What's Going 4th?

Episode Highlights: 

Representative David Gomberg joins Double R for a two-part briefing on the issues hitting our coast hard — prospective ICE operations, the Coast Guard helicopter’s move from Newport, ODOT’s funding squeeze, and the statewide 5% budget tightening. He cuts through the noise with what’s known, what’s in flux, and what might be getting the axe.

Aaron and his daughter Olivia from SCOUT also stop by to bring a lighter touch to the episode. They share their experience with axe throwing and the fun waiting at this locally owned and operated business — a little inspiration for holiday outings or gift ideas. And speaking of celebrations… today, December 4th, happens to be Double R’s birthday.

• Representative David Gomberg, State Of Oregon, District 10
• Aaron Linfoot (Owner) & Olivia (Business Manager), SCOUT Northwest Trading Company

Transcript

Jana 0:06

Welcome to the Double R Show, the podcast that features everything about North Lincoln County. The Double R Show, directed and produced by Paul Robertson and hosted by the voice of Lincoln City, Roger Robertson.

RR 0:30

Welcome to the Double R Show. Double R along with Son Paul, and today we'll have an opportunity to really hit some hard news because Representative David Gomberg's going to be on board.

Son Paul 0:40

Yes, but first, a happy birthday. A happy birthday, really. Happy birthday to Double R. If you're not familiar with December 4th, as we drop, we are on dad's birthday.

RR 0:50

December 4th, 1946. Goodness. A day that she'll live in the infant. And our thanks to Representative David Gomberg for your coming by and uh being interviewed. And then we're also going to go scouting.

Son Paul 1:06

Yeah, we're going to talk to uh Aaron from Scout there and uh hear a little bit about what they're all doing. Plus his daughter's on as well, right?

RR 1:14

Yes, that's the best part. Yeah. Yeah, great interview. Aaron is great, but his daughter is really cute. So that'll be upcoming right here on the double hour show. Yeah, 1946.

Chinook Winds 1:27

Night Ranger. Live incompetent. Let me call it. No point.

RR 2:27

And our guest is today, Representative David Gomberg. And David, is there anything going on in Lincoln County we need to know about?

Rep. David Gomberg 2:34

Well, goodness, Roger, there's too much going on, and a lot of it very unexpected. I mean, here in Lincoln County, we we've got a fight on our hands. And unexpectedly, we have a fight with the federal government. Look, the helicopter's gone, and the challenge now is in the courts. And then there's the possibility that ICE and uh and immigration services and the Department of Homeland Security is going to show up here in force and build a major detention center near the Newport Airport. That's got this community really up in arms. I mean, I will tell you that the city of Newport scheduled a special council meeting to talk about these two challenges, the helicopter and ice.

RR 3:17

Both serious.

Rep. David Gomberg 3:18

And 800 people showed up at the uh at the Newport City Hall. A few days later, uh Senator Ron Wyden had a town hall in Newport, 600 people there, all expressing their concerns about the loss of the rescue air operation through the Coast Guard and the mounting evidence that ICE wants to come to Lincoln County and base a major detention center here.

RR 3:43

Let's say good morning at a time. First off, with the helicopter, was that not rescheduled to be back? We keep hearing it's coming, it's gone, it's coming, it's gone.

