A Coastal Flood Advisory has been issued by National Weather Service Portland (NWS) for Christmas Day until 10 p.m. for the Central Oregon Coast.
NWS says tidal overflow flooding is expected up to one foot above ground level during high tides in low lying areas near bays, sloughs and lower reaches of coastal rivers.
Due to elevated river levels combined with high astronomical tides, property damage can occur but is usually localized. Low-lying roads may be closed due to high water.
Around 4pm Thurday night many people were reporting that they were noticing ice forming on their porch decks and tree limbs.
By 8p.m. the freezing rain that was predicted for Lincoln City arrived.
Lincoln City Homepage Community facebook page was awash in reports of strandings and accidents.
The Lincoln City Police Department reported on their Facebook post, “MIDNIGHT UPDATE – the roads on the north side of the city are still icy in spots, but have mostly turned to slush.”
Driving this morning at 8a.m. from D river toward Otis, I noted how the driving conditions deteriorated rapidly east milepost 3.
As of 9a.m. Oregon State Police had closed Hwy 18 west from mileposts 15 through 21 (six miles west of Grand Rhonde).
Hwy 101 through Lincon City is wet and predominantly ice free but watch for sheltered areas, bridges and road shoulders that have not yet thawed.
National Weather Service Portland (NWS) issued a Winter Weather Advisory for freezing rain for the Central Oregon Coast until 4 a.m. Friday.
NWS predicts ice accumulation of around .15 – .25 of an inch and issued the advisory at 11:34 a.m. Thursday.
Power outages and tree damage is possible and travel may be difficult. Drivers are urged to use caution and slow down.
For the latest road conditions call 511, or visit https://www.tripcheck.com
Actiivity as reported by Lincoln City police. All subjects are innocent unless proven guilty by a court of law.
January 22, 2023
Catalytic Converter stolen: 717 SW Fleet
License plate stolen: 1035 NW Harbor
January 21, 2023
Car break ins: 1000 SE Hwy 101 (Goodwill) and 2821 NW Hwy 101 (Game Over). Reporting vehicles broken into and purses stolen
December 21, 2022
Found Property: 1717 NW Highway 101. Cell phone in parking lot. Phone taken for safekeeping.
Follow up Ref case: Kelly Helms Arrested and transported to LCJ
Found property: Sandpiper Suites 1815 NW Harbor
Housekeeping reported finding trash bag with laptop, chargers and other personal belongings.
Suspicious activity: 336 SE Quay Report of eggs thrown at residence.
Extra patrol requested: 4039 NW Logan Rd, Chamber of Commerce office. Suspicion of someone sleeping on deck at night.
December 22, 2022
Failure to register: Scott Lowell Church taken into custody for failure to register as a sex offender. Transported to LCJ
Dumping Trash/Misdemeanor warrant: 4842 NW Hwy 101 SE hwy 101. Jesse Lee Freeman. Taken into custody, transported to LCJ
DUII: Franklin Dotson . NW 39th st and Hwy 101. Subject cited and released
December 27, 2022
Disturbance: NE 21st Avenue. Lincoln City. Scott Cotter, responding to call about a man yelling swinging club/stick, wearing a gas mask. Suspect located at his residence, 1752 NE 20th. Cited and released for tresspass 2, disorderly conduct 2.
At approximately 4p.m. Monday a 2016 Ford pick up struck a pole in front of Calvary Chapel.
Lincoln City police responded to the scene and temporarily halted all through traffic and diverted drivers to SE High School Dr.
No injuries were reported.
Power was reportedly lost and quickly restored in the area. According to sources, the pole belonged to Century Link and carried communication cables.
Crews worked throught the night and all lines and supports are back in place.
At a public ceremony held in the Lincoln City Police department community room, Dave Broderick was sworn in as Lincoln City’s newest police Chief. Broderick took the oath of office as administered by city recorder Jamie Young.
Broderick was introduced by outgoing Chief Jerry Palmer who said, “Over four years ago…I had an opportunity to lay out a plan to take us into an area we hadn’t been able to obtain; including this facility, equipment and training. When I reached out and dragged Dave out from… undercover to supervision and part of command staff, was for me, one of the brightest parts of my career because this man stepped up and all of goals (we set) would not have happened if it were not for this man because he bought into the vision and took it by the reins…”
Palmer continued, “He stayed the course… the best leadership to take us into the future is already built into this department.”
