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Submitted By: tevisdiii@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

POLITICAL/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Here’s a challenge for for anyone who appreciates proper, civil English diction, theater, and seamless editing, presenting very important information at rapid fire speed,( keeping up with him being one aspect of the challenge and the other is to consider the ideas).

If you accept the challenge, bear in mind that the first few minutes are Mr. Brands standard introduction, then the show begins.

Enjoy,
Tevis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkgncTyfxTo

Submitted By: danielccarroll@comcast.net – Click to email about this post

Today I stopped in at the Handy Creek Bakery in Wheeler to pick up some tasty treats and meet Erin Laskey. Erin impressed me as a kind, enthusiastic young mother with some wonderful ideas regarding the future of NCRD. After chatting for about 20 minutes, I felt like she would make an excellent representative reflecting the family values that I and most of my friends hold with high regard. My friends tend to be people that work in the construction trades, Dairy Farmers, work at the bank, deliver your rock or concrete, our first responders or work at the lumber yard – you know, the folks that work hard and get things done around here. Erin struck me as someone who would do a great job representing those of us that don’t have a lot of time to get involved but appreciate what NCRD offers them and their families. I offered to put one of her yard signs up for her. In the past, I have put up yard signs for candidates in my friends pasture at the corner of Hwy. 53 and Northfork rd., only to have them stolen within 24 hours. During the 23 years I have been part of this community, I believe this is only the second post I have ever sent to the BBQ. So my ask is, if you are planning on voting for the person that is running against Erin, don’t steal Erin’s sign. Don’t try to silence the opposition. Our community is too great to lower to such intolerant tactics.
-Dan Carroll

Submitted By: elaskey86@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

I’m posting this on Linda’s behalf, Thank you Linda!

ERIN HAS MY VOTE
There are two candidates for Director 2 position on the board of North County Recreation District. Both candidates express a passion and energy for making changes at NCRD. Here is why Erin Laskey-Wilson has my vote.
First, I’m voting for Erin because I support her goals to bring back the fully inclusive “learn to swim” program and to grow the youth sports and family activities at NCRD. As a young parent whose children use the facilities, she is aware of the need in this community for expanding inclusive children and family services.
Second, as a lifelong patron of NCRD for swim lessons, child care, children’s activities, adult fitness, she has a broader, deeper awareness of the programs, services, and needs of the organization.
Erin believes in the greatness of NCRD and has a passion for making it greater. I believe that Erin is the best candidate for Director #2 position on the NCRD board.
Linda Makohon

Submitted By: Moliver@nvcarecenter.org – Click to email about this post

Looking for entertainment of any kind (volunteers are always welcome) for our residents at Nehalem Valley Care Center. Please contact me if you’re interested! Wishingfortherain@gmail.com

Submitted By: bachase411@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

If you want to be an informed voter in our county, you must become a persistent detective. Thanks to our local media for publishing letters as one way to learn about candidates!

In this election, voters will determine leadership of the Nehalem Bay Health District (NBHD) Board. As a Wheeler resident, I first became aware of this Board when it was doing little to improve local health outcomes. More recently, the reconstituted Board is remarkable for what it is delivering: a strategic plan shaped by citizen involvement, a vision for the future of local health services, and a range of funding resources to make it real.

All of this and more has been accomplished during Marc Johnson’s Board tenure. Results have taken time, expertise, and persistence. I attribute Marc’s leadership as a major factor in how the NBHD Board is serving us all.

My personal experience with Marc has demonstrated his effectiveness. Marc was a member of the Education and Engagement Committee I chaired for the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay. Marc was thoughtful, collaborative and invaluable in applying his experience to create more effective messages to our community about emergency preparedness. While I served on the Tillamook County Library Board, Marc was president of the North Tillamook Library Friends, the non-profit that provides and maintains the library building while the County provides staff and materials. Marc was an excellent steward of this win-win partnership. Marc is a leader who builds relationships that produce results; just one example is $3 million in federal funding for the new Nehalem Bay Health Center with the support of Senators Wyden and Merkley. Marc Johnson is the right leader to bring the new Nehalem Bay Health Center to completion. He deserves your vote!

Betsy Chase
Wheeler

Submitted By: barbaraandchuck@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

Please join me in voting for Constance Shimek for the NCRD board, position 2.

I have known Constance for almost 10 years as a friend and fellow Nehalem Bay Garden Club member and know her to be a very hard worker and conscientious. She is right there doing whatever needs doing for the Club: from planning meetings and outings and making connections to hauling dirt and plants and making signs for the annual sale.

She is always thinking, looking for ways to make a difference. She is not afraid to think out of the box or to speak her mind. We haven’t always agreed and we have always remained friends because she is also a collaborator wanting to include other voices and isn’t attached to getting her way. If she sees something that needs attention she doesn’t just complain, she speaks up and offers solutions. These qualities are a winning combination in my way of thinking.

