The Umpqua Post
Weekly news from the Heart of the Dunes AN EDITION OF
Wednesday, August 13, 2014 | Serving the Reedsport area since 1996 | theworldlink.com/reedsport | $1.00
Organizers label Man missing DuneFest a success since 2013 trip to Bay Area
BY STEVE LINDSLEY
“Meyer Media and his entire crew,” del Re continued. “I want to thank the U.S. Forest Service, (Douglas County Parks) and Recreation, Lower Umpqua Thousands of people attend. Vendors set up their Hospital and all fire and rescue. “The list of people to thank goes on and on. This is a booths. Bands play. ATV riders show off. With a suctotal team effort. Every single person involved makes cessful DuneFest weekend, you just add sand. Co-chair Bobby del Re took some time from DuneFest happen.” The list includes the Douglas County Sheriff’s cleanup to talk about the just-finished event, calling Office, camp hosts coordinated by Clark Anderson, it a success. Reedsport Police, security supervisors, What makes it a success? Salmon Harbor and they even have a “That’s a tough question,” del Re “Sand Man,” Caleb Moldt. said. “There’s not one thing that Del Re says he works the entire makes it work. It’s a cumulative effort event. of all the sponsors, the staff, the vol“I work with the other chairmen, I unteers, the vendors. It’s a group work with the sponsors, pretty much event. It’s a team effort to get the stuff everything that has to do with the done.” event,” he said. Del Re estimates about 10,000 peoHe could mainly be seen patrolling ple attended the four-day event. He vendor row and doing whatever he could thinks that was a bit more than last year. to make vendors and sponsors comfortable. “That’s kind of how it feels,” he said. “I try to work with the vendors to make Revenues? He says they won’t know sure they’re all happy,” he said. “I also do how much the event pulled in, if it did, things with the event, the concert, anything until all the bills are paid and the receivables going on.” come in. He was happy the auction of donated items He had a list of people to thank, includraised more than $26,000, all of which ing his very-active-in-community-events will go to local charities in a co-chair, Phyllis Dever. She is also a co-chair big ceremony. for Kool Coastal Nights on Aug. 22 and 23 His favorite events: The and co-chair of Art By the Bay on Labor freestyle show and the conDay weekend. She also had a hand in cert which, this year, feathe wildly popular chainsaw carving tured Coos Bay’s “The contest. Liberated.” Del Re thanked the Both del Re and Reedsport/Winchester Bay Dever say they’ll Chamber of Commerce, which be back next year. sponsors the event; chamber office manager Amy Stauffer; staff and volunteers who, he says, make the event work and Polaris, another sponsor of the event. The Umpqua Post
Colten Moore, Winter X Games gold medalist, flies over the crowd on a quad at DuneFest during a freestyle performance Aug. 1. By Alysha Beck, The Umpqua Post
McMinnville man was coming to Hauser to sell a motorcycle BY THOMAS MORIARTY The Umpqua Post
NORTH BEND — When Zachary Porter left his home in McMinnville in July 2013, he told his family he was off to sell a motorcycle. A single parent and the primary caregiver for his disabled mother, the 25-year-old was driving down to the Hauser area between North Bend and Lakeside to sell the bike back to the man who had originally traded it to him. Shortly after arriving July 23, Zachary sent his father a text message, saying he had made it and was waiting on a ride home. That was the last anyone heard from him. A year after his inexplicable disappearance in southwestern Oregon, Zachary’s family and investigators are making another push to promote the case, hoping the publicity jogs someone’s memory. Talking to assembled media Saturday at Riley Ranch County Park south of Lakeside, Zachary's father Myron was candid that he fears the worst has befallen his son. “For him not to try and reach his son, for even a 24-hour period — it just never happened,” he said. “I believe something bad has happened and I want to get to the bottom of it.” Zachary’s father had driven
down to join a group of Coos County sheriff’s deputies — some uniformed, some plainclothed — canvassing the Hauser area with fliers over the weekend. Zachary is described as 5-foot11, and weighing about 180 pounds. He has brown hair and eyes. Investigators believe he made it safely into Coos County, but that’s where the trail narrows and seemingly ends. When the investigation began in 2013, the Sheriffs Office first concentrated its search efforts in the Hauser area, but later received information placZachary Porter ing Zachary’s location somewhere between North Bank Lane near Coquille and the junction of U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 42. Deputy Jason Patterson said investigators haven’t gotten many leads since. “It’s gone pretty quiet,” he said. Myron said the story behind his son’s fateful trip involved a motorcycle he had received from a South Coast man in partial trade for a car. After Zachary posted online that he was selling the bike, its original owner contacted him, saying that he had money now and wanted to buy it back. Myron said his son planned to get a ride back to McMinnville from the man. “As was told to me from
SEE MISSING, PAGE A6
Reedsport grad is new schools chief in Salem BY STEVE LINDSLEY The Umpqua Post
Photos by Lou Sennick, The Umpqua Post
Devon Hall paddles quickly as his cardboard boats starts to tip, fill with water and sink Saturday. Racing as part of Boy Scout Troop 761, he said he “waited until it was time to get out” before abandoning ship.
Maybe cardboard wasn’t meant to float The Coast Guard Auxiliary was on hand for the safety of the sailors, but their job ended up being the rescue of a few of the cardboard boats in Tenmile Lake.
THE UMPQUA POST LAKESIDE — Were it not for the cheering crowds at Lakeside County Park, passersby might have thought a massive boating accident had occurred. Instead, the 15th annual Lakeside Cardboard Boat Races were well underway, with dozens of participants
SEE PERRY, PAGE A6
SEE BOATS, PAGE A6
For news tips, subscriptions, classified advertising or display advertising, call 541-271-7474 or email umpquapost@theworldlink.com
“Working Hard for You and Yours” Check Out Our New Site www.oregonhomesbythesea.com
Bill G.
N. Floyd
901 Hwy Ave. Reedsport 541-271-4779
Susan B.
She started her new job as the superintendent of the Salem-Keizer School District on July 1. Before that, she was superintendent of the Dallas, Ore., School District for 10 years. And, back in her past, Christy Perry is a Reedsport graduate. Of course, she Christy Perry was known as Christy Grassl back then. “I graduated in 1984,” Grassl/Perry said. “I came back for Jim Akre’s funeral (Sept. 2013) and was taken on a tour of how the high school’s been renovated.” After she graduated, Perry attended Western Oregon State College and University and Portland
Juli H.