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Serving Oregon’s South Coast Since 1878

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2025

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Coos County Emergency Management holding meeting to address citizen questions like a tsunami or wildﬁre, and experts will be providing answers to the community’s questions. Emergency Coordinators Debbie Mueller and Chip Delrea will be hosting the free training and information session with input from several local organizations. A Spanish interpreter will also be present. “Because of the chaos that occurred with the tsunami warning that we had on December 5th, we wanted to have an opportunity to speak with the public about what happened and how we can do better,” said Debbie Mueller, “There was a lot of chaos in terms

BY NATE SCHWARTZ

Editor

After a tsunami alert, an unprecedented fire season, and the current wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, Coos County will be more concerned than ever over questions regarding emergency preparedness. To help alleviate some of those concerns the Coos County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Management team is holding a meeting and presentation titled ‘Tsunami & Wildfire Evacuation or Sheltering in Place’ at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day, at 6:30 PM on Saturday January 25th. The meeting will contain information on how to prepare for an environmental emergency

See EMERGENCIES Continued on Page 16

Second wave of Oregon ﬁreﬁghting headed to California BY LINDA LEE

Country Media, Inc.

Oregon is sending another wave of firefighters and water tenders to assist in battling the devastating fires raging across Southern California. The Oregon State Fire Marshal (OSFM) announced Saturday, January 11th that six additional strike teams, comprising thirty water tenders and seventy firefighters, will be deployed to aid in the firefighting efforts in California. The teams, hailing from Clackamas, Columbia, Coos, Curry, Douglas, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Morrow, Multnomah and Umatilla counties, will join the fifteen strike teams that arrived earlier in the week. Southern California is bracing for continued extreme fire weather provoking dangerous conditions in the coming days. “We understand the severity of this crisis and are leveraging the strength of the Oregon Fire Mutual Aid System to provide

See FIREFIGHTERS Continued on Page 3

Homelessness solutions one of LOC legislative priorities BY JEREMY C. RUARK Country Media, Inc.

Homelessness and housing challenges continue to be issues throughout cities across Oregon. Homelessness and housing are part of the nine priorities adopted by the League of Oregon Cities’ (LOC) Board of Directors for the 2025 and 2026 Oregon legislative sessions. The priorities have been identiﬁed through a committee process during the spring of this year, and a vote by the LOC’s 241 member cities this summer. The following nine issues received the most votes and were adopted by the LOC Board: 1) Community Infrastructure and Housing Development Funding - The LOC will advocate for a comprehensive infrastructure package that supports increased water, sewer, stormwater, and road investments from that state. Without continual infrastructure investments, communities cannot build needed housing; these two priorities are inherently linked. To this end, the LOC will advocate for continued state investments to support the development and preservation of a range of needed housing types and affordability. 2) 2025 Transportation Package - The LOC will support a robust, long-term, multimodal transportation package focused on: stabilizing funding for operations and maintenance for local governments and ODOT; continued investment in transit

and bike/ped programs, safety, and congestion management; and completion of projects from HB 2017. This objective includes support for a transition from a gas tax to a road user fee and improved community safety and livability.

coordinated regional homeless response and include a range of shelter types and services and other related services.

7) Address Energy Affordability Challenges from Rising Utility Costs - The LOC will support actions to 3) Recreational Immunity - The maintain affordable, reliable, LOC will introduce legislation and resilient energy resources to protect cities and other and invest in programs and new landowners who open their technology that support energy property for recreational purposes efﬁciency, renewable energy, from tort liability claims. battery storage, and resilient communities. These efforts will 4) Behavioral Health Enhancements - The LOC will support legislation to expand access to behavioral health treatment beds and allow courts greater ability to direct persons unable to care for themselves into treatment through the civil commitment process.

help address members’ concerns about increased costs associated with energy usage.

that allows cities to respond to the unique needs of their community’s housed and unhoused members. 8) Operator-In-Training This advocacy will include Apprenticeships - The LOC adjustments to ORS 195.530 to will advocate for funding apprenticeship training programs provide cities with the necessary and expanding bilingual training tools to address unsafe camping conditions, safeguard public opportunities to promote the spaces, and protect the health, workforce development of qualiﬁed wastewater and drinking safety, and wellness of all community members. water operators. For more information about these priorities, visit www. orcities.org

9) ORS 195.530 Johnson v. Grants Pass - The LOC will advocate public policy

5) Lodging Tax Flexibility - The LOC will advocate for legislation that increases the ﬂexibility to use locally administered and collected lodging tax revenue to support tourism-impacted services. These services include public safety, community infrastructure, and housingrelated investments. 6) Shelter Funding and Homeless Response - The LOC will support a comprehensive homeless response package to fund the needs of homeless shelters, homeless response efforts statewide, and capital projects. Funding will include baseline operational support to continue and strengthen

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