Local Crabbers Suffer Agency in Iowa
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C M C M Y K Y K NCAA TITLE GAME DISNEY DARLING DIES Top-seeded Louisville beats Michigan, B1 Annette Funicello dies of MS complications, A5 Serving Oregon’s South Coast Since 1878 TUESDAY,APRIL 9, 2013 theworldlink.com I 75¢ No hurry to replace Food Share director BY GAIL ELBER The World COOS BAY — Oregon Coast Community Action will take a month or two to decide how to replace the controversial director of South Coast Food Share. Rollie Lobsinger’s resignation was announced Monday, ending a saga of disputes with local food pantries and alleged conflicts of interest. “We may create a position, or we may fill the position and change duties a bit,” said Mike Lehman, ORCCA’s executive director. Lehman himself has been at ORCCA just two months. He said he’s still learning how the organization works. ORCCA is the South Coast’s most far- reaching nonprofit agency, managing a broad range of social services. South Coast Food Share is ORCCA’s food-distribution arm, sup- plying local food pantries as far away as Brook- By Thomas Moriarty, The World ings. Starting in December 2011, some of those A lone fisherman walks past the crab-pot-laden F/V Footloose on F Dock in the Charleston Marina this morning. Industry organizations and individ- pantries publicly criticized Food Share, com- ual fisherman are reporting mixed results three months into the delayed commercial Dungeness crab season. plaining of low-quality food and inaccurate billing. They criticized the relationship between ORCCA’s then-CEO Mary Schoen- Clark and Lobsinger, who were longtime friends and had worked together at a housing Local crabbers suffer agency in Iowa. Lobsinger, who lived in a separate residence on Schoen-Clark’s property, had been publicly accused of verbally abusing coworkers and vol- Crab catch is doing well, but market price lags unteers. ORCCA hired a consultant last year to help it resolve its issues, and Schoen-Clark resigned BY THOMAS MORIARTY But Charleston fisherman Jeff Reeves no price lock. In theory, this meant that in September. The board replaced her with The World said it’s been a lousy year for local crab crab prices should have taken off faster Lehman, a former state legislator who had boats. as the market drove up demand. been Coos County’s human resources director. CHARLESTON — Three months in, “Maybe it was a big-boat season,”’ But that didn’t happen. feedback on the Oregon commercial Reeves said. “The big boats got ’em “The plants are still only paying SEE ORCCA | A8 Dungeness crab season is mixed. while little operations like my own around $3 a pound,”he said. In a press release Friday, Oregon starve to death.” Despite poor results, Reeves said he Dungeness Crab Commission Adminis- Reeves said harvest numbers can be plans to keep fishing right up until the trator Hugh Link said the season’s har- deceptive representations of actual season’s close in August. vest has already exceeded the 2011-2012 commercial success. For one thing, Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery is total. The Oregon Department of Fish fishermen just aren’t getting the prices composed of 425 limited-entry permit Meal sites and Wildlife delayed the start of the they’re used to. holders. The fishery received Marine season more than a month due to con- In most seasons, market prices start Stewardship Council sustainability cerns over crab meat yield. close to $2 a pound and will have certification in 2010. Link said the harvest had already exceeded $3 a pound by this point in the Reporter Thomas Moriarty can be step up to totaled approximately 17 million season, Reeves said. reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 240, or by pounds of crab. For comparison, the During the 2011-2012 season, crab email at thomas.moriarty@the- 2011-2012 season saw a total harvest of boats worked under a 22-day price lock worldlink.com. Follow him on Twitter at fill the void 14.2 million pounds. at $2.30 a pound. This year, there was @ThomasDMoriarty. I Crossroads Cafe’s temporary closure means more business for Coquille man State lawmakers consider other local food services medical pot dispensaries takes plea deal BY TIM NOVOTNY The World BY LAUREN GAMBINO director of Oregonians for Medical in sex abuse The Associated Press Rights and the bill’s architect. NORTH BEND — With meals for the needy a Under current law, cardholders constant issue on the South Coast, any setback SALEM — State lawmakers in must grow the pot themselves or find can hurt. Such is the case with the temporary COQUILLE — A Coquille man charged