Current Listing

In Harney and Yamhill counties, the county commissioners voted for the same measure as Tillamook county’s 29-161. This measure has been put on the ballot to preserve the second amendment. The second amendment is the right to keep and bear arms – this shall not be infringed – says the second amendment. Like the person who put this measure on the ballot, I am worried about losing my civil and constitutional rights, I am worried about no longer being free!. The bobbleheads have no such worries – (they smile – nod their heads up and down up and down.) and pass legislation to make us less free.
Small businesses are, or were, the backbone of our country and other countries as well. Now most are gone, so our country’s backbone is weak, and the Dems in Oregon passed a tax bill that will further devastate small businesses trying to recover. They are now passing legislation that will cripple small farms.
The Dems in Oregon need to go in order for Oregonians to have a strong state.
We are going to have devastating food shortages. In this county we have lots of food growers. That is a good thing, but not if they are put out of business. An Oregon Democratic legislator put forth a bill requiring the OHA to regulate the animal population, pets included, in Oregon because of COVID. There is also a bill coming that will demand that we vote for the end of animal husbandry because it is causing global climate problems and also because it is “animal cruelity”! The point of this will be to exterminate most animals that we eat for food, but it includes regulating your pets too. Now if your pets do have “Covid” you could treat them with Ivermectin. But all of a sudden Ivermectin will be pronounced by the MSM as a medicine to only be used for aliens in outer space.
They have a story for everything! and you believe it!

So I think we should have a more balanced government. Less Dems more Repubs and Independents. Then crazy and irresponsible legislation will stop and we might get back to normal. I am an Oregonian for Oregon. Our current legislature should represent the people but they don’t. They push out legislation written by lobbyists, and some of our legislators are so dumb they have no idea what the legislation will do to the economy of our state, which effects the whole population of Oregon. I am sure some of them don’t care as long as they keep their jobs (while we lose ours).
I say, vote against as many Democrats as you can, vote for independents and Republicans and
get our state back in balance again.

The STR Divide

On the agenda at the end of the Council Meeting on April 6, a public hearing followed by a vote for a three-year freeze on short-term rentals was held. After the workshop and Council Meeting in March, there’d been a consensus by the Mayor and Council that pausing STR permits to figure some things out was a good idea. The plan was to freeze the number of STR’s in town to 260, I believe. You could still get a license as they became available, but the total number in town would stay frozen. There’s currently only one person on the waitlist and every year there’s some attrition after inspections come up and people choose not to renew.

I know about this process because my husband and I have an STR license for our house, which we renewed in 2020, the year we moved here full-time. When we first bought our house we rented it month-to-month to a couple of different people we knew who worked here in town. We still came down and housesat for a friend with a house on Idaho Street for more than a year. When our last renter moved back to California, we got in line to get an STR license to cover our mortgage. We wanted to use our place as much as we could and rent it out when we couldn’t be here. After a year on the waiting list and an inspection, we were good to go.

When Covid shut life down and work went on-line, like a lot of second homeowners, we decided to move here for real and during the last two years I’ve grown to understand both sides of the STR debate. I understand needing to rent in order to have a house here and now I understand some of the challenges STRs create. Some residents live in neighborhoods with STR density at like 40%. They are next door to a business and not in a residential neighborhood like they thought when they bought their homes. I’ve also gotten to know people who have been impacted by STRs because they work in town but can’t afford to live here and have had to move away. Our businesses have been affected by the struggle to get and retain employees because STRs affect workforce housing. This is all stuff I should’ve known but didn’t until I moved here.

Before the April Meeting the City Manager wrote up a resolution to bring for a vote and met with the City attorney to find out if it was kosher to pause STR’s in the whole town. This included R3, R4 and the Commercial zones, which allow STRs to operate without a wait. The attorney said that the resolution was good to go. I’m sure all this work at the behest of the Council took hours of time for our City Manager to do.

During the public hearing two property owners of homes currently still under construction on Merton and 3rd Street complained that they had only bought their homes because they believed they’d be able to rent them immediately.

So before we go on–those homes in Whispering Pines are not finished yet. They’re still working on the exteriors and some standing water issues. They’re also on the north end of the infamous 3rd Street lot, which has been cleared so completely that there is no buffer at all between those houses and the adjoining residential R2 neighborhood. It’s like a bikini wax. From Edmund Lane you can see who is parked at the Little Red Apple on Laneda and from 3rd all you can see is construction. Maybe the owners are accepting reservations for summer but for right now–the houses aren’t finished.

The Council had a lengthy anecdotal discussion about large family reunions in big houses and the hardship of childhoods spent camping at the state park instead of renting a beach house in town. Somehow accessibility for out of town families came up. Accessibility denotes an ease of use in all ways for people of different abilities and income levels. In a town where most houses rent for far more than a hundred a night, and most vacation homes aren’t really accessible for people with disabilities, using the term makes it sound like rentals in R3, R4 and the commercial zone will be affordable for families when really, they won’t be.

