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City wants to get your minds in the gutters BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY — The city of Coos Bay knows that its infrastructure is failing and needs to be fixed, but just how to pay for those fixes remains the unanswered question. It is one that city officials are hoping the residents of Coos Bay will more urgently start to consider. The city’s March newsletter included an impassioned plea from Mayor Crystal Shoji. It is expected to be the first of many.
“The city is focusing on two issues, and has been for some time, infrastructure in the city, which is basically streets, and the second one is the wastewater plant,” Shoji said, as she stood in the shade of City Hall one day last week. “We are under orders from the state and federal government to get our wastewater plants upgraded.” The city says the plants need to be able to handle increased wastewater flow and meet new environmental regulatory requirements.
Those orders do not come cheap. Estimates of the various projects from three years ago placed the total somewhere north of $75 million, but now the price tag is looking like it will exceed $80 million. The good news is that it doesn’t have to, and really can’t, be all completed in one fell swoop. The bad news is that there are a series of deadlines along the way, and each of them will be costly to achieve.
By Lou Sennick, The World
Jessica Spann, an engineering technician with the city of Coos Bay, talks about the process of treating sewage at the main site on Ivy Street. The city is looking at ways of finding the money, about $75 million, for upgrades on the plants and processes.
SEE COOS BAY | A2
Expanding access to caregivers BY EMILY THORNTON
their house. They don’t have times where they have to be in at a certain time. They can come and go as they please.” It’s a difficult decision. The reason they end up in a facilWhat to do with your elderly loved ones when they can no longer ity often is the result of an injury or illness, she said. take care of themselves. “They say they don’t know if they A few options exist in Coos County, such as having them live in a really want to be here (in independsenior center, nursing home or hir- ent care),” she said. “They end up in assisted care, where they didn’t ing someone to come to the home. Baycrest Village is one of several want to be. Like I said, they just wait too long.” local senior living Baycrest holds facilities. Jolene Rogers, People in this events that are open to the public to give relacommunity tions director for industry actually people an idea of how it is to live Baycrest, said somehave to have a there. times it’s difficult to “It’s just expowork with senior passion for what sure,” Rogers said. citizens. they do. “They may not be “You try not to ready for it, but it too become Jolene Rogers lets them know what attached, but you Baycrest Village goes on here.” do,” Rogers said. For many fami“You’re with these lies, the decision to people every day and just want to make every day better put someone in a care facility is diffor them. Sometimes you’re the only ficult. “They have a lot of guilt,” she family they have.” She recalled dancing with a said. “But, I tell them, now you can wheelchair-bound man last sum- be their son or daughter again instead of their caretaker. I try to get mer. “I made one of his last days his them past that guilt feeling.” She said about 90 percent of resibest days,” Rogers said. “People in this industry actually have to have a dents came from out of state either because they used to live in Coos passion for what they do.” County and wanted to come back or And Rogers is no exception. “I do it because I love it,” Rogers they looked online and found the said. “I love everything with them. I facility. She also said many were in like to see how they can still be live- their 80s or 90s because people are living on their own longer. ly. I know they’re safe.” Rogers said it’s often difficult to convince people they should move Home care providers There is another option for those to a care facility. They don’t want to who don’t want to put their loved leave their house, she said. “A lot of it’s about their house,” one in a facility — get someone to she said. “But, this whole building is The World
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By Lou Sennick, The World
Bobbie Sotin vacuums the trailer of one of the people she helps out as a caregiver Tuesday, March 11. She has several people she helps out with chores and duties they may not be physically able to do themselves.
SEE PROVIDERS | A3
NB school board makes a reconfiguration decision — sort of The World
INSIDE
NORTH BEND — A wrench has been thrown into North Bend School District’s grade reconfiguration discussion: Lighthouse School might move into the former Xerox/ACS call center. The school board voted 6-1 Monday night to recommend that Hillcrest and North Bay become K5 elementary schools. The District Leadership Team now has to figure out how to implement those changes by May 1. Board member
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Julianna Seldon was the sole dissenting vote. But this decision could come back to haunt the board should Lighthouse not get approval to move into the call center. Lighthouse director Wade Lester said he won’t know “for a few more days” whether his school can make the move to the 18,000-squarefoot building. That big unknown made board members uneasy in their decision, though interim superintendent Bill Yester said it’s in the DLT’s hands to figure out implementation.
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“If Lighthouse did move to the Xerox building, all our schools would be about 450 students,” Yester said. Today, there are about 630 students in the middle school (grades 5-8), 550 in Hillcrest (a K-4 school), 250 in North Bay (a K-5 school) and around 220 in Lighthouse (the district’s K-8 charter school). Three board members — Kurt Brecheisen, Deb Reid and Alane Jennings — favored a K-5 elementary model. “Having Lighthouse removed
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from that equation just completely eliminates that concern (of overcrowding),” Reid said. “With that out of the picture, it’s easier to realize that K-5 is the superior model for the district.” Board member Doug Gauntz said he was torn between K-4 and K-5 elementary models, while board chair Megan Jacquot preferred a K-6 model. Gauntz didn’t want to put a kink in the middle school’s progress toward turning around slipping grades. Jacquot conceded that the district wouldn’t be able to make the change to a K-6
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model; her next choice was a K-5 model. Board member Bob Adams Jr. didn’t favor one option over another, so long as students transition from elementary to middle school at the same time. His main concern is district boundary changes and how they would be managed year to year. Seldon was originally concerned that a K-5 model would overcrowd since the middle school, Lighthouse would have to move to
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