December 1, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode of Curry Café, hosts Ray Gary and Rick McNamer interview 1st District State Representative Court Boice, who serves Curry County and parts of Coos and Douglas counties in the Oregon state legislature. Their wide-ranging discussion covers critical regional issues, including underperforming schools, wildfire prevention, and the need for improved emergency notifications. Boice highlights challenges facing rural law enforcement, the local economy’s dependence on industries like South Coast Lumber—which was recently acquired by Chinook Forest Partners—and worsening rural healthcare access and pharmacy closures. The conversation also explores the bipartisan efforts of the Oregon Coastal Caucus and ongoing debates over gun control and mail-in voting. The discussion emphasized the need for community-focused solutions and stronger support for rural residents.
We encourage anyone with differing views to participate in future Curry Café discussions. If you would like to join the panel, email contact@kciw.org or call 541-661-4098.
Hosts: Ray Gary, Rick McNamer; Producers: Ray Gary, Rick McNamer
Intro and end music by Kat Liddell. Used with permission.
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual participants. Curry Coast Community Radio takes no position on issues discussed in this program.
If you enjoy this program and want to hear more like it, consider supporting Curry Coast Community Radio. Here’s How.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Well, hello again,
KCIW listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, and I put together a panel
of guests to discuss various topics of interest
that impact our wonderful community.
Listeners can participate by texting questions or comments
(00:24):
to (541)
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
So now here's for Aid. Tell us about
today's show. Well, we have a very, very
special guest here today. We actually have a
a mover and shaker, somebody who can take
care of real problems,
(00:45):
I think.
And I'll just let him introduce himself and
and
maybe start talking about some of those problems
he's gonna take care of.
Take it away. Ray.
Hey.
Really been looking forward to this, guys. I've
had interviews all over the state of Oregon.
And,
you know, you in Curry County, I don't
get to do very many, and this is,
(01:08):
this is my, this is my home base
since I'm born in Gold Beach and
know so many people. It's just, just really
an honor to be here. And, Ray, I
think you and I got to talk,
goodness, four or five years ago, and so
we're overdue and just,
really, really a privilege to be on with
you guys. We had a couple of things
to discuss, and then if you remember, we
(01:28):
went on a
a parade together. I don't remember what it
was about. But And by the way, we're
talking to mister Court Boyce. Oh. I think
you I think we missed that.
State representative, Kooskura and Douglas Counties, and Ray,
I remember sir. Right on. Yeah. Ray, I
remember May I turn it over to him
to introduce himself? Can't do that. Okay.
(01:51):
Ray, I remember your your background in law
enforcement,
and, you know, that just is a real
soft spot for me back in the blue.
And, you know, the sacrifices
our our,
public safety professionals make. And my middle son,
been in Oregon State Police twenty five years
now, twenty six, just got promoted to captain.
So the 400 employees they have, I think
(02:12):
there's only half dozen captains. So I'm really
proud of him,
and and I hope he stays in about
another fifteen years. We we need him and
all of all of his, friends. Anyway, thanks
for letting me brag just a little bit,
gentlemen.
That's something to brag about for sure.
So, Court, I'm gonna start out a little
bit.
You gave us or me well, us, your,
(02:34):
background. It was pretty extensive and impressive bio,
lengthy experience in both government and business.
Do you number one, do you have a
preference over one
preference of one over the other doing government
or business
or kinda look at them, oh,
in the same it's hard to say the
(02:54):
same way, but,
love them the same way.
How's that?
Well, I think I've just been very blessed,
very fortunate. And, Ray and Rick, you know
what they say, you're never really as good
as your resume. Right?
Well, I could, like to fake mine if
I had to do it again.
(03:14):
So, yeah, you know, nobody ever accused me
of being a career politician. I didn't run
for public office until I was almost 60,
and,
just something I felt I I had to
do. And so, yeah, I was in business
all those years, and,
you know, I I,
supported different candidates, both parties over the years,
and,
(03:36):
just learned a a lot, state level all
the way down to, local races. And so,
yeah, I've done a lot of relationships, met
a lot of people. And, you know, I
just miss Vietnam by an
absolute thread,
coming out of high school in 1972.
My draft number was seven, so I was
gone.
And, my family, no discussion. You're gonna serve
(03:58):
your country. So that was the May.
And, five weeks later, 07/01/1972,
Nixon president Nixon abolished the draft.
So you go one more May.
I started my commercial tour boat trips up
Rogue River,
yeah, May '73, and never looked back. I
I still have my coast guard license, and
(04:20):
I have to renew it every five years.
I'm on my ninth five year renewal. Wow.
Still can get the boat up and down
to, Blossom Bar
and take people. And,
yeah, the Jerry's thing. I own part of
that for over thirty years in Paradise Lodge
in the Ruger Wilderness. So, you know, I
just, the too much is given, much is
required, and it's just been,
(04:41):
how different my life would have been, had
I gone to Vietnam. And I would have
been at the tail end, so probably would
not have seen any combat, but I just
figured no one knows more than me. And
I'm,
I've been for ten, twelve years really involved
in veterans' issues, and it's just
likewise, that's an honor. Well, that's great. I
was that's I had that down to talk
about. Both Ray and I are veterans. Ray
(05:03):
is a Vietnam
combat veteran.
I didn't see combat. I was I went
in at 71,
in the Air Force. Ray was in the
army. But, yeah, veterans issues are a big
deal, very important
throughout the country. What do you see then
in this in our area issues for the
veterans that,
(05:23):
that you've maybe
helped over the years or that still need
work?
First of all, thank you for your service.
I did not know the red gone to
Vietnam, and so,
and and you as well, Rick. And No.
I'm sorry. I I wasn't in Vietnam. I
was in Thailand. But no. Well, it's it's
(05:44):
a scary thing. Oh, well. When you're that
age and you can you imagine the those
kids on a ship or plane headed over
there? And No. And, yeah. It's just,
they they knew when they left that, certain
percentage of would not come back. You bet.
Hey. You know what? Every, Friday at Memorial
Day weekend, we show up at the, Brookings
City Hall.
(06:04):
I think I've done it six years in
a row, maybe only five, but we read
the names of every one of the 800
Oregonians
that died in Vietnam, of the fifty eight
thousand that died,
in in our country.
Plus,
there was 30 POWs
missing in action that that,
the word Oregonians.
And, you know, we just there's about 20
(06:27):
of us show up, and we we read
every one of those names so we don't
forget. My grandson, Court, was with me the
last May, and, it was just a great
experience for him. But, anyway, homelessness,
as you both know, we lose nationwide about
twenty,
twenty two.
That's getting a little better, but twenty two
to suicide
every single day. And,
(06:49):
you know brutal. Pretty brutal.
Oh,
and I just,
I've met
in the last twelve years, especially last twelve
years,
some incredible Vietnam veterans.
You know, that, you know, it's always veterans
helping veterans
and
just phenomenal men and women that,
(07:11):
you just go, wow. Yeah. I wanna be
I want my sons to grow and be
like him or her. You know? It's just,
just been unreal.
Well, that's great. Like I said, that's a
that's a group of people with it,
we should all be honoring daily, and I
think a lot of us do.
Well, we need to do more. But, hey,
we're gonna have, Wreaths Across America. I've I've
(07:33):
done that six or eight years in a
row, both Gold Beach and Brookings on the
fourteenth.
If you need information, have your,
listeners,
get a hold of me. Coach court, c
o a c h c o u r
t, coach court at g mail dot com.
Alright. Thank you. And then remember, you y'all
out there, you can text in questions or
comments here. (541)
(07:54):
661-4098.
Now, Court, we got an early text
that I'm gonna go ahead and read,
start off the show. It says question
question for Court Boyce.
My name is Billy Furicchi,
and as a former special education teacher, my
question is this.
When the Department of Education no longer exists
(08:15):
at the federal level,
will the state of Oregon continue funding special
education programs at current levels?
And if not, how will you determine which
programs to cut? Thank you.
Well, there you go. How would I you
know,
Oregon Health Authority is a $30,000,000,000
budget biannually,
so 15 or plus billion every other year.
(08:39):
If I've learned anything, gentlemen,
serving in the legislature,
it in my view, in my opinion,
spending,
is way out of, you know, proper priorities,
and so that's really
something that,
I I think we have to adjust. Kids
are our greatest resource.
You know,
(09:00):
my side in 2023
actually
voted for a higher budget, 11,000,000,000,
for education system, which included higher education.
But most of the people I I serve
on my side with 11 women and 12
men,
and, they're all just incredibly
dedicated to families
(09:20):
and our education system. And, frankly, Oregon is
at the bottom.
Probably the bottom five throughout the state or
throughout the country of 50 states.
And, it didn't used to be that way.
Our our public education system is failing,
and, they
they need more and more money, but the
enrollment is going down. So when it comes
(09:41):
to disabled and kids that need special attention,
I don't know anybody on either side of
the aisle
that wants to cut that. And, if there's
not enough money, then, you know, I'll I'll
I'll take,
I'll take a greater focus on that, and
I I strongly believe that's critically important.
I I didn't hear this interview, so I'm
(10:01):
giving this secondhand.
A friend of mine heard an interview that
you did here with a local radio station,
and you thought that we should
reassess our priorities as far as what we're
teaching kids, going back to the basics like,
to coin a cliche that yeah. The the
the three r's and and not focus on
(10:23):
things like the environment and that type of
thing. Is that
was that accurately
transmitted to me? And did I I think
it I think it's fair, Ray.
You know, you did say the environment, though,
if you make the environment the top top
priority,
then and and our kids are falling behind
in in the in even the basics of
(10:43):
reading.
And Oregon has a black eye, and the
nation knows that. We gotta get we gotta
we gotta solve that. So sometimes it's reading,
writing, and recycle, you know, the three r's.
And so that's all good. You know? But
growing up as a kid on the Southern
Oregon Coast, I mean, I
let's just say eight or 10. It was
far worse to be called a litter bug
(11:05):
than a communist. I mean, you just didn't
do that in my family. You wouldn't throw
anything out the car. But the point is
the point is this,
we are
if if you look at where our kids
are right now
with their skills in math and reading,
and,
you know, we
I supported the governor on this. We've,
(11:27):
we've outlawed cell phones in schools. Now they
can have them close if there's an emergency
so they can contact their parents. And so,
you know, a lot of Republicans
did not wanna, promote that bill because they
thought it was getting into parental rights
and, kids wouldn't be able to contact their
parents. But I I've I've talked to some
(11:47):
different superintendents that absolutely are thrilled with the
with the improvement
when the kids have to cannot have the
the,
you know, their phones as a distraction. So
I hope that answers your question. So, yeah,
yes. It seems to me that we went
to school without cell phones.
And if you did and if you didn't
have a dime, you couldn't call anybody. So
(12:07):
I think we get Yeah. Yeah. I'm
when I've
when when I was working,
with some of the, I guess, they call
them clients I had,
were fourteen, fifteen years old. Now this is
back
quite a few years ago, and we were
shocked to find out they had cell phones
when neither of my partner or I had
cell our own cell phones, but they were
(12:28):
communicating like that. But
so
do
you do
you so you mentioned the environment. You talked
about being a litter bug. Do you think
it's important that
that kids learn about air quality and water
quality and things like that? They seem to
be
pretty ignorant in that regard.