Rep. David Gomberg 3:52

Well, let's let's back up all the way to uh 2014 when the Coast Guards signaled that they might be reconsidering basing their air rescue operation in Newport and instead take it to Cous Bay. And the community rose up uh with a single voice and said, No way, no how, adding an hour of response time in the cold waters that we've got off the coast of Oregon is going to cost us lives. And they convinced the uh Coast Guard to keep that helicopter here. Now understand that uh last year that helicopter rescued 500 people off the coast of Lincoln County, 30 of them in the fishing fleet, but that leaves uh 470 other people that found themselves in dangerous or hapless circumstances, including loggers in the woods where the the the Coast Guard goes to help people. So toward the end of October, people started looking around saying, Where's the helicopter? Well, it's not here, it's gone. Where'd it go? It it went back to Coose Bay. They quietly took the helicopter out of town. Now, that's right at the beginning of the crabbing season, the most dangerous time of year to be in the water for our local fishermen, and the helicopter's gone. So that was a topic uh in front of the city council, and there was great concern about safety and about the commitment that the government had made to keep that resource here. But at the exact same time, the city of Newport got letters from some agent of the federal government asking about renting or leasing space at the airport next to where the Coast Guard used to be. And that started raising all kinds of questions. So we started asking around and we began to discover other things. Uh we discovered that there were local contractors who were being asked about delivering drinking water to the airport. They were being asked about uh taking thousands of gallons of human waste from the airport away every single day.

RR 5:43

We're not talking about the small numbers.

Rep. David Gomberg 5:45

No, we're talking about 10,000 gallons a day of human waste. We uh discovered online job postings for positions like detention agents and bus drivers and medical personnel with ICE experience. So we found all this evidence mounting. Now hotels in the area are getting letters saying, on behalf of the federal government, that we're looking to house up to 200 people for an entire year in the Newport area. And hotels from Lincoln City to Yahat's uh and Walport are getting these inquiries about housing federal employees in our local hotels for up to a year. And so we're asking the federal government, what's going on? And I've asked, and the city of Newport has asked, our federal delegation, like our U.S. senators and our congresswoman, have asked, the governor has asked, and nobody will answer those questions. But we continue to have this increasing collection of evidence that says something's going on, and everything points to the possibility of a large ICE detention center in based in the Newport area.

RR 6:52

Not wanted.

Rep. David Gomberg 6:53

Well, certainly not wanted by uh by the people that that have showed up for all these public meetings. Nobody has stood up and said, hey, we'd like to have it here. Everybody has come in and said, no, we don't want it here. We don't want it here because it'll affect our economy. We're getting letters from people saying, I'd like to visit the coast, but if you've got ice there and the detention center there, I'm not coming coming back again. We've got people saying, how is this going to affect our local economy when we rely so much on the immigrant community for processing fish and making beds and busting our dishes?

RR 7:23

We're talking about the entire cutty. We're not just talking about Newport.

Rep. David Gomberg 7:26

Well, absolutely. So how's it going to affect the economy? What are the implications for our land use rules if suddenly we've got this large facility? And remember, Lincoln County was under a drought conditions all summer long, and now we're talking about a facility that could hold up to a thousand people, and what's the impact on our on our water and sewer and other infrastructure in the community? And then there's just simply the the core political and emotional question that so many people are asking, and and that is is this what we want our community to be known for?

RR 7:57

It's difficult at best.

Rep. David Gomberg 8:00

Well, uh, you know, I keep saying right now that the helicopter is in the courts, and the ice facility is in the shadows. There are lawsuits pending to bring the helicopter back. The um Department of Homeland Security responded by saying, you know, filing these lawsuits is an insult to the patriotic members of our Coast Guard and uh an attempt to micromanage our Coast Guard operation. But when it got to the courts, the judge, judge ruled, before they even went into the courtroom and heard the pleadings, she offered an initial temporary restraining order saying, you're not following the law. The law says before you can relocate an asset like this, you need to inform Congress and you need to inform the local community. You broke the law, bring the helicopter back at least for the next 14 days, and that'll give us time to get into court and sort out what's going on with the helicopter. We don't know what's going on with ICE.

RR 8:52

David Gomberg, representative for our district. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back with more, and we're going to talk a little bit about some of the other issues that are going on in and around the Lincoln City Newport area.

Lehto 9:04

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LCCC 9:21

Woven Legacies is a special sale of killings, rugs, bags, shoes, jewelry, and home decor made by artesians in Turkey. Sale of these items at the Lincoln City Cultural Center will support the center and also the ongoing care of Julie Reynolds Oterman. All treasures of Woven Legacies were imported by Julie and her late husband, Senare Otraman. View the entire display today at the Lincoln City Cultural Center and own a treasure destined to become a family heirloom.

