Port Orford News
THE MOST WESTERLY WEEKLY IN THE CONTIGUOUS 48 STATES
Volume 53, No. 30
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Inside
New foal
Price - Fifty Cents
Port outlines progress, process
‘Now more difficult work is ahead’ cautions Port president
Process to demand
substantial staff time
By Ed Dowdy
For the Port Orford News
Itʼs been a bountiful
spring/summer at
the Marsh Ranch on
Elk River, as
this beautiful
new filly attests.
— Page 4
The Commissioners of the
Port of Port Orford are gratified
that Governor Kulongoski has
endorsed our project,
Sustainable Fisheries,
Sustainable Ports: The Port
Orford Marine Economic
Recovery Plan, for special con-
siderations and support from
the State of Oregon. So, the ini-
tial and costly effort of the Port
and the Ocean Resource Team
has been rewarded with the
Governor’s endorsement fol-
lowing the recommendation of
his Oregon Way project-vetting
group. Now more difficult
work is ahead.
The support from the State of
Small ...
Photographer Lance
Nix has two seperate
photo layouts of “A
small world” for PON
readers to enjoy.
— Pages 4 & 5
Port Orford, Curry County, Oregon 97465
Oregon will come chiefly in the
form of endorsements of pro-
posals we submit to Federal
Agencies for funding from the
American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, otherwise
known as the ‘stimulus.’ Each
of the Agencies that has a
potential interest in seeing the
Port Orford project come to
fruition must be petitioned for
funding in the form of grants.
Some of the grants might
come with no strings attached
(preferably), and some might
require our commitment of
matching assets.
The process for competing
for these funds will require a
substantial commitment of staff
time and significant expendi-
ture of funds, with no assur-
ance of successful outcome.
We are hopeful that Oregon
State Agencies will follow the
Governor’s encouragement and
assist in this grant-seeking
process.
We wish it were as easy as
some in the Community have
come to believe. However, the
endorsement of the Governor,
though ‘golden,’ is just the first
step in attempting to capture
part of the ARRA funds.
It is likely that proposals to a
number of Federal Agencies
will be required as each
Agency individually might not
have programmatic responsibil-
ity for more than small compo-
nents of the project. In the days
ahead, we will have to explore
all possible funding avenues.
We would be remiss in our
exercise of due diligence in fol-
lowing our fiduciary responsi-
bilities to the taxpayers of the
Port District if we didn’t also
alert the taxpayers of the
increases (perhaps substantial)
in the maintenance and opera-
tions expenses, the cost of
insurance, salaries of additional
staff, and depreciation set-aside
that will all follow the con-
struction of the additional
buildings of the project.
These are exciting times,
and like all exciting times,
characterized by both joys and
pain.
We’ll need everyone’s assis-
tance in ‘pulling this off’,
working together to maximize
the joys and minimize the pain.
If these new buildings come
to fruition, the Port will be be
an even more attractive site to
all who treasure our ocean
beauty and bounty.
◆
Ed Dowdy is the President of
the Port Commission Board and
will report periodically on the
progress of the Port Orford
Marine Economic Recovery
Plan.
Tales of strange, but heroic, travels
From Georgia to Port Orford’s beaches - by dirtbike
Scary ...
By Sherry Johnson
For the Port Orford News
Nothing to yell about,
just a fun picture of
some of the locals
showing teeth.
— Page 5
Coming up
Port Orford Rotary Club
The Port Orford Rotary Club meets each Thursday,
at noon, at the Port Orford American Legion Hall.
Vacation Bible School
Kids 6-12 can sign up for Vacation Bible School for
the week of Aug. 3-7 at POCC. See page 4 for details.
Saturday childrenʼs art
Enjoy Lavendar Winds with Kelly Fleming this
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the library.
Also inside
Rays Food Place, McKayʼs Market & Hennickʼs “Do
It Best” Home Hardeware
News briefs
Congratulations on a baby boy
Kampbell Grant Kudlac, weigning 10 lbs., 6 1/4 oz., was
born July 20 at Bay Area Hospital.
The proud parents are Grant and Shala Kudlac, the grand-
parents are Robert and Gloria McKenzie and Phil and Pam
Kudlac. The great grandparents are Beverly McKenzie and
Harry and Leta Strain.
Pastor Mark Newman to take new post
Pastor Mark Newman of Port Orford’s First Community
Church is reportedly going to take the Senior Pastor position
in the Powellhurst Baptist Church in Portland.
As a result the Newman family is leaving on Tuesday,
July 28.
‘Free Flight’ to hold major fundraiser
“Mending Wings and Songs to Sing,” a fundraiser variety
show and silent auction for Free Flight Bird and Marine
Mammal Rehabilitation Center will be held at 7 p.m.,
Thursday, July 30, at the Sprague Community Theater, 1202
11th St. S.W. in Bandon’s City Park.
The event is funded and organized by the Bandon High
School Ecology Club and other local volunteers.
The doors open at 6:30, at which time the opening band
will provide entertainment for people who wish to browse
the silent auction or find their seats early. Tickets are avail-
able at Bandon True Value Hardware in Bandon or Shark
Bites in Coos Bay and cost $5 for students and $8 for
adults.
