A northwest lumber milling operation has mastered the old Yogi Berra saying about “You’d be amazed by what you can see by looking.” By looking and seeing exactly what it takes to garner a corner of the Japanese Tsunami rebuild market has them shipping finished lumber to Japan, instead of just raw logs.
The story is in the Oregonian. Click here.
Share on Facebook
Embarcadero Staff receiving Clean Marina Certificate from State Marine Board
Embarcadero’s marina has been given a very high report card from the Oregon State Marine Board. Embarcadero officials posed for the cameras Friday upon being awarded a certificate that their marina is a “Certified Clean Marina,” in that it is environmentally friendly and likely to stay that way based on rules of operations being posted throughout the marina – like how to prevent oil spills or fuel leaks, how to ensure on-boat sewage is properly handled and transferred to the marina’s wastewater system. The Embaradero’s new signage also instructs marina boaters how to guard against being unwitting carriers of invasive species like milfoil weed and the oglalla mollusk.
The marine board also provided the marina with what are called “spill kits,” so if any boater accidentally discharges oil or fuel to the waters in the marina, they can whip out the oil and fuel-soaking pads and mini floating booms to contain it quickly.
Other provisions in the green check-list include that the marina ensures that all boats moored there are properly equipped with working bilge pumps, that there is no leakage from sources of fuel oil into a boat’s bilge area, use heavy-duty grade extension cords between the dock and boats, that they use appropriate type batteries in their engine section, and have appropriate life-jackets and other safety equipment on board as required by the Coast Guard.
State Marine Board Clean Marina Coordinator Rachel Bullene says the program is voluntary but those who receive “clean” certification it sends a signal to the community and to those who use a facility that they’re in a community that values clean water and environmentally friendly businesses. In addition, Bullene says clean marinas routinely receives detailed information and tools in order to eliminate or reduce pollutants such as oil, paint, cleaning chemicals, sewage, fish waste and trash.
Embarcadero Marina Dockmaster Nancy France said they have been working to qualify for the “Clean Marina” designation by the marine board for quite a while. She says “It puts the Embarcadero Resort on record with the state and the community of Newport that we are doing our part to keep Yaquina Bay free of pollution and invasive species, while adding to the safey and well being of our resort clientele.”
Bullene says adding the Embarcadero Resort to the list of “clean marinas” brings the number in Oregon up to 53 out of approximately 200 that could qualify. Bullene says “There are another 23 marinas who have pledged to work toward their own certification which says a lot about how much marinas care aboutthe quality of our waterways and their customers who moor their boats at their facilities.”
Share on Facebook
They’re not quite finished building it, but they’re getting closer. That’s what Port of Toledo Manager Bud Shoemake told News Lincoln County this week as they look forward to fully completing the Toledo Waterfront Park by summer’s end.
Shoemake says the restrooms and performance buildings are pretty much done. “There’s some landscaping work still left to do, along with getting the new transient docks installed and a number of artistic scultures to erect and secure,” said Shoemake, “but other than that we’re just about finished with the construction. Ran us a little over $200,000 for the whole thing only because we provided most of the labor from regular port personnel.”
Shoemake also reports that the port expects to have a new business plan for the Sturgeon Bend Boat Yard sometime in late summer/early fall that would move plans forward to buy a large travel-lift to enable the boat yard to handle much larger boats. With the new lift Shoemake says the Sturgeon Bend boatyard will be able to handle 95% of all fishing boats that port in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California. So their service reach will be greatly extended.
Shoemake says they’re also trying to help the Siletz community to improve boat launching capabilities at Mill and Illehee Parks.
Share on Facebook
Steve Power went down to the Bayfront and shot himself a fine pic of a photo of one of the tall ships that are in town for the week. They’re having boat tours Fri,Sat,Sun this weekend and next with live cannon fire between the two vessels as they perform a carefully choreographed sea battle in the middle of the bay. Then 2pm onward Saturday and Sunday, then next Friday, Saturday and Sunday they’ll have the same schedule. Perfect visit for locals and out of towners.
Share on FacebookWe’d like to apologize for any oddities that readers may have noticed over the last several hours of Friday afternoon and evening. Due to some difficult problems encountered on our previous web hosting company, we’ve gone ahead and relocated the site to a new hosting provider. Unfortunately, the transition has not been a particularly simple or clean one due to some astronomically bad timing.
However, we feel that the worst is behind us. There may be a few areas of the site that require some tweaks and adjustments. First, we hope our new web host will be capable of providing faster, and more stable service than the one we had worked with previously. Second, the new hosting provider offers a wide variety of ways for us to seek out further opportunities to make the site faster and more responsive than before.
