Volume 17, No. 17
August 23, 2012
northcoastcitizen.com • 75¢
Celebrating Dogs! Inside On board since fall 2011, Shantell Mason, a registered nurse, and James Aldred, administrator for Nehalem Valley Care Center, look to improve customer satisfaction. The center has been managed by Aidan Health Services, Inc., based in Salem, since January 2011. Photo by Dave Fisher
‘FANCY’ GUIDE DOG Seven-month-old “Fancy” is in training locally to help the blind or visually impaired. Page 12
History
LOST PIONEER PLAY A collaborative effort leads to a 45-minute play based on Tillamook pioneer history. Page 10
Index
SEE MORE PHOTOS AT NORTHCOASTCITIZEN.COM Mike Ehlen, of Manzanita, once again led the Pet Parade down Laneda Ave. on the way to the beach. Around 250 people participated in the parade with their canine friends. Photo by Dave Fisher
Muttzanita attracts a throng despite good old ‘Oregon sunshine’ “The first year, the weather was perfect. The second year it was cold and foggy. It was hot the third year, so we had to have rain,” said Muttzanita organizer Dan Nichols, who, along with his wife, Barb, own Four Paws on the Beach. Though Mother Nature didn’t cooperate 100 percent, thing went “pretty darn well,” said Nichols of the Aug. 18 Muttzanita event. He estimated a best-ever crowd of 250 people who participated
See MUTTZANITA, page 11
Pine Grove dedicates new ADA compliant access ramp
Classifieds.................. 9 Events calendar.......... 5 NBFR District Log....... 5 Public Safety Log........ 6 Golightly Gourmet..... 11 Letters to the Editor.... 4
Manzanita resident Ray Scales cuts the grand-opening ribbon with help from his wife, Val, at a brief ceremony held Aug. 14 at Pine Grove Community House. Photo by Dave Fisher
With former Manzanita City Councilor Ray Scales doing the honors of cutting the ribbon, the Pine Grove Community Club officially dedicated its new ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant access ramp to the 80-year-old facility. In thanking those gathered for the brief ceremony held at noon Aug. 14, Pine Grove President Ted Weissbach characterized the recently completed project as truly a “community effort.” In helping make the new ramp a reality, Weissbach credited Tillamook PUD, the Rotary Club of North Tillamook County, Pine Grove’s $100 Club, Big Wave
See RAMP, page 10
Ekahni Books gets set to sell all, close its doors for good By Dave Fisher The Citizen
It’s summertime and business is brisk at Ekahni Books in Manzanita. Like every other business along Laneda Ave., summer is when storeowners Franz and Sherry Hasslacher make hay in the tourist based coastal community and set aside enough earnings to tide them over during the slower winter months. “All books are 25 percent off,” said Franz, as customers walked into the bookstore last week to peruse the shelves. Typically, summer takes care of itself, and offering 25 percent off one’s entire inventory 7
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See BOOKS, page 10
Franz and Sherry Hasslacher, owners of Ekahni Books in Manzanita, are in the final days of liquidating their inventory as they prepare to move to Arizona in October. Photo by Dave Fisher
Wheeler care center due for major facelift In improving quality of care, customer satisfaction is key says administrator By Dave Fisher The Citizen
Under new management since January 2011, the Nehalem Valley Care Center in Wheeler will embark on a $1 to $1.5 million facelift beginning later this fall. The facility, with a capacity for 50 residents, was built in1982 and opened the following year, said administrator James Aldred, who assumed his position at the care center in November 2011. “It is the wish of the Nehalem Valley board to keep the facility a Care Center can viable resource for the comnow provide munity,” said nursing care to Aldred in explaining qualified veterans the decision to remodel Nehalem Valthe structure and “bring ley Care Center was the building awarded a contract into the 21st with the Department century.” Designed of Veterans Affairs to originally for provide long-term and long-term care, skilled nursing care to Aldred says qualified veterans on the idea is to use the existMay 16. NVCC is the ing space more only Veteran’s Affairs effectively. contracted facility in “We’ll add some square Tillamook and Clatsop footage where counties. This means we can, but that any veterans in there’s not the area will be able a lot of area where we can to receive nursing serexpand. With vices close to home. the focus more “I took about a year on skilled care, for them to solicit us,” our goal is to help patients said NVCC Administrarecuperate and tor James Aldred. get them back “We’re the only home. We want to enhance that skilled nursing home as much as we facility between Astocan.” ria and Newport. We’re The new trying everything we way of thinking is a deparcan to make ourselves ture from days more useful to the gone by when community.” people viewed At the moment, care centers as where old there is not a waiting folks went to list to enter the facility. live out their remaining days. To help better facilitate patient recovery, the center recently installed a unique “virtual” rehabilitation system for aging adults in their therapy department. Called the OmniVRTM, this technology is making the rehabilitation process more fun and exciting for patients, said Aldred. The system uses a sophisticated 3D “time of flight” camera to capture the patient’s image and specialized computer software converts it into an “avatar,” which is introduced into a game-like environment displayed on a large color monitor. With the assistance and supervision of a therapist, patients participate in a variety of interactive exercises and activities selected for the individual’s specific condition or physical challenge. The programs focus on strength, balance, mobility, walking, endurance and memory. Developed specifically for people with physical limitations, the system is much easier for elderly people to use with less complicated graphics and no special platforms or hand controllers.
See CARE CENTER, page 3