The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Oregon Beach Weather
Today– A chance of drizzle. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 51. North northwest wind 8 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph.
Thursday– Partly sunny, with a high near 52. North wind 3 to 6 mph.
Friday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 54. North wind 5 to 7 mph.
Saturday– A slight chance of drizzle between 10am and 4pm, then a chance of rain with a slight chance of drizzle after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday– Rain before 10am, then showers, mainly after 10am. Snow level 2000 feet. Cloudy, with a high near 48.
Controversy Over Cannon Beach Prepared-Food Tax
Cannon Beach businesses are torn over a prepared-food tax set to go into effect July 1. After three months, a recount, and a challenge in court, the measure officially passed by six votes.
The 5% tax will impact customers at places like restaurants and delis. Some businesses attempted to challenge that, but ultimately missed the court deadline.
The majority of frustrated business owners state the tax officially passing comes as a surprise.
“We didn’t know where the tax stood most of the time. We knew that there were challenges, and I think restaurants knew there were challenges, but like I say, we didn’t find out until just a few days ago,” said Cannon Beach City Councilor Nancy McCarthy.
Some service workers said they’re worried about making ends meet with a tax on tourists coming out to dine. But McCarthy said she’s not worried about smaller tips.
“We have contacted Yachats and Ashland, which have had this tax for many years now and they have both said that it doesn’t cut into tips. People are used to paying a tax,” she said.
The tax will go to emergency services, like an ambulance for the rural fire department, as well as a new police station and City Hall.
McCarthy said the City Council discussed this for three years, while watching the need grow in these government buildings.
“We can’t really wait any longer. If we did wait, it would cost a lot more because the prices of material and inflation and everything else that goes into it will cost of millions of dollars more. So, this is actually helping us to save money by putting it into effect now,” she said.
The city has hired someone to come in to help restaurants with new technology to calculate this tax. They’re also offering a grant program to reimburse for new equipment.
Coos Bay Overwhelmed With Abandoned Vehicles
Coos Bay Police Department says they’ve had 30 calls for abandoned vehicles this month, and it’s a costly issue they’re working to eliminate. Abandoned vehicles left on local streets drain resources from the city and dollars from the wallets of taxpayers.
The Coos Bay Police Department says they’re staying on top of the problem and trying to bring those numbers down. An abandoned vehicle tagged for tow with an orange sticker means the owner has 10 days to remove it.
“It’s become a little bit of our new reality of things we have to deal with on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It’s become one more part of policing,” says Coos Bay Police Captain Mike Shaffer.
The city manager’s office says it cost an average of $1,200 to dispose of an abandoned vehicle. It’s a fee some aren’t willing to pay, so they abandon the vehicles on local streets, leaving the brunt of the burden on the city and taxpayers.
“If they are left abandoned in our city, there’s going to be times there comes a cost to the city,” Shaffer explains. “There would be a cost through the taxpayers that part of their taxes would end up going to that. Hopefully, we’re trying to minimize that in addressing the problem.”
Shaffer says they’ve started to see good results in minimizing the problem by addressing it swiftly.
Meanwhile, neighboring cities like North Bend and Coquille see lower numbers with 19 calls and 1 call, respectively.
Coos Bay city officials say costs associated with abandoned vehicles include tow, waste disposal and demolition of the vehicle at public disposal sites like Beaver Hill and Coos Bay Public Disposal. Mast Bros Towing says they have upwards of 50 RVs and abandoned motor homes on their Coos Bay lot.
Shaffer asks that residents continue to report abandoned vehicles to police if they’ve been in their neighborhoods for over 72 hours.
Oregon reports 1,613 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 20 new deaths
PORTLAND, Ore. — There are 20 new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 6,393, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA reported 1,613 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 680,852.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (2), Benton (22), Clackamas (100), Clatsop (15), Columbia (8), Coos (36), Crook (18), Curry (12), Deschutes (95), Douglas (85), Gilliam (1), Grant (5), Harney (1), Hood River (8), Jackson (146), Jefferson (16), Josephine (54), Klamath (26), Lake (20), Lane (166), Lincoln (22), Linn (45), Malheur (23), Marion (148), Morrow (2), Multnomah (189), Polk (60), Sherman (1), Tillamook (9), Umatilla (50), Union (11), Wallowa (2), Wasco (17), Washington (140), Wheeler (6) and Yamhill (52).
