NEW FACE OF SKATING
SLITHERING MESS
Celski follows in Ohno’s footsteps, B1
What investigators found in Calif. home, A7
THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014
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Propane prices continue climb on South Coast BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
Propane users on the South Coast are seeing price jumps, despite enjoying a much milder winter than the rest of the nation. Cold snaps and snowstorms hitting the Midwest and Northeast have pushed propane demand through the roof as chilly Americans rush to warm their homes. Residential propane prices doubled in one week to nearly $4.01 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s also $1.72 per gallon higher than this time last year. While the 10-cent-per-gallon increase during the week ending Jan. 20 was “the largest single week increase since the start of the heating season in October,” the jump during the week ending Monday was “the largest single weekly increase since the survey began in 1990,” according to the EIA. Wholesale propane prices as of Monday — nearly $3.55 per gallon — also doubled prices from the week prior. AmeriGas and Chevron station representatives in North Bend and Port Orford said they were not authorized to speak on behalf of their company. Simon Bowman, AmeriGas and UGI Corporation’s manager of investor relations and treasury, did say AmeriGas is beginning to ration deliveries to customers “in a select few service territories.” “Unfortunately, I cannot be specific about (the North Bend and Coos Bay) service territory as the situation changes daily,” he said. “Nevertheless, we are working hard to alleviate
By Alysha Beck, The World
Ken Hollembaek with Ram Jack finishes work on the the Chandler Building in Coos Bay on Tuesday. After Ram Jack raised the building’s sagging northwest corner last October, Hollembaek says work on the building’s exterior should be done by the end of the week.
Looking like its old self
SEE PROPANE | A8
BY TIM NOVOTNY
Farm bill passes House after years of disagreement
COOS BAY — The fence surrounding the historic Chandler Building is down, as workers put the finishing touches on some sidewalk and doorway work. Ram Jack of Oregon, the company charged with lifting the sagging structure last fall, is intent on leaving the structure without any visible sign that they were ever there. “When I first got here, and saw what it looked like out here, my whole goal was to get rid of that cyclone fence,” said job supervisor Ken Hollembaek. “And once I took that (fence) down, that was kind of the highlight of this whole job. People are walking through without having to try to shuffle around. I mean the foot traffic has kind of doubled now.” He added that the apartments upstairs are back open for business, and that the building’s owner, James Tarantino, is even offering a special rate for veterans. A business is expected to eventually occupy the northwest corner, first floor, when indoor renovations to that section are complete.
BY MARY CLARE JALONICK The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — After years of setbacks, a nearly $100 billion-a-year compromise farm bill cleared the House on Wednesday despite strong opposition from conservatives who sought a bigger cut in food stamps. The five-year bill, which preserves generous crop subsidies, heads to the Senate, where approval seems certain. The White House said President Barack Obama would sign it. Inside The measure, which the House Possible affects for approved 251-166, had backing from the Oregon. Page A5 Republican leadership team, even though it makes smaller cuts to food stamps than they would have liked. After wavering for several years, the GOP leaders were seeking to put the long-stalled bill behind them and build on the success of a bipartisan budget passed earlier this month. Leaders in both parties also SEE FARM | A8
secure as ever. They added 22 of their own piers and fixed up the original 32 piers that the building rested on, building we’ve ever bringing the total to 54. Hollembaek says they recut those lifted. When it was old pilings and “took all the rot off and resealed them in concrete. So done, I was relieved. we’re going to get a little more supKen Marquardt port off them also. The more Owner, Ram Jack of Oregon support, the better off you are.” He is currently part of a threeperson crew that is putting the finishing touches to the doorways Hollembaek and Ken Marquardt, and some stucco work around the Ram Jack’s owner, are not exaggerat- base. A new sidewalk was cemented as well. ing when they say this was their “This is one of our better feats, as biggest job. In the end they hoisted far as weight, and with the brick and the northwest corner of the building how much it had settled; yeah, this is by 8 or 9 inches. definitely one of our landmark lifts.” “It took us two days to lift that It was such a landmark lift that it thing,” Marquardt said. took a total of 22 jacks to do the job. Completed in 1909, the Chandler Marquardt says each jack, capable of was the first of several multi-story lifting up to 48,000 pounds, was buildings built along Central Avenue. pushed to capacity and beyond. It served as a hotel until the 1980s That’s more than 1 million pounds. when new owners converted upstairs “That’s the heaviest building floors into low-income housing. The we’ve ever lifted,” he said. “When it building was added to the National was done I was relieved; nobody’s Register of Historic Places in 1984 ever done this before. It was all when it was owned by Tri-North mathematical formula. (When it was Department Stores of Seattle. done) we said, ‘Wow, it worked!’ “It was very relieving that it came Marquardt says the building is as
“That’s the heaviest
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Former teacher found guilty
INSIDE
COQUILLE — A former Bandon middle school teacher and coach was found guilty Wednesday afternoon of sex abuse involving a relationship with a 16year-old female student. Charles Eugene McLauchlin, 55, showed little emotion as he sat silently with his attorney Nick Nylander in a Coos County Circuit courtroom where Judge Martin Stone found him guilty of 25 counts of second-degree sexual abuse
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By Lou Sennick, The World
Charles McLauchlin, back, takes notes while listening to testimony with his attorney, Nick Nylander, during his bench trial on charges of sexually abusing a Bandon student.
What a mess Rev. Sky St. John, North Bend Argus Yandell, Coos Bay
Obituaries | A5
Two days after a snow and sleet storm hit Atlanta, the highways are still a mess and people are still recovering abandoned cars.
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I can legally ask for,” he said. “I hope and expect the judge to impose a lengthy prison sentence. In my opinion, he deserves all the time he gets.” The state argued that McLauchlin groomed the victim starting when she was in sixth grade, gaining her trust so she would allow him to take advantage of her when she turned 16. The charges against McLauchlin were upgraded from third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, to seconddegree sexual abuse, a Class C felony, because the victim was under 18, and because McLauchlin was her coach and older than 21. Monson said there are 27 charges because every touch by a perpetrator on an intimate part of the victim’s
NATION
BY AMY MOSS STRONG
and two counts of online sexual corruption of a minor. Stone dismissed eight counts of online sexual corruption because they allegedly occurred after the victim turned 16. Each count could yield a maximum sentence of five years in prison. However, Coos County Assistant District Attorney Mark Monson said Wednesday after the trial that the judge takes into account whether the defendant has a prior criminal record and other mitigating factors such as psychological evaluations. Nylander said he planned to submit such an evaluation to the court. Monson said he would seek the maximum sentence for each count. “I’m going to ask for as much time as
DEATHS
Ex-Bandon teacher/coach found guilty of 25 counts of second-degree sexual abuse ■
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