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THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014
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Street repairs on NB wish list
Another good reason to smile
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
By Alysha Beck, The World
Dental hygienist Erica Myers checks seventh-grader Abigail Meyer during free dental screenings provided by the Ready to Smile program at Myrtle Point High School Wednesday. Meyer’s dental screening, including tooth sealants, would normally cost $631.Top, the hygienists use an ultraviolet light to harden sealants on Abigail’s teeth.
Volunteers provide dental services to school kids MYRTLE POINT — Two students, purplestained mouths giggling, sit opposite Cecilee Shull as she describes how they should brush their teeth. The stain isn’t permanent. It just tells her where they have the most plaque — where they’ve neglected to brush. She then demonstrates how much sugar is in one can of soda. They should avoid it, she tells them. In another corner of the makeshift dentist office — normally the school’s conference
MHS among state leaders in private scholarship funds THE WORLD
INSIDE
COOS BAY — The Pirates blew all other South Coast schools — and nearly every school in Oregon — out of the water in earning private scholarships last year. The Oregon Student Access Commission’s data on private scholarships awarded during the 2012-2013 school year throws Marshfield High students and alumni thousands of dollars ahead of their peers. Pirates received a total of $210,934 in private scholarships last school year, putting the school in the top 10 scholarship-earners in the state. More than $11 million in private scholarships were awarded to Oregon high-schoolers last school year, according to the commission.
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room — is a dentist’s chair with another student. She’s getting sealants put on her teeth to guard against cavities. Dental health greatly affects their overall health, said Shull. She is program manager for Ready to Smile. The program, now in its fourth year, has gained statewide recognition. “It’s a model program,” said Melissa Freeman, director of strategic planning at the Oregon Community Foundation, which donated $500,000 to the cause. “It’s a comprehensive dental program that is a model in Oregon. They’re all over the state. What’s unique is the number of volunteers involved
Private scholarships Private scholarships awarded on the South Coast: 1. Marshfield Senior High: $210,934 2. Bandon High: $83,546 3. North Bend Senior High: $48,917 4. Reedsport Community Charter: $36,900 5. Coquille High: $27,455 6. Pacific High: $23,290 7. Brookings-Harbor High: $12,549 8. Myrtle Point High: $7,750 9. Powers High: $3,000 10. Gold Beach High: $2,000 Top 10 scholarship-earning schools in Oregon: 1. Roseburg High: $345,846 2. Benson Polytechnic High (Portland): $245,419 3. South Umpqua High (Myrtle Creek): $227,258 4. Eagle Point High: $218,509 5. South Medford High: $213,420 6. Marshfield High: $210,934 7. Madison High (Portland): $183,767 8. Sutherlin High: $183,146 9. Douglas High (Winston): $172,189 10. Forest Grove High: $170,021
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William Edwards, Coos Bay Mark Schneider, La Pine Joyce McCulloch, North Bend Cherrill Corliss, Coquille
with fundraising and getting it started.” Some kids actually enjoy getting the dental work, especially those who live in Myrtle Point, where there is just one dentist. Other places, like Powers and Port Orford, have no dentists, Shull said. “It’s better than driving all the way to Bandon, like we usually do,” said Jarrod Canaday, a seventh-grader at Myrtle Point High School. He also said, “It’s better than class.” Dental hygienist Erica Myers and dental assistant Christy Richardson gave Canaday $715 worth of services, including 16 sealants SEE SMILE | A8
SEE NORTH BEND | A8
Family faces the ravages of Huntington’s disease BY AMY MOSS STRONG The World
SOUTH COAST — Sometimes not knowing you have a target on your back is better than knowing. But when you have a 50 percent chance of developing a fatal disease, not knowing if the odds are in your favor can be too much of a burden. A presymptomatic test is a life-changing event and a very personal decision for family members affected by Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and psychiatric problems and, eventually, death. Knowing her great-grandmother, grand-
Les Funk, Bandon Margaret Dean, North Bend
Obituaries | A5
FORECAST
The World
DEATHS
BY EMILY THORNTON
NORTH BEND — The city of North Bend is still in the early stages of goal-setting for 2014, but City Administrator Terence O’Connor says you can see the writing on the wall. If that writing becomes reality, it will give this year’s list of goals a distinctly subterranean look. Sometimes, however, new goals can crop up unexpectedly. Such was the case last year, leading to two of North Bend’s biggest accomplishments in 2013. The city had to hire a new police chief and a new fire chief, which turned out to be a time-consuming endeavor. It took up about half of the year, with three months devoted to each hire. “It’s time,” O’Connor said, “from drafting the announcements, to recruiting, to doing the interviews, to doing the background check, and getting folks here; and that surprisingly is a time-consuming process. But I think we do have the right two individuals for both of those positions.” Another of the city’s major goals last year, the downtown streetscape project, was one that they had planned for and were able to complete. It is also one that is going to likely translate into one of the new planned goals for 2014. “Council and staff have heard from the community, pretty loud and clear, now that the downtown is taken care of, they’d like to see some initiatives for street repair around the community,” O’Connor said, “and certainly there are needs for it.” But, the needs don’t end just at street level. There was one other unexpected goal that North Bend accomplished in 2013. It popped up on the city’s radar after a couple of sinkholes developed in the vicinity of Broadway and Newmark avenues. “We had a catastrophic failure of a storm line back in November,
father and mother all carried the dominant mutated gene prompted Coos Bay resident Rebecca Ambrose to get tested. “My family is devastated by Huntington’s disease,” Ambrose said. “My mother, three uncles and two aunts have Huntington’s disease. They have lost all ability to perform activities of daily living and are for the most part unable to speak, walk or communicate in any way.” Ambrose, 29, is hoping to raise awareness of the disease, which is often misunderstood. She found out about Huntington’s when she was 8 years old, in 1991 after a long-distance phone call with her aunt. SEE AMBROSE | A8
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