The World is weighing in on the chromite mine in an editorial that attempts to straddle both sides so much it would split the Wranglers on a rodeo stunt rider standing atop two galloping horses.
ORC’s chromite mining proposal offers both benefits and challenges. Ron Opitz, executive director of the South Coast Development Council, emphasizes it could bring in 70 to 75 well-paid jobs. That’s an attractive prospect, but it doesn’t negate the neighborhood concerns about noise, pollution, and constant pummeling of county roads .
The community certainly needs the jobs. Officials have an obligation to demonstrate to prospective employers that the area is “open for business.â€
That doesn’t mean they should give away the store. The county is negotiating with ORC for road improvements and ongoing maintenance. Also on the table are mining access and royalties on county lands, as well as reimbursement for damaged timber. The commissioners have an obligation to protect taxpayers’ investment and maximize return on valuable resources.
The very fact that Opitz is in favor of chromite mining casts a cloud over the entire deal for when has anything he supported paid returns on local tax investment? Name me one time, one venture he has promoted that hasn’t been a net loser to the community. Having Opitz promote a new business is like giving it the kiss of death. Who would want it?
Yet here comes The World dutifully dangling 70 labor jobs in front of the community for Opitz and South Coast Development Corp like five day old meat in front of a starving dog. Lets rush in and sacrifice our timber industry, our health, our ground water in exchange for a measly royalty payment and a handful of jobs.
Normally, I wouldn’t bother to comment on a World editorial unless I liked it but this one is so obviously trying to sway public opinion while pretending to understand all sides that I couldn’t let it go. Everyone wants jobs but we don’t need to rape and pillage the land or subsidize foreign corporations to do it. Too bad Opitz can’t see past his ego and his horrible track record to the abundant possibilities of creating and developing energy.
Happily, Coos County will be able to do it without him.
With your background trading in precious metals your sympathy is most generous considering he basically called you ‘stupid’. At least I know I am in good company and we both enjoy The Mogambo Guru.
Magix, I agree, geesh this guys “position” is now challenged, what a whiner. But you are right, I’m sorry for him as well.
Omega, there is no argument here to be won or lost. You have repeated your view that my term ‘rape and pillage’ was a direct assault on ORC. It was not. The readers understood the first time you said it, repeating it ad nauseum is not necessary nor is it providing useful information to anyone here.
This blog and this post are focused on accountability of elected officials and not rushing to judgment, if you can’t stay on topic then please stop posting and calling people names or accusing them of being stupid just because they don’t agree with you. Let me assure you Omega, I don’t hold your opinion in high regard either.
Omega may be one of those ‘the fundamentals of the economy are good’ types and held on trusting the market would inflate its way out of failure. Now it has tanked and he calls others smart enough to sell early ‘ignorant’.
I advise themguys and others to ignore Omega, his sole goal here appears to be agita.
What’s the matter, Magix…don’t like it when someone calls a spade a spade? You reported erroneously and biased, and I’ve called you out on it. Now, instead of doing a little digging and research, you simply bash my posts. Impressive. You do realize you can’t win this argument…because you are a hypocrite. You use the materials you bash and call “raped” from the earth. Keep questioning my knowledge….using your grasp of the english language to write funny little quips challenging my position. Seems to me the only one laughing is “themguys”…who probably doesn’t understand your attempted slams anyway…
Touche !
Let him go to ANOTHER third world county and tell THEM how to do it.
You have an active imagination. Really, you read all manner of things between the lines that just simply aren’t there. Now you are talking about conspiracies.
Aside from your obvious bias in favor of ORC you haven’t demonstrated any particular knowledge of mining yourself. Or commodities for that matter. That’s it, isn’t it? You held on too long and sold at rock bottom and now you are taking it out on us.
My preferred commodity, by the way, ELECTRONS.
Nobody is picking on ORC here and your demeanor is out of place. Start your own blog and chat about metal price indexes or steal copper pipes from foreclosed homes or something appropriate to your interests.
