Volunteers oversee preparation of toys and canned food. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The local Toys for Tots program, sponsored by the Marine Corps League Detachment 578, is in dire need of toys.

“The economic crunch is being heavily felt by the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program this year. Our collection boxes are bringing in only a fraction of what is needed to provide gifts to the needy children in the community,” Bill Cochran, coordinator for the program for Curry and Del Norte counties wrote in a statement.

In past years, the organization has been able to give children a couple of toys and a stocking stuffer. This year, Cochran said, each child will be lucky to get one toy and a stocking stuffer.

 GOLD BEACH – The Curry County Board of Commissioners at a special meeting Wednesday removed Greg Empson as a member of the Citizens’ Committee after Empson filed as a candidate for the commission.

The committee was created and started meeting earlier this month to explore options to address the county’s pending financial crisis 

Commissioner David Itzen said that when the committee was formed, the commissioners purposely decided that no one running for commissioner should be appointed. At least two already announced candidates for commissioner had applied.

A truck crosses the Chetco River near Loeb State Park last summer. It stalled out a few seconds later and had to be towed out by another vehicle. Pilot file photo

“At this point, you can have a monster truck race up and down the river,” said John Minoletti, a member of the Chetco River Watershed Council. The non-profit organization made the request to the Oregon Department of State Lands.

Minoletti said the worst problem exists near Loeb State Park.

GOLD BEACH – Curry General Hospital this week is laying off 10 percent of its employees in an effort to stem substantial losses suffered by the hospital over the past two years.

The Curry Health District Board of Directors voted last week to accept the recommendation of their consultants and cut 22 of the 210 employees at the hospital.

“Curry Health District and its employees are indeed facing a financial challenge along with many other small and rural hospitals in Oregon,” Bill McMillan, chief executive officer of Curry General Hospital Health Network said in an email to the Pilot on Tuesday.

Greg Empson

“I’m displeased with the way county government is run. They’ve brought us to the brink of bankruptcy,” Empson said.

The Brookings City Council on Monday rejected a request by Salmon Run golf course officials to delay lease payments for two years.

However, in a rare split vote, the council reduced the annual lease amount from $30,000 required in the contract to $15,000. Payments  will begin in February.

Officer Marvin Parker

He realized that goal by working part of his career with Brookings Police Department as a school resource officer at Azalea Middle School and Brookings-Harbor High School.

Crabbers Jerry Howard, left, and Willy Goergen are ready to go. The Pilot/Steve Kadel

Christmas won’t be merry for Brookings-Harbor crab fishermen.

The commercial season from Gold Beach to Point Arena, Calif., a couple of hours north of San Francisco, has been delayed until Jan. 15 ­ – the latest local start ever.

“We have already written off Christmas,” said fisherman Bill Wood. “The tree is there, but there’s nothing underneath it.”

 GOLD BEACH – State forestry officials said that treatment of a 20-acre core area of an infestation of Sudden Oak Death (SOD) discovered recently at Cape Sebastian State Park was almost complete.

“The core area will be done tomorrow (Friday),” Sudden Oak Death Forester Stacy K. Savona said at a meeting in Gold Beach Thursday night. “It’s cut and burned.”

“We are getting excellent cooperation from State Parks, fair from ODOT,” Alan Kanaskie, forest pathologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry, said at the meeting.

 GOLD BEACH – Curry County commissioners voted to forgive $190,000 in loans from the county general fund to the Public Health Department on Wednesday, then began the task of finding some agency to take over that department.

Commissioner George Rhodes noted the county is in financial straits, but he said it was necessary to forgive the $160,000 loan made on June 29, 2007 and $30,000 on Oct. 19, 2009.