The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Friday, December 9, 2022
Oregon Beach Weather
HAZARDOUS SEAS WARNING ISSUED: 1:35 AM DEC. 9, 2022 – NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST THIS MORNING... ...STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 4 AM PST SATURDAY... ...HAZARDOUS SEAS WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO 4 PM PST SATURDAY... * WHAT...Southwest winds 15 to 25 kt with gusts up to 35 kt and steep seas 11 to 13 ft through this morning. Winds become southerly late this morning and increase to storm force 40 to 50 kt with gusts up to 60 kt with dangerous very steep and very high seas 20 to 25 ft at 13 seconds today. Winds ease Saturday morning, becoming southwest to west 15 to 25 kt, but seas remain very steep and hazardous 15 to 20 ft at 14 seconds. * WHERE...All areas. * WHEN...For the Small Craft Advisory, until 10 AM PST this morning. For the Storm Warning, from 10 AM this morning to 4 AM PST Saturday. For the Hazardous Seas Warning, from 4 AM to 4 PM PST Saturday. * IMPACTS...Very strong winds and very steep seas could capsize or damage vessels. Visibilities will be significantly reduced. * View the hazard area in detail at https://go.usa.gov/x6hks
The Brookings Harbor Community Helpers are holding the Drive-Thru Holiday Food Drive event from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9th.
Instead of receiving food at the local drive-thru, community members will be handing out food and monetary donations from their vehicle windows and popping their trunks for a special holiday fundraiser.
Community members are invited to “Drive Thru” the alley adjacent to their food warehouse and community resource center facilities at 539 Hemlock Street to drop off donations.
This is the third year the Brookings Harbor Community Helpers will be holding the event to help local families and stock their food shelves.
“We have always depended on fundraisers to raise our food money and keep everything stocked,” said Pam Winebarger, Brookings Harbor Community Helpers co-director.
But staff and volunteers found themselves in a hard place in 2020 when the pandemic hit. They had to think creatively to keep donations coming in.
“We had several fundraisers in place and then in 2020 everything stopped and suddenly nothing was happening. We got together and thought, ‘What can we do?’”
The local community helpers found food banks in other states creating drive-through donation “events” and decided they would hold one too.
“It was so successful. People loved it. So, we did it a second year and again it was very successful,” Winebarger said. “It has become an annual fundraiser.”
The Curry County Cruisers lead the way to start off the event. “Then everybody drives through one vehicle a time, and we greet them with our volunteers and staff,” Winebarger said.
“Santa Claus pops in and out. And we give out candy canes and dog treats. They give us their monetary and food donations and then they drive out. It’s that quick,” she said.
The nonprofit director said the event has become a fun and easy way for community members to donate to a good cause. In the first two years – over a total of four hours – Brookings Harbor Community Helpers raised more than $5,000 and about 3,200 pounds of food.
Brookings Harbor Community Helpers is nonprofit that has been growing to try to keep up with a growing need. They provide food services through the food bank, family food boxes, youth snack packs and senior fresh foods project. They also help community members through a resource center that provides assistance with anything from filling out work and housing applications to applying for SNAP benefits.
Winebarger said they are in need of monetary donations as well as nonperishable food staples such as peanut butter & jelly, snack packs, granola bars, canned fruits and vegetables, chili, tuna, tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce and dry goods such as rice, beans, pasta and cereal.
The Brookings Harbor Community Helpers director said she is thankful for those in our community who donate to help others.
“For me, I think it’s important to understand that anyone can be affected by food insecurity. You could have a good job one day and the next day you don’t. Your kids are hungry and you are hungry – and it could be any of us. So it’s a good thing to give back or pay it forward,” she said.
More information about the Brookings Harbor Community Helpers can be found on their Facebook page, or on their website http://www.brookingsharborfoodbank.org
Landslide Work Continues on Hwy 30 – Daytime Travel to Start Again on Monday
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) crews are making progress in clearing a massive debris slide that closed Highway 30 between Clatskanie and Astoria Nov. 29th.
