Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
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McKenzie Fire & Rescue is asking us to maintain current emergency responses by approving a levy of $1.05 per $1,000 assessed property value for five years starting in 2025. This would replace - not add on to the current levy of 60 cents per $1,000 which our community approved in 2018. There were 804 emergent calls to the stations during 2023! Fires, vehicle accidents, and medical assistance were responded to by skilled personnel- in all kinds of weather, day and night. These calls for help have more than doubled during the past ten years! Our...
As the Harbick green signs appear again for the third year along the McKenzie River, it felt like a good time to do some research online to give me some tools in my attempt to be a responsible voter. The first thing I did was to pull up Mr. Harbick’s submission to the Oregon Voters Overseas/Military Pamphlet (https://oregonvotes.gov/voters-guide-military/votersguide.html). The second thing and I humbly admit my complete lack of knowledge he even existed, I saw Charlie Conrad’s name also listed for State House District #12, so I pulled that one...
The Walterville Grange invites you to an Open House at the Walterville Community Center on Sunday, April 21 from 2 to 4 PM. Please stop in for refreshments and conversation as we recognize April as Grange Month. Joining us will be other community groups providing information on Plant Care, Emergency Radios, EWEB, The Discovery Center, Representative Charlie Conrad, and others. We would love to see you there and bring your friends and neighbors. The Walterville Community Center is located at 39259 Camp Creek Road in Walterville. Thank you,...
Does your newspaper talk to you? McKenzie River Reflections does now, thanks to a project I’ve been working on for the past month. I’m not talking about a text replacement. Instead, the plan was about complementing written words and giving readers something I’ve been hearing they wanted: content on the go, when looking at a screen is not an option. Some said they’d like the convenience of being informed when “too busy to read but want to know what’s going on.” Other people have been accessing mckenzie river reflections newspaper.com on cell pho...
Easter was a pretty big deal, growing up in Hood River, Ore. We’d dress up especially nice for Mass at Saint Mary’s, of course, and I remember frowning to myself because you’d see people at church on Easter that you never saw any other time of the year. We went to mass every damn Sunday but here were these people, strolling in all holy and high and mighty a couple times a year. We always had a big meal afterward. Ham, usually, I think, and Mom’s famous cinnamon rolls. Many years we went to our...
There are undoubtedly good times had by all who take part in St. Patrick’s Day. It’s known for lively parties, green beer, and brutal hangovers. Yet, if you want to stay sober and avoid alcohol, it can pose a challenge. Suppose someone is in recovery from alcoholism, choosing a healthy lifestyle, or recently decided to give up alcohol for whatever reason. Celebrating St. Paddy’s Day without a plan may lead to disaster. While it is only one day a year, it can quickly derail any progress on sobriety. Fortunately, there are practical appro...
My first column about The Whip appeared in the Eugene Register-Guard in Oregon in December 1994. She called the newspaper because the DMV wanted to yank her license. I don’t know if those people still call or write to media outlets. I hope they do. Some of them from my newspaper days became legendary figures, such as the “Rain Lady” who badgered reporters at The Oregonian for years. During her, yes, reign of terror, any reporter who dared write cheerfully of sunny weather or who dispa...
February is American Heart Month, a time to recognize that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, especially in the African American community. African Americans are 30% more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites. However, African Americans can successfully prevent and beat these diseases by understanding the risks and taking steps to address them. Being physically active, eating healthy, not smoking, and finding healthy ways to deal with stress are all ways we can improve our heart health now and...
The last segment of Oregon’s Interstate Highway system opened in 1982. One would think that since Oregon has a nationally prominent planning system, there would be efforts underway to plan for the next generation of great roads. But that is not the case. Planners almost universally hate highways, so they have made sure that the Interstate system remains stagnant. Even where changes are being contemplated, such as a new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River, they are not designed to address growth. The Interstate Bridge Replacement Project, now i...
January 26 marked the 322nd anniversary of the last major Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake. As a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member living in Salem, I’ve spent the past six years working to motivate community preparedness around this topic. You can see a tornado travel; you can watch it shift direction. You can see floodwaters rise and landslides and avalanches flow. You can watch a volcano spewing and wildfires and storms approaching. Earthquakes are different. They are s...
Conversations regarding Measure 110’s (M110) failure and the drug addiction crisis have been ongoing for well over a year and really began in earnest during January Legislative Days. The Joint Workgroup on Addiction and Community Safety Response (JASCR) held multiple public meetings beginning in October 2023 to hear testimony and develop policy recommendations and the corresponding budget request. When the short session begins on February 5th the discussions will continue and intensify as various policy options are vetted. I sit on both the H...
The debate over Measure 110, passed in 2020, was framed as “treatment over incarceration” for drug offenders. It seems all of us have now learned how wrong this framing was. What appeared to be a constructive debate about finding a better response to drug use was a ballot measure that made drug use a penalty-free behavior, in effect encouraging it. The failure of prior penalties for drug use does not mean that all penalties should be removed, as was done. At a conceptual level, treatment should be the penalty for drug use, rather than inc...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed plans to lethally remove 470,000 barred owls in our West Coast forests to try and help the spotted owl species survive. If the spotted owl sounds familiar, it’s probably because this problem was already supposed to have been solved—back in the 1980s. The spotted owl was the catalyst of environmental activists crippling our logging industry. They leveraged the plight of the spotted owl to result in drastic reductions in our ability to log and proactively manage our forests—all in the name...
