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Investigation could take weeks DA believes fatal blaze Want to help was not intentionally set Online fundraisers are being held for the ■
families of the victims: Family of Christopher and Grayson Thorp http://www.gofundme.com/christopherandgrayson Family of Caden Teddleton http://www.gofundme.com/are2j4
BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
By Thomas Moriarty, The World
A fire engulfed this trailer at Rivers Edge RV park in Coquille early Wednesday morning, killing two children.
COQUILLE — It may be weeks before investigators release the cause of a trailer fire in Coquille that claimed the lives of two young Roseburg boys early Wednesday morning. Coos County District Attorney
Paul Frasier said Friday that he’s fairly confident that the fire at the Rivers Edge RV park was not intentionally set.
“It might be a couple weeks (before details can be released),” he said. “If we have to do lab tests or things like that, it might be longer.” Police and firefighters responding to a report of a fire in space 39 shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday found a travel trailer fully engulfed in flames. Preliminary examinations show 13-year-old Christopher Thorp and his 8-year-old brother SEE FIRE | A8
SCCF chugging forward BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
By Lou Sennick, The World
Traffic along Ocean Boulevard in front of the Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board plant and office will have some lane closures as they start work on a new water main connecting the treatment plant with its expansive water system.
Main line repair Water board goes to work on latest main line fix in Coos Bay damage. “The potential for collateral property We’ve experienced water damage, such as flooding, exists. Large main breaks along this line quantities of water are released when these breaks happen,” Schab said. over the years. The water board's contractor, LaskeyCorporation, will work from 7 Clifton Rob Schab Water board general manager a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The contractor will close Pine Avenue, one block at a time, during installation of “We’ve experienced water main the water main. Pine will be reopened breaks along this line over the years,” he each evening to local traffic. Motorists are encouraged to use altersaid Friday. “They have been unique in that they are at the joints. These are old- nate routes when practical. Local access style, rigid, joints that can’t take the soil and access for emergency vehicles will be maintained during construction. movement we’ve seen in that area.” Any questions can be directed to the One of those breaks occurred last summer, in the 2000 block of North Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board at Eighth Street, and it did some property 541-267-3128.
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COOS BAY — Summer work beneath Coos Bay roads continues next week on portions of Pine Avenue and North Eighth Street in Coos Bay. This time it is the Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board that is taking care of a business, as they replace a troublesome main water line. They will be replacing the water main from U.S. Highway 101 to Koosbay Boulevard — a distance of about 2,000 feet. Construction begins the week of June 30 and runs until Nov. 1. Rob Schab, water board general manager, says this was a planned project and part of a larger effort that began a couple of years ago.
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Area counties begin targeting tax scofflaws The Register Guard
INSIDE
Faced with tight budgets, tax assessors in Lane and six other counties — including Coos and Curry counties — are joining forces. Their first order of business: hunting for tax scofflaws. The first project for the new coalition is to identify businesses not paying taxes on personal property: equipment, supplies, computers and other items that aren’t bolted down in a business. State law requires all businesses to
Police reports . . . . A3 What’s Up. . . . . . . GO! South Coast. . . . . . A3 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . A4
report their personal property and pay taxes on it if the value exceeds $16,000. State lawmakers awarded a $252,000 grant to Lane County to lead a pilot project over the next year to identify and notify these tax scofflaws in the seven counties that make up the new Southwest Oregon Assessment and Taxation Coalition. In addition to Lane, members of the coalition are Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties. SEE SCOFFLAWS | A8
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BY CHRISTIAN HILL
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SEE SCCF | A8
State’s Medicaid health coordinators learn how well they’re performing BY KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting
Local coordinated health care organizations have been waiting for a year to see how they’re performing under Oregon’s health care changes. Tuesday, they found out. Some are celebrating, because they’re getting money for meeting all their benchmarks. And others missed benchmarks and are losing some state money as a result. A few years ago, the federal government gave Oregon $2 bil-
Don Terry Shirley Lyons, Coos Bay Michael Champagne, Scappoose Susana Rodriguez, Myrtle Point Mary Kessler, Langlois
PLUS
lion to improve people’s health, and to change the way doctors and hospitals get paid. Under the old model, the more tests and services a hospital ordered, the more it got paid. But now, coordinated care organizations, or CCOs, get a lump sum to pay for the health needs of all Oregon Health Plan recipients in their area. That means a CCO can save money if it improves the health of that population. “We think we had an outstanding year for the first year of the metrics measurements,” said Phil Greenhill, the CEO of
Matthew Blevins, North Bend Jim Russell, Lakeside
Obituaries | A5
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Advanced Oregon Western Health in Coos Bay. His CCO got 100 percent of the available incentive pay. “It’s certainly a true indication of trying to move from a volume delivery of care to understanding a performance outcome and the quality of care we’re delivering to the Medicaid membership,” Greenhill said. A CCO is an umbrella organization under which many doctors, clinics and hospitals in an area come together to serve SEE MEDICAID | A8
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The World
FORECAST
BY TIM NOVOTNY
COOS BAY — The South Coast Community Foundation’s partial board of directors is getting administrative checklists out of the way to tackle its overarching issues. The four directors met Thursday afternoon, the first time the group has had a chance to get together since SCCF’s three founding directors resigned a month ago. North Bend City Administrator Terence O’Connor, Coos County Commissioner John Sweet, Oregon International Port of Coos Bay Commissioner Brianna Hanson and Coos Bay Councilor Tom Leahy make up the board so far. They need to appoint three at-large directors to complete the board before SCCF can apply for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the IRS. “We ought to not linger on this,” Sweet said. That’s because the umbrella Community Enhancement Plan still needs to be solidified. SCCF was birthed as a way to distribute half of the potential community service fees from the Jordan Cove Energy Project to school districts in Coos, western Douglas and northern Curry counties. Initially, the CEP was outlined to distribute half of the payments to SCCF, 25 percent to a waterfront and economic development organization, now known as Waterfront Development Partnership, and the last 25 percent to North Spit taxing entities. But those percentages are not set in stone, since the CEP still doesn’t have its required approval from the four enterprise zone sponsors, the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend, the Port and Coos County. “What percentage of the community service fees received by SCCF will flow directly to the schools ... and what percentage will be set aside as an endowment?” Sweet asked. And how will the board make sure there isn’t