Daytime travelers will once again be able to use U.S. 30 between Astoria and Clatskanie beginning Monday, Dec. 12.
The Oregon Department of Transportation has kept travel lanes closed during daytime hours as crews work to clear the landslide that happened Nov. 29. One lane has been open between 4 p.m.-8 a.m. with flaggers directing traffic since Dec. 4. Daytime travelers will also be flagged through a single lane beginning Monday and should expect delays in the area.
Crews have been working on rock scaling on the hillside which must be done during daylight. Work in the slide area will continue and drivers should use extreme caution and obey flaggers and work crews in the area.
ODOT has no estimated date when all lanes will open for travel. Next week’s work will include the scaling of large sections of loose rock and continued clearing of landslide debris.
Visit TripCheck.com for updated information. Travelers are warned to not use GPS programs to find detours as many roads in the area are not maintained for winter travel conditions.
If you travel Highway at night, please slow to an extra cautious speed, watch for flaggers and expect a delay at the work site. For daytime travel between Portland and the coast, ODOT recommends drivers use Highway 26 as the alternative route.
ODOT Pilot Project South Of Yachats Is Testing Ground For Bike Route All Along The Oregon Coast
A traffic project just south of downtown Yachats will make the town a testing ground for new safety measures that could extend all along the 370-mile Oregon Coast bike route.
The project area extends from Ocean View Drive south to Bayview Terrace.
If the installation of next-generation “delineators” slows cars and boosts safety for cyclists and pedestrians traveling along U.S. Highway 101, the traffic separators could soon be popping up in narrow, congested areas up and down the coast.
“We’ve had a lot of complaints from people feeling unsafe along there,” said Rick McClung, the city’s streets and water supervisor. “So we’re happy to be the guinea pig for this new technology.”
The state of Oregon is providing $40,000 to pay for materials and installation. McClung told the city’s Public Works & Streets Commission last month that there was a small surprise in the agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation – it would pay $20,000 up front and then reimburse the city the remaining $20,000 after the delineators were installed.
After that, the city has agreed to take over maintenance of the delineators. Installation is expected to be completed by next summer.
The delineators, also known as “candlesticks,” poke up vertically out of plastic polymer curbing. They are 28 inches in height and will be placed about one foot inside the highway’s west-side fog line.
“The idea is that drivers will see the delineators and not drift across the fog line,” McClung said. “The speed limit there is 25 miles per hour, but motorists are tending to hit the gas because they think they’ve left the Yachats city limits behind them.”
As much as the traffic-calming effort will aid local pedestrians, it will also benefit the estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people who ride the Oregon Coast Bike Route annually, said Jenna Berman, an Oregon Department of Transportation staffer in Corvallis who helps the agency decide and plan on pedestrian and bicycle projects for the region.
“We are working with the city to try something that really hasn’t been tried a lot along the coast,” she said. “It’s definitely something of a pilot project.”
The route runs from Astoria south to Brookings and, according to surveys, generates more than $56 million in tourism spending. However, a number of gaps exist in terms of cycling safety, Berman said.
The Yachats project is just one example of where planners are trying different approaches to make the route more comfortable for both cyclists and pedestrians hiking the 382-mile-long Oregon Coast Trail.
The Yachats delineators will also help determine how durable the new technology is over time.
“We are really hoping it holds up well and can be used for years to come,” Berman said. “We are learning as we go, but this project represents an important test for how we can address other problem spots along the route.”
What amounts to a second phase of the current plan calls for widening the highway’s right-of-way to extend full new sidewalks from downtown Yachats to the bridge over the Yachats River.
McClung said that plan is nowhere near anyone’s front burner, but added that ground could be broken on the extension sometime within the next five years.
The cliff on the highway’s east side would need widening, he said, while a retaining wall would need to be built to stabilize the hillside and protect pedestrians.
Theoretically, he added, someone could then start walking south on the 804 Trail at the Adobe motel north of town, arrive in Yachats and proceed along Ocean View Drive. They would then come out onto the highway and head south on new sidewalks, crossing the bridge before turning down Yachats Ocean Road.