All proceeds of the event will go to Free Flight, a private,
nonprofit wildlife hospital which provides medical attention
and rehabilitation to Oregon’s orphaned birds, mammals and
marine mammals. Since its inception, Free Flight has cared
for thousands of animals, from raptors to bear cubs, and
focuses on public education and awareness.
See BRIEFS page 4
Last Saturday night in Pitch’s Tavern, two
road weary dirt bike riders celebrated the
end of their journey, and the attainment of a
life long goal. Frank Mann and Elton Mile
road their dirt bikes from Georgia across
America to Port Orford, that is 5,300 dusty
miles off road, in 25 days, staying all the
time on dirt roads and trails.
Frank said he was so thrilled when he
came over the last mountain and saw the
Pacific ahead of him and the rocks that lay
offshore south of Port Orford. When they
reached town Saturday afternoon, they took
their bikes down onto Battle Rock Beach
just so they could say they had reached the
Pacific Ocean.
Frank laughed when he told the crowd at
Pitch’s, that when he parked his bike on the
edge of the surf and backed up to take a
photo of it, a wave snuck in and the bike
started to sink in the sand and it wasn’t easy
getting it out.
Both the men were riding for charities,
Frank, who is 40, was riding for AFLAC
Children’s Cancer Center and Elton, who is
25, and served in the Marines in Iraq, was
riding for the Wounded Warrior Project.
See DIRTBIKE page 2
Photo by Sherry Johnson
Frank Mann is shown celebrating the end of his journey at Pitchʼs Tavern. In this
picture local Carla Hensley shows Mann what one of the local agates looks like.
CCEC board of director OKs rate increase
A 7.5 percent increase will
take effect on October 1,
and that might not be all
The Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative, Inc.
(CCEC) board of directors approved a 7.5
percent overall increase in the cost of elec-
tricity at their regularly-scheduled meeting
last Friday. The increase will take effect
October 1.
Another 7.5 percent overall rate increase is
forecasted for next April.
For residential consumers, the monthly
minimum charge will remain at $22.75 for
the October rate adjustment and the kilowatt
hour charge will increase from 6.3 cents to
6.9 cents. The winter declining block rate of
5.3 cents per kilowatt hour was eliminated in
a move toward more conservation-based
rates. The average monthly increase for a res-
idential consumer is between $6.79 and
$8.10. The monthly minimum charge will be
evaluated again prior to the April rate adjust-
ment.
The decision came after months of discus-
sion about the cooperative’s finances, pro-
jected revenue needs, cost of service study
data, wholesale power rates and economic
times.
The cooperative last raised rates in 2004
and decreased rates nearly three years
ago.
“Even though we projected a need for a 15
percent increase in rates over the next couple
of years, implementing the rate increase in
stages is consistent with the board’s philoso-
phy of only collecting enough revenue from
the membership to meet financial parameters
and maintain reasonable margins,” General
Manager/CEO Roger Meader said. “The sec-
ond half of the rate increase is a forecasted
amount because there are still a lot of
unknowns out there such as what Congress
might impose on electric utilities under cap-
and-trade legislation, what the state of
Oregon might require us to do to address cli-
mate change or what our own revenue needs
will be based on the local economy.”
Staff presented numerous scenarios for the
board’s consideration based on the discus-
sions held over the past several months and
the cost of service study information. The
main driver, representing over 5 percent of
the October rate increase and what is
See CCEC page 2
Demonstration garden has led to a ‘very busy spring, summer’
By Jennifer Ewing
For the Port Orford News
It's been a very busy spring
and summer, and I have neg-
lected to let the community
know what is going on in the
Port Orford Educational
Demonstration Garden
(POEDG) behind the Senior
Center.
As a project of the Sunset
Garden Club of Port Orford, the
POEDG was honored with a
grant of $3,070 by the Meyer
Memorial Trust in October of
2008. Those funds have allowed
the Garden to reach out to the
county with workshops that
were well attended, providing
information on a wide variety of
garden topics.
The grant money also
allowed us to build two of the
beds higher to demonstrate how
they will accommodate garden-
ers in wheelchairs, and let gar-
deners with knee, hip or back
problems garden while standing
up.
Through the winter, the gar-
den flourished with kale, chard,
onions, beets, arugula, garlic
and herbs.
If you visit the POEDG now,
you will find salad greens,
strawberries (a new addition!),
tomatoes, potatoes, kale, chard,
squash, onions, pole beans and
bush beans, beets, and four
kinds of radishes.
All of the gardens are covered
in netting to keep the deer from
munching, and the tomatoes
have a covering of plastic to give
them a warm, greenhouse-like
structure to grow in. All of this is
supported by an easy to build
and easy to use hoop system.
See GARDEN page 2
Garden tour
Photo by
Donna Smith
ʻI was on the
garden tour
Saturday
and this is a
shot of Kirk
Johnson's
lily/fish
pond, it was
just lovely,ʼ
wrote Donna
Smith.