RR 9:51

Representative David Gomberg is with us. But there are even more items that are on the agenda, if you will. Budget cuts for ODOT because potentially of a ballot measure.

Rep. David Gomberg 10:07

Well, there's a couple of things going on. Let's start with this. Oregon balances our budget every year. We don't spend more money than we bring in, unlike the federal government, for example. So we need to balance our budget. That means that our state economists tell us how much money we've got, and that's how much money we spend. And the state economist says that fewer people are working and uh wages are not going up the way they once were. And because of some steps taken by the federal government, particularly some tax reductions that they implemented, that the state of Oregon is going to be getting less money. So we in Oregon at the legislature who write the state budget have been instructed to go into each of our state agencies and look at a 5% reduction across the board. And that's what I've been working on in Salem these last few weeks, because we're talking about cuts to veteran services, uh shelter housing. We're talking about reductions in programs that help create jobs. It's certainly about health care and mental health and and uh a wildfire response in schools. We're cutting budgets, and that's a very hard, difficult process when you start looking at how much money you got coming in and you don't have as much as you used to.

RR 11:16

5% doesn't seem to be that much, is it?

Rep. David Gomberg 11:19

Well, but when you start looking at uh at a 5% reduction for programs that we've come to rely on, a five percent reduction in shelter housing, uh a five percent reduction in veteran services. I mean, that doesn't sound like a lot, but it starts to add up. Now, more to the point, at the same time, we've been looking particularly about our Department of Transportation, who have relied historically on the gasoline tax. People are driving less, they're taking mass transit, they're having more fuel-efficient vehicles, they're using electric vehicles, and that's all great, but it means they're buying less gasoline. And so the legislature sat down and said, What are we going to do about that? And they put a plan together. Now they they spent six months in the long legislative session starting in January coming up with a plan that was just asking for too much. It was way too much, and they weren't able to come to an agreement. So the governor brought us back in for a special session about two months later, and we came back with a plan. It was roughly a third of what we had originally been considering, but it includes a six cent gasoline tax increase as well as taxes on electric vehicles and some changes in registration fees. A six cent gasoline tax increase for an average driver, that's about $2 per month. And all that money is going to go into on-the-street services like fog lines and filling potholes and snow removal. And it's important to understand that half that money also goes for local government. Half the money is either going to go to your city or to or to your county. Okay. Uh the off half the money that's collected. But a lot of people said, hey, costs are going up. We don't want more taxes, we particularly don't want more gasoline taxes, and they circulated petitions and to reconsider the decision that the legislature had made. Now they just wrapped up that process, and the Secretary of State is counting all the signatures right now to see if they've got enough to qualify to put this on the ballot. It looks to me like it's going to qualify for a public vote. That'll happen next November. Meanwhile, if this qualifies for the ballot a year from now, those changes are not going to go into effect until the public's had a chance to vote on it, which means that OTOT's scrambling to figure out how they're going to c uh scrape the snow off our roads, how they're going to maintain the fog lines, how they're going to take care of landslides this winter without that additional revenue. It's uh it's an interesting question with good arguments on both sides, and it's a decision that Oregonians, I believe, are ultimately going to get to make.

RR 13:52

Is this a case? Is this an issue? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Rep. David Gomberg 13:55

Well, I I think accountability is always an issue with state government, and and certainly at ODOT, which is why when we passed these measures, we also implemented a number of new accountability requirements, including regular audits by the legislature, audits by the Secretary of State. And I think significantly taking a step that said that the director of ODOT would be appointed by the governor, not by the State Transportation Commission. That's accountability as well. And since that had occurred, the director of ODOT has announced his retirement, then there's a new director of ODOT coming online. So there's a number of changes going on there, and I think accountability is going to be central to how we go forward. Now, let me tell you something really interesting, Roger. The new director of ODOT is going to be the former director of state parks, somebody who's very well familiar with the circumstances that we see here. D River. At the D River and up and down the uh the Lincoln County coast. She's somebody I've been working with for the last couple of years to transfer management of the D River wayside to the city of Lincoln City, and in particular, get rid of that dark, smelly, scary bathroom that's there at the wayside that any any family would be afraid to take their kids into and replace it with a shiny, modern, attractive, attractive bathroom.

