SUTHERLIN - Etta Wagner and Caroma Hainey have a challenge for their community - to help make it a safe place for the skateboarders of Sutherlin to ride. They brought their message, along with a check for $1,115, to the Sutherlin City Council during Monday's meeting.
The women are part of St. John Lutheran Church in Sutherlin, a small congregation whose members got tired of repainting after skateboarders and bicyclists kept running over their railings. So they struck a deal with some local skaters: The church would help build them a park if the kids would stay off the church rails.
That was more than two weeks ago, the women said, and through a silent auction and chili feed fundraiser, the church was able to make a substantial donation. Now they want other Sutherlin churches to follow their lead.
Theirs is a small church, Wagner said, so the challenge is on for bigger churches to see if they can beat their contribution.
"I figure if the town can get togethe

Parents whose children are not current on their vaccinations can get them immunized for free Saturday at the 11th annual Shots for Tots clinic.
Shots for Tots will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Student Center, Roseburg High School, 400 W. Harvard Ave., according to a news release.
All childhood and adolescent immunizations required by law for child care and school attendance will be offered. Parents need to bring their children's immunization records.
The clinic is open to all children ages birth to 18 years old, but those 14 years old or younger must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. There are no income restrictions.
The Douglas County Health Department will be sending letters home to parents in early February in cases in which children are not current on school-required immunizations. These children face exclusion from school if not up to date on their immunizations by Feb. 17.
There are no new requirements for the 2009-10 school year. However, beginning last yea

Two banks, each with ties to Roseburg, were involved in raising capital last week.
PremierWest Bancorp, the parent company of PremierWest Bank, announced Feb. 1 that its shareholders as of Dec. 15 were being offered the opportunity to purchase 3.3 shares of common stock per common stock held as of that day. Shares are being offered at 44 cents each. Net proceeds will be used principally to enhance the bank's regulatory capital position.
Roseburg-based Umpqua Bank announced Tuesday its intention to raise $215 million from investors. The money is to be used to repay the U.S. Treasury the $214 million it received for loan use through the Capital Purchase Program in 2008.
Jim Ford, president and CEO of Medford-based PremierWest Bank that has offices in Roseburg, explained that existing shareholders will have until 2 p.m. March 10 to purchase a pro rata share. A prospectus describing details of the share offer was mailed to shareholders last week. Shares not sold by March 10 will become

These logs are the highlights of initial emergency calls and reports to the Douglas County Dispatch Center. They do not represent all the incidents or their final outcomes.

POLICE LOG
Monday
Douglas County sheriff
9:26 a.m. - Possible fraud on the 700 block of River Drive, Elkton.
10:50 a.m. - Mailbox smashed for the fourth time on the 1200 block of Churchill Drive in Rice Hill.

Roseburg Police
6:59 a.m. - GPS taken from vehicle on the 1100 block of Pilger Street.
9:09 a.m. - Vehicle stolen on the 400 block of Umpqua Street.
1 p.m. - Criminal mischief to tires on the 1500 block of Northeast Stephens Street.

ACCIDENTS
Monday
Roseburg Police
2:48 p.m. - Hit-and-run collision at the intersection of Garden Valley Boulevard and Stewart Parkway.
ARRESTS
The News-Review publishes the names of individuals who have been arrested on suspicion of at least one felony charge or three misdemeanors or a combination of felony and misdemeanor ch

As I push the tines of my garden fork into the rich dark soil of one of my vegetable beds, the benefits of 30 years of mulch and cover crops is quite evident. The fork goes right to the hilt with little effort.
Gently turning the soil reveals abundant earthworms and channels left by the decomposing roots of last summer's plants. Recently I read that all land-based life depends on the top eight inches of soil for sustenance. Gee, I thought it was just dirt.
My new vegetable garden year begins on the winter solstice, Dec. 21. The days begin to get longer and I set up the first poly-tunnel of the season. Huh? A poly-tunnel can be any kind of support to hold up a sheet of clear plastic to form a little greenhouse. My most successful design has been U-shaped wire cages bent out of two-inch by four-inch galvanized welded mesh. Each cage is 10 feet long by 4 feet wide to fit over the 4-foot wide raised bed.
Buying the mesh can be expensive, but it will last long enough for the kids to

