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Wednesday August 14, 2019
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Brookings, Oregon
SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
Commissioner Boice calls for declaring housing emergency Linda Pinkham Staff Writer “The number-one issue in Curry County, and the need for ‘all hands on deck,’ is the shortage of affordable and workforce housing,” Curry County Commissioner Court Boice told The Pilot as he prepared to present a resolution for an emergency housing declaration during the Curry County Board of Commis-
sioners’ weekly business meeting today. The meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at 94035 Moore St. in Gold Beach. The resolution notes that Curry County has the fifth-highest homeless rate in Oregon. For every 1,000 people in Curry County, 7.1 of them are homeless. When it comes to children, the situation is worse. Only two counties have a higher rate than
Curry, which has 86.1 students who are homeless per 1,000 enrolled students. Rates of student homelessness are elevated in coastal and rural counties, according to a March 2019 report titled “Homelessness in Oregon” and prepared for The Oregon Community Foundation. Homelessness also disproportionately affects veterans, according to the same report. “In 2017, Oregon veterans accounted for 7.5
percent of the total state population but accounted for 9 percent of the homeless population,” the report said. By contrast, in Curry County, 15.4 percent of the total population (22,364) are veterans, with nearly 13 percent (2,891) falling below federal poverty guidelines, according to the Boice’s draft resolution. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says 17 percent of the residences in Curry County have
“severe housing problems,” defined as overcrowding, high housing costs, or lack of kitchen or plumbing facilities. “Curry County is in transition and has been slowly moving along the current trajectory for more than three decades. The economic and demographic inputs that initiated and continue to enable this transition have been relatively constant More Emergency on Page A4
Serious about flag football
A flag football defender zeroes in on an offensive ball carrier’s flag during Brookings-Harbor High School’s flag football scrimmage last Tuesday. (bottom) Determined to make it to the end zone, this young running back drags a few opponents behind him. Photos by Randy Robbins.
NFL comes to Curry County for some football
Randy Robbins Correspondent
M
ore than a hundred youngsters from Crescent City, Brookings and Gold Beach took to Elmer Bankus Field at
Brookings-Harbor High School over the past several days to participate in National Football League’s (NFL) sanctioned flag football scrimmages. The south-coast weather couldn’t have been nicer as
kids ran, jumped, hiked the ball, and passed to teammates from respective teams bearing the names of NFL squads. Meanwhile, parents and friends of the campers, kindergarteners through
Linda Pinkham Staff writer
More Fish on! on Page A4
Index
Classifieds.................B5-8 Comics...................... B3-4 Crosswords...............B4 Obituaries.................A5
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Rivers interstate co-ed venue, which is in its fourth year and was started by the high school’s
then-defensive coordinator, Alonzo Nalls, who BraMore Football on Page A5
Former school superintendent, school board members are sued
Fish on! BBQ up! “Boy, oh, boy, they sure put up a great fight,” said Craig Cohen. Cohen and John Boy Quinn, of the Rogue Valley, decided to head out from Brookings tuna fishing early the week of Aug. 5. They ended up hauling in two dorados, also known as mahi-mahi or dolphin. “The lines got in the water 17 miles out and right away the rods went off,” Cohen said. “To our surprise, we both boated these beauties.”
eighth grade, gathered along the sidelines to rest in lawn chairs, snap photos, chit chat, and generally enjoy the day. Brookings Harbor High School football coach Shaun Bravaro heads up the Wild
T
Craig Cohen caught this 30-pound golden-colored dorado, which is named after the Spanish word for gold. Courtesy photo.
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Jeremy C. Ruark Pilot Editor
he former vice principal at Brookings-Harbor High School has filed a $750,000 lawsuit against former district Superintendent Sean Gallagher and five Brookings-Harbor School Board members. In court documents, Mark Hebert alleges that Gallagher and school board members Katherine Johnson, Bruce Raleigh, Alan Nidiffer, Jay Trost and Sue Gold violated his civil rights by unlawfully forcing him to
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resign March 14. Hebert had been vice principal at the high school since July 2018. The lawsuit, filed July 29 in U.S. District Court in Medford, said Raleigh, Nidiffer, Johnson, Trost and Gold, individually or collectively, advised Gallagher that the board did not intend to renew his contract for the 2019-20 school year, and that Gallagher was to get Hebert’s resignation - without formal notification or non-renewal, and without havMore Sued on Page A5
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