And if they were in decent physical condition, he said, they could continue on up to Cape Perpetua, all without ever having to deal directly with cars. “It will totally tie north and south Yachats together,” McClung said.
MORE INFO: https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Projects/Project%20Documents/Final-OCBR-Plan.pdf
Doctors Urging Oregonians to Put Masks Back on When Indoors
With cases of RSV and the flu forcing hospitals into crisis mode, local physicians and state officials are encouraging the public to put the mask back on when indoors.
“Anytime you have to go to an indoor crowded area during this surge, if you and your child can wear a mask, that will help protect the [health care] resources,” said Wendy Hasson, the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel. “Now is not the time to go to crowded indoor places like indoor birthday parties, play places, restaurants, grocery stores… Anything you can do to keep your child out of a crowded indoor area will help.”
The entire media briefing is available to watch on the OHA YouTube:
Hasson and three other physicians joined state epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger Thursday for Oregon Health Authority’s monthly COVID-19 media briefing, which focused on the strain being put on hospitals due to respiratory illnesses.
Sidelinger called the situation in Oregon hospitals “extremely serious.”
“Today, more hospitals are reaching a point of crisis in their adult bed capacity just as our pediatric hospitals moved to crisis care standards in the past two weeks,” he said. “The combination of surging flu, RSV and COVID-19 cases is pushing hospitals past their current ICU bed capacity, which never happened during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Oregon.”
Sidelinger also strongly encouraged Oregonians to put their masks back on when they are in a crowded indoor space.
“We know what works to keep our families and our neighbors safe. Wear a mask when you’re in crowded indoor places this winter and stay up to date on your vaccinations,” Sidelinger said. “Masks work. During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregonians wore masks at higher rates than people did in most other states. Oregon had one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the nation. Our hospitals were never overwhelmed. And we saved more than 5,000 lives.”
Matthias Merkel, a senior associate chief medical officer at OHSU, echoed those same sentiments.
“Definitely wear a mask if you go in public places,” he said. “Definitely get all your vaccines to really minimize the risk that you are the next patient in one of our totally full emergency rooms, waiting for the next ICU bed to be made available for you.”
Portland Store Selling Psychedelic Mushrooms Raided
A store that had been openly and illegally selling psychedelic mushrooms in Portland was raided by police on Thursday, authorities said.
In the past week, the business garnered national media attention and customers flocked to it.
In recent weeks, Shroom House allegedly sold the magic mushrooms, announcing its grand opening via Twitter in late October. The store’s logo — a mushroom straight out of a fairy tale complete with a red-and-white cap and a door and windows — was shown on a Portland billboard and on a sign outside.
Police served a search warrant at the retailer in the Northwest District neighborhood the Portland Police Bureau said in a news release. Investigators seized about 22 pounds of suspected mushrooms and over $13,000 in cash, police said.
The seized drugs field-tested presumptive positive for psilocybin, police said, and a representative sample will be sent to the Oregon State Police crime lab to be confirmed.
Steven Tachie, Jr., 32, and Jeramiahs Geronimo, 32, were booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on suspicion of 10 counts each of money laundering and 10 counts each of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school. Two other men were cited for alleged felony delivery of psilocybin, police said.
In 2020, Oregon became the first state in the country to legalize the use of psilocybin for people 21 and older in a controlled, therapeutic environment under the supervision of trained facilitators.
But the ballot measure, approved by 56 percent of voters, did not allow for retail sale — and legalization won’t take effect until next month. In November, Colorado became the second state to pass a measure legalizing psychedelic mushrooms. The drugs are still federally illegal.
Update: Human remains found near I-5 in Marion County
Update: There is an active forensic investigation underway and efforts are being made to identify this person. Ancestry has not been determined, nor has the length of time that elapsed prior to the discovery. Analysis and examination is ongoing, including possible genetic testing.
Human remains will never be released to a museum or historical society. Once the investigation is concluded, and based on those conclusions, this individual’s remains will be respectfully returned to the appropriate party (ies).