ELKTON - The remains of an unidentified person were found Friday afternoon on the bank of the Umpqua River, police said today.
At about 3:35 p.m. Friday, deputies responded to report of a body found at a ranch in the 16000 block of Highway 38, according to a Douglas County Sheriff's Office news release.
The property owner had been checking his fences when he discovered the body near the high waterline of the river. He then called police.
Sheriff's office deputies and detectives responded to the scene. Investigators recovered the remains but are unable to determine the gender due to advanced decomposition, the release said. Investigators only were able to determine the person had long, black hair with gray streaks and had been wearing an Oregon Beavers sweatshirt.
The cause of death is not known at this time, the release said. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
Anyone with information about this person is asked to call the sheriff's office at 541-440

Police have identified the victim of an early Saturday morning shooting in Reedsport.
Apollo Deilan Rohkohl, 36, of Reedsport was found dead in a Reedsport alley from a single gunshot wound, police said today.
At this time, police are investigating the shooting death of as an accidental/self-defense shooting, according to a Reedsport Police Department news release.
At 2:02 a.m. Saturday, police responded to a 911 call that a man had been shot at 2050 1/2 Elm St., the release said. When officers arrived, they found Rohkohl lying in the alley behind 2050 1/2 Elm St. When paramedics arrived, they found Rohkohl was dead.
The resident of 2050 1/2 Elm St., Garry Thomas Dawson, 64, along with a unidentified witness to the shooting, were taken to the police station for questioning. Reedsport officers were helped by the Douglas County Major Crimes Team in the investigation.
Police are still investigating the shooting. When it is complete, reports will be filed with the Douglas County Di

"The biggest change I can remember were the changes after 9/11.
The security in this country became tighter, and people felt more vulnerable in their own country. It changed the way Americans think about the rest of the world. It also drove some people to be more aware of what is happening in the world and nationally than they were before.
Now we screen more carefully at airports and borders got tighter. Sept. 11, 2001, changed how we thought and acted in the United States.
I think these were the biggest changes in my lifetime."
Erin Cline, eighth-grader
Joseph Lane Middle School

"The biggest change that I have seen in my lifetime relates to all the technological advances we have achieved in the last 17 years. I think the great advances in technology have become so mainstream that they have changed how everyone in our society functions. Computers and cell phones were once something that very few could afford to have; now they have become so small and inex

Jennifer Klope of Myrtle Creek woke up at 2:30 a.m. and started getting her husband and two sons ready. She wanted to be sure the Klopes, who are without insurance, were able to receive dental care during the 10th annual Donated Dental Day.
More than two dozen dentists throughout the county opened their office doors Friday to low-income children and adults to provide free services and education. A handful also joined Umpqua Community College dental assistant students and other volunteers in the predawn screening in the St. Joseph Catholic Church school gymnasium.
More than 140 appointments were dished out on a first-come, first-served basis. Patients began arriving at 4 a.m. for the 7 a.m. screening and were shuttled from a table for paperwork through a diagnosis room and then to a scheduling area with color-coded boards organizing which patients would see what dentists through the day.
"It gave me a good feeling to see people in need of help and be able to help," said d

Three days after celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary in August, Sandy Hunt woke up without any feeling in one of her legs.
Very quickly, the sensation spread throughout her body. Essentially, the Myrtle Creek woman was paralyzed.
She went to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, where doctors were initially baffled by her ailment. It wasn't until her condition had deteriorated to the point at which she needed to be treated in the hospital's intensive care unit that is was discovered she was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome.
"I noticed I was real tired but didn't know what had caused that," Hunt said. "Initially, I just noticed my legs went out."
Guillain-Barre is a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system. Typically, the first symptoms are weakness or tingling sensations in the legs, commonly spreading to the arms and upper body.
Most people reach the stage of greatest weakness within the first two weeks after sym

