Cool Cats and Coffee

Episode Highlights: 

Grab your favorite mug and settle in—this episode is purr-fectly brewed! We kick things off with some of the “cool cats” who are reshaping our city through economic development and urban renewal, turning ideas into action. Then, we stop by a local coffee shop that’s serving more than cappuccinos—it’s helping whiskered friends find their forever homes. Finally, Dr. Leslie Ogden joins us to share a sneak peek at exciting announcements at the hospitals.

It’s coffee, cats, and community—where good ideas percolate and good things take shape.

• Alison Nelson-Robertson & Seth Lenaerts, City of Lincoln City
• JB Haslett, Left Coast Coffee Co.
• Dr. Lesley Ogden, Samaritan Health Services

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 0:29

Welcome to the Double R Show. Double R along with Son Paul, and today we'll have an opportunity to talk to uh some people we really know quite well.

Son Paul 0:37

Yeah, we've got uh some pretty close acquaintances on the podcast, and then uh also some folks uh from uh the Nelscott area that you may not have heard yet on the podcast, so exciting to hear that from you.

RR 0:49

And Dr. Lesley Ogden is gonna join us again, and she's got some additional information that you need to be uh knowledgeable about, and she'll have it right here on the podcast right after this.

Chinook Winds 1:01

Jay White is without question the best Neil Diamond performer on the planet. And Saturday, February 28th, Judah Wentz presents one unforgettable night of all the hits during the Neil Diamond Legacy Concert. Tickets started to $25 and are available at the Chinookwins box office, 888-Main Act or at Chinookwins.com. Don't miss Jay White and the Neil Diamond Legacy Concert, February 28th at Chinookwins Casino Resort in Lincoln City, where concerts are better at the beat.

RR 2:01

In an Elscott strip overlooking Baldy Creek with Allison Robertson from Lincoln City Urban Renewal, Baldy Creek is what to this community?

Alison Nelson-Robertson 2:11

Wow, that's a really great question. I have not found a part of this community where the creek is as important as Baldy Creek and Nelscott. It runs through a lot of properties and uh it's beautiful. And it was part of our 2006 Nelscott community vision in the old urban renewal area that's now expired. And it is now also part of the new urban renewal area that just got formed in 2023, which is called the Nelscott Urban Renewal Area. So it is one of the projects that over the next 20 years we'll be working on slowly to see how the community wants to have it be more of a presence. And we're starting basically, we did a wetland inventory to help businesses identify where they can and can't do improvements of their buildings or expansions of their properties, and just what kinds of permits would be needed for, you know, if they do want to do some outdoor deck on part of their property, or you know, basically just to know where to protect parts of Baldy Creek and then where there's room for, like I said, expansion of property.

RR 3:27

Baldi Creek runs from where to where?

Alison Nelson-Robertson 3:29

Oh, that's a great question. I don't know exactly the source of it, where the source waters are, but I know that they are east up Southeast 23rd Drive somewhere. And uh they run along Southeast 23rd Drive, and then they uh at 29th Street come under the highway. The creek goes under a culvert, and then it uh winds its way through basically behind the historic Nell Scott Business Strip. And then it goes out uh near 35th Street.

RR 4:03

It is a it is a beautiful setting. I mean, uh we have the all of this historical significance in buildings, and then you have this natural beauty behind it.

Alison Nelson-Robertson 4:14

Yeah, and and the natural beauty is more historic than the buildings, right? So it's really neat to see how the relationship is between our everyday experience that happens, you know, around Baldy Creek.

RR 4:29

Urban renewal involved with Baldy Creek. What what all is happening there?

Alison Nelson-Robertson 4:35

Well, like I mentioned, we did a wetlands inventory to basically identify where the wetlands are around the creek, uh where the creek is, and then uh there's a city-owned property that is next to the Eagles, and we'll be doing a project there in the next uh probably in the next year or summer and fall of 2026 uh to help kind of reorient the creek so that it is not getting too close to the Eagles Lodge because the Eagles Lodge is also a historic building, and we want to make sure that the creek is not, you know, the creek can stay healthy and viable and do the thing it needs to do, but that the building is also protected and the creek is kind of close to the building. So we're gonna do a project there, probably in like I said, in the next few months.