(12:49):
As long as it's not the,
if they if they get an interest in
reading,
if they get an interest in in their
surroundings,
if they,
Tom and
Rick,
you know, the respect of nature, the respect,
you know, the Native American approach. You remember
when we were kids, the,
the Native American chiefs had a tear in
(13:10):
his eye. It was a side profile. Remember
that? Yeah. I thought it was a very
powerful commercial. Well, the other the other thing
about it is he was not Native American.
He was Italian.
Well But that but he played he Thanks
for throwing the water on him. He made
a lot he made a lot of money
playing. We got the message, though. We got
the message. Yeah. We got the message. We
don't care what his what his race was,
(13:31):
but that's funny. That's good.
But, yeah, to answer your question there,
you know, we're the land of the Wild
Rivers Coast. You know, this is the most
okay. Let's just go back a little bit.
The Roca Veriskiyou National Forest is 1,200,000
acres, takes in parts of four counties.
It, it is the most rugged,
the most wild,
(13:51):
the most beautiful
national forest in North America. You know, I
tell the story sometimes. Jedediah Smith come through
here.
You know, I'm in Lothburg now. Forgive me.
But, anyway, went through that part of the
of the continent,
twenty years after the Lewis and Clark expedition.
What in the world did he find?
He he found the most pristine rivers.
(14:12):
He found
so full of fish
that he just you know, he had a
bible in one hand,
a long rifle in the other, but he
had to write what he saw. Of course,
he found the biggest trees on on the
planet between the Douglas fir and the, of
course, the the redwoods.
So that's why we named a park after
him. So, you know, that's why I'm so
down on fires that, you know, natural fires,
(14:34):
as you both know, are good.
That's part of nature. They burn 1,200 degrees.
But these fires that are so heavy with
volatile fuels, what we call the kindling, the
ladder fuels,
and then we get the winds. You know,
close we come to losing Brookings in 2000,
'17. I mean, I was right there every
(14:55):
night saying put the fire out. And then
when it made that run,
you know, August 22 started on the July
7, made that run towards Brookings. It went
18 miles in,
39.
And I've a lot of people believe it
was divine intervention that, when it got within
about four and a half miles of Brookings,
we we had a wind change, blew it
(15:16):
back north. So,
anyway, it destroys our watersheds,
and so I've devoted my life. You know?
It's it's it's not much of a sacrifice.
We can change this. We have to. So
when the forest service used to be pretty
you know, I'll just say it. It used
to be enemies because they let that fire
simmer
and didn't put it out.
(15:37):
Ray and Rick, they have done a one
eighty. My relationship with them right now is
exceptional. Also, with the Oregon in fact, I'm
a I gotta
I gotta sneak off early to Coos Bay,
I mentioned, in the morning.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and the Coos
Forest Protective Association for a fire recap,
between the Oregon Department of Forestry and the
Forest Service, even the BLM.
(15:59):
They've done an about face since the Chekhobah
fire, and I just couldn't be happier with,
you know, with the response and the suppression,
a lot of fire,
prevention,
awareness. And so we're not gonna lose any
more of our suburbs. I mean, I'm gonna
just absolutely have responsibility to give it all
(16:19):
I got. I hope that makes sense. Are
you aware of of what kind of environmental
training kids get in school these days? And
I'm not just talking about fires. I'm talking
about things like air quality and
heat burning oil as opposed to other fuels.
Boy, what I've learned.
(16:40):
You know, how do we measure air quality?
The Jacob Barr fire, we had a system
that the forest service,
I think combined with the city of Brookings
had that, you know, purple was don't even
breathe. Just just hold your breath for as
long as you know, till the fire's out.
You know, I'm jesting, of course, but,
you know, air quality, isn't that why we
(17:02):
live here?
You know? Are the kids being taught that?
And that you know, that's why I I've
been studying offshore wind for four years.
And,
at the first year or something, okay. I
need to take a serious look at this
because
the promises from the federal government money's coming
back to the ports, the tribes,
(17:22):
the counties,
the fishermen.
You know? Some didn't look right, but I
wanna I wanna assess it properly. Well, it
didn't take but two, three years of that
that, you know, we realize,
it doesn't work anywhere in the world.
A little bit on the East Coast Of
Europe, but they have much shallower water. They
do not have the storms we have here.
And so, you know, what happens to the
(17:43):
wells, our fish, our birds, and so that's
why,
you know, people,
you know, Curry County residents,
well, actually, Coos Bay all the way down
is right in the middle of my district.
And the state of Oregon is still trying
to promote it a little bit, and it's
just it's just not good business. It just
there's nothing about it. We just don't even
have the technology, plus the deep waters are,
(18:05):
really,
really cost prohibitive and impractical.
Hey. We
gonna bounce around a little bit here because
we we're getting texts, and texts are wonderful.
And I just Okay.
Says really good show so far. Somebody's enjoying
the show. Thank you. And then the question
is, how close did the fire this summer
get to Paradise Lodge? I'm not sure what
(18:27):
Paradise Lodge is.
Well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna twist both
of you to get on my boat in
June.
Oh. I still wanna
yeah. It's,
Paradise and Half Moon competitive
lodges
back to the Oregon Department of Forestry and
Forest Service.
The Forest Service, when they thought I mean,
(18:48):
this is,
you know,
abandoned in my district, they have abandoned. You
know? Gold Beach has Rogue River. Brookings has
so many.
Brookings has a climate and, you know, the
port and all and so many other wonderful
assets. But,
the,
when the government found out that we could
(19:08):
lose
my old lodge of Paradise that I have
for thirty years
and,
Half Moon Lodge,
they were there within two and a half
hours when the fire was first discovered.
And,
frankly,
everything around both those lodges is pretty cooked.
Mhmm.
But it was it was almost, gentlemen, like
(19:29):
a natural fire where it just burned. The
fuel has been building up for so long.
I don't think we've had a fire in
my Rogue River Wilderness
probably for a hundred and fifty years.
And so it's gonna be interesting to watch.
It's still gonna be gorgeous up there, but
there's a lot of blackened areas. It'd just
be a different kind of gorgeous. So, yeah,
within a thousand feet of both lodges, coincidentally.
(19:53):
Well,
here and, of course, my California,
these wildfires,
as you I'm sure you remember that horrible
we've had so many horrible fires, but the
Paradise Fire
down there with
that was almost
out of a science fiction movie watching some
of this. And at the time, I lived
down in Yuba City, so it was, I
mean, it wasn't threatened, but it was close
(20:15):
enough to see, you know, the smoke and
it just just terrible. And, yeah, forest management,
wildfire mitigation, that's gotta be huge. Another as
long as we're talking about
paradise,
one of my favorite subjects is
information
for for the people to be notified that
there is a fire. Yeah. You have a
(20:35):
fire, what's going on. We had,
if you if you, watch the some of
the YouTube
Videos? Videos about,
about paradise. One of them shows this woman
driving down the road,
and the flames are just Pretty huge. Huge
on either side. She's got her two kids
(20:55):
in the car, and she's making a video
talking about,
the kids are here. We love you, dad,
and we're not so hope we're gonna see
you again.
It was just total confusion because nobody knew
where the fire was or where they had
to go.
They,
there was one guy they interviewed. He said
he he walked out in the morning to
get his newspaper at the mailbox,
(21:17):
the newspaper box, and it was a glow
in the sky. And he said, boy, that's
kind of a new I've never seen a
sunrise like that before.
And it wasn't a sunrise. The other side
of his town was on fire, and he
wasn't even aware of it.
Well and it also moved, I think, incredibly
fast. Yes. Oh. Incredibly fast.
So
(21:37):
yeah. Eighty three eighty three people were killed
in the Paradise Yeah. It was pretty warm.
If I recall. Yeah. Pretty Un unimaginable unimaginable.
We had a
had a fire chief here or a volunteer
fireman from Paradise who, by the way, had
had already moved here,
and, he talked about how most of those
lives would not have been lost if they
(21:58):
knew what was going on.
Well and
here we get emergency
preparedness
court. I'm sure that's probably on the top
of your list when tsunami,
earthquakes, or wildfires.
Do you see any improvements,
coming in the near future for something like
that? That,
that's an excellent question. I serve on the
(22:19):
veterans,
general government and emergency preparedness
house committee.
I sat with four Democrats and, two other
Republicans. There are seven of us. Chair Tran,
is,
the chair. I think she does an excellent
job. And,
just one example, legislative days, we had the
Oregon emergency management director and co director in
(22:39):
there. We give them some hard questions, but
they just did a superb job.
You know, it used to be back in,
02/1920,
it was, Andrew Phelps. He did a great
job, but we have a new director,
Erin McMahon.
She's an old army. I shouldn't say old,
but,
you know, an army veteran, and she has
(23:00):
just put together tremendous crew. And, of course,
it's not just
fire. It's, tsunami warnings. It's floods.
And so I I just really feel privileged
to be on that committee. And then my
other committee is ag
agriculture, water,
land use, and natural resources. And that's that's,
that's probably the most sought after committee,
(23:21):
on the house side,
other than ways and means, which appropriates fund.
But I'm I'm gonna get on that committee
someday. And then my third committee is I'm
sitting with some pretty
pretty good heavy hitters, and that's a joint
audit committee. So that's made up of, both
house members and,
you know, president of the senate is on
there and Lee
senator Lieber.
(23:43):
There's just some really, really productive people on
there. Anyway, that little report,
but back to emergency humanity. Yeah. You know,
Oregon, because it's it's, diversity in geography,
certainly has a lot of different things that
we have to be aware of. And rep
Comberg,
democrat from Lincoln County, he's been in there
(24:03):
about twelve years now, and he is just
tough as they come and extremely knowledgeable. I
work very good with him and his staff.
Couple of months ago here, we we have
a our emergency
notification system is we get an alert on
our cell phone. I can imagine you're probably
familiar with that.
Is it? And,
a couple of months ago, we we had
(24:24):
an alert that,
you know, I have all the usual beep
beep beeps, and then,
there's a tsunami warning
in effect.
And that was about it. And everybody Ray,
remind the remind the listeners the name of
that system. It's Everbright, isn't it? I don't
know what it is. What what do you
(24:45):
say is this? Everbright?
I think so. Everbridge. Everbridge. I was corrected.
So that was better than nothing, but I
have to have a service person coming to
my house at the same time. And when
she got up there, she said, what's going
on? People are running all over.
And I could see the ocean from from
my, from my deck, so I just went
out on the deck waiting to see the
(25:06):
tsunami come in. But tons of people along
the road, I understand, that probably would've all
been killed had there been a significant
but my point being, I get a little
out of line there.
Not at all. We it all it said
was there's a tsunami warning. It didn't say
do this, go there, you know, run away,
or it it gave no other information whatsoever.
(25:30):
So you see we have some holes we
have to plug and some improvements that we
have. Hole. And and I know I just
learned this morning when I come in that
there was another one of those alerts
last night, but it was past my bedtime,
so I didn't hear it. But
Oh, that's on you then.
Well, no. That Well, you know, and a
big part of that and we talked about
it here at at Curry Cafe in
(25:52):
for a couple shows about,
our own emergency preparedness, how
critical it is,
and I think I still fall behind a
little bit at times of have
be prepared to evacuate immediately.