RR 15:17

Yeah, an attractive bathroom. Absolutely. One final question, David. So you brought the state treasurer to town to uh Lincoln City. There are a number of reasons for that. Normally we don't even see that level of individual here in Lincoln City.

Rep. David Gomberg 15:33

Well, you know, I brought the state uh attorney general here uh a few months ago, and I'm really pleased to be able to bring the state treasurer here. People don't think much about the state treasurer, but the fact of the matter is that's the person who manages all of our state money, all of our state investments. That's pretty important. They also sit on the state land board together with the governor and the secretary of state managing all of our state properties, particularly our state forests. You know, we cut trees down and sell them from our state forests. That money supports schools, and so they help manage the common school fund. And then finally, something I think that's really cool in the treasurer's office is the unclaimed property department. Now, this is where if you've got a forgotten bank account or a deposit that you didn't receive or a tax refund and they couldn't find you to give you that money, the state's holding it and looking for you to return your money, your property to you. And so you go to the state treasurer's webpage and click on the unclaimed property link. Gosh, all you need to do is type your name in and it'll tell you whether the state's holding money for you. And you can type in your relatives, you can type in your friends, your neighbors, and then go knock on the door and say happy holidays. Uh there's there's a hundred bucks waiting for you. All you have to do is make the make the call.

RR 16:46

Make it a happy holiday season, great.

Rep. David Gomberg 16:48

Because the state's got money and they're here to help you.

Jana 16:52

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RR 16:56

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RR 17:19

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Zellers 17:23

Homestyle cooking in a hometown atmosphere. Hi, I'm Adina from Zellers Restaurant in Rose Lodge in Lincoln City. Join us daily for good fun and great food. You can even kick up your heels at Zellers.

Aaron Linfoot 17:36

Scout Northwest is what Aaron Linfoot? We are a local organization that works with goods uh sourced, almost everything is sourced here locally. I think we have a unique angle in that if we don't make it ourselves, because we have, and we'll get into later, we have a design uh proponent to everything we do. We have a graphics company. So if we don't design it, then uh we have these amazing relationships with local vendors and artists to then bring their project into a commercial setting.

RR 18:06

You are in in the Lincoln City outlets, but the one thing that comes to mind to me first and foremost is throwing axes.

Aaron Linfoot 18:14

Yeah, we we're kind of a fun eclectic, feel like a strong PNW vibe store. So you've got the axes, we've got knives, we've got tomahawks, uh, we even got meat cleavers, I found. Do you see much playoffs at? So probably like many businesses, feast and famine, summer, off season. So we're kind of the opposite of school system. So when school's out, we're having fun. Weekends, good. Uh when school's in session, it's an awesome time to visit local stores, less traffic. But axes are one of those things we're actually nationally accredited with axe throwing. We kind of do our own play. Nationally accredited? Yeah. I mean, we're a member of it, so we can post tournaments. There's a whole different world. It's it's heavy on the East Coast. Like you're talking big money, like a little different than out here, you know. But like we have fun with it. So we actually have even on Wednesdays, we do like our own little call in-house league. We call it chop and chug uh because we serve alcohol too. You don't have to drink. Uh, we actually have soda. Uh soda.

RR 19:12

That's a little shaky. Mixing alcohol with an axe.

