Requests for Relief

Episode Highlights:

This week on The Double R Show, Jennifer Beckner joins us to discuss Lincoln County’s current RFP and how it supports Wildfire survivors still displaced since 2020. Plus, Nancy Oksenholt local RN and Board Member of the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation shares how the organization provides support and resources for individuals and families navigating cancer. We close with Conrad Gowell exploring Where Have All the Salmon Gone?—looking at why salmon populations have dropped and what can be done to return them to our rivers and coastal ecosystems.

• Jennifer Beckner, Lincoln County - Request for Proposals 
• Nancy Oksenholt, Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation
• Conrad Gowell, Wild Fish Conservancy

Transcript

Jana 0:07

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

And welcome to the Double R Show, Double R, along with Son Paul, and uh today we'll have an interesting mix of different guests on on board on the program.

Son Paul 0:39

Yeah, so we've got uh three guests, of course, here as we typically do. Nancy Oxenholt's gonna join us.

RR 0:44

Yeah, we'll talk a bit uh about a foundation as she's intimately involved.

Son Paul 0:49

Yeah, and something that's near and dear to her heart in the medicine world and uh helping people with uh the needs surrounding uh cancer. And and so, and then uh Jennifer Beckner is joining us, right, from Lincoln County. And then our last guest uh is uh gonna be a featured speaker at uh a Pelican Brew Pub Arts and Sciences on Tap that Casket Head Visor Collaborative is doing, and that's uh Conrad Gow. And so he's from the Wild Fish Conservancy, and so he's gonna be uh giving a talk on uh February 19th. So learn a little about that and more right after these messages.

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RR 1:30

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 carrying for you every grocery need. All your favorite beverages are full deli, meat produce, and of course, groceries. On a phone line with us is Jennifer Beckner, and Jennifer is with Lincoln County, the SUD program for analysts from Lincoln County. That's a pretty heavy heavy titler, Jennifer. What what does that really mean?

Jennifer Beckner 2:13

So what I have done in the past is a lot of work with substance use disorder. I do a lot of grant writing and bringing resources into the community, community assessment, and tried to build a recovery community here in Lincoln County. And that's the main portion of my position. But and many people know there have been a lot of changes throughout the county with our leadership. And with the changes, I inherited some housing grants. And so that's where my work expanded into this piece that we're going to be talking about today. That I do mainly a lot of grant management and grant writing for Lincoln County Health and Human Services.

RR 2:50

Okay, housing grants. Are we talking about uh soliciting money for building projects? What are we talking about?

Jennifer Beckner 2:58

Yeah, so Lincoln County received approximately $9.7 million in an affordable housing grant that's run through the Oregon Community Housing Services await the act of the state. And with that money, we are capped to first our our biggest priorities to try and get as many wildfire survivors that are still without home into the home. And so we have three separate programs under these funds. One of them is the home ownership bucket. And we've gotten one family closed on her home and moved in to a fairly new project. Uh, Lincoln County Health and Heatures is that we were the first ones in the state to actually finish one purchase. And so that was super exciting for us.

RR 3:44

That's really gonna be a lot of satisfaction to be able to get somebody that has been burned out into a home.

Jennifer Beckner 3:52

Oh, absolutely. And what was so wonderful about that first experience is that, you know, the this family had been living in an RV for uh, you know, five years. It's been five years since the fires happened here in Lincoln County, and you know, a lot of people were displaced. And so it was it's a very satisfying experience. But I'll tell you what we learned through this project is at first we had three buckets. We were doing a homeownership bucket, and then we were we were doing a rental bucket. And what that was going to do is we had hoped to purchase or uh build manufactured homes that we could donate to the Lincoln County Housing Authority or another partner to run and offer wildfire survivors who don't make enough for homeownership, rental opportunities, you know, to be in their own long-term. Okay. But what we discovered is that most of the people that we have left that are survivors that aren't already working on home ownership or or qualified, didn't qualify for the lowest rent that could be offered through any community partner's uh housing program. You know, we we're talking about people whose it we look at 30% of their total income, they couldn't afford more than $600 a month in rent, and so didn't cancel out for any of our community partners to take on the management of properties for that amount of money because of property taxes and staff and and all of those things. So it just wasn't economically feasible for us. And so we also had a bucket called the the gap. Yep, our gap bucket. And that's kind of where this environmental review stuff is coming from. Our gap bucket, we put out a request for proposals, I believe it was back in December. It might have been November. Yeah, it was about Thanksgiving time. And we had a committee that was appointed by the by the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners who reviewed applications. And these applications went out to community partners and developers. The RFQ was about, you know, what could they build here in Lincoln County, with an emphasis on if they could supply units for around 60% of the area median income, which is approximately, you know, $600 a month or less. And the response was We had an overwhelming response.

