Port Orford News
Page 4 • October 21, 2009
Centered seniors
By Beverly Dunlap
For the Port Orford News
“You will find as you look
back upon your life, that the
moments when you have really
lived, are the moments when
you have done things in a spirit
of love.”
— Henry Drummond
Do you remember Rupert? He
was a darling rooster that lived
at our house for several months,
almost a year and filled the role
of “Cock of the Walk.” I wrote
about him for several months
and I hope you remember him.
I do! With a smile on my face,
he is a happy memory.
Now, however, I have another
“Chicken” story for you.
Friends of mine have just a few
hens. They have not raised hens
in the past, but this venture has
captured their imagination and
their hearts it seems. The “top
Hanginʼ out
Hen” had an accident and broke
her leg. As they only have two
anyway, this caused a big dilem-
ma for my friends. She is the
one that laid their first egg and
she was at the top of the peck-
ing order, an important bird you
might say.
They immediately separated
her from the other hens. As you
may know, chickens can really
get after one of their own, when
it gets down, the other hens, will
gaily finish the job. So my
friends got the number one hen
into safe quarters. I was not
there, but guess there was a look
of relief on her face. That didn’t
seem to be helping her much.
The man of the couple
resourcefully found some
Styrofoam and began to but and
shape it for a chicken’s leg.
Then it was applied to the leg
like a splint and lo and behold,
the next two days has reveled
what seems to be improvement.
That is where we are today, and
we are all waiting with baited
breath for the hen to rise from
her agony. Making a splint for a
chicken is the kindest act I have
ever heard of. Hoorah chicken
fixer!
There is yet more to the story.
The injured hen has been placed
on a diet of all good foods. She
gets her grain of course; howev-
er, her grain is washed in yogurt
and served on one of the good
plates. She has constant fresh
water and is watched very
closely. Now if that isn’t an act
of love I don’t know what is!
And the punch line is she has
laid a nice fresh egg in thanks
for the special food she is get-
ting.
The chickens back leg is
beginning to relax and the toes
are moving. That is happening
now and I do believe that gentle
care can cure just about any-
thing. That “anything” can
Photo by Lance Nix
include seniors that have some
physical problems. Anything
should include any time that a
senior that is house bound gets
visited by a friend.
Acts of love are never in
excess. Acts of love will make
the giver and the receiver happy.
It is a character trait that we all
can practice and be successful at
in a grand way. Who knows,
just like the wild turkeys that
have inhabited Port Orford we
watch them and protect them
when we can and I understand
that there are four or five new
babies. These are Port
Orfordites? The turkeys are
worth our care and even fun to
watch. We are blessed to have a
wild thing decide to live with
us.
I hope this makes you happy,
and helps you toward a happy
week and helps you to make an
act of love to some critter today!
Stay happy!
This is the
time of year
when the
huge female
garden spi-
ders have
large webs
set up every
where all over
town to catch
bugs so they
can fatten up
in preparation
for laying
their eggs
before winter
sets in. I
caught this
big honey
high up on
her big web
last week,”
said
Photographer
Lance Nix.
Thanks Lance.
Veteran’s news: All branches gather in Gold Beach to discuss memorial
By Phil Colozzi
For the Port Orford News
On September 30, 2009, Curry
County Veterans from all branches of
the service got together to discuss
erecting a Veterans Memorial.
This was the first Joint conference
for the Vets, and it was held at the
Senior Center in Gold Beach around
12 noon for lunch.
Several sites were considered in
each city, Brookings, Gold Beach and
Port Orford. Each area will be evalu-
ated based on our requirements.
However, censes of opinion is leaning
toward a centrally located memorial
best suited in Gold Beach. This is
not to eliminate any chances of
Brookings and Port Orford of erecting
a smaller one for their cities.
The concern was funding, trying to
get sponsors to develop three memori-
als would be considered a duplication
and harder to justify.
Another concern was the location.
A memorial that only the Vets and
locals would be aware of would not
generate as much interest. A memori-
al that the general public sees occa-
sionally would allow them to honor
our fallen brothers and sisters often,
not to mention the traveler’s passing
though.
The Curry County Veterans
Memorial steering committee will be
meeting every two months. You don’t
have to be associated with any veter-
an’s organization to participate. In
fact, you don’t have to be a vet, if
you’re interested in the memorial or
have comments, land, talents, money
or anything free, please call Phil
Colozzi, 541-332-6490 or email me at
pcolozzi@msn.com
CHIEF, from page 1
Contributed photo
New Port Oford Police Chief Marvin Combs is shown with
his wife Lisa. The couple will be moving to Port Orford
soon and the chief hopes to be on the job by November 1.
friendly. We stopped by a couple
places, ate and talked. Everyone
seemed friendly and easy going.”
Murphy liked what he saw on
Combs resume, especially the
continuity of service and
accountability that the 31 years
in one department implied.
