Competition for LCC

It looks like I'll have competition if I run for the Lane Community College board in May. I don't know how people on the Eugene side of the coast range will like the idea of two members from Florence. It seems that both of the two incumbents will run again. That's amazing, particularly since Roger Hall said four years ago that he was retiring, and didn't get back in until literally the final hour of filing. Both of them will need to defend a college which has allowed almost its entire general fund ending balance to evaporate, including millions that were supposed to be set aside in reserves but weren't. If these guys feel they have been accountable and responsible, the bar is being set pretty low.

The Dunes Country Visitor Guide

Apparently, I received an RFP for the Dunes Country Visitor Guide from the Reedsport Chamber on the same day I got back from lunch at Gracie'sin Depoe Bay, where I discussed doing something similar for Tillamook. The Reedsport people seem to be in much more of a hurry, with a deadline for delivery of March 31. Usually these things take a little more time to prepare, but they already know what they want to say and most of the advertisers will be the ones who advertised last year. It doesn't look impossible.

I'm sure Oregon Coast Magazine can do a better job. We understand visitor guides better than anyone else on the Oregon Coast. We have distribution to chambers and other Visitor Centers throughout the Pacific Northwest. And we're 25 miles down the road, so we're not going to hit them with a lot of transportation costs. We'll know by the end of next week. It would be a fun project.

Up and down the Chetco

The Chetco River does not flow west into the Pacific Ocean at Brookings. It flows just about exactly south. There's a kink in the coastline here, and Highway 101 actually goes east-west through downtown and then somewhat more south as it heads towards California. The Chetco takes a jog east where At Rivers Edge RV Resort is located on the south bank. A little farther is Salmon Run golf course. Loeb State Park with its oldgrowth groves of redwoods and myrtle trees is several miles farther upstream.

Florence and Newport Events Centers

Several years ago, Florence built its "all events" center, which was later renamed the Florence Events Center. It's a wonderful place, really classy, but it loses money. As a result, the city is taking a lot of the cash generated by the local room taxes and putting it into operations at the events center. This isn't really what the room tax is for. It's collected by the lodging industry and should be used to promote tourism. Maybe that's why the idea of an events center in Newport has been such a tough sell. Tourism is very important in Lincoln County and the people up there probably don't want to find themselves taking their advertising budget and spending it to keep up a building that is largely for locals.

Birding Trail Update

The Oregon Coast Birding Trail Web site has been updated. The project has resulted in the selection of a large number of places along the Oregon Coast where a birder can observe the coast's feathered denizens. There is a brochure that is now being widely distributed by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, which details what all these places are. You can also go to the Web site and download the pdfs. An easier method is to go to the birdwatching page of 101milebymile.com, particularly if your Internet connection doesn't easily support megabyte size images.

Hatfield Marine Science Center

Mark O. Hatfield was Oregon's governor before going to Washington DC as its U.S. Senator in 1967. Over the years, he was instrumental in gaining a number of projects for Oregon. The Hatfield Marine Science Center on Yaquina Bay is a branch of Oregon State University, devoted to marine science research and also public education. Their Visitor Center has a lot of nifty creatures, including an octopus. An army of volunteers makes it possible for visitors to enjoy themselves. The bayfront of Newport is right across the bay and the Newport Marina is also close by.

Think about spending a night in Newport at the Hallmark Resort. It's right on the ocean, has great facilities, and Georgie's is one of the restaurants in Newport that locals recommend to their friends.

Astoria Burning

Much of Astoria burned to the ground in 1922, so it's appropriate that the city has made a special effort to commemorate its firefighters. At the Uppertown Firefighters museum at 30th and Marine Drive, there is a super collection of old firefighting equipment from 1879 to 1963. You'll enjoy looking at the hand-pulled, horse-drawn, and motor-driven fire engines. The building itself, built in 1896, was a brewery before it was a fire station. First things first, I guess.

Not many years ago, it was hard to find top class accommodations in Astoria, but a couple of new places have changed the scene. Pier 39 Hotel and Cannery Pier Hotel have added a touch of class to the waterfront.

Astoria from the top down

The Astoria Column was built in 1926 as a monument to the development of the Pacific Northwest. It has become a piece of history in its own right. Standing high above Astoria on Coxcomb Hill, the column features 14 painted panels which portray 22 scenes from Oregon history. Inside the column, 164 steps lead to the lookout at the top. It's a tiring climb, but on a good day you can see far up and down the Pacific Ocean beaches.

When you're in Astoria, it's just a short hop over to Fort Clatsop, which is now part of the new Lewis and Clark National Park. It's not the real Fort Clatsop, of course, but it's a decent replica.

The Budget Forum is Dying

Ever since November, I've been observing and occasionally contributing to a forum at Lane Community College regarding the development of the next budget. It's built on a WordPress platform and works nicely on a technical basis. Unfortunately, it has run dry. Since the middle of December, there have been virtually no new posts.

This is not because the budget is settled. On the contrary, the meat of the budget development season is just now starting. So why is the blog dead? Simply because it was entirely one-sided. People offered their views. The administration, we are led to believe, received those views. But there was no response.

There's a limit to how long you can continue with this sort of one-way communication. All the evidence is that Lane doesn't particularly enjoy outside input, but feel compelled to pretend that they do by having hearings, public input, and so forth. But the key question is responsiveness. I think the process is handled much more professionally now that Greg Morgan is involved as AVP of Finance, but there hasn't been much improvement in the basically secretive practice of producing the budget. There are still months to go, and this could be a very interesting period as the consequences of past irresponsibility come to light. But I'd have to be very optimistic to think that there's going to be an open and respectful process that includes the views of the general public.

Of course, it may be due to the isolation of being on the Oregon Coast and out if the action.

Bye Bye Cash

Lane Community College has been spending money like a drunken sailor. In the first 35 years of its existence, it managed to set aside about $10,000,000 from its revenues as a cushion. This isn't a whole lot for an operation with a general fund around $80 million and facilities extending across the county from Oakridge to Florence. But at least it kept some working capital on hand.

In the past few years, this has been heading south. At the end of the last fiscal year, the General Fund ending balance was down to about $3 million. Cash is continuing to drain away and by the end of this fiscal year on June 30, it could be under a million, which is just a few days expenses.

Why is there no outcry over this? Where are the newspapers and the TV stations? Doesn't anyone care?

Ending Fund Balance

It seems that Lane Community College has spent the entire PERS reserve, the entire stabilization fund, plus all the cash in the General Fund. It's going to need another $4 MM just to get the EFB up to policy, let alone restore the vanished reserves. It has also burned through so much cash that they are $10 MM below their target for working capital and will probably be down $13 MM by the end of the year. I used to think the college only used funny numbers when they were trying to limit their offerings in Florence, but now it looks like they do very odd budgeting for the whole shebang.

New Forum

I've stopped adding my ideas to this blog. They almost all are related to Lane Community College and there is now a forum at the college's Web site, where things are being debated.

Of course, it's not the same as having the administration actually interact with people who have dissident opinions, but it's vastly better than anything Lane has done in the past several years.