Group Hopes to Spread Light on Oil Drilling; Every Child Initiates Florence Chapter; Port to Review Manager Applications

Group Hopes to Spread Light on Oil Drilling

The Trump administration’s decision to allow drilling off shore continues to raise concerns about the waters off the Oregon coast. The Interior Department is proposing opening up 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas drilling. The new draft five-year-plan includes 47 lease sales – the largest number in history – in waters off the entire West Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, the East Coast and Alaska. Sales are planned in Oregon and Washington in 2021. But Steve Mashuda, managing attorney for oceans at Earthjustice in Seattle, says the public will have a chance to weigh in on this proposal.

“It’s very important that people stand up, let their voices be heard, let the administration know that we’re not willing to sacrifice our oceans for big oil.  We saw it in the Gulf most recently in 2010. People don’t want that and business owners don’t want that, fisherman don’t want that, and so there’s really a large and bipartisan opposition to drilling for oil in these biologically rich waters.”

A group called the Surfrider Foundation has set up a local meeting to present six short films that highlight the grassroots resistance taking place across the United States and to discuss the Trump administration’s decision to open up our coastlines.  The meeting will highlight problems and disasters that have occurred with off shore drilling including the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.  The presentation will be at the Bromley Room of the Siuslaw public library on Tuesday February 20th from 6-8 pm.

Every Child Initiates Florence Chapter

There is a large contingency of people in our community that work with Foster children and a group trying to get the word out to help these families is called Every Child.  The group, headed by Cathleen Coontz hopes to fill the gap between those who can foster children and those who cannot.  Coontz says Every Child can help families with resources such as providing babysitting, going shopping, helping with chores around the house, and sometimes provide needed supplies.  Coontz will be a guest on the March edition of Our Town and hopes to spread the word about the needs families with foster children have.

Port to Review Manager Applications

Next Wednesday, February 21st, the Port of Siuslaw will hold a work session at 6pm which will include a presentation with Business Oregon Representative Dave Harlen.  Immediately following the board will hold its regular meeting which will include an update on the Erosion Repair Project.  They will then break and go into executive session to review port manager applications.  The work session and regular meeting are open to the public.  The executive session will be a closed meeting.