Lincoln City photographer, Don Johnson, captures the awe inspiring beauty of sunset on the Oregon Coast. This set reminds us to take some time to absorb our gorgeous coastline.
Taft Elementary Band Winter Concert
The Taft Elementary Band Winter Celebration Concert was a well orchestrated event held at Taft High School. Students showed a major improvement in skill since the beginning of the year as evidenced by the display of playing with just the mouthpiece and then with the full instrument. The audience clapped and whistled frequently and the kids showed outstanding enthusiasm
The band finished their set with Pirates Parade, and they pulled it off with classic big band style. Watch the end of the video to hear this awesome harmony.
Hats off to the band and everyone who came together to make this event such a hit.
All this was made possible with a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation who is giving $210,000 over three years and an additional $70,000 for two more years to the Taft schools.
Trial dates set for Lincoln City Public Records/Meetings Law violations suits
Lincoln City, OR – Trial dates have been set for two lawsuits that claim the Lincoln City Council violated Oregon’s Public Meetings and Public Records Laws over 60 times since 2011.
The first case, Ross Smith vs. City of Lincoln City I (15CV22131), claims the city council held over 60 illegal secret meetings without alerting the public of their existence, thereby violating Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 192.640. Today, Lincoln County Judge Thomas Branford scheduled the trial for April 17, 2018.
The second case, Ross Smith vs. City of Lincoln City II (16CV21270), claims the city council illegally appointed Richard (“Dick”) Anderson to council, as well as illegally appointing numerous Planning Commissioners, and Budget Committee members by secret ballot, thereby violating ORS 192.650. Lincoln County Judge Sheryl Bachart scheduled this trial for May 16, 2018.
When asked about the cases, Smith said: “Our city council could avoid the time and expense of these trials by simply apologizing to our citizens for having ‘possibly’ violated the law. In fact, the wording of the apology is the exact same wording they forced our Mayor to agree to on Sept. 26, 2016, after holding nine secret executive sessions in their failed attempt to extract a confession from him.”
When Lincoln City Homepage told Smith a litigation attorney suggested these two trials could cost taxpayers $200,000 or more, an amount far exceeding the $40,000 allocated for litigation in the city’s current budget, he replied: “let’s hope our city council avoids this unnecessary expense, and places the needs of our citizens first. There are so many other more pressing matters for them to address.”
Lincoln City Beach Sunset – Don Johnson
Lincoln City Homepage is proud to announce Lincoln City resident, Don Johnson, will be sending us some of his amazing pictures to use on the site. Thanks for sharing your talents with the people of Lincoln City Don. This Lincoln City beach shot is great.
Facebook Makes Major Change to the News Feed
Here we go Lincoln City: Facebook said on Thursday that it will start to show users more posts from their friends and family in the News Feed, a move that means people will see fewer posts from publishers and brands.
According to Facebook, the move is designed to encourage people to interact more with the stuff that they actually do see. The thinking is that you’re probably more likely to comment and discuss a post shared from a Lincoln City family member than one shared by a business you follow.
“Recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a post on Thursday.
Then he added something else surprising: Facebook expects the change will mean that people will spend less time using the service.
“Now, I want to be clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down,” he wrote. “But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable.”
The announcement is huge for a couple of reasons:
- It’s bad news for publishers who rely on Facebook for traffic, or a business who uses it as a form of organic marketing. Facebook is very clearly telling these businesses their content won’t spread as far in News Feed, and many publishers spend lots of time and resources creating stuff intended to do just that.
- Facebook admitting that people will likely spend less time on Facebook has to be sour news for investors. The more time people spend on Facebook, the more ads they consume, and the more money Facebook can make. Less time, at least on paper, seems like it will correlate to less revenue.
For years, critics have blasted Facebook for reinforcing ideologies by showing users content and viewpoints they already agree with, creating a bubble mentality that some believe helped fuel the rise of certain hate groups such as the alt-right. Agents of Russia capitalized on this dynamic and used Facebook (as well as other outlets like Twitter and YouTube) to sow unrest in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
It’s unclear, however, if these latest changes to News Feed would stem the spread of fake news, since users will still be able to share links to stories from almost any place, including conspiracy sites.
But Facebook says the reason for these changes come from a study it published last month, which found that people who aimlessly scroll through News Feed without interacting with the stuff that they see walked away feeling crummy.
The changes rolling out now are intended to encourage people to interact, which would theoretically help them walk away feeling less crummy.
“We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,” Zuckerberg continued. “The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being.”
In other words, Facebook believes that it’s sacrificing short-term gain (more time spent) for long-term gain (happier users who will come back more often).
It’s a big gamble, in part because Facebook is bound to alienate a major set of users: Publishers that create a lot of the free content that appears on Facebook. The social network has a reputation for jerking these publishers around by routinely changing the algorithm, which in turn means publishers need to change the kind of stuff they make and share on the service.
High Wind Warning Lincoln City
High Wind Warning
URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Portland OR 809 PM PST Wed Jan 10 2018
Central Oregon Coast- Including the cities of Lincoln City, Newport, Cape Foulweather, Yachats, and Florence.
HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM TO 5 PM PST THURSDAY NEAR BEACHES AND HEADLANDS.
The National Weather Service in Portland has issued a High Wind Warning Near Beaches and Headlands, which is in effect from 8 AM to 5 PM PST Thursday.
* WINDS…South 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60 mph.
* TIMING…The strongest winds will occur on Thursday between mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
* IMPACTS…Strong winds may blow down trees, branches, and power lines. Isolated power outages are possible.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… A High Wind Warning means hazardous weather conditions of strong and damaging winds are imminent or highly likely in the warning area.