RR 6:14

Very good.

Jennifer Beckner 6:15

Wonderful proposals, yeah. And two projects were picked. And I'm not comfortable sharing the information publicly yet on which projects were were picked because I I didn't clear with County Council yet what I can't say. However, we did pick the projects, and before we can allocate any money, we have to do this environmental review. This is a HUD requirement before we can expend any of these federal funds.

RR 6:39

Now, for the individual that is listening to this program that uh is saying, How do I avail myself of these programs? Is there a track that they need to follow or what happens?

Jennifer Beckner 6:52

Yeah, absolutely. We have a wildfire navigator at Lincoln County Health and Human Services, and all of her information is located on our website. People can get in touch with Gabby if they are interested in a home ownership program, with the emphasis being on um what being a wildfire survivor, and they can't be above 80% of the area median income for home ownership.

RR 7:17

Okay. So is there a timeline that these applications have to be in by, or uh is it well, what's the status?

Jennifer Beckner 7:27

So Gabby will work with them to find out what kind of housing opportunities they qualify for. And then we have a list of programs that they that they can apply for. For instance, we have uh two federal programs that will work with our program. So people are eligible for applying for something called down payment assistance.

RR 7:46

All right, Jennifer, we appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to help us understand the program that is underway, and uh we want people to be housed.

Jennifer Beckner 7:56

We do.

RR 7:57

And that's what it's all about.

Jennifer Beckner 7:59

Yes, thank you so much.

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RR 8:30

Our next guest is Nancy Oxnold, and Nancy's with the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation, among other activities. But that's the one we want to talk about today because uh you are one busy lady.

Nancy Oksenholt 8:42

Yes, I am, and that's how I like it.

RR 8:45

Yeah, and you prove it every day. Now, the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation, why would we be concerned about that here in Lincoln County?

Nancy Oksenholt 8:53

Okay, so everybody that I talk to, everybody in the world knows somebody who has cancer. So when they approached me probably close to eight, ten years ago, if they could start up a foundation that would include Lincoln City or Lincoln County, and then they also added Yam Hill County at the time, I said that'd be a great idea, and then I joined the board. Just this past year, Willammock Valley Cancer Foundation has given out over $155,000. And part of that, which is very interesting because most of it always went to housing. This past year, housing was beat out by grocery cards. Really? Yeah, and that's a sad state of affairs. They gave out uh $50,580 just in grocery cards.

RR 9:47

Now, this is all money that was turned back into Lincoln, Yam Hill, and Tillamook County.

Nancy Oksenholt 9:52

Correct. Housing alone was $49,516. And I'm gonna break it down to put so it's why Lincoln County is included in this. So Lincoln County was given over $60,000 to Lincoln County residents last year. Tillamook County received $2,700, and Yamhill County, which has the highest population, received $92,970. So we are getting quite a big piece of the pie for our families here. And it ranged anywhere. Lincoln City was given over $12,000, and to the lowest, Seal Rock was given $250. So all of Lincoln County is included.

RR 10:38

So how does somebody avail themselves of the support from the Well I'm at Bobby Cancer Foundation in Lincoln County?

Nancy Oksenholt 10:47

I have forms at my office, but everything basically is done online, and it's info at WVCancer Foundation.org. You have to be in active cancer treatment and you fill out the forms, and they'll see what they can help you with.

RR 11:04

Now is it is this the individual that is battling cancer, or is it a family member that can help them produce the forms? Okay, very good.

