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Thompson to lead Women’s Safety and Resource Center The World
COOS BAY — Helping people put their lives back together can be difficult. But Helen Thompson knows all about that. She’s the Women’s Safety and Resource Center’s new director. 1 She took over about 2 ⁄2 weeks ago after former director Debbie Coppenger stepped down. She said the decision was an easy one. “I have a heart for this work,” Thompson said. “The position really spoke to me.” Among her experiences are six years as a police officer for the city
of Coos Bay, 12 years in nonprofit management, and going to the Ukraine and Russia with the nonprofit organization, In His Fields. She also speaks Russian fluently. Her days at the center have been challenging, but rewarding. “It has been a learning experience,” she said. “I feel really privileged leading the helm of this organization.” The native Californian has lived in various places, doing nonprofit and advocacy work. She said she now enjoys living in Coos County. Her goals as director include increasing public awareness of domestic violence and assault and making people aware of the center’s resources. She also said she
wanted to establish strong relationships with other groups in the area. “The community doesn’t know the resources available here,” she said. “We have an entire staff of people here to help.” She said the center has two shelter homes, with 12 beds each, as well as crisis intervention counselors and other people dedicated to helping both domestic violence victims and perpetrators. She said some victims don’t know what constitutes domestic violence or they try to brush it aside. “They say, ‘He didn’t hit me that hard,’” she said.
By Thomas Moriarty, The World
SEE THOMPSON | A8
Helen Thompson is the new director of the Women’s Safety and Resource Center in Coos Bay.
Community Enhancement Plan
Timber county sheriff’s gap filled by OSP
By Alysha Beck, The World
Elise Hamner, communications manager with the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, speaks at Monday’s North Bend School Board meeting about the proposed Community Enhancement Plan and the South Coast Community Foundation, which under the proposal would receive 50 percent of community service fees paid by the Jordan Cove Energy Project.
Dollars dominate debate School leaders brainstorm how community service fee funds could be used to each district’s benefit The World
INSIDE
Voices of uncertainty and hesitation continued at town halls Monday night as proponents continued to explain details of a plan intended to manage the potential fiscal windfall should a liquefied natural gas plant be built in the Coos Bay region. Representatives from the Coos Curry Douglas Business Development Corporation, Oregon International Port of Coos Bay and city of North Bend spoke to the Bandon and North Bend school boards and North Bend City Council. the presented They Community Enhancement Plan, a proposal to keep community service fee distributions local should the Jordan Cove Energy Project get approval for a 15-year long-term rural enterprise
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zone tax exemption (plus a four-year exemption during construction). The plan was crafted over the last few months by the Port, along with the two city administrators and Coos County Commissioner John Sweet. Jody McCaffree, a persistent voice in the anti-LNG movement, spoke up at both North Bend meetings. Schools need to look at the big picture, she said, by establishing a safety and security plan. “This is not a made-up hazard,” she said. “It is a government-backed proven risk.” North Bend Mayor Rick Wetherell and city manager Terence O’Connor made it clear the city council’s work session was not a forum for debate. “It’s not intended to be a rally on the virtues or vices of the Jordan Cove Energy
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DEATHS
BY CHELSEA DAVIS
Project,” O’Connor said. Indeed, it wasn’t the issue of the plant’s existence that dominated thoughts among the governing boards listening Monday night as much as the dollars — and what they might bring to the community. North Bend school board member Deb Reid hesitated during grade reconfiguration discussions after the Community Enhancement Plan presentation. “As you’re probably aware, we’re going through a huge community conversation about where we educate our students,” Reid told Margaret Barber, CCD community development director for Coos and Curry Counties, and Port communications manager Elise Hamner. “One of the things we’ve heard from the community is they’d like to see another school. It makes me start to wonder about the
Jancie Johnson, Bandon Joy Dow, North Bend Roger Booher, Reedsport Karla Weathers, Myrtle Point
potential use of these (community service fee) funds.” Parents and teachers have told the school board not to backtrack in a few years and start the reconfiguration process all over again, Reid said. “I almost canceled (CCD’s) presentation for this very reason. We really need to make a decision on what we know right now,” said North Bend school board chair Megan Jacquot. “There are so many speculative things in that project to figure out.” More questions arose on exactly who would be responsible for distribution of the windfall — a public body or a self-selected board. O’Connor rebuked criticism of the motives of the South Community Coast Foundation’s three initial
GRANTS PASS (AP) — Oregon state troopers are filling the law enforcement gap in rural Josephine County after voters refused to raise local taxes to pay for sheriff’s patrols. State detectives investigated nearly 800 cases in Josephine County last year, 86 percent referred from the Sheriff’s Office. Investigations went from 5-10 cases a month before cuts in the Sheriff’s Office, to 50-85 cases after the cuts, the Grants Pass Daily Courier reported. The cuts were imposed in June The Associated Press 2012 as the federal Police have filled the State Oregon government cut enforcement gap in rural law subsidies to timdeclining since County Josephine ber-dependent counties, leaving federal subsidies forced cuts to the Sheriff’s Office the Sheriff’s Office and voters two patrol deputies have refused to raise taxes to make up the difference. and no detectives. State police say since then, 72 percent of patrol calls and 86 percent of detective calls were referred from the Sheriff’s Office. State police are sending more personnel to Josephine County to handle the extra work, amounting to a state law enforcement subsidy. Five of the 10 new troopers approved by the Legislature for 2015 will be based in Josephine County. Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said that with one deputy SEE SHERIFF | A8
Democrats clock all-nighter with talk on climate WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic senators clocked an all-nighter, working in shifts into Tuesday morning to warn of devastation from climate change and the danger of inaction. Addressing a nearly empty chamber and visitor gallery, more than two dozen speakers agreed with each other about the need to act on climate change. Naysayers — Republicans — largely stayed away, arguing hours earlier that regulation would cost Americans jobs in a sluggish economy. “We can translate climate destruction into a positive,” insisted Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who spoke about fuel cells built in Danbury and other Connecticut cities. He called climate change “implacable, relentless and only we can stop it.”
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Obituaries | A5
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