FOOTBALL TIME
ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIPS
Beavers, Ducks open camp, B1
U.S. firms commit to invest $14B in Africa, A7
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2014
Serving Oregon’s South Coast Since 1878
theworldlink.com
■
$1
Positively a domino effect for economy A successful motor coach rally two years ago helps bring another major event to the Bay Area ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
Move in progress BY CHELSEA DAVIS
Modular meeting
The World
NORTH BEND — Lighthouse School’s move to North Bend Middle School is underway, though some say the hasty decision will hurt the district in the long run. Districtwide reconfiguration will put about 450 students in both Hillcrest and North Bay elementary schools, each housing grades 1-5 and all-day kindergarten. Grades 6-8 will stay at North Bend Middle School, with Lighthouse School (the district’s K-8 charter school) moving in to the sixth-grade wing. This switch-up means four fifth-grade classes are moving to the elementary schools; around 220 Lighthouse students are taking their place. That’s caused heartburn in the community. Some say the change doesn’t solve the district’s overcrowding problem, one of the main reasons school leaders considered reconfiguration in the first place. “Ideas were put forth, but the community input I was privy to did not reflect the current plan,” North Bend parent Lawrence Cheal said at the July school board meeting. “Four options were put on the table to be voted on at the March 17 school board meeting — none of them were chosen. The public learned at that meeting that Lighthouse had found a building. Based on speculation that everything would fall into place, the board voted that night on a new option.”
The North Bend Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Aug. 18, in North Bend City Council chambers, 835 California St. School officials hope to get approval at this meeting to place a modular classroom behind North Bend Middle School, facing D Street.
The math at NBMS 630 students in grades 5-8 - 112 fifth-graders to the elementary schools + 220 Lighthouse students = 738 students at NBMS These numbers are estimates, as enrollment changes daily.
Black chalkboards conducive to colorful chalk “As a board, are you really doing drawings will be put up in the classrooms that what the community wants?” Cheal Lighthouse School is moving into at North asked. Bend Middle School. Lighthouse Director Wade Lester He’s referencing Options A-D that the school board floated to the public this spring, ideas that came from community meetings last fall. In the end, the board didn’t choose any of the options with the last-minute news that Lighthouse might move to the former ACS/Xerox call center. By the end of June, the call center deal fell through when renovation costs came in about $300,000 higher than expected. The school board went into emergency mode, quickly deciding to offer a wing of the middle school to Lighthouse. Special meetings called for decisions on Lighthouse came with no time allotted for public comment.
was busy setting up classrooms Monday. His eyes are set on an Aug. 27 first day of school, a week before the rest of the district. Lighthouse will take up eight classrooms, a gathering room, an office and a modular on the back side of the middle school. Sherri O’Connor, the district’s business and finance director, said only one modular needs to be ordered. With renovations, the final bill for the move will run about $255,000, she said. That depends on a North Bend planning commission decision Aug. 18. The district needs the commission to give SEE LIGHTHOUSE | A8
Attack at Afghan base kills U.S. soldier BY RAHIM FAIEZ AND AMIR SHAH The Associated Press
Police reports . . . . A2 40 Things . . . . . . . . A2 What’s Up. . . . . . . . A3 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . A4
Comics . . . . . . . . . . A6 Puzzles . . . . . . . . . . A6 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . B1 Classifieds . . . . . . . C3
DEATHS
INSIDE
KABUL, Afghanistan — A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire Tuesday on foreign troops at a military base, killing at least one U.S. soldier and wounding 15 people, among them a German brigadier general and “about a dozen” Americans, authorities said. Details about the attack at Camp Qargha, a base west of the capital, Kabul, weren’t immediately clear. Gen. Mohammmad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, said a “terrorist in an army uniform” opened fire on both local and international troops. Azimi said the shooter had been killed and that three Afghan army officers were wounded. A U.S. official said one American soldier was killed and “about a dozen” of the The Associated Press wounded were Americans, but declined A NATO soldier opens fire in an apparent warning shot in the vicinity of journalists near the main gate to comment further. The official spoke of Camp Qargha, west of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform on condition of anonymity because the opened fire Tuesday on foreign troops at a military base, causing casualties, a spokesman said. official was not authorized to discuss details of the attack by name on the brigadier general, who the German mili- attack, which Afghan President Hamid record. Germany’s military said 15 NATO sol- tary said was receiving medical Karzai condemned as “cowardly.” It is “an act by the enemies who don’t diers were wounded in an assault treatment and was “not in a life-threatlaunched “probably by internal attack- ening condition.” NATO said it was investigating the ers.” The wounded included a German SEE AFGHAN | A8
Lois Croll, Charleston Eileen Spaght, Coos Bay Norma VanNatta, Valley Springs, Calif. Leon Williams Jr., North Bend Constantine Maslakow, North Bend
Jessie Jacquier, North Bend Connie Hoffman, Reedsport Linda Rossback, North Bend Alice Jones, LaQuinta, Calif.