Nancy Oksenholt 11:18

Right. So some of the things they've helped out with is housing, utilities, auto and transportation, grocery cards, gas cards, and health care supplies. So it's a wide range of items. And then you have a like a freak one that one of the patients needed, uh iPad that he could communicate with because he was deaf and couldn't hear. So it had closed caption on it, and we were able to provide that for him. So there's different needs needed by different uh clients.

RR 11:52

That's a lot of money. Where does the money come from, Nancy?

Nancy Oksenholt 11:55

Money comes from donations and grants. Uh Lincoln City gave them a $10,000 grant this past year for a nonprofit. So they started and established in 2002. And basically from 2021 to present, they've given over between $100,000 to $159,000 every year.

RR 12:20

So is it based upon how much money they raise, or is it based upon the other thing? No, no, no. No, okay.

Nancy Oksenholt 12:26

We there is money in the coffers, and so the needs are met. 65% increase in patient served and 78% increase in dollars to distribute it since 2019.

RR 12:41

Is that because uh cancer is more pervasive, or is it because people are finally finding out about the foundation?

Nancy Oksenholt 12:48

Well, they're finding out about the foundation, plus people are people are living longer. People aren't afraid to talk about cancer anymore. If you remember back in the days in nursing, people I mean, if you had cancer, you didn't talk about it back in the 50s, 60s, 70s. It was sort of a taboo subject. But now, I mean, it's out there. People have it. I mean, your neighbor, your you know, family member.

RR 13:13

Is it a specific cancer treatment or is it any cancer that people can get uh help from?

Nancy Oksenholt 13:21

You can get help for anything, basically. Just as long as you're newly diagnosed and seeking treatment.

RR 13:27

And seeking treatment.

Nancy Oksenholt 13:29

And they have they have a yearly amount they're able to give, and then they also have a lifetime amount.

RR 13:36

Speak to that again. Uh what do you mean a yearly amount they're that the foundation?

Nancy Oksenholt 13:41

Yeah, they're there's a foundation, there's a cap for yearly, and then we also have a cap for lifetime. Because a lot of these cancer patients will go through cancer and treatment and get better, and then they get cancer again. So we're able to go back and help them with a second amount of money if needed.

RR 14:02

What gives you the most joy out of this?

Nancy Oksenholt 14:05

I think the most joy I get is helping people and serving others. And when we have our golf tournament that's coming up, seeing the people from the community coming in and helping support such a great foundation.

RR 14:18

No, the golf tournament will be when and where.

Nancy Oksenholt 14:20

The golf tournament is June 6th, Saturday, 2026 at Chinook Winds Casino Golf Resort. And that's where we've had it every year. Uh-huh. And if I'm not mistaken, this is the sixth year. Okay. Uh I have flyers if anybody needs them, and their sponsorship. So come out, have some fun. Registration is open now. It's $150 or $575 per team.

RR 14:52

And it'd be a lot of prizes to be given out.

Nancy Oksenholt 14:54

Correct.

RR 14:55

Anytime the Chinook Wins Casino Resort is involved, it's going to be That's right. Yeah. Nancy Oxnold has been our guest, and again, we're talking about the Willamette Valley Cancer Foundation in Lincoln, Tillamook, Yam Hill counties, helping people help each other. We'll be back in just a moment.

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RR 15:32

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RR 15:55

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RR 16:28

And Conrad, thanks for being here.

Conrad Gowell 16:30

Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it.

RR 16:33

Now, you have a background, obviously, in salmon. Where does this topic come from in your lineup?

Conrad Gowell 16:41

Oh man, ever since I was a little boy, I always just gravitated towards rivers. I was fortunate enough to take fisheries classes in high school. It launched me into a career in fishery science where I studied salmon populations all the way up uh towards the Aleutian Islands in Alaska throughout Washington and Oregon, and it's uh brought lots lots of interesting stories to me along the way.

RR 17:06

The salmon, are we losing sight of the importance of salmon to our entire ecology?

Conrad Gowell 17:14

You know, there's some some good stories and some bad stories.

RR 17:17

Okay.

