Thursday, February 05, 2015
Council to ponder placement
A special work session from noon until two Monday at City Hall Monday afternoon will give elected officials a chance to talk about medical marijuana dispensaries. Joshua Greene:
Joshua Greene – “We as a new council have never really had a work session and an open discussion about medical marijuana dispensaries, where they should be located and all the particulars.”
Last March the council imposed a 12-month moratorium on the dispensaries just before a state law allowing them went into effect. That gave time for city staff and the Planning Commission to draft proposed local regulations.
Joshua Greene – “It seemed that the planning commission was taking it in of themselves to go into a more regulatory position and when you read the document that was being proposed I personally felt that it was unfair.”
Medical marijuana dispensaries are already highly regulated under state law.
Joshua Greene – “It’s a dispensary. It’s like a pharmacy. You know they’re heavily… there’s security cameras inside and out. These things have two and three locked doors inside.”
The entire issue is likely to be a moot point anyway. Voters in Oregon approved recreational marijuana last fall and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is drafting rules that could render dispensaries unnecessary.
Raiding the recycle bin for science
The Science Lady is using household items that would normally go in the trash to help demonstrate physical sciences to elementary students.
Laura Smith was in classrooms at Siuslaw Elementary this week with boxes of empty ketchup and syrup bottles, soup cans, flattened cereal boxes, empty spools that used to contain rolls of thread and the lids from butter tubs.
She paired them up with rubber bands, paper clips, balloons, food coloring and balloons.
Smith didn’t say exactly what they were building with the materials salvaged from the recycle bin, but it graphically showed how the forces of gravity and wind resistance can be easily illustrated.
Smith says you can help out by donating supplies and or cash to the “Science Lab” at Siuslaw Elementary.
Sit right back and we’ll tell you a tale…
A tale of a fateful trip.
This week marked the 16th anniversary of the New Carissa shipwreck on Coos Bay’s North Spit. Nobody was injured when the 600 foot wood-chip freighter went ashore during a winter storm February 5th, 1999. But the environmental impact was deep and recovery took several years.
A salvage company used explosives to break the vessel into two pieces. The 400-foot bow section refloated in a subsequent storm only to come ashore again just south of Waldport.
From there, it was towed to sea and sunk.
But, the stern section resisted efforts to remove it in one piece. After a lengthy court battle between the New Carissa’s owner and the State of Oregon, it was finally dismantled and removed in 2008.
Blind date with a book
The Siuslaw Public Library is offering free blind dates this month; it’s their way of celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Meg Spencer says if you come to the library this month, they’ll be happy to arrange the mystery date.
In fact, that date might be a mystery; or maybe historical fiction, a young adult novel or even a biography.
Spencer says they’ve selected a number of books, wrapped them in plain paper wrappers and placed them on a special “blind date with a book” shelf. Come pick one out, take it home and read it.
Then fill out an evaluation form and return it… along with the book and you’ll be entered to win a prize during a driver at the end of the month.
Spencer said the idea is to expand your reading horizons and encourage you to read something you may not otherwise read.
Lots of rain
Heavy rains today and tomorrow are expected to cause several rivers to rise along the coast, but forecasters with the National Weather Service don’t expect any serious flooding.
The biggest danger, they say, could be in low lying coastal areas and near the beach where high winds, heavy rains and pounding surf could combine to make things treacherous.
The Siuslaw River is expected to crest about three feet below flood stage sometime early Sunday.