RR 5:23

I have heard you on a number of occasions now already mentioned historical significance uh that that goes, but the environmental aspect uh of of it, they're tied together, not in they're not in conflict.

Alison Nelson-Robertson 5:38

That's right. Yeah, they don't have to be in conflict. One can be leveraged for the other in and making a nice space for everyone, whether it's just to look at the creek or actually, you know, well, mostly right now it's just to look at, but from the back of the businesses, like we're standing on the deck right now in the business district, in the historic strip of businesses, and we can very nicely look out over Baldy Creek and see how beautiful it is.

RR 6:03

And it gets only better and better as time goes on. Uh, you mentioned uh uh across the street, you've got the the the lodge across the street, and now you're gonna be doing a project over there as well.

Alison Nelson-Robertson 6:14

Yes, uh we'll be doing a project again on city property. We'll be making some improvements by uh realigning the creek in a very short bit of section of the creek so that it does not jeopardize the Eagles Lodge.

RR 6:28

You have projects going on throughout the city uh in urban renewal, do you not?

Alison Nelson-Robertson 6:34

We do, but uh not so much because the two urban renewal areas, the Nell Scott Urban Renewal Area was formed in 2023, and the Rhodes End and Villages Urban Renewal Area was uh put in place in 2020, and so those are still really early in the duration of those plans. Those are 27-year and 30-year plans of public improvements, and it usually takes a few years to get started. So those will be in the years ahead.

RR 7:01

But not only do you have to do the plotting, but uh it needs to raise some money.

Alison Nelson-Robertson 7:06

Yes, absolutely, yes. Uh money makes the projects happen, and uh we always do that in conjunction with community input and um city and public priorities. I don't know if you remember, but uh one of my older favorite public improvement projects is the pump station in Keller City. That's a great partnership project where the city needed to replace the pump station, and Urban Renewal kicked in some money to make it look like a little cottage to fit into the neighborhood better. Uh, and we did a a bay access improvement there too, and just kind of made that whole intersection work better.

RR 7:40

So it's better for the community.

Alison Nelson-Robertson 7:43

Uh I like to think so. You like to think so? I would agree. Yeah, it looks it looks great. It's a great partnership project with Urban Renewal in the city, and I still enjoy it to this day driving by.

RR 7:54

Now, Seth is involved in a uh a different kind of project though, correct?

Alison Nelson-Robertson 7:59

Yeah, Seth is our project manager and he's overseeing the city's EPA Brownfields grant, which is a four-year grant. Seth, do you want to talk a little bit about that?

RR 8:09

Yes, he does. I can tell that he's just biting it the bit.

Seth Lenaerts 8:12

Uh yes, as Allison said, we the City of Lincoln City received an EPA Brownfields Community Wide Assessment Grant. That grant runs for four years. It's 500,000 total. The grant can be used for a few purposes. One is if you have a site that you think that there might be environmental contamination, you can do what's called a phase one site assessment where they basically look at the property and think, is there a potential for contamination? If through that process they find out there is contamination, it moves to a phase two environmental site assessment where they'll look at what is the extent of the contamination and what would you have to do to clean it up. These are really valuable for people who are looking to redevelop a property. If you're looking to sell a property, they're often needed by a financial institution to get a loan because you don't want to buy a property that has environmental contamination, because if you do that, you've also bought into the contamination. And then you can also do planning work with that too. So say you have a developer who wants to redevelop a potential brownfield site, we can do the assessment and then do planning work to see what they'd have to do to redevelop it.

Zantello 9:13

I'm Josh Zantello 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. With our field of experts, you're never alone.

RR 9:28

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, a full deli, meat produce, and of course, groceries. Normally we talk coffee with JB, but today we're going to talk about cats and why is that?

JB Haslett 9:48

Because cats and coffee are a natural fit, don't you think?

RR 9:51

Oh, absolutely, positively. Your shop here in the Nelscott strip, you are into cats. And in that's capturing cats.