Lincoln City Council Highlights: Ward again alleges Mayor committed a jailable offense
Lincoln City, OR – Last Monday’s three+ hour city council meeting had Councilor Kip Ward threatening possible jail time to any Councilors he finds violating our council’s rules, and again names Mayor Don Williams. In response to our scathing expose last week, City Manager Ron Chandler discouraged us from publicly airing sexual harassment complaints raised by city employees. And City Attorney Richard Appicello explained why he neglected to forward to council an important communication from Ross Smith regarding Smith’s two lawsuits against the city.
Here are all the juicy bits, in chronological order:
- City threatens to shut down Warming Shelter due to alleged zoning issue (Chandler)
Chandler offered an update on the city’s threat of $1,100/day fines to Mayor Williams, if he continues to rent Taft Hall to the Warming Shelter (for the cost of the utilities, by the way). Chandler said the charges against the Mayor cannot wait until the Warming Shelter’s upcoming appeal hearing set for January 16th, before the case is eventually sent to our Municipal Judge. Watch
- Alleged Harassment complaint against Lincoln City Attorney Appicello (Chandler)
Chandler discussed the need to keep complaints, such as the alleged harassment complaint against Appicello, under wraps. “Reporters and bloggers need to be cautious on assumptions being made as a general view” he said. The Councilors were silent on the alleged harassment of one of their former employees, but Councilor Dick Anderson offered to help anyone trying to make sense of the Lincoln City budget. Watch
- City’s violations of Oregon’s Public Meetings and Public Records Laws (Appicello)
Appicello gave an update on Smith’s two lawsuits on the city’s numerous alleged violations of Oregon’s Public Meeting and Public Records Laws (15CV22131 & 16CV21270). Smith sent his latest settlement offer last Friday, the deadline set by one of the city’s seven outside attorneys, Bob Steringer, of Harrang, a Portland law firm. Steringer forwarded Smith’s communication to Appicello, who neglected to forward it to the city council for three days, forcing the council to cancel the executive session they’d previously scheduled to discuss Smith’s response. Is this how Appicello spends all his time, scanning and password protecting all communications? Watch
- Possible jail time for “self-dealing” council members (Ward)
Ward lamented “it’s been a challenging three years” with the “unbecoming behavior” of members of the council. Ward again accused Mayor Williams of “self-dealing” without offering specifics. Ward said anyone violating our City Charter is committing a Class A misdemeanor (1 year jail/$6,250 fine). That’s so ironic coming from Ward, as Ward’s primary residence is in Otis, according to former Code Enforcement Officer Janell Templeton, Jerry Warner, and many others. (Section 8.1 of our Charter requires a Councilor‘s primary residence to be in their Ward.) Watch
- City’s failure to require permits to run surf contests (Chandler)
Chandler spoke on the city’s failure to require permits to run surf contests, even though the city required John Forse to have permits to run his Nelscott Reef Big Wave Classic for the last 13 years it’s been held. “I think it’s appropriate for me to review with our attorney, [VCB Director Ed] Driestadt and others, our interpretation of the ordinance” Chandler said. Chandler declined to meet with Forse to address Forse’s serious safety and city liability concerns, choosing instead to meet privately with Appicello, Driestadt, and Police Chief Keith Kilian. Why the secrecy Chandler, afraid of another lawsuit? Watch
Trip to the Store – By Cameron Werner
New for 2018 is a whole new section of the website dedicated to aspiring kid writers. If you have a child who can write, send us the story by email at [email protected].
This fine piece of writing comes to us from Lincoln City Taft Elementary student, Cameron Werner. Cameron is eleven. He was tasked with writing six paragraphs as a narrative for class. This is a true story. It has not been edited.
Trip to the Store
I get off the bus and look around for treasure. It’s just what I do.
I walk across the street and find a dollar on the ground. It’s my lucky day!
I take my new found wealth to IGA, the grocery store. Wandering through the aisles I stumble upon the candy section. My gaze falls on a Reese peanut butter bar. I grab the bar and head towards the checkout.
At the checkout I place the bar down and the lady scans it. “That will be $1.19.” She says.
I say, “But all I got is a dollar I found on the ground.” The lady looks at me and I can tell she feels bad. I start looking on the ground for change, somehow thinking I was going to come up with nineteen cents.
As I’m scrounging around, the guy behind me in line taps me on the back. He says “Hey kid, you on the ground is worth nineteen cents worth of entertainment to me!” He hands me a quarter and I give it to the lady. She smiles and says “Man I thought for a second it was gonna come out of my pocket!” they both laugh hard, I smile, wave, and leave feeling like a charity case.
As I walk home a seagull flys right in front of me and stops me dead in my tracks. It looks up at me wanting food. I throw a bit of Reeses at it and it gobbles it up. I’m not giving it any more of my charity candy, so I shoo it away. Where the bird was standing I see something shiny. I look closer and see a quarter.I run back to the store and hand the lady at the checkout the bird quarter. She looks at me funny and says “What’s this for?”I reply:
“Give it to the next kid that walks in here and tries to buy something and comes up short.”
-Cameron Werner – Age 11
ISSUES FACING LINCOLN CITY – Boss FM Podcast
A great listen. Topics include the Taft warming shelter, city attorney, and politics.
Host: Cheryl Harle
Guests: Lincoln City Mayor Don Williams and Jim Hoover
Hunting For Glass Floats in Lincoln City
Who are the Float Fairies? Where do they live, work, and play? I’m not sure we’ll ever know. They are on the beaches leaving little glass treasures for us to find and I’m determined to find one.
