Fairview residents, Ronne Hearn and Jaye Bell have been dogging the commissioners on the ORC mining venture and wrote this well crafted and thoughtful letter.
Dear Commissioners,
We all out here seem to be lacking that magic one page sheet (written after the fact) that says that Nollan and Dolan have any thing whatsoever to do with road proportionality, let alone when we, the county, currently have no stake in the deal and thereby, presumably, are not the ones destroying the road. Counsel may be busy but she’s the one who brought up this “one page” piece of elusive information. She works for you. Ask for it. You work for us. We want the page.
The DVD. Copying DVDs is generally not difficult, particularly in light of a $340,000 computer upgrade which might include the ability to copy DVDs. That meeting was the 1st of May. We are now celebrating Memorial Day weekend. If the county can’t do it, give it to Bob Arnold along with a few bucks for his effort and some blank DVDs and he’ll take care of it. If, as was suggested, the DVD is flawed, then contact Mr Ralls and suggest a new copy. I’m sure he’d be on it in a heart beat.
As to the ORC Letter to the Editor in Saturday’s World: It sounded so much like Mr PubEd that we looked up the guy in the phone book to see if he was for real.
Did you notice any of the flaws in the rationale in that letter? Russell Ralls, not ORC, did say there was gold and platinum in the sands and that because their specific gravities were substantially heavier than the other minerals, they would spin off first. Perhaps it is a thought that the county, rather than ORC, determine for the sake of the county whether the gold and platinum are “worth” saving. I’m sure you’d be a lot more solicitous of your gold and platinum than would be ORC.
1.5 million dollars. Based on what? All the commodities – except for gold and platinum…. – are way down. Just get in there and sign some stupid deal or the voters will get you in 2010. Hello…… We ARE the voters. You work for us. We don’t want you going off on some NWN/Methane type of deal. Neither has served the county well as all of you may have noticed. You were told in advance that these were boondoggles. You didn’t listen
And we’re telling you now: Go Slow. Hire your own expert attorney, Drag your feet all you want. Unless there’s something going on under the table, you have no obligation to ORC. And the mineral sands are yours, which is to say the mineral sands are ours. We want them taken care of for the valuable commodities that they are. They are precious. Treat them that way.
Also, we need to determine what our timber losses and related timber job losses are going to be if we destroy our younger stands. County says an acre of saleable timber produces from $16,000 to $33,000, while ORC says that a mined acre will likely yield $32,000. Based on what? What weight? What sales price? What royalty? Over what time?
Which brings us to the cost of road repairs. The URS Pavement Analysis Report from June 3rd, 2008 suggests all sorts of ways we can spend county money to benefit ORC, one of which was an outlay of some 1.2 million dollars to upgrade the road to industrial grade to accomodate the huge and weighty mining trucks. An outlay of up to one million dollars in the face of a potential income of 1 to 1.5 million dollars doesn’t make any economic sense, especially when the 1 to 1.5 million dollar income figures are drawn from thin air.
Do some of your own drilling and assaying. Know what you have from someone independent. Might not be a bad idea to have more than one assay done of the same core drills. Could be very enlightening.
There is no rush. If ORC won’t mine without the county’s 6,000 acres, so be it. If they have enough to mine the private lands, so be it. ORC is not your concern. We are your concern. Our land and its wealth are your concerns. We want all of this open, above board, and as transparent as a framed space with no glass, no glass to reflect or refract the images seen through the opening.
Ronnie and Jaye
Especially appreciate the reference to counsel and the constant claims of attorney client privilege. Surely privilege cannot be applied when rationalizing a decision to commit public funds to something like road improvements.
Could not be any clearer said than that. No body is getting out of Dodge alive.
I didn’t know where to put this, but certainly reminds me of the Power Block that runs this county:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5Mr5eCF2U
Hi all
In conversing with someone on chromite mining and other, I am sharing some interesting information. Google the (ASX:IDM)
den
me:
Did not know ORC had competitors, especially in the US. Why not, the County put our chromite out to bid ? I understand that would not help your situation. Yet, it may bring to light more research and facts in other areas of chromite mining and how certain items were dealt with. I think the information, put out to the public is better than not knowing at all.
It may be that this never happens if all were doing is trading trees for chromite money. If its near the same why do it. Especially if the cost to get the trees back in production is costly in dollars and time.
Other person:
Denny, another point that one of ORC’s US competitors made when I talked with him–unless we have a 24/7 port, shipping costs could get very high for ORC. Apparently the ocean-going barges “rent” based on time–including time at the dock. ORC’s parent company, Industrial Minerals Corp (Google ASX:IDM) is down to 6 cents a share–so I hope the Port considers the company’s net worth before they make business decisions.
I think I got some of them out in the back pasture.
How about Urbane People Power Informs Tyrannosaur Yokels?
A new label, ‘uppity’. It may be hard to live up to. I like it better than NIMBY.
