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Southern Coos Health Foundation's Quarterly Art Show

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North Bend decides on community grants

BY DAVID RUPKALVIS For The World

After a lengthy discussion, the North Bend City Council agreed to partially fund 10 of the 13 grant requests received from nonproﬁt agencies that beneﬁt North Bend. The council had up to $11,400 to award in community grants, but received a record amount of requests in 2023, with 13 agencies requesting $39,300. The question of how to fairly give grants with a limited budget was one the council members spent a good deal of time debating. “I went back and looked at previous years and it’s never been where the council has awarded everyone the same dollar amount,” Councilor Susanna Noordhoff said. “It’s varied quite a bit between $5,000 down to $1,000.” City Administrator David Milliron told the council it had full freedom spend the money

as it wished. “This is 100% discretionary,” Milliron said. “You are not obligated to give away anything. This is just the way it’s always been. It is expressively for this, and it’s for community needs. This is not tax revenue money. It’s revenue sharing from the state.” Councilor Pat Goll said while he was in favor of supporting nonproﬁts, he was not in favor of giving away they the entire $11,400. He suggested the council give away $9,500, keeping $1,900 in reserve in case a later need comes up. As a group, the council embraced Goll’s request, but there was still debate over whether to support each organization, and, if so, in what manner. Mayor Jessica Engelke suggested some groups should be left out. She said some organizations have been able to raise large funds in recent years, while others would beneﬁt much more from the smaller grants

available from North Bend. “For example, Little Theatre on the Bay has received many grants through the year,” Engelke said. “So, if we were to decide $1,000 to food baskets versus LTOTB, it would have a bigger impact.” Councilor Jenny Jones suggested giving the agencies with smaller requests – less than $2,000 – a $1,000 grant each, and using the rest to give a smaller amount to agencies that requested more funding. The council agreed on the agencies to fund fairly easily, but struggled a little with the amounts. A request from the Nancy Devereux Center for $2,500 to help homeless people return to their home communities was supported by Police Chief Gary McCullough. “That’s a program we’ve used in the past,” McCullough said. “We ﬁnd someone in the community that’s homeless, we’ll connect them with the Nancy Devereux Center.

Council asked to support community gardens

Photos by Metro Creative Connections

The North Bend City Council is considering a proposal to turn space in the city into gardens after hearing that gardens improve both physical and mental health.

BY DAVID RUPKALVIS For The World

There is little debate that mental health struggles are becoming a bigger problem among youth. But as the North Bend City Council learned Monday, the answer could be in the dirt. Yes, in the dirt. Mia Bryan with Anotomia Ed made a presentation to the council, urging the council to support a proposal to place community permaculture plots in the region. Bryan is working with the Oregon Coast Artisan and Trade Education Collective to push the idea, with both groups saying community gardens are proven to improve mental and physical health. “Our community is facing the same needs as communities across the county, which is a crisis of mental health,” Bryan said. “Students are not only behind academically. Now teachers are trying to catch them up on top of their social-emotional problems.” Bryan said in these trying times,

especially coming off a pandemic, there needs to be an effort to ﬁnd solutions for children that involve communities and schools. And dirt may be the answer. “There’s some really awesome research about the power of dirt,” Bryan said. “After one month, just the ability to put their hands in dirt improves the immune system.” And, Bryan said, there is no better way to get in dirt than gardening. “It can be that simple – more green spaces, more dirt and soil for people to put their hands in can improve mental health,” she said. “This helps bring up test scores, life skills, social connections. Just having a garden can dramatically change our youth’s future.” Bryan said her organization and OCATEC want to lead an effort to put permaculture gardens throughout the community. She said the idea is to take any space that cannot be used for development and turn it into the gardens. She said gardens improve water quality, air quality and soil quality.