Questioning levels of testosterone…quite mature of you both. It really helps your credibility. I’m not threatening anyone here…I’m just letting you comment your way to a laughable level. You demonstrate no level of knowledge regarding the mining industry and commodities. Here is another question. Do you believe in double taxation? ORC will pay fuel tax surcharges for trucks that go to pay for road maintenance….on top of that Coos County is requesting them to pay for the road improvements…BEFORE THEY MAKE DOLLAR NUMBER ONE. Now, I don’t know how you THINK communities should attract business, but taxing them…double taxing them before they even begin business isn’t typically how its done. ORC has agreed to the County’s request…a good thing….yet you view it is vile..and keep looking for a ‘conspiracy’. There isn’t one…its a business working with the county (as tough as that is) to get an operation going….to get people hired and insured…and generate taxes for the county and include them in royalties.
Really? You think he has testosterone or is he compensating for a lack of it? Just wondering…
The important thing is to protect the people’s resources and make informed, reasoned and careful decisions. Chromite, if it is really valuable and important to the manufacturing industry will attract other companies if ORC is not suitable or is under capitalized.
Certainly, it is hard to understand after reading the URS report regarding the remaining life of W Beaver Hill Road, why the County should front improvement money.
Oh…and “themguysâ€â€¦.you are proving my point, so I’d think about what I said and how I said it.
Oh My Gawd, da big boy is a threatinen now?
Grow up sonny, try to communicate without your testosterone a showin’ okay?
Omega this is your trip and your trip only. Never did I accuse ORC of being rapists, that is your take and your take only. In fact I haven’t accused ORC of anything! However, regulated US businesses have positively raped and pillaged the environment, look at the 1 billion gallon toxic coal ash spill in Tennessee recently. (positively a regulated industry).
Coos County has many other plentiful resources that enable it to be selective with whom it does business and the type of business in which it engages. If the County does business with ORC it should be because it is the best choice not because it is the only choice or perceived as the last chance for a dying local economy. Proper research is necessary to find out if ORC is the best partner to extract the peoples resources and the County should negotiate from a position of strength not desperation.
If you aren’t going to answer why you are so sensitive about ORC or in such a panic to see the county lease its mineral rights then just stop reading this blog.
So, just because you know little of ORC’s operation, you jump to conclusions and use words like “rape”. Are you familiar with regulation on the mining industry in the United States? Or North America in general? Perhaps you’d rather see your chromite mined in foreign countries where ZERO regulation is in place and workers are paid twenty five cents a day. To call a regulated U.S. operation rape is sickening. You use the materials…you gain from the materials…yet slam those that extract it from the ground for YOU by calling them rapists. You didn’t have to say anything about NOT mining. You said everything when you used the word “rape”. I’m sure you wouldn’t appreciate someone telling you that you “rape” their scenery with wind turbines…or “rape” their peace and quiet with the whooshing of turbine blades…. All I’m asking is that you stop and realize that YOU NEED basic materials…you use basic materials mined every day of your life. So don’t bite the hand that feeds you by calling them rapists.
Oh…and “themguys”….you are proving my point, so I’d think about what I said and how I said it.
Please understand my concerns regarding Opitz are not personal or relating to his character. Opitz no doubt earnestly believes subsidizing private industry pays back a return in excess of the taxpayer investment despite statistics to the contrary. If he didn’t he would be a monster.
Considering the salary he is paid filling his quasi governmental position by taxpayers it just seems that he really ought to review the ROI on these projects instead of forging forth with the old ‘if we build it they will come’ mentality.
He should be required to read Rand, Moody’s and the Office of Management and Budget reports that analyze statistics surrounding this issue. At the very least, he ought to just look around at all the empirical evidence that counters his very assertions.