Aaron Linfoot 19:15

And it the order's important, Roger. So order's important, order of operations. But uh, we have some fun with this. We do a lot of families, they'll rent it for 30 minutes for an hour. Big groups. We've had Noah, uh, one of the ships, uh, brought their whole crew down. It was really cool to see. Um, I think they rented it for an hour and it turned into two hours because we let them take over the music and that changed everything. So that was like a live DJ. They were having some fun. But um, yeah, we we have some fun with it. So Wednesdays we have from five to seven, uh, our own like in-house league. We it's a five-dollar buy-in, and then top score of the night uh walks away with a shirt. This team have come up with some really funny shirt designs, kiss my axe, and then they put lips on the back. It's so funny. Uh, so we've been giving those out on Wednesdays. But yeah, it's it's a whole different, you know, really the concept I think of Scout, I don't get credit for at all. Jerome and Gittle started this thing back in 2018. I took over this year. So a lot of the kind of fun components and elements of the company, I think we've just we've added to. But axe throwing is one of those things that they brought in. My kids like it. You have to be eight with a uh a parent to sign off, but otherwise eighteen. And uh you can have some fun. We've we've changed up the targets like for uh Halloween. We put zombies and other things up. Uh the staff was laughing the other day. We should have an axe your ex day, so we gotta be careful with that. You could send in pictures, you know. Yeah, you better be really careful. One of the local guys was like, What if my ex comes? I was like, Oh, yeah, we're not doing that one. So I probably should. Some ideas get tossed to the side, you can tell.

RR 20:44

You brought somebody into the studio with you. I did. My business manager over here. What's your name? Business manager is who?

Olivia 20:51

I'm Olivia.

RR 20:52

You're Olivia. And what do you do as business manager, Olivia?

Olivia 20:56

I I fold shirts, I welcome customers. I'm at the front desk and I check people off with like their stuff. I don't know what to say for that.

Aaron Linfoot 21:04

She's our product tester.

RR 21:06

Welcoming people in is probably the most important thing that you can possibly do to for the benefit of the business, isn't it? You gotta make them feel welcome the minute they hit that door.

Olivia 21:18

Oh yeah.

RR 21:19

Oh yeah, yeah, that's critically important. If you've learned that lesson, you've learned you've got a college education already.

Aaron Linfoot 21:26

It's actually helped a ton. You think about dealing with people and adults, like having a kid be able to just communicate and say, hello, sir, you know, welcome in. I think that's a a beautiful thing that maybe isn't as common nowadays. And we've her brother works there too sometimes. She likes it, I think, a little more. Dad, a tough boss. Oh she's like, Did he pay me yet? Actually, the other day she's like, Wait, I have money you owe me. I was like, Yeah, sorry.

RR 21:52

Yeah, well, we'll we'll talk about that down the road, right? That a girl will love you. Stay after him. Scout Northwest again going back to the shirts and into like what what else uh product mixed you do you have in there?

Aaron Linfoot 22:04

Yeah, so we kind of have two angles to what Scout is, and we kind of brought back one angle of it. So uh Scout has been around since 2018. There was a graphics company as well. It originally was called Lincoln City Graphics, transitioned to overnight art. I brought it back to Lincoln City Graphics, and that angle allows us now to not only do the design work and like custom apparel, etc., but now we can do full signage. I can do from business cards to bookmarks to vehicle signage. We've we've got, you know, from from FedEx to anyone you name, we can do the vehicle side. We can do a sign installation if you gotta have new windows, you know, graphics on your windows, etc. So that piece has allowed us to kind of have some fun to then also apply it into the store, which is all the custom apparel locally sourced from leather to soaps to candles. Like a lot of these vendors actually, they're people you know, and they get to sell at a local store, which is cool. Everything from like a we've got a cook at Taft High School that sells some custom made jewelry. Very good. Um it's so cool to see them her and her kid come in and be like, How are things selling? And you're like, Well, this one's selling good, this one not so much, but I'm not the customer. Yeah, I don't wear earrings, so I don't kind of fun.

RR 23:15

It works. Yeah. You are on the west end of Lincoln City Outlets, correct?

