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Council raises business license fee, implements fire inspection cost By DAVID RUPKALVIS
city. Under the new rules, business licenses will cost $120 a year regardless of the business size. The new fee replaces a sliding scale used previously, where the smallest businesses paid $26.25 per year with the largest businesses paying $157.60. The council also voted to implement a $120 fire inspection fee, with the goal of hiring an inspector to allow fire inspections to resume at all commercial
For The World
The Coos Bay City Council voted unanimously to approve an ordinance that will raise fees for business licenses while also implementing a fee to increase fire inspections at local businesses. After a lengthy discussion, the council agreed it was time to increase fees for the majority of businesses in the
properties. “I have no problem with the business license fee. How we do the fire inspection is up for council to discuss,” Mayor Joe Benetti said to start the discussion. Benetti said as a former business owner he was concerned when he learned some businesses have not has an inspection in more than eight years due to the city having limited staff for inspections.
The city’s fire marshal works part time in that role and only does inspections on new businesses and businesses that move to a new location. Benetti asked Fire Chief Mark Anderson if his employees could pick up the slack and do inspections. “Our staff are very well trained in operations, which is more reactive than proactive,” Anderson said. “The fire service is generally divided into operations and
prevention. The prevention is generally what the fire marshal does, looking into business plans and fire code and ordinances and fire prevention activities. That’s where we really feel like there’s a gap in service. Our businesses are not being serviced adequately. We haven’t done a business inspection since 2018, just before COVID.” Please see CITY FEES Page A3
North Bend man fights for Ukraine By BREE LAUGHLIN The World
A North Bend man is helping Ukraine defend it’s people from invading Russian soldiers. Kurt Kimble recently returned to his hometown of North Bend, Oregon for a brief visit before returning to fight in the International Legion in Ukraine. “We are progressing slowly and progressively winning on the battlefield because the Ukrainian people are fighting for something – and the Russians aren’t,” Kimble said.
Kimble has been injured twice since enlisting in the war. He was shot in the helmet and recently hit by a piece of shrapnel – but he is staying in Ukraine to help them finish the war. “I want to stay fighting as long as it takes,” he said. Kimble moved to Ukraine in 2019. The retired U.S. military veteran was looking to do something different with his life after his wife passed away. He decided to put his military background to use as a volunteer with the Ukrainian police and National Guard. When Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops
invaded the country – Kimble decided to enlist in the Ukrainian Army under the International Legion. “By the time I enlisted in the Ukrainian army, the Russians had already crossed over the border,” he said. “That was a moment when I was like, ‘I need to do something more.’ But what really set me off was the day I saw the maternity hospital blown up – and that really pushed me to go and fight,” Kimble said. Kimble said his family in North Bend supports what he is doing, but they also want him to come home – and he wants that too. But he can’t
until he finishes what he started. “I – along with the people – believe what Russia is doing is a criminal act and I want to fight against it,” Kimble said. After almost five years, Kimble said Ukraine has also become his home. Kimble remarried and adopted his
wife’s’ daughter. “I have friends. The people have been good to me,” he said. “The Ukrainian people are just phenomenal. They’re hardworking. They love their country.” Ukrainians do not want Please see UKRAINE Page A3
Contributed photos
For more than a year, Kurt Kimble has fought for Ukraine despite being a proud American veteran. Kimble, who is from North Bend, will continue to serve as a member of the International Legion in Ukraine.
Coos Bay adopts shopping cart ordinance By DAVID RUPKALVIS For The World
The Coos Bay City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance with a goal of cutting back on the number of shopping carts being abandoned in the city. The ordinance is geared only toward abandoned carts. The ordinance puts some new requirements on businesses that offer shopping carts with the goal of getting abandoned carts back to their owners. “We’ve been talking about this specific challenge for a number of years,” City Manager Nichole Rutherford said. “It started during the time
of the Homeless Work Group. We attempted at that time to bring a couple of facilities in to brainstorm with us. Unfortunately we were unable to move that forward.” The ordinance will require businesses to post signs at their business saying that taking a cart off the property is a crime. The business will also be required to have their name on each cart and a notice on each cart that removing the cart from the business property is a crime under Oregon law. Each business must also have a toll-free or local phone number where people can report abandoned shopping carts.
Once a business has been notified that a cart has been abandoned, it must be picked up within 72 hours. Rutherford said the city has reached an agreement with the National Grocers Association, where the association will pick up and return abandoned carts at a cost of $6.50 to the business. If a cart is not picked up within 72 hours, the city will collect and charge the business $50. Rutherford said in August, the city’s Public Works Department picked up 56 abandoned shopping carts. “This ordinance is going to have the stores
Photo by David Rupkalvis
Brenda Jackson, left, and Charlotte Hutt push a shopping cart full of trash they picked up while helping clean John Topits Park. The two women said they found multiple abandoned carts that day.
Please see CARTS Page A2
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