Sure would like to find out some more detail on HB3046. And, some documentation. Someone told me Nikki when to Salem to promote and lobby for the Bill. Show me.
http://www.leg.state.or.us/07reg/measures/hb3000.dir/hb3046.a.html
I find that the real issue about South Coast Development Council, SCDC, is not the front man, but the source of money which avails his efforts to lobby. He probably is just the type person to be on the front lines, that way you can promote your agenda and bidding without blooding your nose.
Verger, when she was Coos Bay Mayor promoted the giving of funds to SCDC. She was very involved in forming the organization. Somewhere back in 1996-98. I spoke at that council meeting telling them I did not want to have my tax dollars spend that way. Give my share back to me to spend. My impact was nil. Has been every since.
When the pressure began to build and the public started saying why are we spending our tax money this way? Coos Bay dropped donating from the general fund and switched to the Urban Renewal Fund and gave the same or more amounts from there. Much more in the shadows, little exposure. I think its coming out of the general fund now again. I have not been following it.
Coos County in there 08-09 budget shows on page 122 all pages in the pdf shift to right 3 numbers, so it is pg. 125. Account 4001 Economic Development Division # 465.30-16. $10,000.00.
http://www.co.coos.or.us/treasurer/
Methinks the One Trick Pony bit off more than he can chew in taking on Magix. What fun to watch him try to gum his way through a comment.
Hey Omega, wanna throw out the old ‘you use toilet paper don’t you”?
Well, I suppose a Perfect Asshole has no such need !!!
Rape is exactly right and you know it, you just don’t want to hear about it.
Thank Gawd we have the net to find the truth and don’t have to depend on the corporate whores who still call themselves newsmen.
Not once have I ever said anything about NOT mining. My objection is to rushing into something of such magnitude and with such potential for damage to the, ‘life blood’ as Whitty calls it, timber property of the County. The forests of Coos County are multi-resource properties and care has to be taken not to destroy one, renewable, in the advancement of another that is finite.
Neodymium magnets are crucial to electrical generation and to my turbine and must be mined. Unfortunately, 98% of the world’s supply is in China because the once productive domestic neodymium reserves in Southern California were mined so irresponsibly the mine may never be opened again. The miners raped and pillaged the land and devalued the remaining deposits and the other natural resources.
Bob Main has wisely suggested the County not rush to judgment today and I posted it here http://mgx.com/blogs/?p=2544
What is your personal gain in seeing ORC rush the County to a ‘YES’ as Opitz put it? The chromite, if it is valuable will stay in the ground until the County’s assets can be diligently protected. What is your rush? If it is the jobs where were you when the County laid off 22 workers to fund road improvements without even having a deal yet?
Perhaps, Magix, you would like to share with the rest of us what non-mined basic materials you plan to use in each of your wind turbines? Materials are either grown or mined…period. So calling a mine a “raper” of the earth is, quite simply, hypocritical of you, given the fact that you use these materials in one way or another nearly every minute of your life. By the way….sure hope you don’t use stainless steel…chromite is an essential part of its creation.
And I’ll make the charge right here,if Argyle and his tin cup can prove me wrong, I’ll put a penny in his damn cup. My understanding is Opitz generated a fine piece of legislation, and his Fredo Roblan hand carried it to Salem to relieve NW Naturals from their AGREED UPON OBLIGATIONS TO THE COUNTY. Said legislation was very unusual as it ONLY covered about 100 miles of pipe, you know, the one through this county.
Why didn’t you announce this important little tidbit to the people who actually keep ya in Argyle year round?
My question for Ronnie is this, how soon AFTER you retired from NW Naturals did you start pimping the county for the tax-payer debted pipeline? What amount was bantied about as income to the county?
What were you paid by NW Naturals to pull this one off, oh, and how much by the county?
If someone can prove me wrong I would appreciate it. My ego doesn’t depend on constant ‘stroking’.
