Prison staff testing shows more virus cases The Pilot
Results from staff testing conducted last week at Pelican Bay State Prison are beginning to arrive and positive test results have been received, the Del Norte County Public Health officer said Wednesday. According Dr. Warren Rehwaldt, some of positive results are residents of Curry County and will be recorded in their jurisdiction’s data. Sherrié R. Ward, Public Health Administrator for Curry County Public Health told The Pilot Thursday morning that she planned to send out a press release soon. Specific numbers for prison employees living in Curry County who tested positive were not available at presstime for this edition. “Staff at PBSP were tested over a three-day period early last week following a directive from the CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation),” Rehwaldt said in a press release Wednesday afternoon. “Prison officials are working closely with Del Norte
County Public Health to facilitate case investigation and contact tracing.” Individuals who have tested positive and their direct contacts are being advised to quarantine at home. No one has been hospitalized and most individuals are asymptomatic. “Additional measures are being conducted in order to ensure that all positive cases are identified related to this prison cluster,” Rehwaldt added. “While surveillance testing of inmates has been ongoing, mass testing of all inmates is currently underway.” Rehwaldt said testing of all prison staff will be conducted again early next week. “It is important that Del Norte County citizens continue to be vigilant in doing what they can to prevent the spread of this virus. Proper hand hygiene, masking and social distancing are all important in ensuring that we slow the spread so that our limited local resources are not overwhelmed with the consequences of a large outbreak,” he said. CDCR continues to re-
Courtesy of CDCR, Pelican Bay State Prison
The first results of staff testing for COVID-19 at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City last week has shown confirmed positive cases among staff living in both Del Norte and Curry counties. Mass testing of inmates is underway and additional staff testing will take place soon. port staff and inmate cases of COVID-19 on its website; as of early Thursday morning, the
deadline for this print edition, the data for PBSP had not been updated. To check for updates,
go to cdcr.ca.gov, then click on the COVID-19 banner at the top of the web page.
Districts work through rules to prepare for back to school in Curry Schools plan to reach out to families The Pilot Photos: City of Brookings and Lance Knauss
Long lost windsocks restored to parade The Pilot
It’s a well-known story in Brookings. In 1942, during World War II, a Japanese pilot dropped a bomb in the forest east of Brookings. It was the only bombing of the mainland by a foreign airplane, but fortunately the fire it caused was put out fairly quickly by local men. Twenty years later, the Brook-
ings-Harbor Jaycees invited the pilot, Nobuo Fujita, to Brookings. He accepted and brought a 400-yearold Samurai sword to the people of Brookings-Harbor as an apology. The sword is on display at the Chetco Community Library. Unknown to many, was that Fujita also brought some large Japanese windsocks and they were flown during the Azalea Parade for many years. Somewhere
along the way, they were lost. But as Amber Nalls of the City of Brookings was planning for the 81st festival, she learned that the windsocks had been found. They were retrieved and Coos-Curry Electric agreed to fly them high over the streets of Brookings during the parade. Thus a trimmed-down Azalea Festival was made a brighter event by the revival of an old tradition.
Pilot photo
These women at the Azalea Festival Saturdayu showed that you can wear a mask and have a good time. It’s all about your attitude!
Parents in the Brookings-Harbor school district should expect to get a phone call from their children’s schools very soon. Schools want to connect with all parents to find out each family’s preference for the coming school year — attending school in person, virtual instruction, or perhaps some combination of the two. At this time, it isn’t known for sure if the state — or local health officials — will allow students to attend in person — but the district wants to determine parental preference as part of its planning. Final decisions are likely to depend a lot on the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community as the beginning of the school year gets closer. For Brookings-Harbor schools, the calendar calls for students to return on Monday, Aug. 31, a week before Labor Day. However, Supt. David Marshall has recommended to the Board of Trustees that the district delay the return of students to Tuesday, Sept. 1 (following the holiday). Teachers return on Aug. 24, and Marshall would like to use the additional time to allow
teachers and other staff to be fully prepared to follow the procedures that will be necessary for students to return. At their July 15 meeting, trustees gave Marshall the green light to proceed with such a plan, but first he must negotiate with the teacher’s association — and then return to the board to approve an MOU. He said earlier this week that he hopes that might be accomplished next week so the academic calendar can be firmed up. Exactly what return to school will be like for Brookings remains to be seen, but talks so far suggest that students will be broken into small groups — called cohorts — and two school sessions will be held each day. The goal, in keeping with advisories from public health officials, is to reduce the size of groups (cohorts) to minimize the impact in case there is an outbreak of the virus. Schools also learned this week that students — along with everyone else on campus — will be expected to wear masks. Marshall is new to the district, but said he’s encouraged by cooperation at every level. “There arerReally good people here,” he said. “And we’re very much in a problem-solving mode. We want kids back in the classroom.” Still, there are plenty More Schools on Page A4