On Monday, November 21, 2022 at approximately 9:18 AM, Oregon State Police Troopers responded to a suspicious object found by Oregon Department of Corrections cleanup crew on northbound Interstate 5 near milepost 260.
OSP Troopers with the Salem Area Command took possession of a small backpack that contained a human skull.
The skull was transported to the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office who will continue to investigate the identity of the skull. The skull had no identifiable features, but was most likely that of a female in her late 30’s to 40’s. No further information is available at this time.
Paid Leave Oregon Contributions Start January 1st
Starting January 1, 2023, Oregonians will notice a new small amount of money coming out of their paychecks.
It’s the contribution employees are required to make to support the new Paid Leave Oregon program, which begins in 2023. The program was passed by lawmakers in 2019 and is about to go into effect.
Although contributions to the program begin January 1, employees will not be able to take advantage of the paid leave benefits until September 2023. This will allow the plan to accumulate funds that can be paid out when an employee needs to take leave.
Ahead of the contribution period starting, Paid Leave Oregon is asking employers to alert their staff to the coming changes and the benefits that will soon be available to them.
Paid Leave Oregon will allow employees in the state to take up to 12 weeks off from work in a year. In some pregnancy-related situations, an employee may be able to take up to an additional four weeks off, for a total of 14 weeks.
Employees can take weeks at a time or a single day if they need it. The leave can be used for family events – things like the birth of a child, adoption, or caring for a family member will a serious injury or illness; medical leave – to care for yourself when you have a serious illness or injury; or safe leave – for survivors of sexual assaults, domestic violence, harassment or stalking.
What’s different about Paid Leave Oregon from other leave programs is that employees will continue to get paid.
“This is actually paid leave and so, for many of us when we’ve taken FMLA or some sort of other leave along the way, like during the birth of a child, sometimes that’s unpaid, but we get our job protected. But in the case of paid leave, it’s actually paid,” explained Paid Leave Oregon Director Karen Humelbaugh.
The program’s safe leave is another unique aspect. Humelbaugh believes Oregon is the first state to offer a paid leave program for survivors of sexual assaults and domestic violence.
Minimum wage workers will receive 100% of their average wage while on leave. People who make more than minimum wage will receive benefits based on a sliding scale. Hummelbaugh said some people will not receive the full amount of their job’s wage.
Paid Leave Oregon plans to have a benefits calculator posted on its website in the next few months.
Most employees in Oregon will be covered, with the exception of federal government employees.
Tribal governments, self-employed business owners and independent contractors will not automatically be included in the program, but can opt-in by notifying the Paid Leave program.
Anyone who is eligible cannot opt-out to stop the contributions from coming out of their paychecks.
The contribution system works slightly differently for small employers and large employers. Large employers who have 25 or more employees will be required to make a total contribution of 1% of gross payroll. Employees will pay 60% and large employers will pay 40% of the 1% contribution rate.
For example, if an employee makes $5,000, the employee will pay $30 and the employer will pay $20.
A small employer, one with fewer than 25 employees, is not required to pick up 40% of the 1% contribution rate. However, their employees are still required to pay 60% of the 1% contribution rate.
The benefits an employee is eligible for are the same whether they work for a small or large employer.
“For the individual worker, if you are eligible for benefits, you’d still receive the full amount that any would be receiving. You don’t receive a lesser amount. You would still get the full amount,” Humelbaugh said.
Paid Leave Oregon has a tool kit and fact sheets posted on its website now to inform employers on how the contribution system will work. Humelbaugh suggests employers begin informing their employees of the changes now, before the start of the year.
The program also has more information online about how Paid Leave Oregon compares to other programs like the Oregon Family Leave Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Oregon Sick Leave.
Paid Leave Oregon was enacted by the passage of House Bill 2005 . As it’s written, the bill requires the state to re-evaluate its contribution rate every year. If that contribution amount results in a surplus in the trust fund that’s used to pay out benefits, state officials could decide to lower the rate in future years.