Hey themguys, you read Free Lunch, by David Cay Johnston, didn’t you? SCDC is a facilitator to plunder public funds. Whitty says that private industry doesn’t like working with the government so SCDC was created to act as an intermediary. A very grammar school perception of the relationship between public resources and free enterprise.
Free enterprise doesn’t like being responsible to the public that subsidize their profit making ventures. We deregulated the energy industry to make it more palatable to free enterprise and the consumer now pays 33% higher rates in Oregon alone.
The public subsidize the golf course and build a new airport to accommodate all the executive jets flying in yet we are still an economically depressed area. Despite these glaring boondoggles the public let Opitz continue to tempt everyone with ‘family wage jobs’ and allow the county to cut ill thought deals on promises.
The county has leased mineral rights five or six times in the past including once to ORC over the last twenty odd years and never received one dime in revenue.
Awww, with just a little tweaking, Ronnie Opitz could be The Grand Poo Baw of Clown College ! Never in my life have I seen, what is PROBABLY, a legal hoodwinking of an entire county and beyond ! This guy and his tin-begging cup is at every level of this government. You will notice dear reader, Ronnie always uses the word ‘could’ bring in 70 jobs. Why you do dat big ol Ronnie? Dat not nice.
This flim-flam man operation, he and his ‘assistant’ are the longest held jobs in Coos County ! Only two I know of.
Hell, I thought the businesses’ downtown didn’t want beggars darkening their doorstep. This clown is welcomed all over town. Perhaps wearing Argyle is the Key To The Kingdom?
Opitz needs to get off the government teat and get a job, I hear the Road Dept. is hiring.
Where were you and your tin cup on those jobs Ronnie Baby?
Yes, Den, I understand Opitz, who once worked for Northwest Natural of the infamous pipeline, is highly regarded by certain members of the community.
Regarding the airport, that is almost too cruel to the taxpayer to even talk about. A new $25M airport was built to service the 5000 corporate jets flying in to golf at Bandon Dunes a year. Sure, Bandon Dunes employs 340 people, mostly, minimum wage jobs, but has this area really benefited from the improvements economically? Are we doing great here as a consequence of helping the Dunes?
At first blush, it appears to be a big NO.
Did you also know that taxpayers, via federal subsidies actually pay for most of the salaries at the Dunes?
I am considering writing about this matter with respect to the chromite mine issue and Opitz, et al, dream of inviting big business to Coos County in my next editorial.
Omega wrote “If it can’t be grown, it has to be mined. Period” Well, if you aren’t a one trick pony… and you call me ignorant.
There are enough people with real vision in Coos County to move the County to a sustainable future. Unfortunately, there are enough people with worm’s eye views like Omega’s to make it take longer than is necessary.
Let one not forget the community support which surrounds this man, Ron Opitz. The district 9 school board members, one of them his wife. Through the board encouragement they used him to propose a 60 million bond issue on the citizens of Coos Bay. In the November 08 election. Luckily the Citizens only ended up the year with and expanded 6.9 million new fire station bond, just not understanding what “schools for the future†including two brand new schools and 20 million in slush maintenance funds had to do with education.
Then there is the Counties community support made up of 23 members who pay his salary. These members, who support a United Nations, described, non governmental organization, 11 members exist through tax dollars. They give our tax dollars to the South Cost Development Council and send representatives to their meeting. Those representatives are board members ,and at times executive board members, even when Opitz is trying to promote deals for Corporations with the very member organization who pay his salary. I call that lobbying and conflict of interest.
I could talk how SCDC has helped everyone with our airport, that is just an old horse by now.
“Everyone wants jobs but we don’t need to rape and pillage the land or subsidize foreign corporations to do it.”
Rape? Pillage? If it can’t be grown, it has to be mined. Period. So unless you stop driving your car, working on your computer, living in your home, I suggest you educate yourself before you pop off about “rape” and “pillaging”. Unbelievable the level of ignorance in your blogs…truly amazing.