Head Coach Heather Bowers leads children in a tip-it-over, pick-it-up cone game during a Playworks session at Kalmiopsis Elementary School. The Pilot/Lorna Rodriguez

Two teams: the Tip-it-Uppers versus the Tip-it-Overs.

One minute of elementary students frantically running around and squealing with delight.

Goal: to either knock down the orange cones or pick them up, depending on which team one is on.

At the end of one minute, the cones are counted.

The 2011 weather year is going out like it came in: dry.

Even with heavy rain in the forecast for the next few days, December is clearly going to end up with less rainfall than normal.

Debris drifts away as boat is uprighted before being raised from the water. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The boat, registered to Harbor resident Mark Kizzire, was floating hull up when the U.S. Coast Guard arrived and pulled all three victims to safety.

“The captain stated that he hit a rock and capsized,” Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Joe Habel said. 

The Meyer Memorial Trust has announced a $200,000 grant to Southwestern Oregon Community College for construction and equipment at the new Curry Campus in Brookings.

The staff had received the keys to the new building earlier this month, but officials had been clear that funds were still needed to finish the project.

GOLD BEACH – Curry General Hospital will offer a 30 percent discount to several hundred people currently making minimum payments to their hospital bills if they can pay off those bills by the end of January.

The Curry Health District Board of Directors voted at Wednesday’s meeting to offer the discounts as a way of increasing cash on hand.

“We talked about looking at accounts people are making minimum payments on, almost $700,000 tied up with people making $50 to $200 payments a month,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Sayler told the board.

GOLD BEACH – His defense attorney on Thursday unsuccessfully argued for a conditional release and then a reduced bail for Patrick Edward Fitzstephens, charged with placing a dangerous explosive chemical in the Curry Public Library’s book return chute, which burned a man who was returning videos.

“This was a practical joke gone wrong,” attorney Nathan Garcia said in Curry County Circuit Court. “Everybody knows there was no malice whatsoever.”

Garcia argued that Fitzstephens, 50, is a fixture in the county, born and raised here, and is not a flight risk.

GOLD BEACH – The Curry Hospital District expects to save more than $1 million annually as the result of cutting back staff as the first part of recommendations by its consultants in an effort to stem substantial losses suffered by the hospital over the past two years.

“We’ve done the first half, with 23 positions eliminated last week,” Bill McMillan, chief executive officer of Curry General Hospital Health Network said Wednesday at the regular meeting of the health district’s board of directors.

He said those cutbacks would save $928,000 in direct salary, or $1.1 million counting benefits.

Curry County Commissioner George Rhodes, right, speaks to Gov. John Kitzhaber about Curry County’s financial situation. The Pilot/Submitted photo.

GOLD BEACH – Curry County Commissioner George Rhodes said he was pleasantly surprised when he and commissioners from nine other counties met with Gov. Kitzhaber and his staff in Salem on Monday to discuss the plight of their counties with the loss of federal forest payments.

“The governor is very aware and very supportive of what we’re doing,” Rhodes said. “He made his staff available to assist us in any way we felt they could help.” 

Rhodes said the governor made it clear that he would help the counties in any way he can, except money.

Gold Beach Police Chief Dixon Andrews and Curry Public Library Director Rochelle Carr inspect book return chute where exploding chemicals were found. The Pilot/Valliant Corley

GOLD BEACH – A 50-year-old Gold Beach man was arrested late Tuesday on multiple charges for placing a dangerous explosive chemical in the Curry Public Library’s book return chute which burned a man who was returning videos.

Patrick Fitzstephens was charged with first-degree arson, manufacturing an explosive device, recklessly endangering and other charges after Gold Beach police, assisted by state agencies and the FBI, worked on evidence left at the scene. 

Police Chief Dixon Andrews said police worked into the night on Monday and identified a suspect.

The Pilot/Jef Hatch

It couldn’t have been a more perfect year for Nature’s Coastal Holiday as there was never a night when the event was closed because of bad weather.

Five nights remain for the show at Azalea Park, which has been decorated with more than 400,000 lights. Santa Claus plans to make a visit during the last three nights – Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 22, 23 and 24.