I agree, without ‘uppity’ public citizens local leaders with the only best intentions may, nevertheless, completely sell the farm for pennies on the dollar.
I remember at the continteous public meeting in the Owens Building, when a very large, very cocky man waddled up to Blondie, the county attorney, just before she called the cops on the older woman who was clearly angry, anyway, I did not know who this large, lumbering,very cocky man was.
It was Jon Barton, he angrily asked Blondie The Bashful, “I thought this was a meeting to ‘wrap this up'” Blondie very quickly shut him up.
At that time I did not know what these two were up to. I still don’t, but I know without Den and Jaye and Ronnie, this would be a done deal, a half-assed one like all the rest.
I hope Bob Main continues to show us all that a college edjukation can be very valuable on a public board which makes million dollar decisions for the people of Coos Bay.
Thank you to you all.
Hi All this is sort of a Chromite mining issue up date.
Looks as though the County is receiving pressure to wrap up the chromite mining deal and get on with it.
What is Coos County going to do about Oregon Resources knocking at their door? The Board Of Commissioners, BOC has decided to search for outside legal counsel, at best a person fluent in mining agreements, leases, royalties, contracts, etc.
But what about trading timber revenue for mining. Minerals will not grow back, they are a one shot deal. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Jon Barton says its time to go nose to nose, the Board of Commissioners, BOC and ORC in a meeting to hash out the details. Oh, “in an executive session because of land issues.†Jon was just reelected to the Airport Board, listed on web site South Coast Development council Member, SCDC. Has a dog in the fight. With public excluded, this deal will be like the Natural Gas, Methane exploratory, and airport.
http://www.scdcinc.org/about.htm
In November 2008, the County officially responded to ORC in writing. That is not a public document. Nikki Whitti at the February 24, 09 mining meeting stated she did not know they wanted to explore and possibly mine 6,000 County acreage. Appears that County counsel has been doing the Coordination and dealings representing the County Has so in Paragraph 13, and proportionally, and in written correspondence with ORC. Counsel now wants to step aside and go outside for legal expertise, good.
Counsel has now admitted there is a one page Brief/letter describing how proportionally applies in paragraph 13, it has been two BOC meeting sense she said it would be made available. and there are now two official outside sources, verbal comments from the Commissioners about this subject, one supporting another not supporting.
If it had not been for public involvement we would has been sold out by now. It is still necessary to request, require that our County commissioners seek more expert advice, consultation, with more public meetings. If they now go private, the public and the media cannot have access to the process.
Kevin said the paragraph 13, is a done deal, appeal in Oct. 07. Yes, in a rush, time restraints, Commissioners not inquiring additional information for proportionally issues, just accepted counsel’s and planning’s’ suggestions.
The horse is not dead, need more on mining, gold, platinum, other minerals, reforestation, one inch overlay on Beaver Hill Road, proportionally, legal issues, Along with the updated “Accumulations of Concerns Report†with the possibility of a citizen committee is the next step.
Now the shame comes, letter below. The benefits the County is missing for not taking action. Where is the score card that we all can use to determine the benefit? What is, “full projected capacity†based upon? What would be the tons of Chromite extracted at the plant? Current price of Chromite. Anyone have a web address that gives spot price of chromite. If the $1.2 or 1.5M is based upon royalties, then it first has to either be sold or moved and paid for to get the money. What was the ton per acres expected, of chromite at the plant? And how many acres per year would have to be processed to obtain that? I heard a 20 year mining project 24/7,
However it the exploratory lease must be written first so the miners can determine the amount of chromite per acre, then a part of the benefit is just nothing more than speculation.
By projecting the dollar benefit to the County it just becomes a “woulda, coulda†if it is based upon a sliding scale, or the current price or the sale price. A lot of factors influence the benefit, including the County Cost to keep the project maintained, roads, and cost of legal fees. The County is already factoring in funding for the project out of current funding with only a hint of return.
“carpe diem” seize the day and place no trust in tomorrow”, the ode says that the future is unknowable. Money now, for the future is unknown. Trade our trees for minerals, can we again use the space to grow trees? More research.
Another “red herringsâ€, is needed to do more research and written report available to the public.
A respected geologist, the best kind, seems to have a different perspective than a gold miner.
The other two commissioners need to do red herrings research also, that is their job, yes I know they are busy with all their organizational duties and responsibilities. but were paying them to do county business and report to the public.
Going private in executive sessions to crank out a deal without the firm foundation of knowledge will give us more natural gas and methanol deals.
The 1.5m, from ORC will go to support West Beaver Hill road, for their operation, not be used for County law enforcement, which two of the commissioners have demonstrated they will put money into infrastructure before law enforcement. Wondering where a “yearly†figure of 1.5M came from?
http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2009/05/23/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/doc4a173c6e693f6227761342.txt#blogcomments