JB Haslett 10:02

There's a lot there. We've been uh working off and on with the uh cat colony, cat community, as it is here in Lincoln City for almost 20 years. Uh at Pacific Grind for a lot of years. We worked directly with the Central Coast Humane Society. Uh we initially had a large colony of cats uh kind of abandoned on us over in Cutler City and became aware of the need and have been involved with them in one form or another all the years we've been in coffee here. Here in Nelscott a few years ago, we uh started featuring the tea of a little local company by the name of Recycled Felines that is a uh nonprofit neonatal kitten rescue based out of Newport. And they make tea as part of uh how they raise funds, and that's how we got connected with them. Well, one thing led to another, and one day they had a bunch of kittens for adoption. We found a little flyer sitting on the side of the road and called them, and we ended up finding that we were a great place to foster kittens for them. And so since last April, we've actually been holding kittens uh in a separate room we have here at the shop and fostering them directly to the public, uh kind of as an extension of recycled feel lines. And as of today, since last April, we have homed 98 cats.

RR 11:19

That to me is amazing. One would not think that that is a problem, but it can be a problem, correct?

JB Haslett 11:25

98 in a year says there's a lot of need out there. And yeah, for the most part, we have kittens that have gone through recycled feel lines. Uh they've been given their shots and uh parasite treatment, and when they're old enough or large enough, uh spayed or neutered or otherwise. Uh and in some cases, such as currently, people have become aware that we do this work and have surrendered cats directly to us. We've had everything from one-day old uh kittens with a mom for their whole weaning period to uh similar situation uh now where a mom and some kittens were dropped off to us in distress, and um we've been taking good care of them.

RR 12:03

So do you foster them long enough to get them adopted? Is that the goal?

JB Haslett 12:07

Exactly. Yep, and we adopt directly out of here. We have a vetting process that we go through that's uh you know supported by recycled felines and Celeste Young. Celeste Young is the the main person with recycled felines there in Newport. But so she backs us up and we have kind of a protocol we go through, and it's uh strictly donation-based. You know, we don't charge per se, but of course everyone has to have the ability to take care of the cat in the first place, and if need be, provide medical or get them spayed and things like that, but then also to provide some support back to uh us for taking care of them.

RR 12:36

So you you you do fundraising activities as well, JB, to to raise money for these uh activities. Uh obviously you get probably some help from the veterinarians, but not uh Yeah, we get some good things.

JB Haslett 12:49

There's some there's some vouchers and stuff through the state and through the Humane Society. We uh have developed a little sticker and a t-shirt that we've been uh selling here and uh with good success. We've been able to upgrade the the pens and the quality. We have nice little kitty condos now and such, but yeah, we've uh we've been able to raise enough funds to get a variety of cats' medical attention when they've needed it. And um, yeah, we're just uh fortunate to be able to be plugged in like this, and people seem to really like it.

RR 13:17

Are you amazed at the giving of this community for the benefit of our felines?

JB Haslett 13:23

Yeah, you know, and what's really special is I mean, where we are and the clientele we have on a day-to-day basis is very heavily, you know, our tourist-based. Uh we, you know, we have our locals, we have our regulars. I mean, doing coffee here for 20 years, there's people that seek us out no matter where we are, but we're, you know, in much more of a kind of a tourist walking district. So we people see people coming and going a lot, and the number of people that uh donate to the kittens in this community that don't even live here is uh amazing. And yeah, we've uh we've adopted kittens out as far as uh Boise and Northern California, sent plenty of them to Seattle. Um kittens go to Portland on a regular basis. So we are sending kittens far and wide with uh new good families.

RR 14:06

So what do you look for when you vet a family about uh adopting one of these kittens or cats?