I'm I'm showing Rick a list I made
yesterday, well, for some reason or other than
I was thinking about, about the emergency food
(26:13):
I should have on hand. Here's
Ray's a good boy then. It looks that
he's taken care of. With the exception of
coffee, all these things look awful. I hope
I never have
to eat them, but I'm gonna start No.
Ordering them up, I guess. It's, the go
bags are important.
We almost
I've only been here seven years. I was
here just a year after that horrible fire,
(26:34):
by the way.
But
and my friend was telling me it's it's
very important to get this go bag together,
and
we had one incident now. I can't remember
how many years ago where we were, being
alerted to go, but we didn't have to
go. And, yeah, I had my suitcase and
things ready ready to go. Well, you talked
about that big fire earlier. I know a
(26:56):
lot of people who had to leave their
homes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I don't
I don't know what where your
what kind of authority you have where, but
if if I were you, I'd write a
big note to yourself to let's get some
emergency notification
systems going.
Fantastic. You know? I missed Was that pause
because you were writing?
(27:19):
Yeah. I mean, it it is a serious
thing. I I as I understand, most of
the the sirens that we used to have
here are gone because they they weren't working
or anything. And the
the emergency person who
took those down was supposed to be replaced,
and then he quit or something. So
it's it's Right now, we have a new
(27:39):
we have a new emergency director in Curry
County. And,
Jeff, he works very closely with Josephine Koos,
etcetera.
And, the only thing I've learned about the
sirens, Ray,
are that they,
very expensive to replace. But when you have
people that And and they're meaningless.
There's a there's a if you happen to
(28:01):
know what those sirens mean, you're okay.
But if you don't, what the heck is
that?
Well, it's just like, you know, our guests
that come to the to the the Curry
Coast, my goodness,
they would at least know to
if they heard a siren to research and
figure out, hey. Let's go do something. Run
down to the beach with everybody else that's
(28:22):
going down to watch the tsunami come in.
Yeah.
Well, we're about halfway through, and I just
wanna let everybody know where what y'all are
listening to, and that's k c I w
l p one hundred point seven FM here
in beautiful Brookings.
And we do have I have some more
questions. We're just kinda bouncing around, but that's
okay. It's what we like to do.
(28:44):
Can you give us a little info, Court,
about the Oregon Coastal Caucus coming together to,
I guess, in 2026,
to talk about solving
oh, wait a minute. I forgot to get
out the text line as I talked about.
I think that's (541)
661-4098.
Sorry about that. Anyway, yeah, Court, about the
(29:05):
Oregon Coastal Caucus in 2026
that, I guess you're gonna be part of.
Well, I'm gonna be the new chair. I
am the new chair, and I'm just thrilled.
I work with, three senators
and three other state reps,
to go all the way down from Astoria
to Brookings Harbor. And so,
(29:26):
there's 22 ports,
seven counties,
and, 28 incorporated cities. And so,
there are a tremendous
variety of issues,
that we, you know, we need to work
really closely on. It's a bipartisan
program.
And,
you know, they come to us for advice
when it comes to bills that would impact
(29:47):
our fishing industry, our tourism industry, energy,
you know, certainly our higher education in, University
of Oregon and Oregon State.
You know, I'm I'm learning a lot about
the offshore,
you know,
fish reserves and,
you know, it's it's
(30:08):
with with four ports in my district between
Brookings,
Gold Beach, Port Orford,
Bandon, all incredibly unique. Plus,
we have the, port container
system that,
the states put up a 100,000,000. The federal
government's put up about three times that,
and,
we're tremendously excited about that. Coos Bay is
(30:30):
not in my district. I go up to
the East Side through Allegheny in that area.
But the jobs and,
home building,
just the economic vitality,
it's all being done properly, and so we
got our fingers crossed that we'll employ a
lot of people. So,
yeah, I seem to excuse me again. I
seem to be the person that should chair
(30:52):
that.
It won't just be the twenty sixth season.
It'll be well,
it should be
the twenty seventh season as well. We'll see
how things go, but,
just just a tremendous privilege to have my
colleagues
vote me and to to take that lead.
Well and you said a couple times, this
is
heartening
(31:12):
to hear that, Republicans and Democrats, you work
with, I don't know how many a few
Democrats that you guys are making some progress
working together. That's kind of,
been unheard of in the last few years,
it seems like. But, it sounds like it's
working
in Oregon right now? You know, a lot
of rural rural representatives and senators, they think
(31:34):
I'm just gonna go to Salem and vote
no on everything. Yeah. And sometimes that,
you know, that is,
seems to have some rationale,
but you can't get anything done.
And plus, I've made friends.
My parents were public servants. My mom, a
nurse for sixty years,
sixty five years. My dad was a famous
sheriff back in the,
sixties and seventies, just dedicated.
(31:57):
You know, I could tell you stories for
two days on, what their philosophy was. Anyway,
they love people.
And, I'll just tell you one quick story.
A a good friend of mine, I won't
mention his name because I I just thought
of this earlier today,
but he came over.
And
both of you are familiar with Vietnam. He
(32:17):
came over with his family and was born
on a boat
as they were migrating to America as they
left,
communist,
Vietnam.
And, so he has four brother excuse me,
four siblings.
And the story,
he's a democrat,
but we've just become good friends. I just
have tremendous admiration for him.
(32:39):
And,
I mean, I just I mean, compare where
I was born, how I was born, compared
to what he,
endured or his family endured.
And it's anyway, it's just a remarkable story.
And I've had a lot of experiences like
that, but I would trade for the world.
And, maybe we have more time. Sometime, I'll
tell you some of those, experiences.
(33:00):
I would like to change the subject for
just a minute to talk about something that's
one of my pet peeves, and that is,
we have sheriffs here who,
think that they should not have to or
actually are threatened. And I understand there
there are people with
with
(33:20):
disciplinary action if they enforce some of the
federal gun laws. I talked to our sheriff
that's here
a few months ago at a at a
at a forum,
and he was,
I think this particular law had to do
with with,
limiting the capacity of a handgun.
And he said, well, there's no reason to
(33:40):
do that because all you have to do
is blah blah blah blah blah. All the
reasons you didn't have to do it. And
I'm thinking to myself, no. It's the law.
The law says you have to do that,
and they are a higher power than you
are. And you are so concerned about the
guy carrying a gun not having enough bullets.
How about me who has no bullets, who's
just out there?
(34:03):
What what do you my question is,
what do you think the sheriff's just taking
the law into their own heads? He didn't
say we're not gonna enforce it. What he
says is we're not gonna put a lot
of energy into that.
And that there are sheriffs, as I'm sure
you know, around the the, the country, the
constitutional
sheriffs that just think that
they are the law and they are everything.
(34:24):
I I don't think we have any of
those.
Well, I I, like our current sheriff,
I've been disappointed.
The reason
I I don't understand why he won't negotiate,
and, boy, I'll tell you, the lawsuits and
all of that,
just it gives to Curry County a tremendous
black eye around the state, and it's, it's
(34:46):
just beyond baffling.
But that's why we have three commissioners instead
of one.
You know? It's the executive at the at
the county level. It's it's the executive,
the legislative, and the judicial body. That's why
you have an odd number. And so he
has responsibility to come in for the sheriff
and work these things out. I'm not saying
his side or his
(35:08):
views aren't valid.
You know, the constitutional sheriff, I understand,
but still, there are guidelines
in state and federal laws that say,
this is what we have to do with
the budget. Right now, the sheriff only has,
I think, counting himself four deputies.
And, boy, that's put that's spreading. And that's
not uncommon,
(35:28):
Ray, you know,
throughout the state,
that the real law enforcement is really suffering,
and that's a big concern of mine. So
what happens when people,
when the when the
law doesn't show up for an hour or
two, you know, then they they figure they
have to defend themselves. And so that's why
the measure one thirteen four years ago
(35:49):
only won by half of 1% that basically
said, you were gonna take your rights away
on guns. And so a lot of confusion
there.
I'm very strong on my second amendment.
I encourage people to get trained, get trained,
get trained, men and women.
I'll give you a suggestion that I know
won't fly. I we know we have a
(36:09):
huge problem in this country with guns.
The worst gun that we'll have to say,
yeah. There's too damn many guns.
When, you know, our president blames it on
them
being foreigners or being brown people or whatever.
But the the reality of it is
people wouldn't get shot if there weren't so
damn many guns.
One of the things we could do that
(36:30):
would be very, very effective, it would be
difficult to initially do,
not difficult, just,
you know, I guess difficult,
is require everybody who owns a gun to
have a gun license.
And that gun license would require
some serious work. It wouldn't be to go
down to the
police station to fill out a form. You
would have to go to classes telling you
(36:52):
when you could and when you couldn't use
your gun,
many things like that. You know, as as
police officers, we went every year, we had
a had a refresher training in when we
could do that.
And you see a awful lot like
recently, there was somebody who shot two kids
that rang the doorbell and were running away.
And he felt that was a need to
(37:13):
shoot them.
People knocking on the wrong door and getting
shot. Things like that. We we have to
have we have to put a handle on
who owns the guns and what their restrictions
are. Oh, and, oh, so if you get
caught without
a license and you have a gun,
it's a very, very serious felony.
I don't think, like I said, that would
(37:34):
be difficult to get going. I think,
it would be an administrative nightmare, but once
it was in place, I think it would
work.
You know, the licensing part of it,
I don't know how you could have mandatory
training, although I would have to take a
really serious look at that. Would that automatically
register one with their guns? And so you
look back in history,
(37:55):
you know, the, the pro gun advocates would
say, every time guns have been registered, people
end up losing their guns. And,
you know, it's a it's a it becomes
an authoritarian
government.
You look at the two national guards
guardsmen that were killed, day for, you know,
Thanksgiving Day,
And, that with that I'm not the only
(38:15):
one that was killed. The other's still alive.
Oh, they're both Oh, they're both, no. I
believe. Is that right, Court? Both have died.
No. But good point. I I don't want
to imply. We're hoping and praying that the
24 year old man, he's clinging to lies.
Oh, I'm sorry then. That was my I
thought he passed. No. That's I I I
misspoke there, but, you know that one is
dead. And,
you know, most people believe that whether you
(38:37):
had, gun licensing or gun restrictions,
that man that,
drove all the way from Washington would have
had a gun regardless. And It's not gonna
it's not gonna stop every shooting, but it's
certainly gonna reduce them a whole lot if
you make guns
more difficult to get.
Well, there's 300,000,000
(38:57):
in the country right now. Right. And,
800,000,000
guns or
300,000,000?
It just, you know but it it just
makes common sense that we have so many
shootings,
ridiculous shootings, that we have to do something
about it. And when I hear members of
congress saying we've done everything we can, maybe
(39:18):
it's time we changed the second amendment if
that's if that's the problem, but I don't
think it is. It's the interpretation of it.
Fair enough. Fair enough.
Well,
to here we go again to I mean,
great topic. And if somebody has
a question or comment about it, please text
in (541)
(39:38):
661-4098.
I did have another question
from a constituent
court that I wanted to
they were talking about the here in Brookings,
the new owners of South Coast Lumber.