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The permaculture gardens will not be used for vegetables, with the emphasis instead on gardens that only need to be planted one time. “What we’re envisioning is any space we have a garden will be uniquely designed for that space,” Bryan said. “We’d also like to add a little library with seeds for people to take home.” As for North Bend, she said the city can assist the effort by locating and providing property, no matter the size. “I want you to consider when you’re planning for the future of North Bend, one, saving some community space for these green spaces, and, two, consider using the space for mental health,” Bryan said. “If there are any unusable or surplus city lands, consider donating or using them for garden spaces.” Bryan said she would be willing to help get the gardens up and running because she believes in the value of them. “It’s a great time for your pre-

Obituaries

Please see GARDENS, Page A2

Through the Nancy Devereux Center and ORCCA, if they can find a family they can connect with, they purchase bus tickets. That helps with the homeless population in the community.” McCullough said the city has been able to send five homeless individuals home that way just since the council approved a community resource officer. After the discussion, Councilor Larry Garboden suggested the funding be broken down this way: Boys and Girls Club - $1,500 Knights of Columbus - $500 CASA - $1,000 Nancy Devereux Center - $1,500 Bob Belloni Boys Ranch - $1,000 The SAFE Project - $750 Alternative Youth Activities - $500 PEG Broadcast - $500 SMART Reading - $750 Common Ground Mediation - $1.000

Doing the right thing BY JOE BENETTI Coos Bay mayor

Coos Bay is and has been my home going on 44 years. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to own and operate a successful business here for 38 of those years. I firmly believe that Coos Bay is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. I am honored to serve as your mayor and to be able to work with a great group of dedicated fellow citizens on the city council who collectively work together, aside city staff, to fulfill the city mission, “…to work as a stable, progressive municipality to enhance the quality of life for all citizens through a government that is accessible to everyone and dedicated to the development of a diversified economy, sound fiscal planning and the preservation and enhancement of the cultural, historical and natural beauty of our area.” We have a diverse community, which is comprised of people with varied thoughts, beliefs, lifestyles, cultures, ethnicities, political affiliations, etc. Sonia Sotomayor, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is credited with saying that, “The dynamism of any diverse community depends not only on the diversity itself, but on promoting a sense of belonging among those who formerly would have been considered and felt themselves outsiders.” Back in July of 2020, the city council adopted a resolution supporting diversity, equity and inclusion within the community of Coos Bay, which in substance, listed that I and the council celebrate our community’s diversity and welcome all residents who live, work, and visit here. In mid-2021, a citizen requested that the council consider allowing a Pride Flag to be flown down at the Coos Bay Boardwalk during and in recognition of Pride Month, which is acknowledged as the month June. While the council was interested in supporting the request, there was concern as the city lacked a policy or criteria for processing a request like this. In addition, there was apprehension that if one commemorative flag was allowed, would we be required to allow all? The city attorney was asked to investigate and provide a legal opinion. His research showed that other cities have a commemorative flag policy and that under the government speech doctrine, the argument is made that so long as the city is the one making the speech, the city can control the speech. He further shared that the Supreme Court recognizes that under the First

Amendment of the US Constitution, a city has the right to express its positions regarding certain issues, without opening the door for similar expression rights extended to others on the same or some other issue. To act under the government speech doctrine, the city attorney advised that the council should adopt a policy wherein a member of the city council can initiate a request to display a commemorative flag with the council as a whole approving the request (or denying the request). The council later adopted a council flag policy, and in May of this year a council member asked the council to consider allowing the Pride flag to be flown for the month of June at the Boardwalk. The council approved the request, and the flag was flown. Shortly thereafter, the council received requests from citizens from this community, and other communities, to consider requests to display flags including the Christian flag, the Gadsden flag, Pro Life flag, United Kingdom flag, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics flag, etc. One person alleged that the council’s 2021 adopted policy might be in violation of a recent Supreme Court ruling (Harold Shurtleff v. City of Boston). In response, the council chose to place a moratorium on the council flag policy to allow the city attorney to further analyze recent related court cases and provide the council a legal opinion. At our most recent city council meeting, the council revisited the matter. It was obviously a topic of concern for many, as the council chamber was full of citizens from all over the county. Public comments were accepted and many shared their thoughts and desires. Most comments focused on two flags, the Christian flag and the Pride flag, by those for and against each. One person promised there would be a lawsuit if the council didn’t either fly all flags or only government flags. The city attorney provided his review and legal opinion as to the Shurtleff v. City of Boston (Shurtleff) decision and its impacts on the council’s flag policy. In substance, he shared that facts in the Shurtleff case were factually dissimilar to the facts of Coos Bay’s policy. Boston didn’t have a policy but did have a long-standing practice of allowing all flags to be flown on a city-owned flagpole with the one exception of a request to display the Christian flag. While he believed the council’s flag policy was defensible, it was his opinion that the council should respectfully decline to fly any flag on its flagPlease see BENETTI, Page A12

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