When I received a text from a friend congratulating me for being named Woman of the Year, my reply was “News to me!” I confirmed it was true and instantly felt honored. But, when I read the names of the other women nominated, I felt humbled. So, I would like to propose a new McKenzie tradition: Everyone nominated for this honor march or ride together in the Walterville Parade in September. I love where I live and the people who live here. Thank you for this blessing in 2024 and Happy New Year to all. Gerry Aster...
Yikes, more bad news from the news business. There have been added concerns about the viability of Oregon’s weekly newspapers recently, with the worst being the announcement by the Eugene Weekly that it had laid off its staff and couldn’t afford to print another edition. The problems came about, they explained, after an employee had not only failed to make payments to the staff’s retirement accounts but had run up $70,00 in billings to the webpress owner that printed them. Even worse news - according to the Associated Press - the total hit m...
“Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back.” —Babe Ruth The “Babe” was born George Herman Ruth in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1895. By age seven, he was known as an incorrigible child due to many counts of misbehavior. Perhaps due to his parents’ long work hours, they signed over custody of young George to the Xaverian Brothers at St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, which was both a reformatory school and an orphanage. St. Mary’s served as his home for the next 12 years. At St. Mary’s, George found a mentor in Brother Matthias, a man who...
December 20, 1812 There was once a shoemaker, who worked very hard and was very honest: but still he could not earn enough to live upon; and at last all he had in the world was gone, save just leather enough to make one pair of shoes. Then he cut his leather out, all ready to make up the next day, meaning to rise early in the morning to his work. His conscience was clear and his heart light amidst all his troubles; so he went peaceably to bed, left all his cares to Heaven, and soon fell asleep. In the morning after he had said his prayers, he...
The Upper McKenzie Community Center again hosted the Annual Belknap Bridge Lighting Ceremony where friends and neighbors came together to enjoy the season. There was a short walk from the UMCC to the bridge where we celebrated the lighting of the bridge while some sang their favorite Christmas carols. One of our newest river traditions, a flotilla of river rafts decorated with a Christmas tree and sparkling with lights, floated by with Santa and his many helpers. A special thanks to Horse Creek Lodge for the “floats” in the river parade. Bac...
Nearly 250 generic drugs are in critically short supply. These drugs range from cancer treatments to antibiotics to drugs that treat ADHD or irregular heartbeats. To end this crisis we must fix the structural issues that have long burdened the generic drug market. And we must also address the little-known new burdens that last year’s Inflation Reduction Act placed on generic manufacturing. Since the 1960s, pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, have served as middlemen between drug manufacturers and the pharmacies where patients fill p...
Come celebrate with us this Saturday, December 9th starting around 4:30 pm as we gather at the Upper McKenzie Community Center for the Annual Bridge Lighting Celebration. Watch for Santa and his helpers as they make their way down the river in festively lit river rafts in the Annual River Raft Parade, sponsored by Horse Creek Lodge. Sing your favorite Christmas songs as we walk to light the bridge to ring in the season. Hot Cocoa and cider will warm you up when we return. There will be crafts for the kids and great historical information, too....
The Bottle Boys “Dime at a Time” program has gifted McKenzie Fire & Rescue with a $500 donation for the Life Jacket Lending Program. McKenzie Fire & Rescue began the Life Jacket Lending Program in 2000 following a tragic incident and have since partnered with the McKenzie River Guides to ensure life jackets are available at no charge for daily use on the McKenzie River. Life jackets are distributed in the Spring to businesses in the McKenzie Valley, where they remain during the summer months. People enjoying the recreational value of the McK...
The Portland teacher's strike sent a message to state lawmakers who hold the purse strings for Portland and the state’s other 196 school districts: You can’t keep writing checks for our schools without getting more involved in how those checks are spent. Portland teachers managed to force changes in the district’s budget, boosting their salaries and highlighting the issue of unmanageable class sizes. But they had no way to deal with the state’s K-12 budget, which became the immovable object at the bargaining table and set the non-neg...
(And as far as we knew, things were going to stay that way.) We were free and white, as people in our town used to say, and about five years out from being 21, which would seal the deal. As far as we knew, there wasn’t much to worry about, except the damn Russians and sometimes the Chinese. And things stayed that way for guys like us, for decades. But things did start to change, over time, didn’t they? I’m glad to see America turn, however slow and painful it’s been before our time is completely...
I had to pinch myself when I stumbled across the opinion piece in the McKenzie River Reflections written by Rusty Bentz. I know Rusty and to hear him advocate for the four lower Snake River dams blew my mind. He and his brother made their living to a large extent on having access to a free-flowing river to run their boats through the rapids and take rubes fishing for steelhead. (The salmon had long since been destroyed by the dams). Rusty delved into several ideas as to how one could manage to get a few of the Frankin fish back upstream so...
Hello to all, especially those of you who may not know me. I’m Lane Tompkins, Superintendent/Principal of McKenzie School District and McKenzie River Community School. A native of McKenzie Bridge, I’m a proud alumnus of McKenzie Schools. Our district has seen transformative changes under my tenure. Notably: - We evolved our school into a community-centric charter, emphasizing place-based, project-based, and service learning. - We’ve inaugurated the first licensed child care center in the McKenzie corridor, a testament to our commitment to ea...
