attorney to move in a way consistent with a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case known as Johnson V. City of Grants Pass in September 2022, where the court upheld two earlier rulings that challenged “municipal ordinances which, among other things, preclude homeless persons from using a blanket, a pillow, or cardboard box for protection from the elements while sleeping within the City’s limits.” The court ruled that “could not, consistent with the Eighth Amendment, enforce its anticamping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there was no other place in the City for them to go.” During the July 10 workshop, The council discussed the ramifications of the various court decisions, and the complexities of what cities are mandated to supply as shelter, and the many other considerations necessary to comply with providing a location consistent with the rights of the recipient of the shelter. “I feel that this is an important subject for the city to consider…the courts are going to get tighter and tighter on this issue, and I would like to develop something, even if it’s just temporary, and I realize that this is

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Petitions filed against Brookings mayor, two city council members JEREMY C. RUARK Country Media, Inc. A recall is in the works against the Brookings City mayor and two of the Brookings city councilors. The paperwork necessary for the recalls was filed Monday, July 10. Elected o ff i c i a l s must be in office for six months before they can be recalled. The Brookings City Council was seated on Jan. 9, 2023, according to a release from Dennis Triglia, the chief Petitioner for the Committee to Recall Mayor Hedenskog. Triglia, a former Brookings City Councilor, has joined Henry “Hank” Cunningham as the chief petitioner to recall Councilor Ed Schreiber and Debra Worth, who

is the chief petitioner to recall Brookings City Councilor Michelle Morosky. All three said the reinstatement of Janell Howard as Brookings City Manager prompted them to file the recall petitions. The Brookings Fred Meyer documented multiple incidents involving Howard allegedly stealing items from April 11 to July 4, 2022. The store submitted the incident documents to the Curry County District Attorney’s Office. Howard was charged with theft for the July 4 incident and pleaded no contest to the charge in December 2022, according to published reports. After months of debate, in late June Following impassioned remarks by

INDEX

Country Media Inc. City Manager Janell Howard read her apology during the March 27 Brookings City Council session. councilors, the Brookings City Council voted to retain Howard for the duration of her twoyear contract signed in January. See the background attached. Triglia’s petition to recall Mayor Hedenskog says in part that “Against strong public opinion, Hedenskog has insisted

on keeping Janell Howard as City Manager, with whom he has had a longstanding relationship.” Triglia’s petition states that “Hedenskog has squandered an excessive amount of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in legal fees, reports and investigations.” Cunningham’s petition claims that Councilor “Schreiber persuaded other councilors to vote for a permanent reinstatement of Howard, approved by a narrow 3-2 majority” and that “public confidence has suffered”. Worth says in her petition to recall Councilor Morosky that “Ms. Morosky has flipflopped on voting out and then voting to retain Ms. Howard” and “the reputation of the city has been damaged and there is no confidence

in the three members of the sitting council that continue to kowtow to the city manager, a known thief”. The paperwork to recall the Mayor and City Council members due to Howard’s reinstatement was processed by Janell Howard herself acting in her capacity as City Recorder, a paid administrative position. Each of those elected officials targeted for recall have an opportunity to resign rather than possibly facing a special election, the release states. Petitioners will need to get at least 463 valid, verified signatures by Oct. 9 to qualify for that special election. Follow this developing story at currypilot.com and in the Wednesday print editions of The Pilot.

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Elliot Schwarz / Country Media, Inc.

Shirley and Dan Swing Time Duo.

See CAMPS, Page 8

Phone Number: 541-813-1717 • Address: 519 Chetco Ave, Ste 7, Brookings, 97415 • Email: Circulation@CountryMedia.net

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