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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2014
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Commissioners Sweet, Cribbins up for re-election BY EMILY THORNTON The World
By Lou Sennick, The World
Investor worries about tensions between Russia and Ukraine have sent prices upward and is being felt at pumps here in the Bay Area. Prices are about what they were last fall.
Cost of gasoline springs ahead
COOS COUNTY — The primary election is coming May 20, and Positions 2 and 3 of the Coos County Commission — fouryear terms — are open. Incumbent John Sweet faces challengers Dale Pennie, Lee Byer and Don Gurney for Position 2. Melissa Cribbins holds Position 3. She’s filed for re-election and will face challengers Matt Rowe and Kermit Gaston Jr. The Coos County Clerk and Coos County Sheriff positions, four-year terms, are also open. County Clerk Terri Turi and Sheriff Craig Zanni are running unopposed in the primary. Turi, 55, of North Bend, has held the position for the past 16 years. It will be her fifth term. Zanni, 62, of Coquille, has been sheriff for the past four years. There are no state or county measures on the primary ballot.
Melissa Cribbins
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
Motorists have no doubt noticed the price of gas is jumping at the pump. An official with AAA says they can expect that trend to continue for at least a few more weeks. “Retail gas prices are back at levels that were last seen in the fall of 2013. The national average for regular unleaded adds three cents this week to $3.49 a gallon while the Oregon average shoots up 8 cents to $3.52,” said AAA Oregon/Idaho Public Affairs Director Marie Dodds. “The national average is at its highest level since September of last year. Oregon’s average is at its highest price since last October.” In addition to the usual suspect, otherwise known as seasonal refinery maintenance, tensions overseas
are partially to blame. This time the standoff between Russia and the Ukraine sent crude oil prices skyrocketing last week, as investors are worried that the situation could impact global oil supplies. Dodds says Russia is the third largest oil producer in the world. Investors fear a disruption there could send the European nations that depend on that oil to drain reserves elsewhere. “The encouraging news is that I don’t think our peak will be knocking on $4 a gallon, like we did last year,” she said by phone Tuesday. “However, if the situation with Russia and Ukraine gets more intense that will put more pressure on crude oil prices.” She says that if there has been anything positive about the string of winter snow storms back east, it
has been the contribution to keeping costs down at the pump. Thanks to all of the snow, motorists in those areas have not been able to do as much driving to work or doing other travel. “We might have been feeling that (effect of Russia-Ukraine standoff) more if demand had not been pretty low,” Dodds said. Overall, she says, the cost of gas is a good news-bad news type of thing in Oregon. “The prices are lower than last year, about 20-30 cents lower, but the bad news is that they will likely continue to sneak a few cents higher in the next week,” she said. “Prices on the South Coast have risen about 5 cents over the last week.” AAA expects the national averSEE GAS | A8
Cribbins, 41, of North Bend, is hoping to keep her seat in Position 3. She’s had the office for the past two years. She said she wants to finish what she’s begun. “ We ’ v e started some really important things,” she said. Cribbins Cribbins graduated from Coquille High School. She received a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and a
INSIDE
NORTH BEND — One grade reconfiguration option is off the table. North Bend school board members voted unanimously to remove Option B from reconfiguration discussions at their meeting Monday night. Option B would have made Hillcrest and North Bay into K-5 schools, grades 6-8 would have stayed at the middle school and Lighthouse School would have stayed in the North Bay building. Now, three options remain: ■ Option A: Make Hillcrest and North Bay K-5 schools and put grades 6-8 and Lighthouse in the middle school. ■ Option C: Make Hillcrest and North Bay K-6 schools and put grades 7-8 and Lighthouse in the middle school.
