At the September 7 Coquille City Council Meeting a Rotary Club member reported Coquille will have more and brighter Christmas lights this year. At the same meeting the city manager, Forrest Neurburg announced he is evicting the Bear Cupboard Food Pantry from city owned Jefferson School effective January 15. He said, “I didn’t want to kick the Food Bank out during the holidays.”
The Council also refused to co-sponsor with North Bend and Oregon Coast Community Action a program to use federal money to provide rent for low-income tenants. According to a document from the meeting this program will provide, “to families impacted by COVID19 up to six consecutive months past due rent.” The funds will reimburse landlords who could not collect rent or evict tenants during the pandemic.
Because these are federal dollars already allocated this assistance would cost the city nothing. If Coquille doesn’t take the money other communities will be happy to take our share. This infusion of federal dollars would help all of Coquille, not just landlords and tenants.
The only person speaking against the program was Councilor Matt Rowe. He said local employers can’t fill job vacancies and rent assistance would encourage people not to work. He also said rental assistance is adding to the federal deficit. After his remarks no councilor moved to join the program.
Despite its Scrooge attitude towards low-income residents the city is planning to spend big bucks out of Urban Renewal Funds (URA) to support business and economic development in downtown Coquille. In a 9/13/21 memo to councilors, the City Manager said the URA “Financial Plan” has a “line item” of $700,000 for “Property Acquisition and Disposition”.
The Manager wants the URA board, which is composed of all city councilors, to adopt a resolution authorizing the use of eminent domain to acquire property. Eminent domain would allow city government to take property against the will of its owner.
The memo said the URA, “should consider planning for the acquisition of at least two buildings in the downtown area”. One building may be demolished to provide downtown parking. The memo also said, “projects could begin in the Spring or Summer of 2022.”
The effectiveness of Urban Renewal has been debated for decades. URA’s spend a lot of money but seldom create many good paying jobs.
Social Media Trouble at Coquille City Hall
What consenting adults do on their own time is their business but when it crosses over into the workplace, especially when that workplace is Coquille City Hall, it may be problematic. More than that it may indicate a systemic carelessness and disregard on the part of the city’s supervisory staff, including the police chief, Scott Sanders.
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food bank What is the reason for kicking out this organization to help families in need out of the jefferson school