JB Haslett 14:11

Well, it's funny, one of the very first things that we have to ask and have to kind of put on the table when people are interested is that one of the requirements of recycled felines and of uh you know many kitten uh rescues is that the cats go to a home where there is at least one other cat. Otherwise, they have to go in pairs. So free kitten with every espresso becomes free kittens with every espresso. Uh but um the truth of that being is for socialization, and it's just something that we strongly stand by. So one of the first things is that they have to go to a home that either has another cat or that they go in pairs. A lot of times we have very young siblings. We've adopted out many pairs. It's been kind of neat to see cats that were already bonded. We've even adopted out three kittens to one home that you know were uh all siblings. But beyond that, the key things of you know housing and you know that the applicant, you know, has the ability, uh, the means to take care of the understanding of what it's like to have um a young kitten, that it's not just uh a whim at the grocery store and you know, throw one in the car and head on down the way. So uh we ask a variety of little qualifying questions about that. And then we have a contract that has kind of ten key bullet points of um what we're asking them to commit, you know, that they intend to have the cat as an indoor cat. Some instances we've had cats that are more feral as they are and have gone to indoor-outdoor situations, but they intend to have the cat uh well cared for and ultimately that we uh stand behind them. So anybody of all 98 cats we've adopted out could at any moment come back to us and say, you know, the living situation has changed. We need your help to replace this uh cat. So ultimately, any kitten that comes through here, we've made the the life commitment to uh you know keep up with them.

RR 16:02

Cats and coffee.

JB Haslett 16:04

Indeed, cats and coffee. You've heard of cats and boots? Cats and boots, cats and boots, cats and boots. We've got cats and coffee. We're gonna have to work on cats and coffee. I like it.

Bobs Beach Books 16:14

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.

Zellers 16:25

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.

unknown 16:38

Dr.

RR 16:38

Leslie Ogden, Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Pacific Communities Hospital, joins us next year in the Double R Show. And a couple of weeks ago, Ed Yan, we were talking about multicare, multi-care coming to uh Oregon, uh coming to the Samaritan system. Who is multi-care?

Dr. Lesley Ogden 16:57

Yeah, thanks for asking because we are super excited to get to know them a little bit better. They are a 13 hospital health system out of Tacoma, Washington, based there, but now all over both Washington and even into Idaho. They are a nonprofit, which is very important because they like us to treat all patients and very much do so in a manner similar to what we do. They're community-based, very similar to how Samaritan is, and they believe in local governance, meaning local people make decisions about the health care in that locale. So, oi, it sounds almost like Samaritan up in Washington, but a lot bigger because they also have things like two behavioral health hospitals, which makes them the single largest provider of behavioral health services in the whole state of Washington. Uh, they have a number of specialty areas like population health, and if people don't know what that is, the art and science of keeping a whole population healthy as opposed to just taking care of individual patients. And that takes a lot of data and a lot of coordination. And so we are looking forward to affiliating with them for all of these reasons because even though we have our specialty areas as well as the other. Right, right. Well, the biggest thing that that we love in our rural areas is uh they have no critical access hospitals, and we are the model for what critical access hospitals should be, at least we believe that. For the layperson, it means that um, you know, we are we are operating uh hospitals with the thought of providing as many services in our in our rural areas to access in sometimes critical situations like ERs, but also beyond that, taking care of inpatients, taking care of as many outpatients and as many services as we can, and we're doing it very robustly. Critical access hospitals are actually a reimbursement model more than anything, but they're built around providing that emergency care and that having access to health care in rural areas that wouldn't otherwise have them. But we feel like we have done that to the nth degree, meaning we've not only provided that access that is critical, that ER, we have taken it to the level that our communities truly need. So we have preferential cost. Reimbursement, unlike other large acute care hospitals. So, in essence, our low volumes and things that make it more expensive to deliver that care are reimbursed so we can continue to do that, but we pay attention to what our communities need and we build all of that in. And we feel like we can be examples for them of how to do this just perfectly.

RR 20:26

Will they bring an insurance program to your neck of the woods?

