The BOC meeting is on the road once again and will be held at the Coos Bay City Hall beginning at 9:30 AM tomorrow morning. SCDC executive director, Sandy Messerle, sent out a broadcast email today, signed by Jon Barton, begging ORC supporters to show up at the conveniently relocated meeting pressure the board in advance of a hearing next week regarding a possible surface use lease on county forest.

Good Morning,

On Tuesday, November 20th there will be a County Commissioners’ meeting held at Coos Bay City Hall at 9:30AM that requires your attendance. There will be a number of items on the agenda that do not concern ORC but there is a public comment period starting immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance at 9:30AM in which the public may express its views on pending events. Each person who wishes to speak will have three minutes to express his or her thoughts.

Why is this meeting important? This meeting is important because it immediately precedes a hearing which will be held on Monday, November 26th in which the Board of Commissioners will hear more relevant testimony, deliberate and decide* on whether to approve a land access agreement to the property owned by the County on which the mineral rights are owned by Kimberly Clark. Testimony is cumulative and by attending both sessions and expressing your views you provide support and guidance to the commissioners as they contemplate their decision. This hearing will be held in Coquille which may be a bit more difficult for some of you to attend, hence the importance of the meeting on the 20th.

These meetings may determine whether ORC continues mining in Coos County or shuts down completely putting another 75 family wage earners in the unemployment line, something we definitely do not need in Coos County. An ORC shutdown would adversely impact at least one trucking company, one contractor, fuel suppliers, utilities and a variety of other business that support the ORC activity. Without access to the additional Kimberly Clark mineral reserves, ORC will likely not be able to continue to finance their operation through the current world wide recessionary situation. Accordingly, timing is critical. There is no time to waste while Kimberly Clark takes legal action against the county for preventing access which, by law, they are required to allow.

Why is your attendance important? There is a small but highly vocal group of people representing themselves as “the public” who oppose virtually every development opportunity that comes to Coos County. In fact, the public is much more than the dozen or folks who apparently have nothing else to do but rail against development at commissioner meetings. The commissioners need to know what the “real public” thinks about such matters. I realize we are all working or running our businesses and it is difficult to take time to come and speak or just come and be supportive but if we don’t, we risk abdicating to whims of those who do not have such obligations. By not being present we empower them. By being present we let them, as well as the commissioners, know how the rest of us, the true majority, feel about such matters.

Please make time to attend either or both meetings. They are critical.

See you there.

Jon Barton

Apparently, the chairman of the board, Fred Messerle, has moved the meeting to Coos Bay, at much expense, in order to make giving testimony in support of an Australian company that gambled and failed in the global marketplace and is essentially asking for another bailout from county taxpayers.

*Note- The board will not make a decision next Tuesday. The law requires the county to hold two hearings.