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North Bend council decides to be Vehicle proactive with dangerous buildings for hire By DAVID RUPKALVIS The World
The city of North Bend is taking a more aggressive stance in dealing with nuisance properties in the city. During a council work session Monday, the city council agreed to be a little more proactive when handling troubling properties rather than just waiting for complaints, especially if buildings present a threat to the public. Public Works Director Ralph Dunham brought the issue to the council to get their
feedback on the city’s role in handling dangerous buildings. “At this point, it’s a discussion items because we have several forms of dangerous buildings in town,” Dunham told the council. “We have one we’re actually pursuing, but we also have years worth of fires that didn’t get repaired. We have a mixture of structures. This is more of a discussion with city council on how active you want staff to be. “We have some zombie structures that no one has lived in for eight or 10 years. We have structures that have been problem structures, and we have structures with fire
problems. We have a number of structures around town.” Dunham told council the general rule in recent years has been unless the city has received a complaint about a property, they have generally chosen to overlook nuisance buildings. He brought up one home on Mead Street that is owned by two elderly people, one who is in a nursing home. The house has been vacant for some time, has been broken into repeatedly and has been used by transients. Please see DANGEROUS, Page A11
Election 2022: Coos County Commissioner Position 3
Three candidates make their case
Cribbins: There is still work to do By JILL BURKE For The World
Melissa Cribbins
Incumbent Melissa Cribbins, 49, wants to keep serving Coos County as its Position 3 commissioner. First elected in 2012, the attorney and Gonzaga Law School graduate has held the job for two-and-a-half terms. She faces challengers Rod Taylor and Chase Carlson in the primary on May 17. Cribbins said her first term wasn’t easy. She ran for office a decade ago because she cares about the county, but she entered local government when friction and disagreements hindered
Cribbins graduated from Coquille High School, then went on to earn a bachelor’s of science from Portland State University, followed by earning her law degree. She moved back to Coos County with her family 15 years ago when her father, a veterinarian, fell ill. She’s also served as director of the North Bend Water Board. She lives in Coos Bay with her husband and teenage son and has two adult children in college. Cribbins said she’s seeking another term because she has more to contribute, and that important work remains.
are items Taylor, a registered Republican, said he’ll prioritize if elected. Specifically, he said he’s disappointed the current commissioners didn’t do more to resist mask mandates imposed by Oregon’s governor. “If I had been a county commissioner at that time, I would have drafted a letter, not of request but of demand, an assertion to the governor and said, ‘nope, not in Coos County. We will allow liberty to prevail here,’” Taylor said. Taylor attended high school through eleventh grade in California, then went on to earn
an equivalency certificate. He started his own company, U.S. Survey Supply, LLC, more than 20 years ago, and comes to the race with government experience serving on the Bandon Port Commission and the Coos County Area District Board of Directors. He’s also the founder of the group Citizens Restoring Liberty, members of which are also running for county commissioner Position 2 and the county clerk’s position. Taylor, who participated in the Jan. 6 demonstrations at the nation’s capitol, said his business
Please see CRIBBINS, Page A10
Taylor: I will fight for liberty By JILL BURKE For The World
Rod Taylor
progress. Eventually, the commissioners turned things around by focusing on serving the public and building good relationships. “In the last 10 years, we’ve restored a lot of civility and functionality to county government,” Cribbins told The World in an interview earlier this month. “People really deserve a county government that functions well and functions efficiently. Frankly, if you call about your pothole, you don’t want to hear me talk about partisan topics. You don’t want to hear me complain about the federal government. You want to know that your pothole is going to get fixed.”
Bandon Businessman Rod Taylor, 58, hopes to unseat incumbent Melissa Cribbins for county commissioner Position 3. He entered the race out of a sense of duty to defend constitutional liberties, he told The World in an interview earlier this month. A third candidate, Chase Carlson, is also running for the position. Election integrity, safeguarding land use rights, promoting salmon hatch boxes and resisting COVID-19 health mandates
Please see TAYLOR, Page A10
Carlson: Pursue realistic projects By JILL BURKE For The World
Chase Carlson
Retired logger Chase Carlson, 63, of Coquille hopes to topple incumbent county commissioner Melissa Cribbins. He told The World he decided to enter the race to positively contribute to the community and push local government to pursue more realistic projects. “They just set their sights on these great, big, grandiose ideas. And it always falls apart in their face,” Carlson said in an interview earlier this month. Carlson, a registered Republican who is married and has two
grown children, faces a third candidate in the race, Rod Taylor. He attended Coquille high school through grade 10, and started logging at the age of 15. His lifelong career took him up and down the west coast from California to Alaska. After years of hard work, he became the president of James Forest Products. One of the things Carlson appreciated about his logging career was the ability to make a living wage that allowed him to donate money to worthy causes. Carlson, who describes himself as a “middle-class representative,” would like to bring a
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diverse range of well-paying jobs to the county. He told The World he’s had a lifelong interest in politics, which began years ago when an explosion damaged the courthouse. He recalls a project that followed in which the county built a parking lot but only gained twenty parking spaces when the work was over. A new jail followed on the same site, one Carlson said was too large to utilize fully. “They’ve just done some foolish things,” he said, referring to Please see CARLSON, Page A10
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ordinance moves forward By DAVID RUPKALVIS The World
The city of Coos Bay made minor changes to a proposed vehicle-for-hire business that could make it possible for Coos Bay to adopt the ordinance that allows companies like Uber and Lyft to operate in the city. Police Chief Chris Chapanar explained the changes to the city council during a work session last week, addressing the concerns voiced by owners of local taxi companies. Chapanar told the council he took into account the concerns the taxi companies voices and compared the Coos Bay ordinance to one in Ashland. “I think we’re really, really close to being somewhat of a uniform ordinance across the state,” Chapanar said. “I did make a few language changes in the ordinance draft you have.” During a previous meeting, the owners of local taxi companies voiced concern over vehicle inspections and drug and alcohol testing for vehicle-for-hire businesses. “There was some concerns abut pre-employment drug screenings and also having a vehicle inspected to make sure it could be safe,” Chapanar said. “We put that in the front under the business license. “ Chapanar said to get a business license, business owners would have to show a pre-employment drug screen and show vehicle inspection by a certified mechanic as part of getting a business license. In addition, the business owner would have to provide a background check or request to have the city police department do it with a charge. Would have to present documents before getting a business license. Any business, whether a company or a driver, would have to maintain records from the business, and the city can do audits up to two times a year and review the records. “The one thing we added to each of those sections, was if they had a person, a driver, who violated their drug policy and was suspended, that they make notification to the city of Coos Bay,” Chapanar said. After presenting the changes, Chapanar told the council an ordinance could be brought to them at the May 17 council meeting. During questioning by council, Chapanar said any mechanic shop in the city can do the inspection, and it would be up to a business or individual to get a drug test prior to applying for a business license. The council agreed to the changes without much comment, and the ordinance will return for a public hearing and possible adoption May 17.
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