Obituaries | A5
SEE MONACO | A8
Men facing charges in MP assault BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
COQUILLE — Two men face Measure 11 charges in a violent assault on a Myrtle Point man last week. Glenn Sears and Jason Alex Barreras-Sanchez are charged with first-degree robbery, third-degree assault, first-degree theft, two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of menacing. Sears and Barreras-Sanchez were arrested July 26 after Myrtle Point police took a report that a man was assaulted and robbed of a firearm in his home on the 700 block of Willow Street. According to a probable cause statement filed in Coos County Circuit Court, an officer had seen the pair walking away from the address shortly before 6 a.m. A few minutes later, dispatchers took a report that an assault had taken place inside the home. The officer found the home’s resident, Cecil Welburn, had suffered extensive injuries to his face and neck. Welburn said two men had taken his .25 ACP semiautomatic pistol, and a friend in the house identified the assailants as Sears and Barreras-Sanchez. While the officer was at the home, dispatchers took a report of a fight with shots fired in the 1000 block of Harris Street, where Barreras-Sanchez lived in a trailer. After police arrested him at the trailer, he told officers that Sears had been firing the pistol into the ground after showing it off. Sears was arrested near Myrtle Crest Elementary School. Two different witnesses told officers that Sears and Barreras-Sanchez had forced their way into Welburn’s home. When the man pulled a gun and asked the pair to leave, Sears picked up a cast iron pan and advanced on Welburn, using it as a shield. Witnesses said that after taking Welburn’s gun, Sears held the home’s other occupants at gunpoint SEE ASSAULT | A8
FORECAST
Photos by Alysha Beck, The World
The Lighthouse School sign and classroom supplies sit in a hallway at North Bend Middle School on Monday. Lighthouse School is moving into the sixth-grade wing of the middle school.
NORTH BEND — Things are getting busy over at The Mill this week, which is just the way they like it, of course. It is estimated that over 500 visitors, and their RVs, will be taking part in the Monaco International RV Club’s 30th anniversary motor coach rally this week in North Bend. The national organization, part of the Family Motor Coach Association, is in town, in part, because of the success of a larger rally in 2012. That FMCA rally brought over 1,200 participants to the South Coast. “Visitors at the 2012 event were thrilled with how they were received by our communities, which helped inspire Monaco International to bring their rally to the South Coast,” said Terri Porcaro, general manager of The Mill Casino Hotel & RV Park. “Hosting an event like this is a great privilege for The Mill and an even greater opportunity for our communities to show what we have to offer travelers to our region.” Rally Master Jack Brewster said, for those who have not attended one of these events, it is best described as part convention and part family reunion. “We get together three to four times a year as a club, at various places, we’ve been all over the country doing rallies,” he said. “We are a real big family. We really go to see each other, for the camaraderie, and to have a real good time. That is what it is all about.” To help with the fun, The Mill planned a variety of activities for the rally-goers, including a poker run to shops and local venues in North Bend and Coos Bay. Tours of local attractions also give visitors a taste of what the region has to offer, while members of the Coquille Indian Tribe demonstrate native cooking techniques and discuss tribal culture at a traditional salmon bake. Those are extra benefits that the participants appreciate, Brewster added. “Normally, when we do a rally, we have a very full schedule. We have meals, they are trying to sell them
Mostly cloudy 63/55 Weather | A8