A1
Dancing with the stars Comes to Lincoln City
ABothhard time on the hardwood Taft Basketball teams sseek first league win of season
See Page B1
75 CENTS | VOL. 85 | NO. 4 | 2 SECTIONS YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1927
See Pages A9, A10
JANUARY 23, 2013 | WEDNESDAY
www.TheNewsGuard.com
LINCOLN CITY, OREGON
Local economy perking up
For daily Lincoln City News, visit:
Jeremy C. Ruark The News Guard
You don’t have to look far to see Lincoln City’s economic recovery after several years of recession. New business development is moving ahead in several parts of the city including along Highway 101 at the old Lincoln City A&W Restaurant which has been torn down over the past few weeks to make room for a new Dutch Brothers Coffee outlet. City planners also said a new motel planned for the Nelscott area, a national fast
TheNews Guard.com Murder she wrote Taft High School students are putting on the school’s annual Murder Mystery Jan. 27 at 1 and 6 p.m. with the help of the North Lincoln County Historical Museum. While it will still be held at the Eventuary, this year’s event is going back to its roots. See Page A8
INSERTS Bi-Mart; Rite Aide; P&G Brandsaver; Price ‘N Pride; Walgreens; Safeway; Chinook Winds; Roby’s Furniture
food restaurant suggested for a vacant lot near Lincoln City Hall and a new mini car lot for Highway 101 in the north part of the city are all indicators of economic growth in the months ahead. Those who keep a close eye on Lincoln City’s economy are suggesting that a slow and positive recovery is well under way. “It is a slow recovery,” said David Hawker, Lincoln City city manager. “But I feel cautiously optimistic that the economy is improving. For the community that means a whole lot. It’s jobs. It’s busi-
ness. It’s everything.” Hawker outlined his optimism at the Jan. 14 Lincoln City Council meeting by using a series of graphics to illustrate the recovery. The graphics included the unemployment rates, gross room receipts, building activity and retail trade. All show a gradual increase in activity. “I do believe we had a good year last year,” said Mayor Dick Anderson. Anderson looks beyond the graphics to judge the economy.
Timeless
JEREMY C. RUARK/THE NEWS GUARD
The old Lincoln City A&W restaurant is being demolished See ECONOMY, Page A7 for a new Dutch Brothers Coffee outlet.
Local churches seek new members
Tales
Social networking, athletics part of the draw Jeremy C. Ruark The News Guard
WEATHER GUIDE
Churches in Lincoln City like those across the nation continue to struggle to maintain memberships. “We have seen churches go out of business across the nation because of a lack of members,” said Jim Kyes, pastor at St. Peter The Fisherman Lutheran Church. “Washington and Oregon are the most unchurched regions in the entire country. Most people don’t go to church in this area. They don’t even think about going to church because they weren’t raised to go to church.” The congregation at the Lutheran church numbers about 250 but continues to dwindle. According to local church administrators, members leave for a variety of reasons. The elderly pass away, others become disenchanted, while others feel the church is not responding to their needs.
PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS
High Low Prec.
Tues., Jan. 15 Wed., Jan. 16 Thurs., Jan. 17 Fri., Jan. 18 Sat., Jan. 19 Sun., Jan. 20 Mon., Jan. 21
46 48 51 50 49 49 52
31 33 33 37 37 33 33
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Weekly Rainfall: 0 inches Yearly Rainfall: 3.7 inches
WEEKLY OUTLOOK Those of you who got bored with the beautiful, crisp days can expect a change. Clouds should bring showers and the weekend could be partly sunny. Weather data provided by Roads End Weather Watcher Sheridan Jones
JEREMY C. RUARK/THE NEWS GUARD
Gail Elliott Downs looks over the contents of the little black suitcase she has saved over the years. The photographs show her second cousin and his wife. Jeremy C. Ruark The News Guard
F
or Lincoln Beach resident Gail Elliott Downs it’s a simple task: Preserve a small black suitcase that holds a special treasure. Over the years Downs has kept the treasure and shared it with others. Inside the small, battered suitcase are dozens of letters, correspondence between her great aunt, Hazel Elliott Rich and Rich’s son George Elliott Rich. Rich began writing the letters to his mother in 1929 when he was 8-years old after she contracted Tuberculosis. The two were separated over the years and George entered the Army Air Corps. From age 8 to 21 George saw his mother for only one week prior to joining the Army Air Corps as a radio operator/waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator Bomber. Hazel saved all the correspondence
that George sent her. Rich married in 1943 and his wife Wanda also began writing letters to Hazel. “It is like a treasure chest,” said Downs. “Hazel saved it through all those years.” George was killed in action while serving his 50th mission. “That 50th mission was scheduled to be his last mission that would have completed his service in the military,” said Downs. Following Hazel’s death in 1979 the small suitcase was packed away for years in a steamer truck. Downs traveled to Detroit to settle Hazel’s estate with her mother. My mother came to me and told me she was going to pitch the suitcase,” said Downs. “I opened it up and saw all the correspondence inside and decided that the suitcase and its contents needed to be saved.”
In May 1991, Downs was a school librarian in Brentwood, Mo. and needed an example of ways to track family history for a fifth grade class. She decided to share the small suitcase and the letters inside with the students to help them learn about family history and world war. Her efforts have been recognized in the Congressional Record and in media coverage over the years. Downs will tell the story about the small black suitcase Jan. 29 as she speaks before the Oregon Coast Learning Institute located at Salishan Spa & Golf Resort 7760 Hwy. 101 in Gleneden Beach. Other speakers include Pearl Harbor survivor Ed Johann, History student John Ohm, and World War II teenagers Lonnie Headrick and Joann Kangiser. The program begins at 9 a.m. For more details, call Mick McLean at 541-994-9846.
See CHURCHES, Page A5
School district promotes safety partnerships Jim Fossum The News Guard
Strong community partnerships forged between area schools and local law enforcement agencies have helped make the Lincoln County School District a national leader in promoting and providing a safer educational environment for students. As evidenced by her participation in two recent safety education symposiums stretching from sea to sea, LCSD Safety Coordinator Susan Graves is spreading the word that emergency preparedness can best be achieved by working with local partners such as police and fire. “One thing we talk about
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Lincoln County School District Safety Coordinator Susan Graves is spreading the word that emergency preparedness See SAFETY, Page A3 “is not just a school thing, it’s a community thing.”
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tion seminar at the Hawaii State Civil Defense Center in Honolulu. “It takes being diligent to reach out and really work and spend the time to build those relationships and plan together, build together and train together,” said Graves, one of seven speakers at the symposium, which was attended by approximately 850 school, municipal and emergency officials from throughout Connecticut. In North County, close ties between the Lincoln City Police Department and North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District No. 1 have provided improved student security, she said.
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with other schools around the country is you’ve got to get your community partners involved,” Graves said. “School emergency preparedness and management is not just a school thing, it’s a community thing. We’re blessed to have that in Lincoln County. A lot of other communities don’t.” That’s the message Graves conveyed when she was a presenter at the Connecticut School Security Symposium on Jan. 7 in Newtown, site of the Dec. 14 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 young children. Earlier, in late November, she was among two invitees from each of seven Western states to an earthquake/ tsunami awareness educa-
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