with Oregon are considering a bill that a grower to grow it for them. Sugar- closure of the Crossroads Community Cafe in multiple sex crimes struck a deal Monday that will would make medical marijuana dis- man said this has led to an abuse of North Bend. prevent him from becoming a felon. pensaries legal amid arguments that the system. As The World reported last week, the cafe is Steven Sutphin, 27, was scheduled for a court the state’s 53,000 users don’t always “Marijuana being grown legally for being repaired after suffering severe water hearing Monday but reached a plea agreement with want to grow their own pot or buy patients is not finding its way into the damage over Easter weekend. Cofounder Susan Fox said then that her biggest concern Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier. directly from growers. hands of patients, but is instead being was for those who depend on the cafe’s low- Sutphin originally was charged with first- Dispensaries exist now in Oregon, siphoned off into the black market,”he cost, home-style meals. but there is no law regulating their degree attempted rape, first-degree unlawful sex- told lawmakers. The Nancy Devereux Center and local sen- operations and some counties have ual penetration and second-degree sexual abuse. Tom Chamberlain told lawmakers ior centers probably are absorbing some of He was accused of trying to rape a woman Nov. chosen to shut them down. The pro- he thought it was legal to buy pot from Crossroads’ regulars, Fox said. But staff mem- 1. He pleaded guilty to touching the woman with- posal before the House Health Care the dispensary he uses in Portland. bers at those sites aren’t certain about that, out her consent. Committee would require dispen- Chamberlain buys medical marijuana partly because turnout already was rising at Both the sexual penetration and attempted rape saries to register with the state med- for his son,who was paralyzed last year the Devereux Center and the North Bend charges were dismissed. The sexual abuse charge ical marijuana program and meet in a car accident. Senior Center. was reduced to a third-degree offense, which is a certain quality standards. “I didn’t know until recently it was Melanie Harrison, the administrative assis- misdemeanor. “Many patients do not have a grow- illegal,” he said. “Nor did I know that tant who oversees the free meal program at Sutphin must register as a sex offender until he er, do not want to grow themselves, the products he was purchasing Nancy Devereux, said since she joined the cen- meets all the terms of his probation. After that, he and have difficulty finding safe, reli- weren’t tested, so there wasn’t an can shed his sex offender status. able and legal access for the medicine Sentencing is scheduled at 8:30 a.m., April 22. they need,” said Geoff Sugarman, SEE MEDICAL | A8 SEE MEALS | A8 Juanita Robertson, Myrtle Point In with the old Police reports . A2 Comics . A6 Keith Bushnell, Myrtle Point T S S E N J.C. Penney ousts its new CEO and A H Susanne Maine, Bandon O D What’s Up. A3 Puzzles . A6 I I replaces him with their old CEO, C T Harry Hakanson, Coos Bay T E A S South Coast. A3 Sports . B1 Mike Ullman. Partly sunny A E R N 59/48 I N D Opinion. A4 Classifieds . C4 O Obituaries | A5 Page A7 F Weather | A8 SLIPSTREAM pillowtop or tight top Queen Set • Compare at $1,099 BAY APPLIANCE & TV $ $ THE MATTRESS STORE 541.269.5158 10 year warranty 5945 59944 253 S. Broadway, Coos Bay SAAVEVE $550505 (Next to the Egyptian Theatre) • CCB# 184579 Make it adjustable from $999999 FREE DELIVERY • SETUP • REMOVAL!** **free delivery on qualified sets. C M C M Y K Y K C M C M Y K A2 •The World • Tuesday, April 9,2013 Y K South Coast City Editor Ryan Haas • 541-269-1222, ext. 239 theworldlink.com/news/local Strangulation case moves to Wednesday Rainy weather respite THE WORLD COQUILLE — A Coos Bay COURT man accused of choking and REPORTS kidnapping a woman has requested a brief delay of his degree assault are Measure 11 trial. offenses that carry a 70- Douglas Paul Reed, 49, month minimum sentence if was charged in January after Reed is found guilty. a woman he previously had Reed will appear again in known reported being court at 8:30 a.m. Wednes- choked and assaulted. The day. incident allegedly took place after she walked past a house Trial date set for CB Reed was visiting on Welch domestic assault case Road. The woman said she was hit and dragged into the COQUILLE — A Coos Bay house by her neck. man will stand trial May 2 in Police determined that the a domestic assault case. two had known each other John Daniel Plott, 56, is for five to seven years.