Terry Clawson with some of the 13,400 letters headed to U.S. military members worldwide. The Pilot / Lorna Rodriguez

Military members around the world will receive 13,400 letters this year from 25 Brookings-Harbor residents telling them how much their service is appreciated. 

It’s all part of the “military mail” project coordinated by the Emblem Club #265 Americanism program. 

“I do it because it helps the military,” Americanism chair Terry Clawson said. “If one soldier gets a letter that would not get one otherwise, it makes me happy. One letter can make a difference to a soldier.”

Military mail supports the national program “Troop Fan Mail,” which sends letters to military members around the world. 

Curry County commissioners have tabled indefinitely the idea of making panhandling illegal in the county, citing freedom of speech issues and staffing problems at the Sheriff’s Office.

Panhandlers are most active in Harbor, county commissioners agree, but there is little that can be done to deter their presence, which business owners complain about to the commission board on a fairly regular basis.

According to county attorney Jerry Herbage, who contacted numerous municipalities and counties to see how they handle the problem, Brookings does not have an ordinance on the books so police work with property owners to deal with trespassing problems instead. Gold Beach and Port Orford, too, don’t have such ordinances, either.

Curry County residents could have the choice of paying higher property taxes or face home insurance cost hikes of about 60 percent.

That’s what’s happening in Josephine County, Curry County Sheriff John Bishop pointed out at a Curry County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday.

Josephine County, facing the same fiscal challenges that face Curry County, eliminated its sheriff’s office road patrol – and crime has skyrocketed. Bishop said a police officer who recently relocated to Curry County said it was common for an officer to have to pull his gun twice a day – something that rarely happens in counties with adequate law enforcement.

The Curry County Sheriff’s Office is looking to the public for help in solving a case in which vandals broke into the Cedar Bend Golf Course seven miles north of Gold Beach and damaged golf carts, buildings and grounds.

According to Sheriff John Bishop, an employee from the golf course called the sheriff at 7:22 a.m. Nov. 6 to report the damage.

Sheriff’s Deputy Joel Hensley and Det. Dave Gardner determined someone broke into the storage buildings where golf carts were stored.

Curry County commissioners are urging the public to attend a special meeting Nov. 20, where they will hear comments regarding the transfer of four county-owned properties to nonprofit organizations.

The plan – part of the county’s efforts to downsize government in light of the dire fiscal situation it faces – is that the nonprofit organizations will then take over the duties of those county departments and operate from those buildings.

Divestiture of the largest of these departments, Health and Human Services (HHS), will result in an overall reduction of 50 percent of county staff since 2011. That transition is hoped to be finished by the end of the year. The services of that department will now be operated under the auspices of the nonprofit Curry Community Health.

Cars rolled up to the white ballot box at Brookings City Hall last night – scant minutes before the polls closed.

And by the end of the night, the County Clerk and Elections office determined that the two open county commissioner seats will be occupied by Susan Brown and David Brock Smith. The elections results are not yet official.

Susan Brown beat out Greg Empson by a vote of 5,969  to 3,389; Smith defeated Lucie La Bonté by a 5,849 to 4,344 margin, as of the Curry Coastal Pilot deadline.

Brookings city workers hope to pour concrete for the landing between the sidewalk and the skateboard park and ramp at Bud Cross Park today (Nov. 7), despite vandalism to the skate park and restrooms there over the weekend.

Vandals poured mortar mix into two toilets in the women’s restroom and into the skate park, clogging one toilet and the drain at the bottom of the bowl of the skateboard park.

City officials did not have an estimate of the damage by press time Tuesday.

The Brookings City Council is paring down its list of committees, boards, groups, districts and other organizations – some of which were deemed nonproductive or irrelevant to the city’s needs – its members have attended as liaisons over the years.

“We’re getting down to being more of a working council,” said Mayor Ron Hedenskog in a workshop Monday afternoon. “People only have so much time. People have to work. This is a volunteer job. Some of these groups meet in the middle of the day. There’s travel. … It all gets old after awhile.”

Hedenskog said many entities are still of vital importance to the city, including, among others, special districts in Harbor, the Port of Brookings Harbor and the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority.

Actors take their positions during the filming of a wedding scene at Harris Beach Tuesday morning. The Pilot / Lorna Rodriguez

The cast and crew of “Redwood Highway,” a feature film about a woman in her 70s who walks from the Rogue Valley to the Southern Oregon Coast to see the ocean for the first time in 45 years, filmed a wedding scene Tuesday at Harris Beach State Park.

“We were doing lots of scouting, and this seemed like the most accessible beach,” production manager Anne Lundgren said. “This is just a gorgeous beach.”