Do you are you aware
of what's going on there? The big, Yes.
Okay.
(40:00):
You know, that's that's, been a family tradition
for seventy years. I actually worked for Bill
Fowler senior,
in 2000
excuse me. 1971.
I'm just no. '72. I'm sorry. Coming out
of high school, and got we're at the,
North Plant,
towards Carpenterville Road, and it got down to
eight degrees, and we're working outside. I was
(40:21):
I was only
alright. Yes. I was 18. Excuse me. Anyway,
just turned 18.
And so what a great tradition. A lot
of people are concerned the new company, the
Chinook, Timber,
will they keep the mill going? And, boy,
I'm hoping to pray it because,
you know, not to not to be pessimistic
whatsoever.
(40:42):
I I just have great appreciation,
admiration for the South Coast
family and management
and
my goodness what they've done for our community.
But, yeah, it would, a lot of people
would leave Brookings.
That would eliminate Fred Meyer,
very likely anyway. And
so,
(41:02):
I'll be working,
as much as I possibly can with the
new company.
You know, because of their good management, South
Coast has
developed a lot of timber. They lost a
lot in the Checo Bar Fire, and they
had to harvest it, ten years earlier than
they otherwise would have. But I think they're
gonna they're very loyal to Brookings. They always
(41:23):
have been,
all four generations.
And,
I think we're gonna be okay, but I'm
I'm just gonna be
watching real close and doing anything I can
to impact that for the good of, my
county.
Wow. I mean, that's pretty powerful
statement.
You say
there's a chance
(41:43):
that if it doesn't go a good way
with this with the new company that Fred
Meyer might leave
Brookings? You think that's really a possibility?
Well, I think that Brookings has always been
very economically
solid, almost always. And even when they had
years that were bad,
the Fowler family figured out ways to keep
(42:05):
that mill going even when they were losing
money. Now that wasn't, you know, that wasn't
the,
you know, the standard year, but they
I I just wanna
give them those those high marks
for all those years that they that they
got that done. I'm I'm just saying that
if you lose 500 employees between the two
(42:25):
mill locations
and they have to go somewhere else,
that has a residual effect that,
you know, I don't think that's gonna happen
as far as Fred Meyer, but, you know,
what would the impact be long term? And
so we just we just wanna You're you're
talking behind this new company. You're you're talking
as though they would get rid of the
500 employees?
(42:46):
I mean, they bought a business. Don't they
plan on operating it?
All I'm saying is the worst case scenario.
Yeah. You know, so that's why people are
a little bit nervous, Ray.
I'm not.
I just,
you know, I I I believe that they're
gonna be really tuned in to,
supporting the community and keeping those mills going.
(43:08):
And,
you know,
my job is to make sure they get
green timber. Anything I can do at the
at the state and federal level,
to increase timber harvest and help them get
that timber. And so,
you know, we know that a lot of
timber goes to waste, has for the last
thirty or forty years, and I think that
the ship is turning.
And, they need timber to operate, and
(43:31):
they they send a lot of trees over
to their Merlin site, north of Grants Pass.
And so, you know, I'm just I'm just
expressing what some of the current concerns would
be that,
you know, what could happen if,
you know, worst case scenario. I don't I
don't predict that whatsoever.
Well, but I I can see if you
I I I don't know if this is
(43:52):
a good analogy, but I think of the
families that worked for the Detroit auto industries
forever and ever, their grandparents, their parents,
you know, and I'm assuming that South Coast
Lumber is kind of on a smaller scale.
Families kind of just,
planned on, you know, working there because their
parents did. And it sounds like South Coast,
again, is a new arrival.
(44:13):
They've been pretty important to this, Brookings community.
And the new broom is gonna
sweep clean, so there'll be some changes. Well,
some changes. Maybe even maybe
Yeah. Amount to an increase in business and
an increase in employees.
Can I ask you one
more question? I I'm in researching this morning
(44:34):
for this. I see that you spoke against,
house bill 2,002
on, gender affirming
care, and I couldn't find any more information
about it. What what what's the story on
that?
Let's see. That was 2023,
and,
yeah, our side, really dug in on that
(44:54):
rate because,
people are coming from outside of Oregon, and
the Oregon taxpayers were paying for,
life
impacting
long term
surgeries.
And,
we're seeing that,
that gives sometimes a very high suicide rate.
(45:16):
And,
you know, it just,
it just goes against the grain of what
most story going to believe,
and especially in my district, Coos Green Douglas,
and they don't have that much more. What
what exactly is the issue? Is this for
becoming transgender?
Is that
(45:37):
It was it it was primarily for surgeries.
High
highly paid medical physicians
that would do those surgeries to kids and
sometimes not even tell their parents there were
aspects of that bill that were just
heartbroken. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You're
telling me that they're doing
(45:57):
trans operations without notifying the parents?
That's exactly right.
Yes. And how old are these how old
are these kids?
Down as young as
10 or 11.
When I went to school, the school nurse
couldn't give me an aspirin, let alone
castrate me.
Is that okay? Do are you sure that
(46:18):
kids are having sex change operations without their
parents knowing about it?
That was the part of the bill that
we had to
stand the hardest against that portion,
because parents were pushed aside
and,
accused of, interfering with the the with nature.
(46:40):
And
so it was it was a it was
a real tough,
rock them, sock them issue. And,
it's,
and I and I just believe personally very
strongly that these kids need therapy. They need
love. They need
guidance, they need time, then they should not
have any kind of surgeries until after 18,
(47:00):
and then they can pay for it themselves.
Well, if it's a medical condition, why wouldn't
why wouldn't a regular
medical insurance cover it? It's not this this
is not
because, Billy would rather wear dresses. It's a
it's a medical condition.
It should be handled
(47:20):
with with medical insurance.
Many, many studies, many, many psychologists say it
is not a medical condition because somebody gets
a little confused.
You know, I I
they they have taken the
the gay rights thing, and they have transitioned
that into,
(47:41):
what I believe is is really a tough
area. And so,
you know, those two should be separated.
And I I think even a lot of
the gay community,
voiced
concern about those surgeries and the long term
negative impact. Can can you cite some can
you cite something that would show me that
(48:01):
that
school kids were given the surgery without permission?
I will definitely research that. But Okay. Just
just confirming without I just parent to be
absolutely impossible to believe.
Most people do that. Decision? The school nurse
or
and and it is a medical condition, by
the way.
(48:23):
Well, we just have to disagree on that,
but who made the decisions?
Are the people that benefited the most? The
doctors and, I mean, it is a very,
very expensive
series of surgeries.
I know. Are you saying this is a
for profit thing? I I know some trans
people, so I know a little bit about
it.
And But they had surgeries, Ray? Yeah.
(48:45):
And and they're doing okay?
Yeah.
Taxpayers pay for it.
I have no idea who paid for it.
That's that there wasn't an issue with me.
But, Yeah. But if they're over 18, that's
their right. Yeah. Absolutely, they're right. We have
a couple of texts here. I'm gonna we're
it's not quite a big pivot, but I
do have to get this is about health
care.
This is about health care. So let me
(49:07):
read this.
Brookings residents
are down to only one pharmacy.
Okay. Very difficult for seniors. Is there anything
that can be done? And, boy, that is
a problem.
Mhmm.
What's, We've lost, in the last two and
a half years, Rick, we have lost,
(49:27):
almost 40
rural pharmacies throughout the state. Gold Beach is
down to just a little
office
for pharmacies.
You know, we have Brookings down to one
that that serves basically
12 to 14,000
people. That's scary.
It it puts a it puts a proper,
(49:49):
bright light, though, on rural health care in
Oregon.
You both are probably aware of the Bay
Area Hospital. Coos Pei employs almost a thousand
people.
It's 40,000,000 under. They have, been
financed
by the Bank of Montreal, and so,
that's the only OB,
the only cancer treatment center within,
(50:11):
I think it's a 120 miles even including
Roseburg.
And so,
we're doing everything we can to keep that,
open. So back to Oregon
State priority spending,
we need help from the federal government to
excuse me, from the state well, the federal
government too when it comes to Medicare and
Medicaid payments, but
to keep our rural hospitals open. In my
(50:32):
district, I have Curry General.
I have,
the the Brookings emergency room. We finally got
done in 2020
or 2019,
whichever it was. First time
in history that Oregon that Brookings Southern Curry
actually had emergency facility. I have the Southern
Coos abandoned.
It employs about 200 people, the Cockeio Valley
(50:55):
Hospital.
And,
they can't they can't handle that extra pressure
if the Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay
closes. So I think we're gonna prevail on
that. But the point is,
what is happening in rural Oregon compared to
the bigger cities?
There's so much we can and must do.
I don't serve on the medical committees, but
(51:15):
I have,
reps and senators on both sides,
that do serve,
and they keep me well informed. And I
think that's an excellent question. Glad you asked,
and,
we're gonna swing that back. Okay. We we're
getting down close to the wire right here.
We only have less than eight minutes left,
and I think we the maybe the elephant
(51:35):
in the room, if,
is,
we understand that you are in favor of,
having a vote to end,
mail in voting.
You want that to be I'm I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Oh,
well, I I was wondering how you were
gonna do that vote, but that's another thing.
(51:57):
What do you what do you have against
mail in voting?
In my district,
and it's an excellent question,
I believe the majority
wanna do away with mail in voting because
they wanna make it easier to vote and
harder to cheat. And, you know, my first
cousin was secretary of state, Bev Clarno, and
she was very strong in favor of,
(52:17):
mail in voting.
The issue is, what if we had the
people in the interest of democracy? What if
we had the people of Oregon say, yeah.
We want I'm not promoting one way or
the other.
But if we let them decide,
it's just like the $3.09 $9.01 gas repeal
that,
is gonna raise taxes for families that can't
afford it, that hurt rural Oregonians the most.
(52:39):
You know, democracy
prevails when the people get to vote. So
I think the people I I don't think
people would vote to do away with
mail in voting, but I'd like to see
it go before. That's that's, that's the part
you're quoting the audience. Yeah. I I I
think if you were to bring that up,
that that, gallows that they didn't get to
use on Mike Pence would be moved here,
(53:00):
and they'd be searching you up. Mail and
voting is people love it. Absolutely love it.
And it's safe and secure. I can vote
anytime of the day or night, and I
have days to make decision and drive down
at a little mailbox and drop it in.
There are people in places like Florida that
stand in line for three or four hours
and lots of places like that.
(53:22):
And we have it so convenient.
Tremendous. And we're you know, it's nineteen twenty
five. There's 300 and
something
million people in this
country. Twenty twenty five. Let me correct you
there. Well, it doesn't say what? That's okay.
You said 1925,
but that's okay. Oh, well,
okay. I'm I'm a little bit beyond. That's
alright.
(53:43):
We yeah. We have to have a better
way of voting than stand in line and
and and flip,
levers. Maybe we could have you
stick your thumb in I don't
Go ahead. I don't disagree with you on
that.
What do you think about a national holiday,
Ray, where, you know, you just give people
a day off? That encourages everybody to vote.
(54:03):
You know, the Department of Motor Vehicles and
the Oregon Health Authority both automatically
register new citizens coming in. Right. And so
that helps a lot of people the wrong
way.