It was a backhanded compliment from my erstwhile racquetball buddy, Cesar Valdez Velez, that led to our hiking the Rogue River Trail last weekend.
While I was administering his nightly drubbing on the racquetball court, Cesar wondered how someone as old as I could outlast him. It's really quite elementary - when not delivering high-velocity and high-impact racquetball welts to my opponent's backside, I go hiking.
When he asked me if I would take him hiking, Machiavellian thoughts of how I could turn this into my advantage entered my mind. Somewhat sadistically, I figured a 15-miler with a 4,000 foot climb in the snow would leave him too sore and exhausted to compete for at least a couple of weeks. However, I am a true believer in the gospel of hiking and ultimately proselytizing won out over racquetball mastery.
Halfway between Galice and Wolf Creek, the Rogue River Trail is simply one of Southern Oregon's premier hiking trails. The path mildly undulates up and down on the

WINSTON - Only three of this year's seven-member Builders on the Rock Lego robot team can compete in the coming 2010 season.
However, the four 15-year-olds who've aged out of the First Lego League competition for 9 to 14-year-olds are leaving behind a pretty big legacy, not the least of which includes a homegrown song, the "BOT Rock," and a state win.
On Jan. 16, the team won first place at the 2009 championship tournament in Portland for their research project, which is one of four graded components.
"Even if they hadn't won, I would have been amazed," said Paula Johnson, the local team's coach and the mother of two kids on the team, Hunter, 15, and Hannah, 12.
Though the robots are the program's flagship, the youngsters discovered they had a knack for and truly enjoyed the research.
On Wednesday, they tested out their speech after several weeks with no practice.
"Four minutes, 39 seconds," Daniel Lusby, 12, of Sutherlin, said, checking

When Debbie Caterson's grandson, Sean, was diagnosed with an intolerance to foods containing gluten and casein, she looked around for alternatives that would appeal to the young boy.
Gluten is a protein that gives bread dough its elasticity and also traps air bubbles that cause the dough to rise. Casein is another protein, a binding agent found in milk and other dairy products. Both are widely found in processed foods.
Caterson discovered many foods that lacked the two substances that caused Sean problems. But while they may have met the nutritional requirements necessary for the young boy's health, the foods were devoid of taste, she said.
Other products left an aftertaste that lingered way too long.
Caterson went home and began tweaking some of her own family recipes, substituting gluten-free rice flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, potato starch and other ingredients for the wheat flour and dairy products that caused problems for Sean, 5, who was diagnosed with a

You've probably got one sitting in the back corner of your cupboard. Or maybe it's out in the garage on a shelf. You know it's supposed to be used in the kitchen. You remember your Mom or an aunt using it during your childhood. Or maybe you vaguely remember using it, but don't know why you're still keeping it around.
Yes, I know that may apply to many kitchen tools and appliances. This one in particular is your pressure saucepan, or what some call a pressure cooker. This is not to be confused with a pressure canner. The canner is used to process low-acid foods in jars.
The pressure cooker or saucepan is that kettle with the lid that has a gasket that you twist to lock on, has a safety valve and a weight that fits on one of the knobs on the lid.
Now, it's all coming back. Pressure saucepans are ideal to cook foods in a hurry. When the liquid inside boils, it's trapped and builds up pressure, creating a higher cooking temperature and shorter cooking time. The safety valve that wi

Tim Allen of Tim Allen Equipment said he started the locally-owned company in 2002 and recently launched a new division called Roseburg Rental at the same location, 1721 S.E. Stephens St. Allen noted that two equipment rental businesses had closed their Roseburg branches. This left a need for power equipment rented occasionally by local contractors and homeowners.
Both enterprises apply principles of energy conservation for their own businesses and for customers. Here are some examples:
The staff discovered ways to reduce their energy costs. An early custom was to bring the forklift indoors each night, which resulted in heat loss from the shop and unnecessary wear, tear and fuel consumption; the staff now secures the forklift outdoors. During a remodel in 2008, lighting was upgraded with more efficient fluorescent tubes. A heat pump that pulls heat from the air was installed with a gas backup; an automatic thermostat on seven-day control was placed in the shop. For industrial purpos

