What Sheriff John Bishop believes he’s facing after Tuesday’s defeat of a public safety property tax is hardly the stuff of childhood Wild, Wild West games.

Now, it’s the real thing.

Alice Farmer, Sue Chambers and Katherine Johnson are the newest members of the Brookings-Harbor School District, all three elected into a four-year term. Three incumbents running for reelection were defeated.

Incumbent Sue Gold and newcomer Tim Patterson will be the next Port of Brookings Harbor commissioners, according to Tuesday’s unofficial special election results.

Gold defeated challenger Roger Thompson for Position 4 by a vote of 1,566 to 1,049 (59.54 percent to 39.89 percent).

Damp, chilly weather is forecast for the beginning days of the 74nd Azalea Festival, which starts Thursday and continues through Memorial Day in Brookings and Harbor. However, clearing skies are expected for the weekend, just in time for Saturday’s 10 a.m. parade, street fair, Party at the Port and many other community events.

A group of friends discuss Measure 8-71 during their morning coffee klatch at Fred Meyer Friday. The Pilot/Jane Stebbins

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” said Jim Cross of Harbor, who was sipping coffee with two friends at Ray’s Food Place in Brookings on Friday. “I was a police officer in Montana, and I’ve seen way worse. This has to stop.”

The “Help Wanted” classified that ran for two weeks in the Curry Coastal Pilot and Del Norte Triplicate newspapers seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

Small ports along the Oregon Coast could get much-needed dredging if a bill approved by the U.S. Senate earlier this week is also approved by the House of Representatives.

An amendment sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, is part of a water resources bill and could increase the chances money would be allocated to small, shallow-draft ports.

Curry County residents should approve the public safety levy on the May 21 ballot, Gov. John Kitzhaber said in a statement released this week.

Kitzhaber also said county and city leaders need to be unified in getting the county’s financial house in order, and that House Bill 3453 will be approved and serve as a contingency plan if the levy fails.

Kelly Wilson smiled when she noticed, from her office at Harbor Sanitation District, a river otter as it rolled in the sun on the warm asphalt parking lot last year.

She watched as salmon season rolled around and the critter quickly learned how to shimmy under the fence of the fish cleaning station and steal carcasses, swinging open the door and making its escape to the Chetco River below.