Conrad Gowell 17:18

Um there are there are some bright spots like uh the work we've done locally on the Oregon Coast to help recover Oregon Coast Coho, which are moving towards being one of the first salmon that are potentially going to be removed from the endangered species list. There's still a lot more work to do yet there on ways we can always improve, but they're moving in the right trajectory from uh uh historic lows in the in the 90s. But on the other hand, you have species like Chinook salmon, which have been going in the opposite direction in some of the same places. And so it leads you to the question what's the difference between these species that that live in the same place and why are their trends so different?

RR 18:00

Talk to me a little bit about uh fish habitat and what has happened to the habitat.

Conrad Gowell 18:06

Yeah, so fish recovery is typically generated or uh divided into four different areas harvest, habitat, hydropower, and hatcheries, and uh habitat being the the places that fish live have experienced harms, you know, from logging operations to mining, water pollution, a whole host of uh different impacts to the places that salmon live. On the Oregon coast, we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to recover that salmon habitat. And that has uh yielded some progress and some amazing work with communities, but at other times it can be undermined. If we take too many salmon in the oceans, then not enough come back to take advantage of that habitat, and you can end up shooting yourself in the foot.

RR 18:52

When you're talking about uh hundreds of millions of dollars that has gone into what, research, development, uh restoration, or all the above?

Conrad Gowell 19:00

Mostly habitat restoration. Yeah, last uh count I I uh added it up, it was over $115 million just for Oregon Coast Coho alone.

RR 19:09

Wow. Did not realize that uh the investment that is being put back into uh bringing back this species that is critical to the entire coast.

Conrad Gowell 19:20

Yeah, and just above Lincoln City, I was uh part of a project uh up on North Creek, it's a tributary of Drift Creek. Uh they replaced a culvert that had blocked salmon there for uh over 50 years. That project alone costs a little more than uh a million dollars to get those fish back into their historic habitats.

RR 19:38

What are the type of projects have you been involved with uh with the Cascade Head uh Biosphere Collaborative?

Conrad Gowell 19:45

You know, I've uh stayed in touch with uh the biosphere and uh participated in their Welcome to Salmon Home event. And then I've participated trying to get monitoring of juvenile salmon. You know, and my my time goes all the way back to the Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council, and they help manage the biosphere uh guests. That was over a decade ago. So I grew up in the McGinville area, but have been involved locally in the watersheds around Lincoln City for most of my life.

RR 20:14

Okay, now you're gonna be doing a presentation uh giving up uh here in Lincoln City at the Belican Brewery. Tell us a little bit about the your presentation there.

Conrad Gowell 20:22

Yeah, so the presentation will kind of touch on uh a brief history of salmon across the world. You know, the trends that we see along the Oregon coast are not unique, and there's been similar mistakes uh that have been made in other areas throughout the world. For instance, Atlantic salmon used to be all the way down into Spain, and some of those rivers they've been trying to recover salmon for over half a century without a lot of luck, and places they have disappeared. But all throughout the East Coast, New York City used to have salmon swimming in the rivers that used to uh go through that area, and now we're seeing salmon blink out in certain watersheds along the west coast, and one of the areas that the declines have been much more recent. And so I'll touch on a brief history of all of that and then talk about uh area that not many people have focused on, which is the ocean fisheries that intercept salmon uh up and down the Pacific coast, and how often we are harvesting salmon far away from their home rivers, uh, which makes it very difficult to be able to protect the weak stocks uh while still harvesting the healthy stocks. And so we'll be uh introducing uh a new effort to bring communities together from California to Alaska, you know, encouraging policymakers to let our salmon come home and being able to answer questions that local community members might ask on that effort.

RR 21:54

Where have all of the salmon gone? Uh important topic that will be tackled again at the Pelican Brewery, February 19th, 6-7. Conrad, uh, we do appreciate you taking the time. And again, how much effort is being put into this restoration? Uh is there enough? Is there too little? Where are we at?

Conrad Gowell 22:16

I would say there's always more that we can do. We we've uh made some strides along the Oregon coast and are leading in a lot of ways in what is being done, but it's no time to let our orals down. And uh I think it's time to look holistically and and see what's working, and then also ask ourselves what's not working and uh figure out how to move forward.