You know, so It rubs people in the
wrong way.
It rubs people in the wrong way. What
did you say? They want well, they want,
you know, the other side wants people to
(54:25):
take the responsibility
and register to vote on their own, not
just make it automatic.
And so,
you know, I'm I'm just saying I'm just
reporting to you. That's what a lot of
people think. I'm not saying I have a
a It's a
opinion either way. What's the what's the thinking
there? If I if I fill out my
driver's license form, I'm automatically registered. Is there
(54:47):
there's a problem with that? Well, there's a
if if you're not interested in voting, why
should we make it easy for you to
vote? We want you to be a responsible,
energetic voter, I I would think. Well, this
this doesn't require you to be energetic or
responsible. It just requires you to to give
some thought to it and
(55:07):
not registering automatically
is is is the most sensible thing.
What what the things you're proposing would definitely
cut cut down on the amount of people
that are voting,
which seems to be the Republican,
desire to limit the vote. At some reason,
they seem to think that
(55:28):
unless people vote, Republicans do better. I I
don't know
how they come up with their thinking, but
that's pretty pretty,
settled
in. Well, I'm we got some text. I'm
gonna have to break in. We're gonna have
to take this to the time court you're
gonna be on our show, and I hope
it's gonna be here pretty soon. I hope
you and Shannon will be back. Oh, well,
(55:48):
I you're definitely invited back. Okay. I have
a text here.
When I was waiting in the long line
for my prescriptions, I was told that Fred
Meyer corporate lobbied against getting another pharmacy.
Do you have any information about that? Wow.
Not a bit. Wow. Okay. They lobbied against
what? They Fred Meyer lobbied against getting another
pharmacy.
(56:09):
So,
that's what the text says and but, of
course, you
you don't know what to say. Antitrust. Okay.
There you go. That's And I see the
line That's the the word you had in
the line?
Oh, no. That person that yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, if somebody said it doesn't mean We
all know that rural
rural, hard to say that, rural health care
(56:31):
is a problem no matter Great place to
live if you're not sick. I was Well,
when when I first moved up here, there
was so now I'm lucky to be qualified
for tribal health in California. That's a little
different down there. I don't have to experience
a lot of the troubles that most people
have. But I've been in Fred Meyer at
times when I see the line forming,
(56:53):
for the prescriptions. I've counted 15 to 20
people and the cards are lined up. That
was a good day. Well, I tell you,
it it can be a it can be
a hassle for anybody,
much less senior citizens. The line goes all
the way to the other door. Right? Right.
Well said. Well said, Rick.
Well, sir. Alright, Court. We're we are running
down. Really, really appreciate you coming on
(57:16):
and,
getting us all informed about
the the Southern I say Southern Oregon. Again,
my little sliver of Northern California, but, like
I said, I call myself almost an Oregonian.
I spend so much time I must go
to the Ag Station 3 or four times
a day sometimes coming up here,
spending all my money in Brookings, but that's
(57:36):
where it should be spent. Yeah.
Give it to us. Yeah. Those Californians
don't need it.
What a what a privilege to be on
and, great questions, and,
thanks for the volunteering on this very important
process, and
best of luck to KCIW.
Well, thank you because we are an all
(57:57):
volunteer station, and,
we could use any support out there that
y'all wanna chime in on, KCIW,
one hundred point seven FM.
And I'm in. I am really looking forward
to you coming back because I'd like to
put a little bit more time into this
mail in ballot thing. And I also would
like to hear,
(58:18):
where you got the information that school kids
are being medically treated without their parents mowing.
Well, again, that'll have to be on another
next one. Yeah. Because we only have thirty
eight seconds. Alright. Court again, man. Solve that.
We really appreciate you coming on. We here
at the radio station appreciate it. A lot
of good info,
and I hope to have you back
real soon.
(58:38):
Keep up the good work, guys. Thanks again.
Alright, Paul. See you. Thank you.
Alright, y'all. You've been listening to KCI WLP
one hundred point seven FM in beautiful Brookings.
Well, hello again,
KCIW listeners, and welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, and I put together a panel
of guests to discuss various topics of interest
that impact our wonderful community.
Listeners can participate by texting questions or comments
(00:24):
to (541)
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
So now here's for Aid. Tell us about
today's show. Well, we have a very, very
special guest here today. We actually have a
a mover and shaker, somebody who can take
care of real problems,
(00:45):
I think.
And I'll just let him introduce himself and
and
maybe start talking about some of those problems
he's gonna take care of.
Take it away. Ray.
Hey.
Really been looking forward to this, guys. I've
had interviews all over the state of Oregon.
And,
you know, you in Curry County, I don't
get to do very many, and this is,
(01:08):
this is my, this is my home base
since I'm born in Gold Beach and
know so many people. It's just, just really
an honor to be here. And, Ray, I
think you and I got to talk,
goodness, four or five years ago, and so
we're overdue and just,
really, really a privilege to be on with
you guys. We had a couple of things
to discuss, and then if you remember, we
(01:28):
went on a
a parade together. I don't remember what it
was about. But And by the way, we're
talking to mister Court Boyce. Oh. I think
you I think we missed that.
State representative, Kooskura and Douglas Counties, and Ray,
I remember sir. Right on. Yeah. Ray, I
remember May I turn it over to him
to introduce himself? Can't do that. Okay.
(01:51):
Ray, I remember your your background in law
enforcement,
and, you know, that just is a real
soft spot for me back in the blue.
And, you know, the sacrifices
our our,
public safety professionals make. And my middle son,
been in Oregon State Police twenty five years
now, twenty six, just got promoted to captain.
So the 400 employees they have, I think
(02:12):
there's only half dozen captains. So I'm really
proud of him,
and and I hope he stays in about
another fifteen years. We we need him and
all of all of his, friends. Anyway, thanks
for letting me brag just a little bit,
gentlemen.
That's something to brag about for sure.
So, Court, I'm gonna start out a little
bit.
You gave us or me well, us, your,
(02:34):
background. It was pretty extensive and impressive bio,
lengthy experience in both government and business.
Do you number one, do you have a
preference over one
preference of one over the other doing government
or business
or kinda look at them, oh,
in the same it's hard to say the
(02:54):
same way, but,
love them the same way.
How's that?
Well, I think I've just been very blessed,
very fortunate. And, Ray and Rick, you know
what they say, you're never really as good
as your resume. Right?
Well, I could, like to fake mine if
I had to do it again.
(03:14):
So, yeah, you know, nobody ever accused me
of being a career politician. I didn't run
for public office until I was almost 60,
and,
just something I felt I I had to
do. And so, yeah, I was in business
all those years, and,
you know, I I,
supported different candidates, both parties over the years,
and,
(03:36):
just learned a a lot, state level all
the way down to, local races. And so,
yeah, I've done a lot of relationships, met
a lot of people. And, you know, I
just miss Vietnam by an
absolute thread,
coming out of high school in 1972.
My draft number was seven, so I was
gone.
And, my family, no discussion. You're gonna serve
(03:58):
your country. So that was the May.
And, five weeks later, 07/01/1972,
Nixon president Nixon abolished the draft.
So you go one more May.
I started my commercial tour boat trips up
Rogue River,
yeah, May '73, and never looked back. I
I still have my coast guard license, and
(04:20):
I have to renew it every five years.
I'm on my ninth five year renewal. Wow.
Still can get the boat up and down
to, Blossom Bar
and take people. And,
yeah, the Jerry's thing. I own part of
that for over thirty years in Paradise Lodge
in the Ruger Wilderness. So, you know, I
just, the too much is given, much is
required, and it's just been,
(04:41):
how different my life would have been, had
I gone to Vietnam. And I would have
been at the tail end, so probably would
not have seen any combat, but I just
figured no one knows more than me. And
I'm,
I've been for ten, twelve years really involved
in veterans' issues, and it's just
likewise, that's an honor. Well, that's great. I
was that's I had that down to talk
about. Both Ray and I are veterans. Ray
(05:03):
is a Vietnam
combat veteran.
I didn't see combat. I was I went
in at 71,
in the Air Force. Ray was in the
army. But, yeah, veterans issues are a big
deal, very important
throughout the country. What do you see then
in this in our area issues for the
veterans that,
(05:23):
that you've maybe
helped over the years or that still need
work?
First of all, thank you for your service.
I did not know the red gone to
Vietnam, and so,
and and you as well, Rick. And No.
I'm sorry. I I wasn't in Vietnam. I
was in Thailand. But no. Well, it's it's
(05:44):
a scary thing. Oh, well. When you're that
age and you can you imagine the those
kids on a ship or plane headed over
there? And No. And, yeah. It's just,
they they knew when they left that, certain
percentage of would not come back. You bet.
Hey. You know what? Every, Friday at Memorial
Day weekend, we show up at the, Brookings
City Hall.
(06:04):
I think I've done it six years in
a row, maybe only five, but we read
the names of every one of the 800
Oregonians
that died in Vietnam, of the fifty eight
thousand that died,
in in our country.
Plus,
there was 30 POWs
missing in action that that,
the word Oregonians.
And, you know, we just there's about 20
(06:27):
of us show up, and we we read
every one of those names so we don't
forget. My grandson, Court, was with me the
last May, and, it was just a great
experience for him. But, anyway, homelessness,
as you both know, we lose nationwide about
twenty,
twenty two.
That's getting a little better, but twenty two
to suicide
every single day. And,
(06:49):
you know brutal. Pretty brutal.
Oh,
and I just,
I've met
in the last twelve years, especially last twelve
years,
some incredible Vietnam veterans.
You know, that, you know, it's always veterans
helping veterans
and
just phenomenal men and women that,
(07:11):
you just go, wow. Yeah. I wanna be
I want my sons to grow and be
like him or her. You know? It's just,
just been unreal.
Well, that's great. Like I said, that's a
that's a group of people with it,
we should all be honoring daily, and I
think a lot of us do.
Well, we need to do more. But, hey,
we're gonna have, Wreaths Across America. I've I've
(07:33):
done that six or eight years in a
row, both Gold Beach and Brookings on the
fourteenth.
If you need information, have your,
listeners,
get a hold of me. Coach court, c
o a c h c o u r
t, coach court at g mail dot com.
Alright. Thank you. And then remember, you y'all
out there, you can text in questions or
comments here. (541)
(07:54):
661-4098.
Now, Court, we got an early text
that I'm gonna go ahead and read,
start off the show. It says question
question for Court Boyce.
My name is Billy Furicchi,
and as a former special education teacher, my
question is this.
When the Department of Education no longer exists
(08:15):
at the federal level,
will the state of Oregon continue funding special
education programs at current levels?
And if not, how will you determine which
programs to cut? Thank you.
Well, there you go. How would I you
know,
Oregon Health Authority is a $30,000,000,000
budget biannually,
so 15 or plus billion every other year.
(08:39):
If I've learned anything, gentlemen,
serving in the legislature,
it in my view, in my opinion,
spending,
is way out of, you know, proper priorities,
and so that's really
something that,
I I think we have to adjust. Kids
are our greatest resource.
You know,
(09:00):
my side in 2023
actually
voted for a higher budget, 11,000,000,000,
for education system, which included higher education.