We’d like to reassure our readers that we are trying to recover as much as possible from the previous hosting provider. We believe all the text from news posts and comments, as well as user accounts, should be back where they belong. Some images – particularly those from articles posted in 2011 – may be missing, but we hope to return most, if not all of those to the site as soon as they can be copied from our old host.
Joshua Johnston
(Website Administrator, News Lincoln County)
Call for volunteers…..we need you!
United Way’s 2nd annual “Day of Caring” is all about encouraging volunteerism to provide the much needed labor so projects can be completed for local non-profit agencies that might not otherwise get done. Friday, May 25th is our Day of Caring in LINCOLN CITY, and we’ve adopted a community project at the Lincoln City Cultural Center. They need help getting inventory/supplies organized and deep cleaning the floors. We’re still looking for 4 volunteers to help from 8:30am-11:30am! Lunch and special shirts will be provided.
Contact Katelyn Hordichok ASAP to get signed up and submit a volunteer application! katelyn@unitedwayblc.org or 541-265-5812.
County Commission Chairman Don Lindly retires June 1st. By law, the Lincoln County Democratic Central Committee (Lindly is a democrat) will conduct candidate interviews and forward the names of three to five persons it deems suitable for the job to the remaining two commissioners, Bill Hall and Terry Thompson. The Central Committee will conduct their interviews starting at 7pm, May 23rd, at the Central Lincoln PUD public room on north Coast Highway.
Then, on Monday, June 4th, at 1:30pm, Lincoln County Commissioners Terry Thompson and Bill Hall will re-interview those candidates and discuss their observations. The interview session is open to the public and to the news media, however no public testimony, comments or questions will be allowed. Commissioners Hall and Thompson may wait until the next weekly county commission meeting to announce their choice.
Whoever succeeds Don Lindly on the commission will serve out the remainder of his term which ends midnight, December 31, 2014. It means that if the replacement wants to earn the seat in their own right, they’ll have to run for election in the November General Election in 2014 and win.
Share on Facebook
Project Homeless Connect, Lincoln City, Thursday
Photos by Casey Miller, Lincoln County PIO
Clothing picture: Linda Roy, LC Chamber and Rosie Sufficool, Consultant
Stirring the chili: Brad Taylor, News Reporter
Project Homeless Connect figured they served nearly 100 homeless persons today at their services outreach operation that was held at the St. Peter the Fisherman Lutheran Church in Lincoln City. The doors opened at 10am and ran until 3pm, offering food, clothing, shoes, toiletries, dental services, employment referrals, leads on cheap places to live, getting birth certificate information, official ID, and lots more.
Many were appreciative of the community’s efforts to reach out to the them, whose numbers are growing by the day as more homes are foreclosed on those who have no jobs and no hope of even renting shelter that’s even half-way decent for themselves or their families. They especially appreciated the abundance of food for them to partake at the church.
Lincoln City Mayor Dick Anderson stopped by during the noon hour to see how things were going and he said he was very impressed that the operation was so well organized, especially among the agencies and specialty services that were on hand to help the homeless. “It was going very smoothly,” Anderson said. “I especially admired the volunteers who guided the homeless among the various service providers. They did it with such kindness and caring. They were just wonderful.”
Lincoln County Commissioner and homeless advocate Bill Hall was also on hand watching what he called a very smooth running operation where the needs of the homeless were quickly determined and then fulfilled in short order. He said he was very impressed with the efficiency in the way everything worked so well in the space provided by St. Peter the Fisherman Lutheran Church. He said he looks forward to the next Project Homeless Connect coming up in mid-October in Newport at the Newport Church of the Nazarene on NW 12th.
Share on Facebook
Sen. Ron Wyden
“I know there will be a temptation to portray today’s ruling as a win for U.S. Solar Manufacturers and a loss for Chinese producers, but the impact of Commerce’s decision to enforce U.S. Trade laws goes far beyond a dispute over solar panels. Free trade does not mean trade free from rules and today’s decision is a win for the integrity of the global, rules-based trading system. That system has propelled economic growth in the U.S. and around the world by rewarding those who compete on the basis of producing the best products at the best prices. And that system has prevented trade wars that once ravaged world economies. A victory for that system is a victory for American workers and all others who don’t need to cheat to compete.”
Share on Facebook
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
From U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
WASHINGTON, DC – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley issued the following statement after learning that the U.S. Postal Service is planning to keep all Oregon Mail Processing Centers Open for the next year.
“This is more good news for Oregon. Closing processing centers in Oregon would have damaged overnight delivery and degraded services that small businesses and families rely upon. I am pleased that Oregon is safe in this round of closures but I encourage the U.S. Postal Service to continue working with communities and looking for solutions that will work for the public. And I urge the House of Representatives to pass the Senate postal reform bill that would help establish delivery standards and keep our rural post offices open.”
Share on Facebook