Secretary Deb Haaland Announces Four Tribal Water Projects During Visit To Klamath River
The Department of the Interior announced yesterday that four tribal water projects in Oregon and California’s Klamath River Basin will receive $5.8 million through the Bureau of Reclamation to restore aquatic ecosystems, improve the resilience of habitats, and mitigate the effects of the ongoing drought crisis. The funding is made available through Reclamation’s Native American Affairs Technical Assistance to Tribes Program.
Secretary Deb Haaland made the announcement while touring the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery with Governors Gavin Newsom and Kate Brown, Congressman Jared Huffman, representatives from the Klamath Basin Tribes and other officials and stakeholders to celebrate the imminent surrender and decommissioning of the Lower Klamath Project, a four-dam hydropower project on the Klamath River.
On November 17, 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order approving the surrender and decommissioning of the Project, the culmination of nearly two decades of effort to find a path to remove the dams, open up hundreds of miles of historic salmon habitat, improve water quality, and restore the River and the fishery the Basin Tribes have relied upon since time immemorial. Dam removal activities will begin next spring, with full removal completed in 2024.
“Clean water, healthy forests and fertile land made the Klamath Basin and its surrounding watershed home to tribal communities, productive agriculture, and abundant populations of migratory birds, suckers, salmon and other fish. But over the past 20 years, the Basin has been met with unprecedented challenges due to ongoing drought conditions and limited water supply,” said Secretary Haaland . “The projects we are funding today — combined with millions of dollars in water and habitat resilience investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — will help restore this once abundant ecosystem for the benefit of all its inhabitants.”
“Reclamation is committed to working with tribes in the Klamath River Basin on important water resource issues,” said Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton . “This funding will help facilitate collaboration with tribes as they address the severe and continuing drought impacting their lands.”
Reclamation’s Native American Affairs Technical Assistance Program provides technical assistance to tribes to develop, manage and protect their water and related resources. The funding announced today is provided to tribes as a grant or cooperative agreement. The projects are:
Hoopa Valley Tribe, Karuk Tribe and Yurok Tribe, in collaboration with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Juvenile Salmonid Survival and Migration Rate Study : The project will receive $3.9 million to study juvenile salmon. The Yurok Tribe will estimate specific survival through time of wild and hatchery Chinook Salmon as they migrate through the Klamath Basin under various environmental conditions. The Hoopa Valley and Karuk Tribes will use acoustic tags to monitor juvenile salmonid survival and migration rates from the Scott, Salmon and Trinity rivers and locations on the middle Klamath to Klamath River estuary. The USGS will provide support to the tribes for this research study.
Hoopa Valley Tribe, Ecological Flow Assessment on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation : The Hoopa Valley Tribe will receive $554,325 to complete an ecological flow assessment on the Trinity River. The project includes site selection, field data collection, stream gaging and water temperature monitoring.
Klamath Tribes, Upper Williamson River Restoration : The Klamath Tribes will receive $500,000 to assess and plan river system restoration activities on the Upper Williamson River in southern Oregon. The tribe will assess the existing condition of approximately five miles of the river, develop plans for restoration activities, and install restoration infrastructures. This project advances goals and objectives established in both the Klamath Basin Integrated Fisheries Restoration and Monitoring Plan and the Upper Klamath Basin Watershed Action Plan.
Yurok Tribe, Oregon Gulch Project, Mainstem Trinity River : The Yurok Tribe will receive $864,533 to remove tailing piles, increase floodplain inundation, promote fluvial processes, and reduce the wood storage deficit. The project will also double rearing habitat, improve the aquatic ecosystem, create seasonal surface water connections, increase vegetation biomass and increase the number of trees along the riverbanks.
This funding supplements nearly $26 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated this year for Klamath Basin restoration projects, including nearly $16 million for ecosystem restoration projects in the Basin and $10 million to expand the Klamath Falls National Fish Hatchery.
As part of the Interior Department’s ongoing commitment to partnership and collaboration, senior Department leaders have held several in-person and virtual engagement sessions with tribes, state and county officials, interagency partners, and water users to discuss near- and long-term solutions related to drought impacts in the Basin.