But most of the people I I serve
on my side with 11 women and 12
men,
and, they're all just incredibly
dedicated to families
(09:20):
and our education system. And, frankly, Oregon is
at the bottom.
Probably the bottom five throughout the state or
throughout the country of 50 states.
And, it didn't used to be that way.
Our our public education system is failing,
and, they
they need more and more money, but the
enrollment is going down. So when it comes
(09:41):
to disabled and kids that need special attention,
I don't know anybody on either side of
the aisle
that wants to cut that. And, if there's
not enough money, then, you know, I'll I'll
I'll take,
I'll take a greater focus on that, and
I I strongly believe that's critically important.
I I didn't hear this interview, so I'm
(10:01):
giving this secondhand.
A friend of mine heard an interview that
you did here with a local radio station,
and you thought that we should
reassess our priorities as far as what we're
teaching kids, going back to the basics like,
to coin a cliche that yeah. The the
the three r's and and not focus on
(10:23):
things like the environment and that type of
thing. Is that
was that accurately
transmitted to me? And did I I think
it I think it's fair, Ray.
You know, you did say the environment, though,
if you make the environment the top top
priority,
then and and our kids are falling behind
in in the in even the basics of
(10:43):
reading.
And Oregon has a black eye, and the
nation knows that. We gotta get we gotta
we gotta solve that. So sometimes it's reading,
writing, and recycle, you know, the three r's.
And so that's all good. You know? But
growing up as a kid on the Southern
Oregon Coast, I mean, I
let's just say eight or 10. It was
far worse to be called a litter bug
(11:05):
than a communist. I mean, you just didn't
do that in my family. You wouldn't throw
anything out the car. But the point is
the point is this,
we are
if if you look at where our kids
are right now
with their skills in math and reading,
and,
you know, we
I supported the governor on this. We've,
(11:27):
we've outlawed cell phones in schools. Now they
can have them close if there's an emergency
so they can contact their parents. And so,
you know, a lot of Republicans
did not wanna, promote that bill because they
thought it was getting into parental rights
and, kids wouldn't be able to contact their
parents. But I I've I've talked to some
(11:47):
different superintendents that absolutely are thrilled with the
with the improvement
when the kids have to cannot have the
the,
you know, their phones as a distraction. So
I hope that answers your question. So, yeah,
yes. It seems to me that we went
to school without cell phones.
And if you did and if you didn't
have a dime, you couldn't call anybody. So
(12:07):
I think we get Yeah. Yeah. I'm
when I've
when when I was working,
with some of the, I guess, they call
them clients I had,
were fourteen, fifteen years old. Now this is
back
quite a few years ago, and we were
shocked to find out they had cell phones
when neither of my partner or I had
cell our own cell phones, but they were
(12:28):
communicating like that. But
so
do
you do
you so you mentioned the environment. You talked
about being a litter bug. Do you think
it's important that
that kids learn about air quality and water
quality and things like that? They seem to
be
pretty ignorant in that regard.
(12:49):
As long as it's not the,
if they if they get an interest in
reading,
if they get an interest in in their
surroundings,
if they,
Tom and
Rick,
you know, the respect of nature, the respect,
you know, the Native American approach. You remember
when we were kids, the,
the Native American chiefs had a tear in
(13:10):
his eye. It was a side profile. Remember
that? Yeah. I thought it was a very
powerful commercial. Well, the other the other thing
about it is he was not Native American.
He was Italian.
Well But that but he played he Thanks
for throwing the water on him. He made
a lot he made a lot of money
playing. We got the message, though. We got
the message. Yeah. We got the message. We
don't care what his what his race was,
(13:31):
but that's funny. That's good.
But, yeah, to answer your question there,
you know, we're the land of the Wild
Rivers Coast. You know, this is the most
okay. Let's just go back a little bit.
The Roca Veriskiyou National Forest is 1,200,000
acres, takes in parts of four counties.
It, it is the most rugged,
the most wild,
(13:51):
the most beautiful
national forest in North America. You know, I
tell the story sometimes. Jedediah Smith come through
here.
You know, I'm in Lothburg now. Forgive me.
But, anyway, went through that part of the
of the continent,
twenty years after the Lewis and Clark expedition.
What in the world did he find?
He he found the most pristine rivers.
(14:12):
He found
so full of fish
that he just you know, he had a
bible in one hand,
a long rifle in the other, but he
had to write what he saw. Of course,
he found the biggest trees on on the
planet between the Douglas fir and the, of
course, the the redwoods.
So that's why we named a park after
him. So, you know, that's why I'm so
down on fires that, you know, natural fires,
(14:34):
as you both know, are good.
That's part of nature. They burn 1,200 degrees.
But these fires that are so heavy with
volatile fuels, what we call the kindling, the
ladder fuels,
and then we get the winds. You know,
close we come to losing Brookings in 2000,
'17. I mean, I was right there every
(14:55):
night saying put the fire out. And then
when it made that run,
you know, August 22 started on the July
7, made that run towards Brookings. It went
18 miles in,
39.
And I've a lot of people believe it
was divine intervention that, when it got within
about four and a half miles of Brookings,
we we had a wind change, blew it
(15:16):
back north. So,
anyway, it destroys our watersheds,
and so I've devoted my life. You know?
It's it's it's not much of a sacrifice.
We can change this. We have to. So
when the forest service used to be pretty
you know, I'll just say it. It used
to be enemies because they let that fire
simmer
and didn't put it out.
(15:37):
Ray and Rick, they have done a one
eighty. My relationship with them right now is
exceptional. Also, with the Oregon in fact, I'm
a I gotta
I gotta sneak off early to Coos Bay,
I mentioned, in the morning.
The Oregon Department of Forestry and the Coos
Forest Protective Association for a fire recap,
between the Oregon Department of Forestry and the
Forest Service, even the BLM.
(15:59):
They've done an about face since the Chekhobah
fire, and I just couldn't be happier with,
you know, with the response and the suppression,
a lot of fire,
prevention,
awareness. And so we're not gonna lose any
more of our suburbs. I mean, I'm gonna
just absolutely have responsibility to give it all
(16:19):
I got. I hope that makes sense. Are
you aware of of what kind of environmental
training kids get in school these days? And
I'm not just talking about fires. I'm talking
about things like air quality and
heat burning oil as opposed to other fuels.
Boy, what I've learned.
(16:40):
You know, how do we measure air quality?
The Jacob Barr fire, we had a system
that the forest service,
I think combined with the city of Brookings
had that, you know, purple was don't even
breathe. Just just hold your breath for as
long as you know, till the fire's out.
You know, I'm jesting, of course, but,
you know, air quality, isn't that why we
(17:02):
live here?
You know? Are the kids being taught that?
And that you know, that's why I I've
been studying offshore wind for four years.
And,
at the first year or something, okay. I
need to take a serious look at this
because
the promises from the federal government money's coming
back to the ports, the tribes,
(17:22):
the counties,
the fishermen.
You know? Some didn't look right, but I
wanna I wanna assess it properly. Well, it
didn't take but two, three years of that
that, you know, we realize,
it doesn't work anywhere in the world.
A little bit on the East Coast Of
Europe, but they have much shallower water. They
do not have the storms we have here.
And so, you know, what happens to the
(17:43):
wells, our fish, our birds, and so that's
why,
you know, people,
you know, Curry County residents,
well, actually, Coos Bay all the way down
is right in the middle of my district.
And the state of Oregon is still trying
to promote it a little bit, and it's
just it's just not good business. It just
there's nothing about it. We just don't even
have the technology, plus the deep waters are,
(18:05):
really,
really cost prohibitive and impractical.
Hey. We
gonna bounce around a little bit here because
we we're getting texts, and texts are wonderful.
And I just Okay.
Says really good show so far. Somebody's enjoying
the show. Thank you. And then the question
is, how close did the fire this summer
get to Paradise Lodge? I'm not sure what
(18:27):
Paradise Lodge is.
Well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna twist both
of you to get on my boat in
June.
Oh. I still wanna
yeah. It's,
Paradise and Half Moon competitive
lodges
back to the Oregon Department of Forestry and
Forest Service.
The Forest Service, when they thought I mean,
(18:48):
this is,
you know,
abandoned in my district, they have abandoned. You
know? Gold Beach has Rogue River. Brookings has
so many.
Brookings has a climate and, you know, the
port and all and so many other wonderful
assets. But,
the,
when the government found out that we could
(19:08):
lose
my old lodge of Paradise that I have
for thirty years
and,
Half Moon Lodge,
they were there within two and a half
hours when the fire was first discovered.
And,
frankly,
everything around both those lodges is pretty cooked.
Mhmm.
But it was it was almost, gentlemen, like
(19:29):
a natural fire where it just burned. The
fuel has been building up for so long.
I don't think we've had a fire in
my Rogue River Wilderness
probably for a hundred and fifty years.
And so it's gonna be interesting to watch.
It's still gonna be gorgeous up there, but
there's a lot of blackened areas. It'd just
be a different kind of gorgeous. So, yeah,
within a thousand feet of both lodges, coincidentally.
(19:53):
Well,
here and, of course, my California,
these wildfires,
as you I'm sure you remember that horrible
we've had so many horrible fires, but the
Paradise Fire
down there with
that was almost
out of a science fiction movie watching some
of this. And at the time, I lived
down in Yuba City, so it was, I
mean, it wasn't threatened, but it was close
(20:15):
enough to see, you know, the smoke and
it just just terrible. And, yeah, forest management,
wildfire mitigation, that's gotta be huge. Another as
long as we're talking about
paradise,
one of my favorite subjects is
information
for for the people to be notified that
there is a fire. Yeah. You have a
(20:35):
fire, what's going on. We had,
if you if you, watch the some of
the YouTube
Videos? Videos about,
about paradise. One of them shows this woman
driving down the road,
and the flames are just Pretty huge. Huge
on either side. She's got her two kids
(20:55):
in the car, and she's making a video
talking about,
the kids are here. We love you, dad,
and we're not so hope we're gonna see
you again.
It was just total confusion because nobody knew
where the fire was or where they had
to go.
They,
there was one guy they interviewed. He said
he he walked out in the morning to
get his newspaper at the mailbox,
(21:17):
the newspaper box, and it was a glow
in the sky. And he said, boy, that's
kind of a new I've never seen a
sunrise like that before.
And it wasn't a sunrise. The other side
of his town was on fire, and he
wasn't even aware of it.
Well and it also moved, I think, incredibly
fast. Yes. Oh. Incredibly fast.
So
(21:37):
yeah. Eighty three eighty three people were killed
in the Paradise Yeah. It was pretty warm.
If I recall. Yeah. Pretty Un unimaginable unimaginable.
We had a
had a fire chief here or a volunteer
fireman from Paradise who, by the way, had
had already moved here,
and, he talked about how most of those
lives would not have been lost if they
(21:58):
knew what was going on.
Well and
here we get emergency
preparedness
court. I'm sure that's probably on the top
of your list when tsunami,
earthquakes, or wildfires.
Do you see any improvements,
coming in the near future for something like
that? That,
that's an excellent question. I serve on the
(22:19):
veterans,
general government and emergency preparedness
house committee.