She is very passionate about the North County Recreation District. She has been on the Friends of NCRD board and attends NCRD board meetings regularly. She is deeply committed to making sure the pool gets built–a pool that is so very much needed and supported by our community. And she actually enjoys and is good at fundraising!

She is also passionate about transparency and making NCRD more available to all residents of the district.

Her heart, energy, enthusiasm, positivity and many skills are a great asset to our community and to NCRD in particular.

Please vote for Constance.
Thank you, Barbara McLaughlin

Submitted By: tinnindeb@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

This is the story of one man’s relentless “war” with Manzanita’s City Council and City Manager as disclosed in a review of public records. We, the undersigned Manzanita voters, describe this story below in the interest of full transparency and in the hope that Mayor Deb Simmons will step up and stop this clandestine and destructive interference in our city’s affairs.

For the past five years, Randy Kugler, who was a city manager here 30 years ago, has persistently pushed his personal agenda on the Council and city administration because of what he calls “inept” public officials and a “complacent citizenry.” In 2018 and 2019, he pestered city staff to advance his budget and city hall proposals. Though unappointed and unelected, he pressured the Hoffman Center for the Arts Board to sell its property as part of an unauthorized city hall scheme. He issued imperious demands to the city manager if his requests were not answered quickly enough. Even now he continues a campaign of harassment of the current city manager. Mr. Kugler’s contempt for our entire community is best illustrated by his dismissal of “80-year-old EVC volunteers” as participants in a scheme to promote Manzanita as a “disaster destination.”

When he came in dead last in his 2020 bid for election to the Council, Mr. Kugler settled the next year on a new tactic—what he termed the “Simmons project.” As part of that project, Mr. Kugler joined forces with Bill Simmons, a similarly disgruntled resident. They chose Deb Simmons, Bill’s wife, as someone with the necessary “star power” to be the spokesperson for their positions on local issues. Mayor Mike Scott’s unexpected withdrawal from the 2022 mayoral race on June 2 presented the opportunity to put Deb forward as a candidate for mayor, which she announced three days after Scott withdrew.

After her uncontested election, Mr. Kugler began coaching Mayor Simmons for the role of mayor and dispensed advice to her and Councilors Brad Mayerle and Jerry Spegman as a self-appointed “trusted advisor.” He also prepped Mayor Simmons before Council meetings. Describing their campaign of disruption as a “war” in a March 9 email to Ms. Simmons, Mr. Kugler congratulated her on getting “Lelia [sic] to say some dumb things that I will further investigate.” He urged Mayor Simmons to be content with winning some “skirmishes” before moving on to “a battle here and there.” He encouraged her by saying, “You are getting better with each meeting. We’ll do some practice for next month.”

Did Manzanita voters elect Mr. Kugler as Mayor? Or did we elect Ms. Simmons? It appears from these public records that Mr. Kugler is pulling the strings behind the curtain. We do not object to the Mayor seeking advice from a trusted advisor, but Mr. Kugler has been an obsessive faultfinder for many years. He has consistently shown disdain for any opinions other than his own—on a new city hall, allocation of overhead costs, and short-term rentals.

We urge Mayor Simmons to sever her relationship with a man who has harassed our city managers and sought to tear this city apart rather than to bring people together as the Mayor has said she wants to do. We also urge the City Council to support the City’s employees and protect them from harassment.

Deb Tinnin
Judy Sugg
Doug Sparks
Kim Rosenberg
Ben Rosenberg
Connie Burton
Bruce Burton
Linda Kuestner
Mark Kuestner
Cindy Kenne
Jack Kenne
Paula Peek
William Peek
Brad Hart
Christopher Mullins
Lee Hamilton
Laura Bailey
Jenny Greenleaf
Mary Marken
Toni Greening
Richard Neuman
Thomas Aschenbrener
Trevor Eastman

Public records request link
This link provides access to 478 pages of records dating back to 2018 provided by the City of Manzanita in response to a public records request.

Sources for this document
Paragraph 2: February 13, 2018, Kugler email to Alamillo and Scott; August 26, 2019, Kugler email to Alamillo; August 2, 2021, Kugler email to Aman; February 16, 2023, Kugler email to Simmons, Spegman, and Mayerle; April 29, 2023, Tillamook County Pioneer op-ed

Paragraph 3: August 28, 2021, Spegman email to Kugler; November 11, 2021, Kugler email to Spegman; June 6, 2022, BBQ post

Paragraph 4: Kugler emails dated January 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 22, 23, 25, 2023; February 16, 19, 2023; March 6, 9, 14, 21, 2023; February 26 and March 9, 2023, Simmons emails to Kugler)