Councilmember Spegman asked if there was a way to fast track the two homeowners on the STR permit list and the City Manager reported that it could be done.

To my point–the homes are still under construction, there’s one person on the waitlist and it’s two people with unfinished homes complaining.

Only Councilmember Spegman voted against the change to the resolution. The Mayor and the rest of the Council voted to exclude houses in R3, R4 and the Commercial areas in the freeze making it closer to a slushy.

Policy 7 of the Comprehensive Plan states: “The plan is not to be used for the benefit of a few property owners or special interests, but for the city as a whole.”

Really?

A person commented at the meeting that the City shouldn’t listen to a handful of people stuck in the 90’s–and I wonder, is it true? Not the 90’s part because that was not a good decade for me. But is it true that just a few people in town wanted the freeze? I’ve received plenty of emails from people in town and around town who say otherwise. But maybe I’m wrong.

It would be a good thing to know.

Regardless of your opinion, I hope you let our City know how you feel. Otherwise, we’re like that spouse on Dr. Phil who never says what he or she wants and then blames their partner for not being able to read their mind. Don’t be that guy!

Emails for Mayor, City Council and City Manager (you can cc all)

City Manager: Leila Aman laman@ci.manzanita.or.us
Mayor: Mike Scott mscott@ci.manzanita.or.us
Councilmember: Hans Tonjes htonjes@ci.manzanita.or.us
Councilmember: Steve Nuttall snuttall@ci.manzanita.or.us
Council President: Linda Kozlowski lkozlowski@ci.or.us
Councilmember: Jerry Spegman jspegman@ci.or.us

Kim Rosenberg loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

Our leathercrafting shop (we’re the ones with the sign on Highway 53 by Mohler) and tens of thousands of Etsy sellers globally have all temporarily closed their Etsy shops this week in “strike”.

The strike is to protest increased fees (up to 25% of each sale goes to Etsy) and unfair policies that ultimately raise prices on customers for the benefit of Wall Street.

Strike organizers are asking customers to:
– sign the petition being delivered to Etsy HQ: www.coworker.org/petitions/cancel-the-fee-increase-work-with-sellers-not-against-us
– boycott Etsy for the week of April 11-18

If you have an Etsy shop as a seller, please consider joining the strike effort: etsystrike.org

The strike is gaining remarkable momentum and attention. More info in our blog post and links to news articles — Wall Street Journal, NPR, Newsweek (we were interviewed!): blog.walnutstudiolo.com/2022/04/11/why-were-joining-the-etsy-strike/

Thank you for your time,
Valerie Franklin
Walnut Studiolo
Original Modern Designs / Handcrafted Leather Goods
36005 Highway 53, Nehalem, OR 97131
Phone +1 503-447-6889
Email walnutstudiolo@gmail.com
URL walnutstudiolo.com

We wish we were contacting you with an invite to a friendly community event.

Unfortunately, this time we need to tell you about a very dangerous and irresponsible measure has made it’s way on to the May ballot.

The question on the ballot will read “Should Tillamook County officials be prevented from enforcing most state, federal, and local firearm regulations?”

The term “officials” means anyone working for the county (law enforcement, judges, the DA, clerks, etc.). These individuals would be personally fined up to $4,000 for enforcing state and federal laws. Businesses could be fined up to $10,000.

Imagine any one of these public servants being faced with the decision of keeping the community safe by enforcing a federal law or avoiding a huge fine.

Your help is needed to defeat this measure. We are launching a county wide awareness campaign that will get messaging into every household in the county by the end of the month.

There is a web site up at ajustright.org where you can read the full ordinance, donate, and find more information.

Please help by donating and sharing this information.

Thank you.

Please join me in voting for Mary Faith Bell for County Commissioner. She has proved herself an asset and a treasure to the people of Tillamook County. Let’s keep her!!

Imbedded in the meeting was a public hearing about annexation of some undeveloped land.
Several citizens asked why the land was being annexed and got no answer. Three out of five elected public officials voted “yes” to the annexation, with one abstaining.
Later in the meeting it was time to vote on the much hoped for freeze on STRs. In March council had asked our city manager, Leila Aman to draw up a resolution holding STRs to 260 for three years. Leila drew up the resolution and had it reviewed by our Manzanita city attorney. All was in order and ready for approval. But wait! Two outside investors called in asking council to reconsider. They were both building new houses on Merton and had been told they could get STR permits immediately. Council said well let’s redo this resolution right now and continue with uncapped STRs on all of Laneda and parts of 3rd, 4th, Merton, Hailey etc.
Our city manager’s well- researched resolution was quickly reworded per Mayor Mike Scott’s instructions. Then four elected public officials voted “yes” and one voted “no” again. One councilor listens to the people who elect, three councilors and the mayor listen to investors.

This is not made up. If you missed this disaster of a meeting, you can listen to the recording now available at: tinyurl.com/2p8stdhd