I sat with four Democrats and, two other
Republicans. There are seven of us. Chair Tran,
is,
the chair. I think she does an excellent
job. And,
just one example, legislative days, we had the
Oregon emergency management director and co director in
(22:39):
there. We give them some hard questions, but
they just did a superb job.
You know, it used to be back in,
02/1920,
it was, Andrew Phelps. He did a great
job, but we have a new director,
Erin McMahon.
She's an old army. I shouldn't say old,
but,
you know, an army veteran, and she has
(23:00):
just put together tremendous crew. And, of course,
it's not just
fire. It's, tsunami warnings. It's floods.
And so I I just really feel privileged
to be on that committee. And then my
other committee is ag
agriculture, water,
land use, and natural resources. And that's that's,
that's probably the most sought after committee,
(23:21):
on the house side,
other than ways and means, which appropriates fund.
But I'm I'm gonna get on that committee
someday. And then my third committee is I'm
sitting with some pretty
pretty good heavy hitters, and that's a joint
audit committee. So that's made up of, both
house members and,
you know, president of the senate is on
there and Lee
senator Lieber.
(23:43):
There's just some really, really productive people on
there. Anyway, that little report,
but back to emergency humanity. Yeah. You know,
Oregon, because it's it's, diversity in geography,
certainly has a lot of different things that
we have to be aware of. And rep
Comberg,
democrat from Lincoln County, he's been in there
(24:03):
about twelve years now, and he is just
tough as they come and extremely knowledgeable. I
work very good with him and his staff.
Couple of months ago here, we we have
a our emergency
notification system is we get an alert on
our cell phone. I can imagine you're probably
familiar with that.
Is it? And,
a couple of months ago, we we had
(24:24):
an alert that,
you know, I have all the usual beep
beep beeps, and then,
there's a tsunami warning
in effect.
And that was about it. And everybody Ray,
remind the remind the listeners the name of
that system. It's Everbright, isn't it? I don't
know what it is. What what do you
(24:45):
say is this? Everbright?
I think so. Everbridge. Everbridge. I was corrected.
So that was better than nothing, but I
have to have a service person coming to
my house at the same time. And when
she got up there, she said, what's going
on? People are running all over.
And I could see the ocean from from
my, from my deck, so I just went
out on the deck waiting to see the
(25:06):
tsunami come in. But tons of people along
the road, I understand, that probably would've all
been killed had there been a significant
but my point being, I get a little
out of line there.
Not at all. We it all it said
was there's a tsunami warning. It didn't say
do this, go there, you know, run away,
or it it gave no other information whatsoever.
(25:30):
So you see we have some holes we
have to plug and some improvements that we
have. Hole. And and I know I just
learned this morning when I come in that
there was another one of those alerts
last night, but it was past my bedtime,
so I didn't hear it. But
Oh, that's on you then.
Well, no. That Well, you know, and a
big part of that and we talked about
it here at at Curry Cafe in
(25:52):
for a couple shows about,
our own emergency preparedness, how
critical it is,
and I think I still fall behind a
little bit at times of have
be prepared to evacuate immediately.
I'm I'm showing Rick a list I made
yesterday, well, for some reason or other than
I was thinking about, about the emergency food
(26:13):
I should have on hand. Here's
Ray's a good boy then. It looks that
he's taken care of. With the exception of
coffee, all these things look awful. I hope
I never have
to eat them, but I'm gonna start No.
Ordering them up, I guess. It's, the go
bags are important.
We almost
I've only been here seven years. I was
here just a year after that horrible fire,
(26:34):
by the way.
But
and my friend was telling me it's it's
very important to get this go bag together,
and
we had one incident now. I can't remember
how many years ago where we were, being
alerted to go, but we didn't have to
go. And, yeah, I had my suitcase and
things ready ready to go. Well, you talked
about that big fire earlier. I know a
(26:56):
lot of people who had to leave their
homes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I don't
I don't know what where your
what kind of authority you have where, but
if if I were you, I'd write a
big note to yourself to let's get some
emergency notification
systems going.
Fantastic. You know? I missed Was that pause
because you were writing?
(27:19):
Yeah. I mean, it it is a serious
thing. I I as I understand, most of
the the sirens that we used to have
here are gone because they they weren't working
or anything. And the
the emergency person who
took those down was supposed to be replaced,
and then he quit or something. So
it's it's Right now, we have a new
(27:39):
we have a new emergency director in Curry
County. And,
Jeff, he works very closely with Josephine Koos,
etcetera.
And, the only thing I've learned about the
sirens, Ray,
are that they,
very expensive to replace. But when you have
people that And and they're meaningless.
There's a there's a if you happen to
(28:01):
know what those sirens mean, you're okay.
But if you don't, what the heck is
that?
Well, it's just like, you know, our guests
that come to the to the the Curry
Coast, my goodness,
they would at least know to
if they heard a siren to research and
figure out, hey. Let's go do something. Run
down to the beach with everybody else that's
(28:22):
going down to watch the tsunami come in.
Yeah.
Well, we're about halfway through, and I just
wanna let everybody know where what y'all are
listening to, and that's k c I w
l p one hundred point seven FM here
in beautiful Brookings.
And we do have I have some more
questions. We're just kinda bouncing around, but that's
okay. It's what we like to do.
(28:44):
Can you give us a little info, Court,
about the Oregon Coastal Caucus coming together to,
I guess, in 2026,
to talk about solving
oh, wait a minute. I forgot to get
out the text line as I talked about.
I think that's (541)
661-4098.
Sorry about that. Anyway, yeah, Court, about the
(29:05):
Oregon Coastal Caucus in 2026
that, I guess you're gonna be part of.
Well, I'm gonna be the new chair. I
am the new chair, and I'm just thrilled.
I work with, three senators
and three other state reps,
to go all the way down from Astoria
to Brookings Harbor. And so,
(29:26):
there's 22 ports,
seven counties,
and, 28 incorporated cities. And so,
there are a tremendous
variety of issues,
that we, you know, we need to work
really closely on. It's a bipartisan
program.
And,
you know, they come to us for advice
when it comes to bills that would impact
(29:47):
our fishing industry, our tourism industry, energy,
you know, certainly our higher education in, University
of Oregon and Oregon State.
You know, I'm I'm learning a lot about
the offshore,
you know,
fish reserves and,
you know, it's it's
(30:08):
with with four ports in my district between
Brookings,
Gold Beach, Port Orford,
Bandon, all incredibly unique. Plus,
we have the, port container
system that,
the states put up a 100,000,000. The federal
government's put up about three times that,
and,
we're tremendously excited about that. Coos Bay is
(30:30):
not in my district. I go up to
the East Side through Allegheny in that area.
But the jobs and,
home building,
just the economic vitality,
it's all being done properly, and so we
got our fingers crossed that we'll employ a
lot of people. So,
yeah, I seem to excuse me again. I
seem to be the person that should chair
(30:52):
that.
It won't just be the twenty sixth season.
It'll be well,
it should be
the twenty seventh season as well. We'll see
how things go, but,
just just a tremendous privilege to have my
colleagues
vote me and to to take that lead.
Well and you said a couple times, this
is
heartening
(31:12):
to hear that, Republicans and Democrats, you work
with, I don't know how many a few
Democrats that you guys are making some progress
working together. That's kind of,
been unheard of in the last few years,
it seems like. But, it sounds like it's
working
in Oregon right now? You know, a lot
of rural rural representatives and senators, they think
(31:34):
I'm just gonna go to Salem and vote
no on everything. Yeah. And sometimes that,
you know, that is,
seems to have some rationale,
but you can't get anything done.
And plus, I've made friends.
My parents were public servants. My mom, a
nurse for sixty years,
sixty five years. My dad was a famous
sheriff back in the,
sixties and seventies, just dedicated.
(31:57):
You know, I could tell you stories for
two days on, what their philosophy was. Anyway,
they love people.
And, I'll just tell you one quick story.
A a good friend of mine, I won't
mention his name because I I just thought
of this earlier today,
but he came over.
And
both of you are familiar with Vietnam. He
(32:17):
came over with his family and was born
on a boat
as they were migrating to America as they
left,
communist,
Vietnam.
And, so he has four brother excuse me,
four siblings.
And the story,
he's a democrat,
but we've just become good friends. I just
have tremendous admiration for him.
(32:39):
And,
I mean, I just I mean, compare where
I was born, how I was born, compared
to what he,
endured or his family endured.
And it's anyway, it's just a remarkable story.
And I've had a lot of experiences like
that, but I would trade for the world.
And, maybe we have more time. Sometime, I'll
tell you some of those, experiences.
(33:00):
I would like to change the subject for
just a minute to talk about something that's
one of my pet peeves, and that is,
we have sheriffs here who,
think that they should not have to or
actually are threatened. And I understand there
there are people with
with
(33:20):
disciplinary action if they enforce some of the
federal gun laws. I talked to our sheriff
that's here
a few months ago at a at a
at a forum,
and he was,
I think this particular law had to do
with with,
limiting the capacity of a handgun.
And he said, well, there's no reason to
(33:40):
do that because all you have to do
is blah blah blah blah blah. All the
reasons you didn't have to do it. And
I'm thinking to myself, no. It's the law.
The law says you have to do that,
and they are a higher power than you
are. And you are so concerned about the
guy carrying a gun not having enough bullets.
How about me who has no bullets, who's
just out there?
(34:03):
What what do you my question is,
what do you think the sheriff's just taking
the law into their own heads? He didn't
say we're not gonna enforce it. What he
says is we're not gonna put a lot
of energy into that.
And that there are sheriffs, as I'm sure
you know, around the the, the country, the
constitutional
sheriffs that just think that
they are the law and they are everything.
(34:24):
I I don't think we have any of
those.
Well, I I, like our current sheriff,
I've been disappointed.
The reason
I I don't understand why he won't negotiate,
and, boy, I'll tell you, the lawsuits and
all of that,
just it gives to Curry County a tremendous
black eye around the state, and it's, it's
(34:46):
just beyond baffling.
But that's why we have three commissioners instead
of one.
You know? It's the executive at the at
the county level. It's it's the executive,
the legislative, and the judicial body. That's why
you have an odd number. And so he
has responsibility to come in for the sheriff
and work these things out. I'm not saying
his side or his
(35:08):
views aren't valid.
You know, the constitutional sheriff, I understand,
but still, there are guidelines
in state and federal laws that say,
this is what we have to do with
the budget. Right now, the sheriff only has,
I think, counting himself four deputies.
And, boy, that's put that's spreading. And that's
not uncommon,
(35:28):
Ray, you know,
throughout the state,
that the real law enforcement is really suffering,
and that's a big concern of mine. So
what happens when people,
when the when the
law doesn't show up for an hour or
two, you know, then they they figure they
have to defend themselves. And so that's why
the measure one thirteen four years ago
(35:49):
only won by half of 1% that basically
said, you were gonna take your rights away
on guns. And so a lot of confusion
there.
I'm very strong on my second amendment.
I encourage people to get trained, get trained,
get trained, men and women.
I'll give you a suggestion that I know
won't fly. I we know we have a
(36:09):
huge problem in this country with guns.
The worst gun that we'll have to say,
yeah. There's too damn many guns.
When, you know, our president blames it on
them
being foreigners or being brown people or whatever.
But the the reality of it is
people wouldn't get shot if there weren't so
damn many guns.