Dr. Lesley Ogden 20:34

No, actually, we will bring the insurance to them, right? Because we are the ones that have the insurance programs and the health plans. So Samaritan Health Plans, once we are all affiliated, will be a part of multicare and they'll be a part of us. And so we will see how we can grow health plans in ways that we haven't been able to in the past, just based on our population. It is a numbers game. The whole insurance industry, unfortunately, in some cases, is a numbers game. So the larger numbers you have, the the more services you can provide to your, you know, to those who are insured in your area. If you had to stop watching, you're going to say, okay, we're going to start now, we're going to end, and we're going to be combined by that is a very good question because we are in the process, the state of Oregon's regulatory process that is called health care market oversight. And this is something that has been put into law a few years ago, where any potential partnerships in healthcare are evaluated to the nth degree by the Oregon Health Authority. So we are in that process. We have submitted all of our paperwork. They have 180 days, but those are not 180 contiguous days. In fact, if they have any questions, the clock is stopped. We answer their questions and then the clock starts back. So we anticipate this may be well into next summer before we're actually permitted to, you know, that that our affiliation is approved and we're permitted to work together. Until then, we would be violating antitrust sorts of uh issues if we talked about the specifics about what our organizations do or would want to do in the future. So we have to maintain our distance. We're very, very excited, but we have to maintain our distance until we get that approved.

RR 22:43

I like the line that you just used: work together.

Dr. Lesley Ogden 22:47

Yes.

RR 22:48

It's not an ownership type thing, it's working together.

Dr. Lesley Ogden 22:52

Correct, correct. Because they have tons of things that they are so good at. And we have those things that we bring to the table and we're good at, and we just want to combine the organization so that we have the best of both worlds.

RR 23:08

Dr. Leslie Ogden, Samaritan North Legion Hospital, Pacific Communities Hospital, multicare coming soon to a hospital near you.

Jana 23:17

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RR 23:25

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NW Septic Service 23:33

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Jana 23:39

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RR 23:48

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Lehto 23:51

Wouldn't it be great to have all your insurance needs handled by one agency? This is Charlotte Leto with Farmers Insurance and the Insurance Store. Visit our office next to the Wildflower Grill in Lincoln City. Let us be your one stop for your personal, commercial, health, and Medicare insurance needs.

RR 24:16

This will be at 5 30 at the Lincoln City office of uh the Oregon Coast Community College talking about community days.

Son Paul 24:24

All right, yeah. Sandy Group is having that up and uh lots of folks attending that first one. So join uh Sandy and crew to plan and uh get ready for the community days.

RR 24:35

And again, if you've got a special event that you want to be have within community days, uh attend that meeting on uh February 3rd at uh the the uh Lincoln City branch of the Oregon Coast Community College, 5 30. And don't know which office it'll be in yet, but you'll find out when you get there.

Son Paul 24:54

Yeah, and there's just an hour-long meeting, so just come ready and uh participate.

RR 24:58

Yep. Uh Veterans Free Homemade Soup and Sandwich Luncheon takes place uh twice a month. This is the second and fourth Wednesdays. Uh this is sponsored by the uh Lincoln City BPOE. That's the Benevolent Protection Order of the Elks, number 1886, and uh that's at 1350 Southeast Ore Avenue. Lincoln County Job Fair, forthcoming on March 13th. More information about that is available through Work Source and Kids Artwork Projects. Uh, this ought to be a lot of fun for the young people of the community at the Lincoln City Cultural Center, open on uh Thursdays, 3 to 6 p.m. Drop-ins are $5, 10 pass for 40 bucks. And I have not seen this yet at the Cultural Center, but I will go see it. The Telephone Game 2.

Son Paul 25:50

Right, yeah. So this is a uh play on the old telephone game, uh little interactive art project they got there.

RR 25:58

Yeah, yeah. Interesting, interesting, interesting. And I think uh everybody needs to make certain that they have an opportunity to go see that. Also, your side of the table.

Son Paul 26:09

You know, we haven't uh got much planned specifically for the uh event calendar on cascadehead.org, but it's coming soon. I know February 19th will be the next uh or the first natural arts on sciences on tap. Uh stay tuned for uh the speaker on that.

RR 26:25

And on top of that, uh you can always go to the web and find out information about uh what what you're talking about as well uh when it comes to uh the biosphere.

Son Paul 26:36

Yeah, that's where to look for stuff. Caskethead.org.

RR 26:38

That'll do it to the dunes on the double R Show. Please remember to like, subscribe, share so you, your family, and friends around the world across the street can join us on the Double R Show for Paul and Jenna. I'm Double R. Have a happy day.

Jana 26:55

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.