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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
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Bandon Marsh will be sprayed Spraying should happen between Sept. 12 and 17 with a price tag of around $50,000 ■
BY EMILY THORNTON The World
Photos by Alysha Beck, The World
Crime scene tape surrounds the downtown Coos Bay prayer chapel Tuesday night after a fire scorched the interior of the building shortly after 5 p.m.
FBI joins chapel fire probe BY THOMAS MORIARTY
area. Firefighters had the blaze contained within an hour, and the COOS BAY — An FBI agent and building incurred no readily apparOregon State Police explosives ent exterior damage. But by 7 p.m., the perimeter had experts assisted local law enforcement with a late-night search of been extended south to Central the Coos Bay Prayer Chapel on Avenue and Second Street and east to U.S. Highway 101. Tuesday, just hours after Public works employemergency personnel ees erected barricades on responded to a report of Commercial Avenue and a fire at the location. See updates online at Market Avenue, manned Coos Bay firefighters theworldlink.com on arrived at the chapel this breaking news story by a North Bend police officer and a Coos Counshortly before 5 p.m. after a passing beverage delivery ty reserve sheriff’s deputy. An FBI special agent and exploman noticed smoke coming from sives specialists from state police inside the building. Multiple officers and a detective arrived on scene just after 9:30 p.m. Law enforcement personnel from the Coos Bay Police Department arrived shortly after fire personnel and quickly taped off the The World
SEE PROBE | A10
COQUILLE — Despite concerns about environmental risks, Coos County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to approve aerial spraying of insecticides near Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding areas. If all goes as planned, two fixed winged aircraft will spray two chemicals sometime between Sept. 12 and 17. The plan could cost more than $50,000. The county needs at least one more permit, from the Department of Environmental Quality, which will cost $1,000. Other permits from Oregon Health Authority, Fish and Wildlife and the Federal Aviation Administration also may be required. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is donating $10,000 toward the cost. The city of Bandon will give $5,000, if needed, and Coos County is taking $5,000 out of its economic development fund for the abatement. U.S. Fish and Wildlife said it will foot the bill for spraying the acreage over Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. The county is the lead agency in the abatement, so will be reimbursed. Bandon Dunes represen-
An FBI agent along with Oregon State Police explosives specialists assist Coos Bay police with an investigation after a fire in the Coos Bay Prayer Chapel on Tuesday.
SEE SPRAYING | A10
State’s solar experts will converge on Coos Bay BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY- Solar Now! University will be packing up its “campus” and relocating in Coos Bay for a couple of days. The fourth annual event, scheduled for Sept. 26-28, is setting up in a coastal town for the first time and, according to one local business, may end up leading to future financial benefits for the Bay Area. The small conference offers community leaders from around the state the opportunity to become better versed in launching and completing solar initiatives in their own cities and towns. Led this year by the nonprofit organization Solar Oregon, in col-
laboration with the city of Coos Bay, Southern Oregon Clean Energy Alliance, and Sol Coast Design and Consulting, it will focus on the objectives of the Rooftop Solar Challenge II. It is designed to advance innovative, local-government-level solutions for eliminating market barriers and lowering the costs of grid-tied photovoltaics — a method of generating electrical power. Shannon Souza, Owner of Sol Coast, says it was a coup to get them to bring the movers and shakers of the Oregon solar effort to the South Coast. “There’s a perception that we’re downtrodden and at a loss out here, and that we don’t really know who we are, and I think it is a really
nice opportunity to showcase the resources and the people and the organization that we have out here,” Souza said. In fact, while attendees can learn from the state’s solar leaders, the biggest boost that the Solar Now! University could bring is just the opportunity to change perceptions in the minds of the people who hold the granting purse strings. Souza says everything else is already in place for solar projects on the South Coast, all that is missing is the money. “That is where we need to make those connections and let people see that there are resources there, the investment is being made,” she said, noting that networking can end up paying dividends through
successful grant applications. “We need to demonstrate, at the agency level, that we’re aware of it, we’re ready to roll, and we’ve got a good install. “Solar is unique in renewables in that it is the quickest to assess, the simplest permit and to install, the turnaround time is really simple. We can accurately predict what it is and isn’t going to produce, permit it, get it installed and move on,” Souza said. “The target audience is actually people who have not, in the past, been exposed to solar but are in public or non-profit positions who could stand to get up to speed on what works and what doesn’t work, what their opportunities may or may not be.” In the process of doing that, if
the community is able to highlight an on-the-ball attitude toward solar, our own opportunities could multiply. The conference kicks off Thursday evening with a meet-and-greet at Coos Bay’s new Seven Devils Brewery. Presentations begin on Friday, including a welcome address by Coos Bay Councilor Stephanie Kramer. Saturday’s program features a tour of the Coos Bay Fire Station and its solar electric and solar water heating systems. Attendees are expected to include those representing government, industry and nonprofit sectors. Sessions will cover topics ranging from financing options to solar policy issues to communityscale solar energy systems.
Convicted kidnapper, Ariel Castro, hangs himself in prison The Associated Press
Linda Donaldson, Jamestown, RI Derald Timmons, North Bend Harold Johnson, North Bend Jim Smith, Coos Bay
Obituaries | A5
Five-car crash
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DEATHS
INSIDE
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Cleveland man serving a life sentence for kidnapping three women and raping them in his home for a decade hanged himself in his prison cell, officials said Wednesday in another startling twist in the case that horrified and transfixed the city. Ariel Castro, 53, was found hanging around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in The Associated Press Orient, said JoEllen Smith, a Ariel Castro, 53, serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and rape of three women in his Cleveland spokeswoman for the correchome, was found hanging in his cell at the around 6:20 p.m.Tuesday at the Correctional Reception tions system. Prison medical Center in Orient, Ohio. staff performed CPR before
Castro was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Castro had been in protective custody because of the notoriety of his case, meaning he was checked every 30 minutes, but was not on suicide watch, which entails constant supervision, Smith said. An autopsy showed the death was suicide by hanging, said Dr. Jan Gorniak, Franklin County coroner. Gorniak would not comment on the circumstances in which Castro was found. In Castro’s old Cleveland neighborhood, Jessica Burchett, 19, said his death had short-circuited the life sentence called
Two people were hospitalized following an accident on Ocean Boulevard, which blocked traffic.
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BY ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
for in his plea bargain. “It does give a little bit of closure to the families and people that got affected by what he did, but at the same time he deserved to be in there for his life because of what he did to those girls,” she said. Elsie Cintron, a neighbor who lived up the street from Castro, said the suicide left her with mixed feelings. “He took the coward’s way out,” Cintron said. “We’re sad to hear that he’s dead, but at the same time, we’re happy he’s gone, and now we know he can’t
Partly sunny 72/56 Weather | A10
SEE CASTRO | A10