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The Associated Press
SALEM — Sixteen members of the Oregon Legislature aren’t seeking re-election. Two will face primary challengers. And 24 won’t have any opponent at all in the primary or general election. The 2014 election took much clearer shape Tuesday as the deadline passed for people seeking office to declare their intentions. Fifteen representatives and one senator did not file re-election paperwork. Most of them had already said they’re retiring or seeking another office, but one was a surprise. Freshman Rep. Ben Unger, D-Hillsboro, said it was too difficult to balance legislative work with his full-time job as a political consultant. “I always knew working and serving would be a difficult,” Unger said in a statement. “It turned out to be harder than I originally imagined.” Nineteen members of the House — 14 of them Democrats — will be running unopposed unless someone mounts a writein campaign for their party’s nomination. On the Senate side,
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FORECAST
The World
ically where in the past they’ve lagged. It’s also the only option that aligns with curriculum, said interim superintendent Bill Yester. Curriculum is set up as K-5 and 6-12, as are the Common Core State Standards. The district would still see Hillcrest “bursting at the seams” in Option D, said board chair Megan Jacquot. The school currently sees around 550 students every day. The middle school would also stay full, since it would still have more than 600 students. In Option C, Oregon Coast Technology’s sixth-grade class would get cut since the sixth-grade class would be spread through three buildings. “And whatever you would do, our music programs would probably be hurt (in Option C),” Yester said. “I don’t think I want to move a teacher through three buildings. I don’t think we would have sixth grade band anymore.” Advanced classes would also
STATE
BY CHELSEA DAVIS
■ Option D: Make Hillcrest and North Bay K-4 schools, leave the middle school as is with grades 5-8 and leave Lighthouse in the North Bay building. The board will make its decision at a work session 5:30 p.m. Monday in the middle school’s cafeteria. Board member Alane Jennings echoed Lighthouse families’ concerns that moving the school is risky. “They might think, gosh, it would be much more convenient to have their kids in town, but there are lots of questions about the middle school and K-8 coexisting under the same roof,” she said. “And there’s a considerable cost for Lighthouse to make that move to the middle school. There are a lot of questions in their minds about who would shoulder that cost.” The Lighthouse school board will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday to discuss reconfiguration’s effects on the charter school. Option A would give the district “a veritable middle school,” said board member Deb Reid, which could help those students academ-
DEATHS
Decision expected at work session next week ■
Matt Rowe Rowe, 28, of Coquille is challenging Cribbins for Position 3. Rowe, currently the mayor of Coquille, believes he can do a better job. con“I’m cerned about the direction of the county,” Rowe said. He said he disagrees with Rowe many of the decisions Cribbins and the other commissioners made, such as giving themselves a pay increase when the county is struggling to balance its budget. Rowe was born in Coos Bay and raised in Coquille, where he was home-schooled. He attended Southwestern Oregon Community College. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in SEE COUNTY | A8
Election takes shape after filing deadline BY JONATHAN J. COOPER
NB cuts reconfiguration option
minor in biochemistry from Portland State University. She earned a law degree from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. She has been on the Water Board for six years and was legal counsel for the Coquille Tribe for six years. She said she has many goals if she’s re-elected. “I want to stabilize funding revenues, maintain certainty to citizens about funding, increase levels of service for the county and improve communication among our staff and other citizens,” she said.
four Democrats and one Republican did not draw an opponent from either party. Most of the unopposed incumbents represent safe districts that would be unlikely to switch parties. “I’m pleased, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have work to do to communicate with my constituents,” said Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, who is running unopposed. “I like to think it’s because I’ve represented my constituents well.” Two House Democrats are facing challengers from their own party in the May 20 primary. Joe Rowe is challenging Speaker Tina Kotek of Portland over her dogged support for the Columbia River Crossing project, which would replace the Interstate 5 bridge linking Oregon and Washington and extend Portland’s light-rail system into Vancouver, Wash. Tom Sincic filed papers to run against Rep. Barbara Smith Warner of Portland. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners selected Smith Warner over Sincic and another nominee in December to fill a vacant seat in the House. SEE ELECTION | A8
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