Author: North Coast BBQ

Meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month in the Manzanita Library at 430.

Our scaffold is sharing the poetry of others-not our own-and to share what could be heard by an 8 year old child as we are in a public space. Tara initiated this program some time ago and it has remained,
sustained by several locals who enjoy gathering in this way for lumninous words of hope, healing, and insight.

All are welcome to share or just join in the kind
conversation.

Our next meeting is July 15, 2026.

“We have art in order not to die of the truth”
Friederich Nietzsche

Please check it out and give generously–sowing your own seeds of love.

The Giving Guide and detailed directories of the organizations can be found at www.northcoastbbq.com/local-resources/

The Giving Guide can also be found here:
www.northcoastbbq.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Giving-Guide-2025-26_Final_Spreads3.pdf

Not every organization can afford a paid profile, which pays for the production. So there is a list of contact information for all in the back of the Guide.

Here are descriptions of several of those organizations:

Nestucca, Neskowin & Sand Lake Watersheds Council
Nestucca Valley Community Alliance
New Discoveries Preschool
North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection

Nestucca, Neskowin & Sand Lake Watersheds Council
PO Box 86
34600 Cape Kiwanda Drive
Pacific City, OR 97135
503-965-2200
nnwc@nestuccawaters.org
www.nestuccawaters.org
Natalie Nites, Executive Director

Mission Statement: The mission of the Council, working in partnership with private and governmental stakeholders, is to improve the environmental health of our watersheds to benefit those who live and work within their boundaries and the fish and wildlife that depend on them.

One paragraph about your organization’s history/work:
The Council works with many partner organizations, agencies, and private landowners to accomplish restoration and enhancement goals by implementing projects throughout Nestucca, Neskowin and Sand Lake Watersheds. These projects include large wood placements, culvert removals, and riparian plantings. We love working with community members and private landowners so please contact us if you have any questions or projects in mind!

Nestucca Valley Community Alliance
503-965-0018
nvcainfo@gmail.com
www.nestucca.org

New Discoveries Preschool
PO Box 191
Nehalem, OR 97131
503-374-1021
newdiscoveriespreschool321@gmail.com
www.newdiscoveriescooppreschool.com

One paragraph about your organization’s history/work:
New Discoveries Preschool is a cooperative preschool where children learn through play in a loving and positive environment. Both parent and child benefit from the co-op concept. Parents have an opportunity to share in their children’s first school experience and to help them take their first steps toward self-management and independence. Under the direction of an experienced teacher and with the help of caring parents, children explore and learn at their own pace from a variety of materials and activities in a safe, healthful, age-appropriate environment. New Discoveries is a parent-run co-op preschool for children ages 3-5 who enjoy learning through play! Our preschool curriculum also includes optional swimming lessons and fun, educational field trips. Our co-op setting fosters an interactive experience based on trust. Children learn best when they feel good about themselves, and we strive to make our preschool a place where everyone feels special.

North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection
PO Box 345
Wheeler, OR 97147
503-355-2516
rockawaycitizen.water@gmail.com
healthywatershed.org
Facebook www.facebook.com/NCCWATERSHEDPROTECTION

Nancy Webster, Coordinator
503-355-2516
rockawaycitizen.water@gmail.ocm

Mission Statement: North Coast Communities for Watershed Protection (formerly known as Rockaway Beach Citizens for Watershed Protection) is a 13 year old grassroots organization. Our goal is to prevent logging and spraying in our drinking watersheds. Our mission is to raise awareness to accomplish this goal.

One paragraph about your organization’s history/work:
Our group started in Rockaway Beach after we began receiving notices that our drinking water contained toxic chemicals that violate EPA guidelines. We then realized that Jetty Creek, our watershed, was being aggressively logged and sprayed with pesticides. We have since learned that numerous other coastal communities have similar threats to their water sources. Now we have more than 1500 members who live in nearby coastal communities, and a new NCCWP chapter based in Astoria. Let’s all work together to ensure everyone has access to safe and abundant drinking water. Water first!

Do not ask me where the scars came from.

Ask instead what they opened.

For pain, when held long enough, can carve a doorway
where judgment once lived.

The broken Know the language of trembling hands.

The lonely recognize the silence inside another’s smile.

Those who have wandered
do not laugh at those still lost.

They remember.

Perhaps we were never sent here
to become perfect.

Perhaps we came
to become gentle.

To discover that every soul is carrying a story
it has not yet found
the courage to tell.

So let mercy arrive
before opinion.

Let kindness speak
before certainty.

For the one you struggle to understand may be walking
through the very fire that once
became your light.

And when our days grow quiet, when all the names we gathered
fall back into dust,

perhaps we will remember—

the stars
were never only
above us.

They have always burned within us.

Each of us a small piece
of an ancient sky,

fallen only
to learn
how to help one another
find our way home.

Posting on behalf of Loretta Kim Rosenberg

At every public City Council Meeting and every Planning Commission Session whoever is running the meeting invites the community to comment at some point. Whether we’re at the meeting in person or watching the Zoom or live feed on the City’s website we all have the opportunity to voice our concerns, bring questions we have or otherwise comment on things not on the agenda and also sometimes as part of a public hearing. We can also attend the Coffee with the Councilors to talk informally and ask questions about the city.

I watched the last Council Meeting on July 8. After Council addressed the annexation which had raised concerns in the community, Mayor Stock opened the floor for public comments. She wasn’t required to take comments then but Mayor Stock gave a public opportunity for anyone who wanted to raise a question or give a comment to do so.

Nobody raised a hand. Not. One. Person.

We live in a small community. Sometimes our community is less Mayberry and more Twin Peaks. Sometimes it’s like a dysfunctional extended family with a long history of fights between uncles, grudges between siblings, infighting between wives and animosity between almost everybody that serves absolutely no one.

When we comment publicly in front of our community then, what we think and believe is out in the open, warts and all. Our comments also becomes part of the City’s official public record.

So there’s an opportunity to be heard in public meetings whether we take it or not. There’s also the opportunity to listen. Listening is not what most of us do very well but if we are open to listening, our viewpoints might expand to include some new information or new perspectives on an old problem. Even if we haven’t changed our minds, we’ve engaged. We’re open.

Unless we aren’t. When we think we’re the only expert and our way is the only right way, we probably won’t be open. Because we don’t want to be.

What’s that saying? In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.

Sometimes we won’t agree with each other but we don’t have to take our difference of opinions personally. We’re living in a time when we seem to have forgotten how to disagree respectfully. In public. With honesty. With humility. Without demonizing the people who hold a different view or don’t do things the way we think they should be done. Without seething silently during a meeting and posting on the socials later.

We create the world we live in with our thoughts, our speech, and our actions so raise your hand, say your piece, and be willing to listen to others.

Kim Rosenberg
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com