Palmer then pinned the Chief’s stars on Broderick’s shirt collar and presented his successor to the crowd.
“I’m more than humbled to be standing here today looking out at the faces of so many people that have been a part of my life and career.” said Broderick. That man (Palmer) paved the way for where we are today, so thank you.”
“We will do our very best to continue…our relationship with the community, the professionalism we have and the pride we have in this department. I hope that I can always do the right thing to make sure the city will always trust in us.”
It seems that there is no escaping inflation in Lincoln City. From dinosaurs to Santa, from R2-D2 to snowmen, inflatable Christmas decorations are nearly as popular around town as twinkling Christmas lights.
Home inflatables are relatively new, compared to the large commercial displays, but where did they come from originally? Well, you can thank Gemmy Industries and the creator of Big Mouth Billy Bass.
According to gemmy.fandom.com:
Airblown Inflatables are inflatable holiday indoor and outdoor decorations for all occasions. Their sizes range from 2 feet to about 20 feet tall/long. They are one of Gemmy’s longest lasting product lines, and are also one of the most popular range of decorations that Gemmy has produced since their introduction in 2001.
After Big Mouth Billy Bass’s success, Gemmy’s co-owner, Dan Flaherty, was looking for another hit.
He was inspired by those giant inflated gorillas that you see outside of car dealerships. His idea was, how do you turn that into something that the residential consumer can decorate with?
Early prototypes were inflated with hair dryers, which would overheat and burn out. Eventually Gemmy patented a fan that could run for months at a time. Regular polyester wouldn’t inflate well, so the company worked with fabric mills to develop a special coating.
In 2001, Gemmy launched its first Airblown Inflatable, an 8-foot tall Santa Claus. “He was actually quite primitive,” Harris said. “He had the big triangle of white fabric between his legs to give enough support so that he could stand up.”
Easy to install and easy to store, the pillowy billowing bags of festive cheer bring smiles to passerby and homeowner. Of course the inflatable has but one nemesis here on the coast. Wind. More than one display was seen toppled over in town. Despite that, the hearty homeowner, with enough tent stakes and twine, can easily secure their polyester sculptures and not risk tumbling off a ladder.
Thanks to the hard work of Lincoln City’s Information Technology Department (IT), things will look a lot better to viewers of city council and planning commission meetings.
The antiquated audio visual system is being replaced with a new set of digital components. While admitting they can’t make the meetings more interesting, Director of IT Tony LaSoya said, “We will be broadcasting in high definition and be able to hold a more modern meeting.”
He estimates that through the hard work and relentless searching for equipment by his staff, the city has saved over $100,000 compared to sending the project to outside vendors.
“We know that we work for the taxpayers of this city and are very cost conscious,” LaSoya added.
Explaining the difficulties of the old audiovisual system, he said,
“We started having failures in the equipment that we couldn’t replace. The stuff was 20 something years old and it got harder and harder to find equipment to piece it back together, so we decided that it was time to modernize. During covid people got used to using Zoom and the equipment we had did not support hybrid meetings.”
According to System Administrator David Twigg when asked what equipment was failing, he replied, “On our cable channel four broadcast we had a hard drive system called Latronics that was bought in 2002.”
“1998.” Corrected LaSoya.
“It just died one day,” continued Twigg. “We were able to find a replacement for it.”
“On eBay,” interjected LaSoya, to sad laughter from both of them. “We bought two of them and sent one off for repair. And we had issues with IQM2 which does streaming and allows people to view live meetings.”
“The system we had from the 90s was built to stream meetings onto analog cable channel four,” explained Twigg. “But as we started adding more and more digital components, we had to add in more analog to digital conversion systems which led to more harm in the sound. Same with the video degrading because it had to be converted so many times to feed these different devices.
Think of old cassette tapes;” he continued. “The more you would record over or play them, the sound quality would erode and you would get more hiss.”
“There were too many potential pieces that could fail.” Said LaSoya. “Instead of having a single point of failure, we had many points of failure that would take hours to troubleshoot. We also had no documentation on the old system so it was difficult to maintain.”
Thanks to the skill of the city’s IT team comprised of LaSoya, Twigg, and System Administrator Bill Wyman, they were able to not only upgrade the system but make it modular.