Some of us became habitual newspaper readers when we were still kids, especially if our families subscribed to daily delivery. It wasn't necessarily the news about politics or world events, or even the sports, that hooked us. It was the comics. When I was a kid, we called them the "funnies." Even though we may have been too small to hold the huge sheets of newsprint like the adults, we could spread the funnies on the living room floor, plop down on our bellies, and, propping up our chin with the elbows on the paper, enjoy the latest adventures of Skeezix in "Gasoline Alley" or Joe Palooka or the Katzenjammer Kids.
My family lived in a small town, and it was the local paper we got each weekday. It had no Sunday edition. So my dad subscribed to one of the big city's Sunday papers, which was dropped on our porch at the crack of dawn while we were getting ready to go to church. The rule was that whichever kid first hollered "Dibs for Dick Tracy!" got t

The world of medicine is constantly changing. And so are the medical needs of veterans who live in Southwest Oregon and Northern California.
Those are some of the big-picture factors that the VA Roseburg Healthcare System administrators consider as they make decisions about how best to provide care for area veterans.
"How do you serve the veterans best with what you have and what they need?" is the question officials constantly grapple with, said Susan Yeager, director of the VA Roseburg Healthcare System.
Recently, one of those decisions was changing how the Roseburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center cares for acute care patients. On Oct. 1, the Northwest Garden Valley Boulevard facility closed its six-bed intensive care unit.
In its place, a four-bed telemetry unit was opened. A telemetry unit provides care that is mid-way between intensive care and the care provided in a regular inpatient unit.
Yeager said, on average, four patients at a time were being seen in the

Tired of pounding the pavement for your daily exercise? Wondering how much of that kind of workout your joints can take?
Tone for Life is a new business in Roseburg and it offers therapeutic exercise machines. The motorized machines are tables on which people lie to do a variety of exercises. The business at 335 N.E. Nash has seven machines and a cardio room.
"As far as we know, there are no others like them in Douglas County," said Michelle Bassett, the office manager for both Tone for Life and Eagle Chiropractic. Tone for Life is leasing its location from Eagle with the two sharing the parking lot between them.
Harold "Stan" Stansbury is the owner and certified chiropractic assistant who is operating the business. Bassett and her husband, Dr. Loren Bassett, owners of Eagle Chiropractic, are helping Stansbury get the new business up and running.
Since opening two months ago, Tone for Life's membership has grown to 35.
"Business is gradually picking u

Peter Kummerfeldt, a noted outdoors safety and survival speaker and author, will present a four-hour seminar in Roseburg Feb. 28.
"Surviving a Wilderness Emergency" will be presented by Kummerfeldt from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Rose Theater at Roseburg High School. He will discuss topics such as could you be a survivor and survival myths and misconceptions.
Admission to the presentation is free with a donation of three cans of food or three non-perishable food items. The food will be donated to the United Community Action Network.
Kummerfeldt's wilderness and outdoor safety courses teach both the psychological and the physiological aspects of surviving a wilderness emergency. The training includes fire building, emergency shelters, food and water procurement and preparation, emergency signaling techniques and rescue and recovery procedures.
Survival stresses that often lead to panic, and sometimes to death are identified. Planning and preparing for a survival situation is cov

UPDATED AT 8:22 p.m.; Original appears below.
One man was found shot dead in Reedsport early Saturday morning.
Reedsport Police Department officers responded to a call at 2:02 a.m. that a man had been shot at 2050 1/2 Elm St., according to a department press release.
Officers arriving on the scene at 2:04 a.m. found an unidentified man shot.
Paramedics from Lower Umpqua Hospital pronounced the man dead when they arrived.
Officers transported Garry Thomas Dawson, 64, to the Reedsport station for questioning, according to the report. Dawson lives at the residence where the shooting occurred.
The deceased man had not been named on Saturday evening and it was unclear if charges were brought against Dawson.
"We're working on getting the blanks filled," said Reedsport Communications Officer Sean Grubb Saturday evening.
The Douglas County Major Crimes Team is assisting in the investigation.
Grubb said Reedsport Police Department, which is the lead agency, would have