“He’s a person who will work
with us and has a lot of experi-
ence with search and rescue –
which involved a lot of volun-
teers and four staff members,”
said Murphy.
“That experience will help us
here – we depend on volunteers.
He’ll keep our department going
because we need our volunteers
to augment our staff.
“So I brought him before the
interview committee … .”
Which consisted of Tyson
Breuer, Jim Auborn and Gary
Doran. Other members Tom
Proctor and Doug Jamieson were
unavailable the day of the inter-
view.
The members all liked what
they saw when Combs walked
into the room.
“Wow. He was open, had good
energy, a smile and is someone I
think is going to fit in here beau-
tifully,” said Murphy.
“I believe he’ll be very profes-
sional, open and caring – every-
thing that the community has
asked for in their police depart-
ment.”
“He came across as very pro-
fessional with a
good, com-
manding pres-
ence,” said
Auborn. “He
seems very
steady
and
dependable. He’s worked in the
same department for 31 years
and worked his way up through
the ranks.
“And he wants to be involved
with the community.”
But the position brings obvi-
ous challenges, which Murphy,
with his almost year-long stint as
interim chief understand well.
“Drugs, alcohol, traffic and
theft – most of that drug-related
– we’ve got all the challenges of
any other community,” he
said.”Port Orford is not immune
– I wish we were.”
And even with Murphy’s best
efforts over the last year there
remains a lot to be done within
the department.
“We need to hire an officer,”
said Murphy. “Make sure the
department is in order and to
provide supervision as needed.
Bring us into compliance with all
state requirements. Make sure
we’re doing all the right
things.And build trust with the
community. There are a lot of
trust issues … most people are
not trusting until they have had
some exposure (to a new person
or system).”
These are challenges that
Combs understands and has
anticipated.
“We need to get staffing back
up and take a good hard look at
things,” he said. “There are
things that haven’t been done
and I’ll make sure that they will
be.”
But Combs doesn’t intend to
rush into decisions.
“I’ll come in, take a long
look it, talk to the officer
working there and get a good,
inside picture of it before
making a bunch of moves.”
But even so, he’s hurry-
ing to get to work, already.
“I’m hoping to be there and at
work by November 1,” said
Combs.
“I’ll be setting down with the
city council and everybody and
find out what direction they
want their department to head.
I’ve got my feelings on how
things should be, and my priori-
ties, and they will have, too. We
have to work together and go
forward from there.
“And I’m looking forward to
working with the community
and getting people involved.”
Involvement and volunteerism
is something that Combs is
familiar with and believes in
strongly.
“When I was transferred to
search and rescue in 2006 I
relied heavily on about 80 vol-
unteers, and it was one of the
best things I’ve done in my
career,” he said. “They were an
outstanding group of people and
without them not much can be
done.”
Combs has also served his
country, something he spoke of
quietly, but proudly.
“I’m a Vietnam veteran, U.S.
Army. It was an opportunity I
had – I seized it – and had a
great time.”
Both the Combs know that the
change from high desert in
Central Oregon to furthest point
west in the contiguous United
States at sea level is a big
change, but seem up for the
opportunity.
“Lisa came with me on the
visit and yes, it’s going to be a
pretty big move,” said Combs.
“We knew that we wanted to
come someplace – to a smaller
community – not that Bend isn’t
a nice place … .”
And Lisa brings expertise of
her own to her new community.
“She has been an office man-
ager in the sheriff’s office, an
office manager in Redmond and
managed her father’s engineer-
ing office, but things have
slowed down … .”
“You know, she wants to
help,” said Auborn, almost grin-
ning at his, and his community’s
good fortune.
Combs is also ready for a
change of weather, as well as
scenery.
“At least I’m not going to
have to shovel snow,” he said.
“And although we’ve never
lived on the coast and we know
that it’s going to get rainy, we’re
still looking forward to coming
to live in your town.”
Next comes the job of intro-
ducing the new chief to the com-
munity.
“We’ll have an open house, a
‘meet and greet,’ as well as
another police department open
house. He really wants to get out
and around the community,” said
Murphy.
As for Murphy after almost a
year he’s learned a lot about
Combs’ new job.
“Almost a year,” said Murphy
with a wry smile. “There’s a lot
to it – a tremendous amount –
and public relations is a big
piece. It’s a more complex posi-
tion that I realized and was very
much an educational experi-
ence.”
So, is Murphy sure that he’s
ready to finish filling in as
chief?
“Absolutely,” he said. “With
500 exclamation points!”
The terms of Combs’ employ-
ment are near completion, and
might entail creating a new posi-
tion for him due to his many
years of experience and seniority.
Chef David Smith
The Port & Starboard Restaurant
Homemade Desserts
Orders to go ◆ Open until 9 p.m., 7 days a week
The Best Clam Chowder in Curry County
460 Madrona Ave. & Highway 101 ◆ 541-332-4515
Port Orford’s family restaurant
Salads, pizza, pasta, steaks, fresh fish