“If the mixer, which brings in the audio, or a camera would fail to function, we can just plug in another without starting all over,” said Twigg.
“We’re not stuck with a static solution that has no flexibility,” added LaSoya.
What will viewers notice about the new technology?
“A clearer picture and better sound; not just in person but also via Zoom. We also have new monitors for the live audience to better view proceedings. We’ve added a Promethian (interactive display monitor) that will allow councilors to see presentations,” said LaSoya. “And because it’s on wheels, it’s available for other departments to use if needed.”
“And thanks to David’s thoroughly documenting everything, we are leaving future technicians in a better position than we were,” LaSoya said.
And the cost of all this new equipment? While no hard number is available until the system is finished for its Jan. city council meeting debut, LaSoya estimates they spent “about 50 grand.”
LaSoya gives credit to Joe Sadony of Deschutes county for, “giving us tons of information. We kind of modeled what we’re doing here on what they had done.”
He also credits his department’s involvement with the Oregon Association of Government Information Technology Management, “we get together twice a year and share information. They are a great resource.”
On Twigg’s contribution, LaSoya says, “David, he’s amazing. (Then turning to Twigg) This is the first big project I’ve given you and you knocked it out of the park.”
“We’re a good team.” said LaSoya.
Lincoln City Police will be on the lookout for drivers under the influence this holiday season with extra patrols due to a $2,500 grant designed to crack down on impaired drivers.
From Dec. 15 through Jan. 1, police will have extra patrol officers in Lincoln City when higher numbers of DUII incidents are likely to occur.
The effort is part of a national “High Visibility Enforcement” campaign that seeks to reduce the number of DUII related vehicle crash deaths and injuries across the nation.
LCPD used DUII enforcement grants during Labor Day this year on two operations which netted two arrests and 14 citations for various traffic violations.
The grant funds are made possible from Oregon Impact and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Paedomorphic salamanders have taken up residence inside Taft Elementary thanks to a future Navy Seal’s Eagle Scout project.
Cooper Fitch, a 17-year-old Taft High student, who aspires to join the Navy’s elite special forces, brought a pair of axolotls to live inside the elementary school’s aquarium as part of an Eagle Scout project with Boy Scouts of America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned the rank of Eagle Scout after a lengthy review process.
“They will eat anything that fits in their mouth,” Fitch said. “If I put a pebble that fits in their mouth in the tank, they’ll eat it.” The Scout chose sand for the tank floor because of this.
The aquatic duo at Taft Elementary have yet to be named, but a competition at the school seeks to remedy that by having each class submit names with the best two being selected by Fitch and his Eagle Scout coordinator. Students have referred to the water-based twosome as “cute” and “lovely” and get to feed the “adorable little animals.”
Owning axolotls is legal in Oregon, and no permit is required. Two states, California and Maine, have made it illegal to own them, saying they are an invasive species and could outbreed native wildlife and cause extinctions.
Axolotls are paedomorphic salamanders closely related to the tiger salamander. They were originally found in a series of lakes in Mexico, but the lakes were drained by Spanish settlers after the conquest of the Aztecs, causing the widespread destruction of axolotl habitats.
Domesticated axolotl have surged in popularity recently, with people seeking to add these exotic pets to their collections in record numbers and video game makers incorporating them in games such as Minecraft and blockchain-based game Axie Infinity. Conversely, the wild axolotl is close to extinction and is listed on the endangered species list due to humans. They are listed as critically endangered, with approximately 50-1000 adults in existence.
Taft Elementary’s axolotls are the domesticated variety, which Fitch got from Texas and they should live about 15 years.
Due to a lack of a thyroid stimulating hormone, Ambystoma mexicanum generally do not go through a land crawling metamorphosis, so most will live in the water for their entire adult lives.
Axolotls have some unique abilities and are prized by scientists for being able to regenerate limbs, gills and parts of their brains and eyes. They can even have parts transplanted with great success, making them a prime target for researchers looking for ways to increase human health.
Fitch, a senior, said he wants to go career military and is willing to undergo the intense mental and physical stresses it takes to join the Navy Seals. He likes to write as a hobby and feels good about giving the school and its students something to enjoy both educationally and personally.
The Eagle Scout hopeful put some thought into what he’d say to future students who will be taking care of the axolotl and said:
“Have fun with them, but pick up the poop.”
Don Williams contributed to this report.
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