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Weekly news from the Heart of the Dunes AN EDITION OF
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 | Serving the Reedsport area since 1996 | theworldlink.com/reedsport | $1.00
DeFazio: Timber bills need work BY JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press
me to be in the talent show. I thought, ‘Hey, it might be fun.’” She admits she likes to play contemporary Christian music. “I like Kari Job and Britt Nicole,” Megan said. “A lot of Christian singers.” Megan said she plans to continue to sing and play and has some big dreams. “I’d like to make it into a career,” she said. Other performers at the show included “Roxi,” who performed “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn. There was a skit from “The Tater Family;” Commen Tater, Dick Tater, Irra Tater, Hesi Tater, Imma Tater, Agi Tater, Spec Tater and their cousin, Partici Pater. The group was made up of Ellen Keeland, Bob Olstrom, William Hansberry Jr., Tom Clarke, Marcia Brown, William Brown, Patricia Friel and Randy Thompson.
GRANTS PASS— U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio told a Senate hearing that he recognizes there’s little hope of enacting a law that puts federal timberlands into a trust as the process to boost logging and timber county revenues in western Oregon. But he added that Sen. Ron Wyden’s bill aimed at the same goals needs some changes as well. DeFazio testified Thursday in Washington, D.C., at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on Wyden’s bill. Both bills aim to solve a crisis in funding for struggling timber counties in southwestern Oregon by increasing logging on the so-called O&C lands in western Oregon. DeFazio’s has passed the House, and Wyden’s has yet to come out of committee. There is no date set for the committee’s next consideration of the bill. By that time Wyden is expected to give up his chairmanship to take over the Senate Finance Committee, though he would remain a member. “Mr. Chairman, you have made it clear that a trust concept cannot pass the Senate and would likely face opposition from the Obama administration,” DeFazio told Wyden. “While I still think there are benefits to a trust concept, I acknowledge the current political reality and believe our agreed upon principles can be legislated through a different construct — such as the construct proposed in your O&C bill.” DeFazio, D-Ore., said the various interest groups — the timber industry, timber counties, the public and conservation groups — still need certainty, including predictable timber harvests, logging revenues paid to counties and protections for special places, clean water, fish and wildlife. Wyden, D-Ore., said the Senate bill “ends the ‘stop everything’ approach that has paralyzed forest management and, at the same time it acknowledges that the days of billion-board-foot clear cuts are not coming back. “It’s fair to say that not everybody gets what they want here,” he added. “But this is going to deliver what Oregon needs. It does so because it is designed to end the tyranny of these extremes. It ought to be a new day for the brave who are willing to try something new.” The House bill would split the 2.1 million-acre patchwork of federal timberlands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in two, with half going in a trust for timber production under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, which allows for much higher intensity logging with less
SEE TALENT, PAGE A6
SEE DEFAZIO, PAGE A8
Photo courtesy of Reedsport Rotary/Gary Goorhuis
Megan Wood speaks with emcee Kingsley Kelley during Saturday’s Rotary Talent Show: Coastal Douglas Has Talent! Megan, from North Bend, was declared the winner by an audience vote at Pacific Auditorium.
Megan Wood takes the wheel STEVE LINDSLEY The Umpqua Post
A 14-year-old performer finessed her way through technical problems to win the sixth annual Rotary Club or Reedsport Talent Show: Coastal Douglas Has Talent! Megan Wood sang “Jesus Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood to take first place in the show. “The Wayniacs,” a group made up of Wayne and Krissy Glass and Jessica Hart took second place for their straight, and “barnyard version” of “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” John Fairhurst took third place for his history of heavy metal and a guitar solo of his original “Into the Unknown.” The prizes were awarded after an audience vote. Wood, from North Bend, continued to play even after the sound system at Pacific Auditorium balked. She said she didn’t get flustered.