Aaron Linfoot 23:20

Yeah, we're we're uh kind of just off the quieter corner, but they're off like the paint store. Paint store is the far uh south southwest side, and we're just a few stores off of that. Next to Coach, we always joke about you know, Scout for a lot of people is known for the uh 10-foot-tall Bigfoot that we have right at the entrance. And he gets so many pictures taken. It's one of those things we actually have some fun things. I totally found a custom Bigfoot costume from someone in Eugene. Who knows? Who knows from that? But I got it, so we're gonna be wearing it kind of having some.

RR 23:52

I love it. You have fun with your business.

Aaron Linfoot 23:54

Oh, yeah. I think that's part of what's been cool with the kids is like to be able to say, like, this is something they enjoy. It it's fun. It's fun to talk to people, too, you know.

RR 24:03

Aaron, thanks for coming in. Olivia, good to have you here. And again, stay after your dad. Get a raise today. Oh Lord. We'll be back in just a moment.

Bobs Beach Books 24:13

Add to your personal library today with a book from Bob's Beach Books in the Ocean Lake area of Lincoln City. I'm Diana Portwood, and books provide a world of discovery. From science to science fiction, read what you've been missing.

RR 24:24

If you're looking for great early garden fresh produce, it's Kenny's IGA in the Bay Area of Lincoln City. Four generations of Morgans caring for your every grocery need. All your favorite beverages are full deli, meat produce, and of course, groceries.

Zantello 24:39

I'm Josh Xantello with Xantello Law Group, and we are fortunate to have a number of attorneys in our office that specialize in a variety of law fields. Call our office and set up a free consultation.

RR 24:51

With our field of experts, you're never alone. Welcome back to the Double R Show. We'll have an opportunity to uh next week get involved with having a wonderful life.

Son Paul 25:02

Yeah, we've got a lot of art and uh culture coming on the next uh week as well.

RR 25:07

And music, music, music from the Congregational Church. Uh there is a special concert uh that uh is going to be taking place, and uh we'll find out more about that coming up next week, right here on the double eye show. It's the Pacific O Singers and a holiday sounds of the season. Two shows or yeah, two shows on December the 13th, Saturday, December 13th at 3:30 and at 7 o'clock. So don't miss that one. Also, uh, if you have not purchased your tree, your Christmas tree as of yet, uh the Boy Scouts are still selling trees up at the uh Lincoln City Cultural Center. Angels Anonymous Festival of the Trees this weekend. It's a big weekend, yeah. It's huge, it's huge. If you have not seen the trees, I'm sorry. You need to go see the trees. You have until around about two o'clock Saturday to see the trees. And it is worth the time uh to go up to Shinockwins Casino Resort and uh see what beauty you is gonna be.

Son Paul 26:08

Yeah, you can purchase one outright. Absolutely, and you can put uh money down on uh some raffle items, I believe. Lots of raffle items.

RR 26:15

Yeah, so and the wreaths this year. Oh, goodness gracious, there's one wreath that uh comes in from someplace up in South Tillima County. Wait till you see it. Okay, it'll turn your socks off. Be there Saturday. Be there Saturday, Saturday night. We all get together and auction things off. And our uh thanks to uh Patrick Alexander for joining me and helping with that auction as well. That's good stuff. St. James uh Santiago School Play is going to be on Wednesday, December the 17th at 6 o'clock up at St. James Santiago School, uh located at 2490 Northeast Highway 101, right here in Lickin City. Anything your side of the table?

Son Paul 26:58

You know, uh nothing new again. Just a reminder that if you have a chance uh and you see double R around today, wish him a happy birthday.

RR 27:07

And remember, it is a wonderful life. It's gonna be next week on the Double R Show, but also on stage at the Cultural Center. And uh we're also gonna be talking about music, music, music at the Congregational Church. Uh, it is a marvelous concert. For Paul, Jonathan, I'm Double R. Have yourself a happy day.

Jana 27:32

You've been listening to the Double R Show. Join Roger and Paul Robertson as they explore everything about North Lincoln County. The Double R Show produced by Always Productions and hosted by Roger Robertson. Have a story? Email contact at alwaysproductions.com or call four five eight two zero one three zero three nine. For the double R Show, I'm Jana Gron.