Oregon health officials recorded the lowest number of COVID-19 diagnoses in any daily report of 2022 on Tuesday. At the same time, hospitalizations also declined. The downward trend is consistent with forecasts from pandemic experts earlier this month and confirms that the omicron variant is coming down from its peak last month.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 1,613 cases Tuesday. Less than a month ago, the state was reporting numbers nearly seven times that high as the omicron wave peaked.
Results from over the weekend, which were reported Monday, also reflected a sharp downturn in case numbers. The state recorded just 895 cases on Sunday, when fewer cases are typically registered compared to other days of the week.
Hospitals remain stretched in some parts of Oregon, but the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is dropping quickly. The state’s latest report counts 805 people in hospital beds with COVID-19, a drop of 60 patients since Monday. However, capacity remains tight, with just 8% of intensive care beds available, and 6% of non-ICU beds available, statewide.
At the same time that case and hospitalization numbers are trending down, vaccination numbers are falling off, too. Oregon’s seven-day average for vaccinations hit its high point on Jan. 11, when it approached 18,000 doses. That’s plummeted in recent weeks, with the latest seven-day average at just 5,104 doses, as of Feb. 14.
Oregon’s Exclusion Day (2/16) For School Vaccine Records Varies By County
Every year, Oregon schools are required to meet a deadline for having updated immunization records from families. This year the deadline will be different in some counties due to the challenges posed by the lingering impacts of the Omicron variant.
The official statewide deadline for parents to provide vaccine records for their kids is February 16, but seven of Oregon’s 36 counties will have alternate dates.
For Douglas County, exclusion day will fall on March 30. It’s April 20 for schools in Clackamas, Clatsop, Jefferson, Morrow, Multnomah, and Yamhill counties.
OHA said that the change this year is due to “unexpected challenges” from the COVID-19 Omicron variant for local public health agencies, schools, and families. County health departments are supposed to have sent letters to families to let them know if their children’s records at a school or daycare show missing vaccinations. Parents who receive the letter are asked to take action by the date listed on the letter, depending on their county.
Under Oregon law, all kids in public and private schools, preschools, Head Start, and certified child care facilities must have up-to-date documentation of the 11 required immunizations or have an allowable exemption. Oregon has a very broad list of exemptions — allowing them for medical, personal, religious, or philosophical reasons. The COVID-19 vaccine is not currently required for children.
Three Dead in Mapleton Shooting – Deputies Searching for Suspect
Deputies are looking for a person of interest in the shooting deaths of three people east of Mapleton on Tuesday night.
The Lane County Sheriff’s Office received reports of shots fired just before 9:45 p.m. in the 14000 block of Highway 36.
Officials are now searching for a 25-year-old person of interest Jericho Jamison in connection with the deaths. Officials believe that he left the scene driving a silver Geo Metro with the license plate “158JZG”. The back window may be broken.
It is believed that Jamison and the three victims knew each other, and he is considered armed and dangerous. Jamison is described as a white male, 5’10 and 160 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Active investigation is ongoing…If you have any information: (541) 682-4150
House Democrats Revive Proposal To Give Low-Wage Workers Economic Impact Checks
House Democrats reintroduced a bill on Tuesday that will send one-time $600 payments to the bank accounts of more than a quarter-million Oregonians.
It marks the revival of a proposal Democrats in control of the legislature floated in the past: providing stimulus checks to essential workers who remained on the job throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
This iteration of the plan would focus efforts on around 260,000 people who filed for earned income tax credits, a break for low- and middle-income families, on their 2020 filings.
Rep. Andrea Valderrama, D-East Portland, is one of the chief sponsors of the bill and will be tasked with shepherding it through the legislative process. It will receive its first public hearing on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 1:30 p.m.
Valderrama said proponents canned an earlier version of the plan for a couple of key reasons.
— First, the original bill created a process for low-income workers to apply for payments. Valderrama said lawmakers were uneasy about the prospect of finding a state agency or third-party vendor that could handle that volume of work in a timely manner.