14-year-old wins talent show with country classic “No,” she admitted, “I just went with it.” Megan’s mom, Susan Wood, said it was a great performance. “I’m incredibly proud of her,” she said. “I’m really happy for her.” It’s not Megan’s first performance. “She sings with a Bandon children’s group,” Megan’s mom said. “She sings at home.” Megan said she’s actually been singing a lot. “I’ve been singing all my life,” she said. “I actually started voice lessons when I was 12. I started guitar lessons then, too. She got involved with Coastal Douglas Has Talent at the urging of a church member. “There was a man, who goes to our church, who came up to me and asked
One person dies in a crash near Lakeside
Well-stocked fish meeting
By Steve Lindsley, Umpqua Post
More than 125 people showed up at an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife meeting on Jan. 29 to hear, and comment on, the Coastal MultiSpecies Conservation and Management Plan. The three-hour session included time to question staff on portions of the plan. The public comment period has been extended a month. See the story on Page A6.
Crash shuts down U.S. Highway 101 for several hours while Oregon State Police investigated the single-vehicle crash BY THOMAS MORIARTY The Umpqua Post
Confluence comes to town this weekend It appears Reedsport has avoided the snow and ice that hit the rest of western Oregon and the weather may be a bit rainy, but not too cold for a big celebration. It’s time for 2014 Wine, Beer, Seafood and Music: Confluence. It will be held this weekend, Presidents Day weekend, in downtown Reedsport, next to, and inside, the Reedsport Community Building. Chairwoman of the event, Phyllis Dever, who is in her third year, says the celebration will be similar to last year. “It’s about the same,” she said. “We have four bands, eight wineries ... ” She said they’re also doing free ticket drawings on the Reedsport/ Winchester Bay Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.
Dever said they also dropped the price for Sunday’s Confluence events from $10 to $5. She said it’s a chance to get visitors to the area during the winter. “It’s an off-season event that brings people to the coast,” she explained. “That’s what it was created for — create business. We get people from Medford, Eugene and all along the I-5 corridor. They’ll come and they’ll spend the weekend at the coast.” She says it takes awhile to arrange the event. “It takes about three months to put this together,” she said. “Everything has to come together. We bring some really good entertainment. “
SEE CONFLUENCE, PAGE A8
At least one person is dead following a single-vehicle crash that shut down traffic on U.S. Highway 101 north of Lakeside on Monday afternoon. Lt. Steve Smartt, commander of the OSP Coos Bay Area Command, said the death investigation will be handled by the Douglas County Medical Examiner's Office. The crash occurred just after 1 p.m. near the intersection of Kendal Estates Lane and Highway 101. Police say the car ended up off the roadway and was not blocking traffic, but emergency personnel closed down the highway and detoured traffic onto Wildwood Road to conduct their investigation. Coos County sheriff's deputies manning one of the roadblocks said the crash happened just north of the CoosDouglas county line. State police had not released the victim’s name as of 7 p.m.
Screen capture of Senate hearing by Steve Lindsley
Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson, who also serves as the president of the Association of O&C Counties, testifies Thursday before Senator Ron Wyden’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a bill affecting the O&C counties.
Commissioner: It’s the people who pay the price BY STEVE LINDSLEY The Umpqua Post
Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson, who is also president of the Association of O&C Counties, testified Thursday in front the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Oregon’s Ron Wyden. The topic was Wyden’s Oregon and California Grant Lands Act of 2013. “The bill addresses management of 2.1 million acres of land in 18 counties in western Oregon,” Robertson testified. “A quarter of these lands are scattered across my county, the rest are spread in a checkerboard pattern across the other 17 counties in western Oregon. In spite of the name, the O&C lands exist only in Oregon and nowhere else.” Robertson gave a history of the lands, which were part of a swap in the late 1800s in exchange for construction of a rail line from the Columbia River to the California border. The land could be sold to settlers for no more than $2.50 an acre. The lands were taken back
SEE ROBERTSON, PAGE A8
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