About the U.S. Department of the Interior — The Department of the Interior (DOI) conserves and manages the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people, provides scientific and other information about natural resources and natural hazards to address societal challenges and create opportunities for the American people, and honors the Nation’s trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated island communities to help them prosper.
Team Effort to bring a family of 5 to safety after becoming stranded in the snow, while searching for their Christmas Tree
On Sunday, December 4, 2022, Sheriff’s deputies were called to assist a family of 5 who became stranded, the day before, in several feet of snow while searching for a Christmas tree.
Search and rescue deputies, an off-duty Linn County search and rescue volunteer responded to Forest Road 46, in Marion County, and helped to recover the family safely and bring them down off the mountain.
We would like to encourage everyone they should always “know before you go,” weather conditions, is the area open, do you have appropriate supplies to survive a few days, and does someone know where you are going and when you will be back.
These events are always a team effort to help resolve successfully. Thank you to the members of the Santiam snowmobile association members for their help in this rescue.
Tips from ODOT: Finding Your Way in Winter
Winter officially begins on December 21st, but the time to start driving with extra caution is now. Our partners at the Oregon Department of Transportation have some excellent tips regarding use of your GPS during our rough and unpredictable weather and we thought it would be good to share them here as well:
When roads are closed and your GPS navigation system directs you onto a detour route, keep in mind that the device you count on for guidance could instead guide you into trouble. Most navigation tools don’t take current road or weather conditions into consideration. They may direct you onto remote roads that are neither maintained nor passible in all weather conditions.
Navigation systems and similar smartphone apps are great tools, but travelers may need to verify the identified detour route is appropriate given current conditions and the vehicle they are driving. Here are a few tips to consider:
What you can do
• Be aware that the app on your phone or in your GPS device might not have the latest information – don’t follow it blindly!
• Use TripCheck.com (available on your computer and on your phone) to get the latest on state road conditions, or call 511.
• Remember, in winter conditions (or in summer’s fire season), roads can be impassable, so USE COMMON SENSE.
• If you are not familiar with an area and current road conditions, stay on state roads and don’t attempt detours onto roads you don’t know.
• Alter your travel plans. If you are not sure of the route and road conditions your GPS device directs you to, ask local folks for information and consult a map. It is better to stay the night in town rather than be stuck on a remote road in the middle of nowhere.
What ODOT will do
• ODOT crews work continually to keep state highways safe, but during certain conditions, such as blowing snow and freezing temperatures, you may want to avoid travel altogether.
• ODOT will issue media flash alerts if roads are closed. These will be updated continually on http://TripCheck.com.
Free ranger-guided walks will be offered again this winter at Crater Lake National Park beginning Saturday, Dec. 10th
In an average winter, Crater Lake National Park receives 42 feet of snow! Ranger-guided snowshoe walks are a fun way to explore this winter wonderland while learning how plants, animals, and people survive the harsh conditions.
This winter (2022-2023), walks will be offered on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from December 10 through April 30, and every day from December 17 to January 2 and March 25 to April 1. The walks start at 1:00 pm, last two hours, and cover 1 to 2 miles of moderate-to-strenuous terrain. They don’t follow a trail—the hike is an off-trail exploration through the forests and meadows along the rim of Crater Lake. If the road to Rim Village is closed, the walks explore the forests and meadows in the vicinity of Park Headquarters.
No previous snowshoeing experience is necessary. Snowshoes are provided free of charge, and there is no cost for the tour (apart from the winter entrance fee of $20 per vehicle). Participants should be at least 8 years old, be in good physical health, and come prepared with warm clothing and water-resistant footwear. The walks take place rain or shine (or snow). Pets are not allowed on the hike.
Space on each tour is limited, and advance reservations are required. For more information and to sign up, call the park’s visitor center at 541-594-3100. Organized groups (such as scout troops, hiking clubs, and church groups) may be able to arrange for a separate tour, staff permitting. Call to check on available dates. https://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/ranger-guided-snowshoe-walks.htm
