GOLD BEACH – Curry County Commissioner George Rhodes summarized the past year, then shared some of what he sees as challenges ahead for the new year as he stepped down as chair of the county commission on Wednesday.

“This past year was challenging for largely financial reasons,” Rhodes said in a written statement.

“In anticipation of extremely challenging times ahead, the county made numerous cost saving changes and reductions. We reduced our work force from 213 employees on Jan. 1, 2011, to 169 on Jan. 1, 2012, for a net reduction of 44 employees,” he said. 

 GOLD BEACH – Curry County commissioners have again asked the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation for a six-month temporary beach restriction near Floras Lake for the western snowy plover breeding season, starting March 15.

Biologists estimate that no more than 2,270 of the endangered snowy plovers breed along the Pacific Coast of the United States.

The Pacific Coast western snowy plover is a small shorebird with pale brown to gray upper parts, gray to black legs and bill, and dark patches on the forehead, behind the eyes, and on either side of the upper breast.

The construction cost for the two-story, 26,785-square-foot Curry Campus was about $6 million. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

“Everyone is just excited,” Curry County Dean Janet Pretti said. “It’s more than they expected. Universally, that’s the most common comment I get.

GOLD BEACH – Officials were continuing to search late Tuesday for the body of a Veneta man who apparently was swept out to sea when he waded into the turbulent Pacific Ocean last Friday in an effort to rescue his dog.

The victim was identified as Kevin Cornell “K.C.” Anton, 48, who had been staying at Turtle Rock RV Park by Hunter Creek, next to the ocean.

New Police Officer Rob Johnson, left, will get help during his first few months from training officer Matt Potts. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

Rob Johnson, 42, graduated Dec. 16 from the 16-week Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem. He ranked second among 39 officers in course work at the academy.

SALEM – As of Jan. 1, drunken drivers face stiffer penalties, foster children will receive tuition waivers to attend the state’s colleges and universities, and some retired health care workers can pitch in during a state emergency.

Dozens of changes in state law took effect Sunday.

Questions are being raised about the appropriateness of a Port of Brookings Harbor commissioner’s company getting paid to upgrade the port website.

Commissioner Jim Relaford owns Mainbrace Technologies Inc., the firm that has received payment to make small changes to the website for several years, port  Manager Ted Fitzgerald said.

Now Mainbrace is completing a major renovation of the website with the port hoping to reap up to $150,000 annually from advertising.

Rescue personnel check with Evangelina Freenor and her husband Francis, center, after they rolled their truck Friday. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

A California couple escaped serious injury Friday morning when their pickup truck swerved off Highway 101 and overturned just north of Whaleshead Beach.

Francis J. Freenor, 75, and Evangelina Freenor, 77, of Windsor, Calif., were southbound in their 1999 Dodge Ram, with Francis driving, when they drifted toward the ocean, crossed a gravel shoulder, and ran up an embankment about 10:45 a.m.

The truck hit a tree and rolled back onto its roof, trapping the husband and wife inside. Soon two passing motorists stopped and rushed to their aid.

 GOLD BEACH – A man apparently walking a dog along the beach at the flooded mouth of Hunter Creek south of Gold Beach was seen swept out to sea early Friday afternoon, Police Chief Dixon Andrews said.

Officials searched the area until dark without finding either the man or the dog, with the U.S. Coast Guard continuing to search by boat and planning to return early Saturday.

“We have no idea who we are looking for and we have no reports of a missing person,” Andrews said late Friday. 

 Winter’s first big storm that blew in late Tuesday through early Friday brought a little more than 5 inches of rain to the area, although Brookings-Harbor is expected to dry out during the New Year’s Eve weekend.

Most of the recent rainfall came Wednesday and Thursday with 1.6 inches and 2 inches, respectively. That was after less than an inch fell during the first 26 days of December.

The average amount of local rainfall in December is 13 inches.