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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2013
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That sinking feeling
North Bend thunders past Siuslaw
Old buildings, rotting pilings have some in downtown feeling low ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
Middle class jobs made up 88 percent of the 137,000 jobs lost between 2008 and 2010 in the state — most of them in construction, production and administrative support occupations. Low-wage jobs and higher-paid occupations rebounded faster after the recession. More than half of the 40,000 jobs recovered between 2010 and 2012 were among occupations paying more than $50,000, according to the report. The state’s high-paying job base
COOS BAY — Little by little, downtown Coos Bay is starting to lose ground. It started to become noticeable in 2009, when the Chandler Building began to droop at its northwest corner. Since then, two other downtown buildings, the Egyptian Theatre and the public library, have gotten the attention of city engineers. All three were found to be drooping in spots. The experts say the troubles for all three can be traced to the wood pilings below ground that hold their foundations in place. The question is,are these isolated coincidences or the sign of a bigger issue lurking below the streets of Coos Bay? The answer to both questions, it turns out, may be yes. City Manager Rodger Craddock said the city sits on numerous wood pilings,and said most are doing fairly well. One long-time local architect agrees with that assessment. Mike Crow, of Crow/Clay & Associates Inc., has been working in Coos Bay since 1978 and said most of the buildings are doing OK. That doesn’t mean,however,that we won’t be seeing more buildings start to sink. Crow said he is convinced that there is settlement going on under the city. “Particularly the closer you get to the waterfront. Now, I know there was a big study done by the Army Corps saying dredging of the channel doesn’t cause any of that,” Crow said, “and that may be the case. But I think with the traffic and the fact that it’s mud and ooze (underneath), the more we beat on it, the more we vibrate it, the more it settles.” City Operations Superintendent Randy Dixon said the issue comes back to the wood pilings put in to stabilize the buildings erected decades ago. A practice that he said didn’t change until the mid-1970s. That was when earthquakes in California triggered a major, and sweeping, change in the building codes; calling for all concrete pilings. “It’s not uncommon for the wood pilings to deteriorate over a period of years,” Dixon said. “You’re talking about structures that are 90, 100 years old. Back in the day when pilings were put in at that point they were nothing but timber — not even treated.” Coos Bay’s situation is not unique. Other cities, bigger cities, are facing similar issues; from Boston to Milwaukee to San Francisco. Virtually any city that was built on wooden pilings is starting to see some signs of sinking. In February of 2012, Gene Mueller, of WTMJ radio, wrote a piece about a report in Milwaukee Magazine titled “The Sinking City.” He credited reporter Michael Horne with targeting plummeting groundwater levels in old Milwaukee as the reason for the dropping foundations. “Downtown is built on what used
SEE POLARIZATION | A8
SEE SINKING | A8
By Alysha Beck, The World
The North Bend Bulldogs stampede onto the field before the start of the game against Siuslaw on Friday night. Both teams came into the game undefeated in the Far West League. Only one left that way. North Bend dominated the visitors from Florence, securing a 42-14 victory and the Far West League championship. With the victory, the Bulldogs earn a bye during next Friday’s play-in round and will host a first-round game. See Page B1 for complete game coverage and go to www.the worldlink.com to see the photo gallery for the game.
Despite setback, buoy plan still afloat BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
REEDSPORT — A wave energy company says it still plans to build the country’s first commercial wave energy park off Reedsport — once it figures out why its equipment went AWOL in the Pacific Ocean this winter. Kevin Watkins, the West Coast representative for Ocean Power Technologies, said the company is still trying to understand the circumstances behind the February disappearance of its test buoy’s subsurface float and marker buoy. “We don’t have all the information,” he said. Watkins’ comments come a week after contractors removed the float and its attached tendon line from what was intended to be the site of the company’s first test buoy. OPT’s designs call for a wave energy generator tethered to a sub-
surface float and three giant, 500ton anchors on the sea floor. In August 2012, the company received a 35-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the park. OPT planned to install 10 of the buoys approximately 2 miles off Reedsport. The company installed the first anchor and subsurface float for a test buoy that fall, but bad weather forced workers to postpone installation of the other two anchors. In February, OPT lost track of the float altogether. CEO Chuck Dunleavy told The World that the buoy wasn’t at its designed depth, and the company wasn’t certain of its disposition. The company ended up launching a remotely-operated submersible to locate the installation. The state subsequently ordered the company to remove the anchoring system until it had SEE BUOY | A8
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decades later, the share has fallen to 59.8 percent. During that contraction, there have been gains at opposite ends of the pay scale, a trend known as job polarization. It has been shaping the U.S. labor market for three decades, but the Great Recession exacerbated the process. Polarization means work is gradually shifting away from the types of factory, repair and office jobs that typically fall in the middle of the pay scale, with annual wages between $25,000 and $50,000. And while most people still hold such middle class jobs, experts
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DEATHS
INSIDE
PORTLAND (AP) — New research shows the number of middle-class jobs in Oregon is shrinking rapidly, while high-wage jobs and low-wage jobs are growing — and at a faster pace than those in the rest of the nation. In Oregon, middle-class jobs were the hardest hit during recent economic downturns and have been the slowest to recover, according to a study released this week by Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis. In 1980, such middle-wage occupations represented 67.6 percent of all Oregon jobs. Three
predict job polarization will continue for years. The trend is largely driven by technology — the use of computers, software or automated assembly lines — which allows workers to be more productive and allows companies to employ fewer of them. Another factor is globalization, which leads to routine jobs being performed overseas. Much of the polarization in Oregon occurred because its relatively large manufacturing firms downsized. The dotcom bust and the Great Recession led to middleclass job loss.
Emma Farr, Coquille Bonnie Brock, Coos Bay Connie Lucas, North Bend Kenneth and Helen Lindquester, Coos Bay
Frederick Russell, Bandon Joe Main, Coos Bay Duane Fjeld, Coos Bay Herbert Morris III, Coos Bay Wyman Schiro, Coos Bay
Pauline Jensen, Coos Bay Dorthy Creach, Sheridan Dennis Rice, North Bend
Obituaries | A5