Just a week after the commercial crab season was delayed until Dec. 31, Brookings-Harbor fishermen are facing a huge setback: they will no longer be able to fish in one of their most lucrative spots starting today (Dec. 19) because of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) ban designed to help restore depleted fish populations.

Pyramid Point State Marine Conservation Area, also known by fishermen as “the mud hole,” is about three nautical miles south of the border.

“What it’s going to mean, is that we’re going to be tripping over ourselves in other areas,” said Bernie Lindley, president of the Brookings Fishermen’s Marketing Association. 

Jeff Lee has been instrumental in creating new scenarios for firefighter drills. The Pilot/Jane Stebbins

Call it trial by water.

Brookings Fire Rescue Capt. Jeff Lee was hired from the ranks of the fire department last month to become a paid captain and training officer – the same day as the torrential rainstorm struck the Oregon coast.

He and the other firefighters spent the next several days sandbagging, clearing ditches, directing traffic, diverting water – everything but fighting fires. In the middle of it all, a call came in for a flooded and collapsed ceiling at the Rush Surgery Center.

Volunteer Harbor firefighters cut a whole in the roof of a storage unit to vent the structure Monday morning. The Pilot/Submitted by Nathaniel Warner

Brookings and Harbor volunteer firefighters quickly extinguished two separate blazes Monday morning, keeping flames from spreading to nearby structures.

The causes of the fires were unknown and investigation of both incidents continues, authorities said. 

Firefighters responding to the 3 a.m. report of a commercial building on fire on King Street in Brookings, arrived to find a recreational vehicle and a carport completely involved in flames. At one point a transformer on a nearby power pole exploded, said Harbor Fire Chief John Brazil.

Visitors to Brookings’ Azalea Park find a dazzling array of lighted bushes, sidewalks and structures that make up Nature’s Coastal Holiday, an annual display that features an estimated 450,000 lights. The Pilot/Bill Schlichting

People who have a wish list for Santa Claus began to flock to his lap Friday night when he made his appearance at Nature’s Coastal Holiday, the 16th annual light show at Azalea Park.

For those who missed the jolly elf, he plans to make more appearances at the park’s gazebo, including one tonight (Dec. 15) from 6 to 8, as well as Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Dec. 22, 23 and 24.

Clear, but cold, nights have also been bringing people to the light show, open from 5 to 9 every night through Christmas, in search of clues for the Twinkle Treasure Hunt, which offers a chance to win a $100 cash prize.

Short on funds, sure. But the Curry County Sheriff’s Office is anything but short on dedication.

That was shown last week when the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association (OSSA) presented eight awards to dedicated staff and heroic citizens for going above and beyond the call of duty in the course of their days. The awards were announced during the state Sheriff’s Association annual conference in Bend.

“This is a remarkable achievement for such a small Sheriff’s Office,” said Sheriff John Bishop.

Volunteers with the Curry County Trash Dogs, who thought they were done with the year’s activities were surprised Wednesday morning when a resident reported someone had dumped a large load of trash over an embankment almost two miles up Peavine Ridge Road along the Winchuck River.

“Sixteen tires, a couch, a recliner chair, refrigerator, a kitchen stove, a large davenport, an alternator, cans of used oil and kerosene, aluminum roofing sheets, a king-sized mattress, a pile of bed frames, 140 square feet of carpet, many bags of garbage, and on and on,” said organizer Ed Gross. “We had two trailer loads and one pickup full of tires.”

One trailer was filled with metal and taken to be recycled.

Daryl Chrystyn Cotner of Brookings was sentenced earlier this week to 21 to 22 months in prison for first-degree arson after burning up a rental truck and recycling bins and attempting to start fires near the Brookings Inn Resort in mid-July.

According to assistant district attorney Carly Kruse, Cotner was caught on video in the area before the fires were reported.

He started fires behind a fenced area near the hotel, and an employee’s vehicle was found in the parking lot with its gas cap off. A 55-gallon recycling bin was destroyed and an adjacent one melted in that fire.

Brookings-Harbor High School’s mentor program, ASPIRE, is in desperate need of volunteers; there are currently six for nearly 230 students.

“We have a lot of kids that don’t have mentors because we don’t have enough,” Academic Dean and ASPIRE coordinator Kathleen Dingle said. 

ASPIRE stands for Access to Student assistance Programs in Reach of Everyone. The Oregon organization helps students create a plan for after high school, educates students and families about the scholarship application process and gives students direct contact with the community, according to a brochure on the program. 

Curry Coastal Pilot/ Jef Hatch Curry County commercial fishermen have stacked thousands of prepared crab pots at the Port of Brookings Harbor in anticipation of the start of the crab season, now set for Dec. 31. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

That means no locally-caught crab for Christmas — but Brookings-Harbor fishermen are not bothered by it. 

Plans to fill in a pool of water that prevents some vehicles from accessing Social Security Bar, a popular fishing spot on the Chetco River, have been delayed by state and federal agencies that believe the eddy could be sustainable salmon habitat.

The Brookings City Council discussed the popular gravel bar at a meeting last month, noting semantics revolving around whether the water-filled ditch is now part of the river, and rule changes that have muddied what councilors feel should be a simple project.