Coming Off the Road

I’ve been on the road quite a bit lately and thus not on-the-blogging-job.  Last week was not just for work, also for some personal history-partaking.  I was fortunate to have been given a ticket to last week’s presidential inauguration and spent the week in D.C. attending the ceremony and one of the balls our new president attended too.  A day at the Smithsonian and an evening at the National Mall memorials was icing on the cake.

More related to my day job, but still a personal passion; I visited with the folks that run at the Sunlight Foundation at their D.C. headquarters. The non-profit organization is dedicated to government transparency and I’ll be working with them on a national project.  The highlight of the trip was meeting with their executive director Ellen and learning that she’d just heard from the White House that the president had signed a new executive order pointing the federal government back in the direction of transparency openness, rolling back progress lost when a prior attorney general had directed agencies to only respond to  FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests unless – in essence – sued.  It’s our government, how can you hold them accountable if they don’t have to tell you what they’re doing?  Okay, I’ll get down off my soap box as I’m getting not-so-brief.

Here are a few local items you may want to know or keep track of:

• Sam (presumably) has taken the Anchor Tavern signs down and replaced them with hastily made “Pacific Inn and Grill” signs.  More curious, he has put up a help wanted sign in the window.  Is he leasing the building back from the bank who per the local paper has taken it back, taking another run at making a go of it? Being provocative?  Please comment if you know something substantive.

Feb 2 update: Thanks to OVV reader Scott for sharing the HH News Item.

“I still have two months to see if I can do something different.”  Sam

• The Tillamook County Planning Commission held their annual planning meeting.  From Jud Randal’s description, it sounded more like a briefing – no work sessions, no plan – but the upside is, the local citizens planning advisory committees and others had an opportunity to comment on the Planning Commission’s 2009 priority list as proposed by Lisa Phipps with the Community Development office.  Jud’s summary email was helpful in pointing out that the folks involved in promoting and planning off-shore energy generation are moving forward with their agenda, one which begs to be watched.
• If you’re not on the Oceanside Neighborhood Association (ONA) mailing list and you have interest in Oceanside Planning issues and, more recently, the issue of wave and wind energy generation off the Oregon Coast, you should sign up by visiting the ONA web site and using the link there to request on.
• Special District elections are coming up, with commissioner/director terms up for both the Netarts Oceanside Sanitation District (NOSD) and the Oceanside Water District (OWD).  We know that, at this writing, OWD does NOT have a full slate of candidates running for all positions coming open so, if you live in the OWD (you’ll know if you’re getting a bill from us 🙂  please consider helping us manage this vital resource as we approach our 2009-2010 fiscal year and throw your hat in the public office ring.  You can get more information on the process from the Tillamook County web site or give them a call.  You can also talk to any *board member about what it’s like to serve, or call the OWD office at 503.842.6462 and talk to our office manager Tami Walker.
• And most importantly, Agate hunting has been great recently!

*Your currrent OWD board members include Don Carlson, Tona Mortensen, Robert Garrigues, Luke Rogers, and me – Deb Macartney.