— The process would be so cumbersome that most workers needing these payments wouldn’t see them until 2023 or later.
— Secondly, the new bill doesn’t discriminate between what types of workers would be eligible for these payments. The original plan would have only qualified certain types of workers, a factor that lawmakers and proponents realized might preclude many who still need these payments and has been a cumbersome task to delineate who was eligible.
Under the new proposal, as long as they applied for the earned income tax credit on their 2020 state filing, taxpayers should receive a check.
Valderrama also said that Oregon residents who don’t have a social security number but file taxes using an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) will also be eligible for these payments. That includes people with various types of residency documentation statuses.
According to Oregon Department of Revenue data, counties with the highest percentage of residents claiming the state’s earned income tax credit include Malheur (22.7%), Klamath (19%) and Jefferson (18.9%) counties. In general, the state’s southern counties represent the highest percentage of those claiming the tax credit.
The bill states that these payments would not be taxable or eligible for garnishment, meaning everyone who needs this cash will get the whole payment no matter what.
“We know that working and low-wage families need this funding now,” Valderrama said. “We know the cost of living is sky-high, the revenue forecast (last week) told us that. Workers need to be able to afford the rising cost of groceries, prescriptions, childcare and all of those things.”
Valderrama says the bill has the support of nearly all the state’s major unions including the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Oregon Education Association, Oregon School Employees Association and Service Employees International Union (SEIU). It also has the support of the Oregon Food Bank.
While union leaders do support the new proposal, they don’t consider it a one-for-one replacement with what many of them were hoping to see take place this year.
In 2021, Democrats originally proposed economic impact payments for essential workers as high as $2,000 per household. Conversations around dollar amounts this year began around the $1,000 mark. Valderrama said the drawback of payments at that level is they would be eligible for federal taxation.
Early estimates show the plan would cost the state around $180 million. MORE INFO: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2022R1/Measures/Overview/HB4157
Oregon Getting 35-Million Dollars In Federal Wildlife And Sport Fish Restoration Grants
U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today announced that Oregon will receive more than $35.1 million in federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) grants.
The WSFR program, through the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration acts, was reauthorized in November 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law supported by Wyden and Merkley.
The Sport Fish Restoration funds go toward restoration, conservation, management, and enhancing sport fish populations. The Wildlife Restoration funds go toward restoration, conservation, and management of wildlife for the benefit of the public, hunter education, and the development and management of shooting ranges.
Oregon will receive the following amounts for these objectives:
- Wildlife restoration $21.98 million
- Sportfish restoration, $8.81 million
- Basic hunter education $4.25 million
- Enhanced hunter education $151,095
A web version of this release is here.
Oregon Friendly Driver Class is Free Online
The Oregon Friendly Driver program is a free, interactive webinar class which educates drivers on the best and safest ways to use the road with people walking or riding bikes.
In this class you’ll learn:
- The safest ways to utilize your roadway network
- The rules of the road for people driving, people riding bicycles, and people walking
- How to avoid common crashes
- How people riding bikes use the road and how people driving can respond
- How to use roadway features: sharrows, bike lanes, and rapid flashing beacons
FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.oregonfriendlydriver.org/
Klamath County Sheriff’s Office Asks for Public’s Help in Search For Trucker Suspect
The first real clue to come in on all the missing person cases in the area. Help Klamath Falls Oregon Sheriff Office ID this trucker. He was the last to see this woman alive and could be the key to not only solving this woman’s disappearance but a number of the hundred other women missing in PNW. IF you have any information, please call (541) 883-5130
A 17-year-old was reported missing in Salem and detectives say the teen might be the victim of an online catfishing scheme.
Ezra Mayhugh, 17, was last seen on October 15, 2021 after being dropped off in downtown Salem by a friend, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. He was reported as a runaway the following day when he did not return home.
Investigators say he might be in Washington or California. They hope to reunite Ezra safely with family members.
He’s described as about 5-foot 11-inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
If you have had contact with Mayhugh since October 15 or have other helpful information on his whereabouts, the sheriff’s office asks you to contact Detective M.J. Sphoon at 503-588-6808 or to submit a tip by texting TIPMCSO and your tip to 847411.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/