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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2014
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Home rule returns to ballot
Another kind of finish line
BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
Bay Area Teen Idol features final four at Fun Festival today ■
BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
COOS BAY — After surviving six rounds of intense competition, and a field of 15 competitors, four singers will take center stage at the Bay Area Fun Festival on Saturday looking to be crowned Teen Idol 2014. Bay Area Teen Idol is Coos and western Douglas counties’ premiere vocal competition for teens from 13 to 18 years of age. It also provides a healthy alternative for the teens, who sign a pledge to remain drug, alcohol and tobacco-free. This year’s field is left with four impressive teens, including Michelle Adamson, 18, a recent Marshfield High School grad; Rosa GutierrezCamacho, 16, a junior at Marshfield; Karissa Thomas, 16, a junior at North Bend High School; and Allie West, 17, also a junior at North Bend. Those four already have performed 10 times, in a variety of genres including Classic Hit and Rock and Roll, Big Band/Swing, Disco and Country. Now in its 11th season, it is underwritten by K-DOCK Radio, Coos County Health and Human Services, Giddings Boatworks, Banner Bank and Tarheel Aluminum. The finals will be on the main stage in front of Coos Bay City Hall on Central Avenue, starting at 2:30 p.m. There is no charge for the performance and you may want to bring a chair. In case of rain, it will move inside the Egyptian Theatre.
By Lou Sennick, The World
Ronnie Herne, standing, and Jaye Bell, seated, were two of the Home Rule Charter proponents to speak during a forum at the a Chamber of Commerce lunch in October 2012.
COQUILLE — Home rule is back on the ballot this fall, with nearly the same arguments for and against echoing across Coos County. Fairview residents Ronnie Herne and Jaye Bell penned “Voice of the Voters” Coos County Home Rule Charter, which secured enough signatures to earn a ballot measure spot in the November election. For years, different committees and political organizations have called for a change in Coos County government. The League of Women Voters of Coos County has debated the issue since 2004. Coos County itself put together two committees a few years ago. They reached essentially the same recommendation: Hire a professional
c o u n t y administrator and establish a ward system with five More online: commissionRead the full ers. charter at That work theworldlink.com. never turned into change. Jon Barton, who was cochair of the structure committee, says it’s because of “the noisemakers” — the frequent attendees at commission meetings. Instead of hiring an administrator, there was so much public outcry that the county put it on the ballot. At the same time, a new group had formed: Americans for Responsive, Responsible,
Representative Government, or ARRRG, led by Herne and Bell. They got their home rule charter on the ballot, too. But with both a home rule charter and a county administrator on the ballot, voters were confused. Both measures failed. “The ultimate objective was to get a professional administrator to run the day-to-day affairs of the county because the commissioners are, first of all, not well-qualified to administer a government of that size and complexity,” Barton said. Herne and Bell are back again this fall with a 43-page charter.
What is home rule? Oregon counties started out with “county courts,” giving county judges the responsibilities county commissioners have today. SEE CHARTER | A8
Troublesome trees aid salmon habitat restoration Logjams constructed with timber removed for safety reasons ■
BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
By Thomas Moriarty, The World
POWERS — The only sound on Forest Road 33 on Thursday morning was the hum of a chainsaw as a timber cutting crew repurposed dangerously positioned trees for an unusual beneficiary: salmon. The work, undertaken in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, Plum Creek Timber and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, is one of a series of projects coordinated by the Coquille Watershed Association intended to enhance salmon habitat in the Coquille River system. On Thursday morning, the team was busy felling trees to create fish shelter spots on a side channel of the river’s south fork. Dawn Weekly, program manager for the watershed association, said the log complexes are intended to provide salmon with shelter from rough water. “Historically, there would be whole jams of big trees like this across the river along the mainstem,” ODFW biologist Jeff Jackson said.
ODFW biologist Jeff Jackson surveys a large tree felled Thursday as part of a fish habitat enhancement project on a side channel of the South Fork Coquille River south of Powers.
SEE HABITAT | A8
Historic engines While the teens will be singing across town, the train bell will be clanging over the Oregon Coast Historical Railway at 766 S. First St. Dick Jamsgard, a spokesperson for the railway, says they scheduled the second annual SEE FESTIVAL | A8
Tractor-trailer driver cited in Scottsburg Bridge crash
What’s Up . . . . . . . Go! 40 Stories . . . . . . . A2 South Coast. . . . . . A3 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . A4
highway fully open by 8 p.m. Thursday.Over the next three weeks, ODOT advises drivers that there will be intermittent lane closures and minor delays due to continued cleanup and bridge repair. Oregon State Police, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, ODOT, Scottsburg Fire Department, U.S. Coast Guard and local emergency responders worked the scene. ODOT dispatched a bridge inspector to check for damage. By Steve Lindsley, The World
More online: Watch video from the crash scene near Scottsburg by visiting theworldlink.com/video.
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Steven Hall, Lodi, Calif. Pauline McDonald, Eugene Margarett Coplen, North Bend Loren Dennis, San Luis Obispo, Calif. Gerlad Drumheller, North Bend William Walters Sr., Coos Bay Raymond Golden, Myrtle Point David Baker, Reedsport
Crews work around the cabin of a semi that crashed into the Scottsburg Bridge guardrail Thursday. The flatbed trailer was hanging off the side of the bridge into the Umpqua River, spilling lumber products and leaking diesel.
Katherine Markel, Seattle, Wash. Charles Murphy, Springfield Ira Hessler Jr., Coos Bay Darlene Judd, Coquille William Biggs, Coos Bay Harry M. de Cordova Jr., Coos Bay
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SCOTTSBURG — A semi pulling a flatbed trailer of lumber products hit the Scottsburg Bridge guardrail Thursday morning, spilling lumber products and leaking diesel into the Umpqua River. Brian J. Neeley, 54, of Sheridan, was driving a 1994 Peterbilt truck pulling a flatbed semi-trailer of lumber products eastbound on state Highway 38 at about 8:20 a.m. Thursday when the truck struck the guardrail during a left curve at milepost 16 and went on to the bridge railing, Oregon State Police Lt. Steve Mitchell said in a news release. Neeley was transported to
Lower Umpqua Hospital with minor injuries. OSP cited him with careless driving and failure to drive within the lane. The lumber products spilled as the trailer went over the railing and an estimated 100 gallons of diesel leaked into the river, prompting the Oregon Emergency Response Team to call in a hazmat team. The Oregon Department of Transportation opened one lane of the highway by 3 p.m. and had the
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