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Chinook Winds 23:03

Tickets don't $25 and are available at the Chinookwins box at ADNAC or at Chinookwins.com. Welcome back to the Neil Diamond Legacy Concert, February 28th at Chinook Wins, where concerts are better at the beach.

RR 23:19

So welcome back to the Double Air Show. Some of the activities and events forthcoming at City Hall on Tuesday, the 17th, 6 o'clock. We had a planning commission meeting. On Wednesday, the 18th, the Parks and Rec Board meets at 2 30 in the afternoon. And then on Monday, February 23rd, 6 o'clock, City Council uh has their regular monthly meeting, or by bi-monthly meeting, I guess I should say. And uh welcome on board to our new city manager. Uh he is not new to the job, he was the interim city manager, now has been selected. We'll hopefully get him on the podcast uh shortly. Also, uh we have an opportunity uh to uh be involved with the Kiwanis Club and just by writing a check for 40 bucks, and that forty dollars goes into a scholarship fund. But what you get for that is a flag put up in honor of you or someone else in your uh family. Uh $40, all of the money goes to the Lincoln City Kiwanas Club Foundation uh to uh pay for scholarships for graduating seniors from Taft High School.

Son Paul 24:29

Go Taft.

RR 24:30

We like to go Taft Tigers. Uh the Great Oregon Coast Garage Sale is coming up on April the 17th and 18th and the 19th. Uh happy treasure hunting. And uh this one started with my good buddy Mr. Joe Delavelle. Mr. Joe Delavelle. And uh Joe will be forever reminded of that, or we will forever remind you of that, that Joe Delavelle uh was uh in charge of uh getting that underway. He picked up the ideas, I understand it someplace down in uh Arkansas. He was traveling, all of a sudden he found this street of uh mile after mile after mile of garage sales. I'm surprised he even made it back here after going through all of those garage sales.

Son Paul 25:18

Yeah, he did like uh deal, didn't he?

RR 25:20

Yeah, he did love a deal. The interview that we had, we need to remind people that uh they can attend the seminar and where the seminar is gonna be.

Son Paul 25:31

Yeah, for the uh where have all the salmon gone? Yeah, so it's gonna be at the Pelican Brew Pub. You need RSVP, and you can do that at Cascadehead.org. Uh, it's just a small, you know, facility there upstairs at the Pelican. And only about 40 folks uh can be in that space. So uh right now we're about half full, so get online, cascadehead.org and RSVP for that uh evening uh at uh the Pelican again, February 19th, 6 to 7 30.

RR 25:58

And Conrad is a well-spoken individual that uh really does know where have all the salmon got.

Son Paul 26:03

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've known Conrad a long time. Uh he's been a great uh resource here and and uh and uh and beyond. So uh thanks for his expertise to bring it back here and introducing some you know concepts around the restoration. Uh you know, we talked about habitat, we talked about the four H's, habitat, harvest in this case. This would be the other H. Hydropower was the other H, one of the other H's. And the last one, I always kind of lose track of them. I'll get I get start thinking like harvest, hatcheries, hatcheries. That's the one, the other one that we don't talk about much. Uh, and so that's the other H of the four H's.

RR 26:38

Need to have Conrad back on again and talk about hatcheries and uh what they do or don't do for the restoration of the salmon. Yeah, it'd be good talk. Good talk.

Son Paul 26:48

Anything else your side of the table? Yeah, you know, we've got another event uh that you may or may not have heard of yet. Uh we talked maybe earlier, but another Giotaku masterclass coming up on March 14th. Uh this is limited to 15 participants, so I think you know, we get a few people in there and all of a sudden it fills up. So March 14th, so while you're registering for the event with Conrad, you can get online caskethead.org and uh register for that too. That is a what? It's a masterclass in teaching the art form of Giotaku. That's fish printing, fish rubbing. Right. Yeah, it's an exceptional uh art form and easy to learn for all ages, beginners all the way to experts. This class will be for uh for everybody in between. Interesting. Yeah.

RR 27:30

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

Jana 27:59

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 Janet Ron.