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Coos Bay puts hold on pot dispensaries BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
COOS BAY — For the next year, the city of Coos Bay won’t allow any medical marijuana dispensaries to move into town while city staff craft new land use and business regulations. At Tuesday’s city council meeting, councilors enacted a
moratorium on medical marijuana dispensary land use applications, licenses and permits for up to one year, said Mayor Crystal Shoji. Eric Day, the city’s community development director, said he and City Manager Rodger Craddock got an influx of inquiries last week. Day was getting two to three a day. Staff will have one year to exam-
ine Oregon’s medical marijuana law and make changes to the city code to handle requests to open dispensaries in Coos Bay. City code would have allowed marijuana dispensaries — which fall under “retail sales operations” — to occupy space in any commercial- or home occupation-zoned area. “This will give us up to a year to
allow us to get our land use codes in order and for the state to get its system set up,” Shoji said. As of Jan. 1, Coos County had 1,591 medical marijuana cardholders, according to Oregon Health Authority. Statewide, there are 60,516 medical marijuana patients. “Conceivably at any moment they could go in any residential or
Hagner murder trial
commercial area, which is most of the city,” Day said. “I’m not looking at it from a negative or positive perspective; I’m looking at it from a land use perspective and how best to plan for allowing them.” Day said there are two components to consider: dispensaries and grows. SEE DISPENSARIES | A10
Coos Bay to up moorage rates in small doses BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
By Alysha Beck, The World
Wayne Hagner speaks to Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier after a lunch break during Hagner’s murder trial in Judge Richard Barron’s courtroom Wednesday. Hagner is on trial for allegedly shooting and killing his wife Anna Hagner on July 5.
‘I ended up shooting Anna’ Prosecution introduces digital recordings of accused murderer’s own words ■
BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
COQUILLE — As he heard his voice rise from the computer speakers, Wayne Raymond Hagner began to tremble. The North Bend man, on trial for murder in the July shooting death of his wife Anna, had to listen as the version of himself on the police station video said the words: “I ended up shooting Anna.” In opening statements Tuesday, both the prosecution and the defense had made it clear this wasn’t a case of whodunit. Rather, the defense says it is seeking to
prove Hagner wasn’t in his right mind when he pulled the trigger, in hopes of downgrading the charge from murder. Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier wasted few opportunities to drive home the man’s admitted culpability during Wednesday’s proceedings. Hagner’s explicit admission of responsibility came during the middle of an interview with Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanni and Staff Sgt. Pat Downing at North Bend Police Department shortly after the fatal shooting. As Frasier played recording after recording of Hagner’s ramblings in the hours after his wife’s death, the defendant variously wept, shook and rolled his shoulders, rarely looking directly at the screen overhead. According to North Bend Sgt. Buddy Young, Hagner’s strange behavior had made it obvious that something was
wrong when the two first spoke on the afternoon of July 5. Young was the first cop on the scene after the Hagners’ friends, Juanita and Otto Epping, called the North Bend Police Department reporting shots fired in the household. “I got the call around 3:31 in the afternoon, “ he said. The Eppings testified that they had been visiting with the Hagners that afternoon when Wayne, who had been acting erratic, produced a handgun and fired two shots. Young told the jury that he had interacted with the Hagners before the night of the shooting, after Anna Hagner’s mother had died in the home, and what he saw in Wayne Hagner that July afternoon was not what he remembered. SEE HAGNER | A10
COOS BAY — To offset the rising cost of providing services on the city dock, the Coos Bay City Council approved an increase to moorage rate fees. It is their first increase since 2012. City staff first presented a new proposal to the Finance Committee last October, but the council asked for more information and a less steep rate structure. Earlier this month, the finance committee met again and, by consensus, settled on a much smaller annual increase that is based on the Municipal Cost Index. The index, developed by American City & County, is a source utilized by state and local governments to compare the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services. It’s composed of three major indicators: The Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index and the Construction Cost Index. All of them are published by the U.S. Commerce Department. Coos Bay Mayor Crystal Shoji says that by raising the rate just by a percentage point or two each year it negates having to approve larger increases down the road. Looking back at the Municipal Cost Index from July to December 2012, the rate rose by just 0.8 percent. In December 2013, that rate increased 1.27 percent. So the new moorage rate increase, which will be effective on March 1, will show a 2.07 percent increase. Additional rate increases will be based on the preceding December’s municipal cost index, effective for the following February’s moorage billing period. Decreases in the index will result in no change to the moorage rate. Shoji said that while concerns were raised at an earlier public hearing about the possibility of a much larger rate increase, no one testified at the Tuesday night council meeting. Moorage rates, effective on March 1, include long-term agreements with a minimum 30-day stay, short-term agreements, and transient agreements for vessel moorage that exceeds 12 hours but less than one week. The increase will mean that the transient moorage rate for the smallest vessels will now start at $7.14 per day, short term moorage will start at $27.56 per week, and long term at $81.66 per month.
Farmers, conservationists unite in protecting common ground
INSIDE
COQUILLE — Excess standing water is an annoyance to farmers and their cows, and a breeding ground for mosquitoes. In one area that sees flooding regularly — Beaver Slough Drainage District — there are plans ahoof to maintain control of it. Fred Messerle and Steve Denney presented plans to the Coos County commissioners Tuesday for the Winter Lakes Restoration Project
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and China Camp Creek Project. Messerle is chairman of the Beaver Slough Drainage District, which is responsible for the China Camp project. Denney, with The Nature Conservancy, is administrator for the Winter Lakes project. The projects are separate, yet are working together for some common goals, including maintaining the infrastructure that enables farming, Coho salmon streams and water quality in the area. Winter Lakes “encompasses two landowners developing on the
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land,” Messerle said. China Camp is “tide replacement that the drainage district oversees. It’s really a complex project.” The land, which is owned by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the China Camp Creek Gun Club, used to be marshland. It was turned into farmland with help from tide gates that were placed there more than 20 years ago to control water levels, Messerle said.
John Cruthfield, Coquille Robert Holden, Coos Bay Lance Veerkamp, Coos Bay Frances Torbeck, Bandon
SEE MARSH | A10
Contributed photo
On land west of Coquille, farmers and ranchers are working with conservation groups on projects that will maintain water systems that support both agriculture and wildlife.
James Barstow, Coos Bay Robert Traina, Reedsport
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