One of the things we could do that
(36:30):
would be very, very effective, it would be
difficult to initially do,
not difficult, just,
you know, I guess difficult,
is require everybody who owns a gun to
have a gun license.
And that gun license would require
some serious work. It wouldn't be to go
down to the
police station to fill out a form. You
would have to go to classes telling you
(36:52):
when you could and when you couldn't use
your gun,
many things like that. You know, as as
police officers, we went every year, we had
a had a refresher training in when we
could do that.
And you see a awful lot like
recently, there was somebody who shot two kids
that rang the doorbell and were running away.
And he felt that was a need to
(37:13):
shoot them.
People knocking on the wrong door and getting
shot. Things like that. We we have to
have we have to put a handle on
who owns the guns and what their restrictions
are. Oh, and, oh, so if you get
caught without
a license and you have a gun,
it's a very, very serious felony.
I don't think, like I said, that would
(37:34):
be difficult to get going. I think,
it would be an administrative nightmare, but once
it was in place, I think it would
work.
You know, the licensing part of it,
I don't know how you could have mandatory
training, although I would have to take a
really serious look at that. Would that automatically
register one with their guns? And so you
look back in history,
(37:55):
you know, the, the pro gun advocates would
say, every time guns have been registered, people
end up losing their guns. And,
you know, it's a it's a it becomes
an authoritarian
government.
You look at the two national guards
guardsmen that were killed, day for, you know,
Thanksgiving Day,
And, that with that I'm not the only
(38:15):
one that was killed. The other's still alive.
Oh, they're both Oh, they're both, no. I
believe. Is that right, Court? Both have died.
No. But good point. I I don't want
to imply. We're hoping and praying that the
24 year old man, he's clinging to lies.
Oh, I'm sorry then. That was my I
thought he passed. No. That's I I I
misspoke there, but, you know that one is
dead. And,
you know, most people believe that whether you
(38:37):
had, gun licensing or gun restrictions,
that man that,
drove all the way from Washington would have
had a gun regardless. And It's not gonna
it's not gonna stop every shooting, but it's
certainly gonna reduce them a whole lot if
you make guns
more difficult to get.
Well, there's 300,000,000
(38:57):
in the country right now. Right. And,
800,000,000
guns or
300,000,000?
It just, you know but it it just
makes common sense that we have so many
shootings,
ridiculous shootings, that we have to do something
about it. And when I hear members of
congress saying we've done everything we can, maybe
(39:18):
it's time we changed the second amendment if
that's if that's the problem, but I don't
think it is. It's the interpretation of it.
Fair enough. Fair enough.
Well,
to here we go again to I mean,
great topic. And if somebody has
a question or comment about it, please text
in (541)
(39:38):
661-4098.
I did have another question
from a constituent
court that I wanted to
they were talking about the here in Brookings,
the new owners of South Coast Lumber.
Do you are you aware
of what's going on there? The big, Yes.
Okay.
(40:00):
You know, that's that's, been a family tradition
for seventy years. I actually worked for Bill
Fowler senior,
in 2000
excuse me. 1971.
I'm just no. '72. I'm sorry. Coming out
of high school, and got we're at the,
North Plant,
towards Carpenterville Road, and it got down to
eight degrees, and we're working outside. I was
(40:21):
I was only
alright. Yes. I was 18. Excuse me. Anyway,
just turned 18.
And so what a great tradition. A lot
of people are concerned the new company, the
Chinook, Timber,
will they keep the mill going? And, boy,
I'm hoping to pray it because,
you know, not to not to be pessimistic
whatsoever.
(40:42):
I I just have great appreciation,
admiration for the South Coast
family and management
and
my goodness what they've done for our community.
But, yeah, it would, a lot of people
would leave Brookings.
That would eliminate Fred Meyer,
very likely anyway. And
so,
(41:02):
I'll be working,
as much as I possibly can with the
new company.
You know, because of their good management, South
Coast has
developed a lot of timber. They lost a
lot in the Checo Bar Fire, and they
had to harvest it, ten years earlier than
they otherwise would have. But I think they're
gonna they're very loyal to Brookings. They always
(41:23):
have been,
all four generations.
And,
I think we're gonna be okay, but I'm
I'm just gonna be
watching real close and doing anything I can
to impact that for the good of, my
county.
Wow. I mean, that's pretty powerful
statement.
You say
there's a chance
(41:43):
that if it doesn't go a good way
with this with the new company that Fred
Meyer might leave
Brookings? You think that's really a possibility?
Well, I think that Brookings has always been
very economically
solid, almost always. And even when they had
years that were bad,
the Fowler family figured out ways to keep
(42:05):
that mill going even when they were losing
money. Now that wasn't, you know, that wasn't
the,
you know, the standard year, but they
I I just wanna
give them those those high marks
for all those years that they that they
got that done. I'm I'm just saying that
if you lose 500 employees between the two
(42:25):
mill locations
and they have to go somewhere else,
that has a residual effect that,
you know, I don't think that's gonna happen
as far as Fred Meyer, but, you know,
what would the impact be long term? And
so we just we just wanna You're you're
talking behind this new company. You're you're talking
as though they would get rid of the
500 employees?
(42:46):
I mean, they bought a business. Don't they
plan on operating it?
All I'm saying is the worst case scenario.
Yeah. You know, so that's why people are
a little bit nervous, Ray.
I'm not.
I just,
you know, I I I believe that they're
gonna be really tuned in to,
supporting the community and keeping those mills going.
(43:08):
And,
you know,
my job is to make sure they get
green timber. Anything I can do at the
at the state and federal level,
to increase timber harvest and help them get
that timber. And so,
you know, we know that a lot of
timber goes to waste, has for the last
thirty or forty years, and I think that
the ship is turning.
And, they need timber to operate, and
(43:31):
they they send a lot of trees over
to their Merlin site, north of Grants Pass.
And so, you know, I'm just I'm just
expressing what some of the current concerns would
be that,
you know, what could happen if,
you know, worst case scenario. I don't I
don't predict that whatsoever.
Well, but I I can see if you
I I I don't know if this is
(43:52):
a good analogy, but I think of the
families that worked for the Detroit auto industries
forever and ever, their grandparents, their parents,
you know, and I'm assuming that South Coast
Lumber is kind of on a smaller scale.
Families kind of just,
planned on, you know, working there because their
parents did. And it sounds like South Coast,
again, is a new arrival.
(44:13):
They've been pretty important to this, Brookings community.
And the new broom is gonna
sweep clean, so there'll be some changes. Well,
some changes. Maybe even maybe
Yeah. Amount to an increase in business and
an increase in employees.
Can I ask you one
more question? I I'm in researching this morning
(44:34):
for this. I see that you spoke against,
house bill 2,002
on, gender affirming
care, and I couldn't find any more information
about it. What what what's the story on
that?
Let's see. That was 2023,
and,
yeah, our side, really dug in on that
(44:54):
rate because,
people are coming from outside of Oregon, and
the Oregon taxpayers were paying for,
life
impacting
long term
surgeries.
And,
we're seeing that,
that gives sometimes a very high suicide rate.
(45:16):
And,
you know, it just,
it just goes against the grain of what
most story going to believe,
and especially in my district, Coos Green Douglas,
and they don't have that much more. What
what exactly is the issue? Is this for
becoming transgender?
Is that
(45:37):
It was it it was primarily for surgeries.
High
highly paid medical physicians
that would do those surgeries to kids and
sometimes not even tell their parents there were
aspects of that bill that were just
heartbroken. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You're
telling me that they're doing
(45:57):
trans operations without notifying the parents?
That's exactly right.
Yes. And how old are these how old
are these kids?
Down as young as
10 or 11.
When I went to school, the school nurse
couldn't give me an aspirin, let alone
castrate me.
Is that okay? Do are you sure that
(46:18):
kids are having sex change operations without their
parents knowing about it?
That was the part of the bill that
we had to
stand the hardest against that portion,
because parents were pushed aside
and,
accused of, interfering with the the with nature.
(46:40):
And
so it was it was a it was
a real tough,
rock them, sock them issue. And,
it's,
and I and I just believe personally very
strongly that these kids need therapy. They need
love. They need
guidance, they need time, then they should not
have any kind of surgeries until after 18,
(47:00):
and then they can pay for it themselves.
Well, if it's a medical condition, why wouldn't
why wouldn't a regular
medical insurance cover it? It's not this this
is not
because, Billy would rather wear dresses. It's a
it's a medical condition.
It should be handled
(47:20):
with with medical insurance.
Many, many studies, many, many psychologists say it
is not a medical condition because somebody gets
a little confused.
You know, I I
they they have taken the
the gay rights thing, and they have transitioned
that into,
(47:41):
what I believe is is really a tough
area. And so,
you know, those two should be separated.
And I I think even a lot of
the gay community,
voiced
concern about those surgeries and the long term
negative impact. Can can you cite some can
you cite something that would show me that
(48:01):
that
school kids were given the surgery without permission?
I will definitely research that. But Okay. Just
just confirming without I just parent to be
absolutely impossible to believe.
Most people do that. Decision? The school nurse
or
and and it is a medical condition, by
the way.
(48:23):
Well, we just have to disagree on that,
but who made the decisions?
Are the people that benefited the most? The
doctors and, I mean, it is a very,
very expensive
series of surgeries.
I know. Are you saying this is a
for profit thing? I I know some trans
people, so I know a little bit about
it.
And But they had surgeries, Ray? Yeah.
(48:45):
And and they're doing okay?
Yeah.
Taxpayers pay for it.
I have no idea who paid for it.
That's that there wasn't an issue with me.
But, Yeah. But if they're over 18, that's
their right. Yeah. Absolutely, they're right. We have
a couple of texts here. I'm gonna we're
it's not quite a big pivot, but I
do have to get this is about health
care.
This is about health care. So let me
(49:07):
read this.
Brookings residents
are down to only one pharmacy.
Okay. Very difficult for seniors. Is there anything
that can be done? And, boy, that is
a problem.
Mhmm.
What's, We've lost, in the last two and
a half years, Rick, we have lost,
(49:27):
almost 40
rural pharmacies throughout the state. Gold Beach is
down to just a little
office
for pharmacies.
You know, we have Brookings down to one
that that serves basically
12 to 14,000
people. That's scary.
It it puts a it puts a proper,
(49:49):
bright light, though, on rural health care in
Oregon.
You both are probably aware of the Bay
Area Hospital. Coos Pei employs almost a thousand
people.
It's 40,000,000 under. They have, been
financed
by the Bank of Montreal, and so,
that's the only OB,
the only cancer treatment center within,
(50:11):
I think it's a 120 miles even including
Roseburg.
And so,
we're doing everything we can to keep that,
open. So back to Oregon
State priority spending,
we need help from the federal government to
excuse me, from the state well, the federal
government too when it comes to Medicare and
Medicaid payments, but
to keep our rural hospitals open. In my
(50:32):
district, I have Curry General.
I have,
the the Brookings emergency room. We finally got
done in 2020
or 2019,
whichever it was. First time
in history that Oregon that Brookings Southern Curry
actually had emergency facility. I have the Southern
Coos abandoned.
It employs about 200 people, the Cockeio Valley
(50:55):
Hospital.
And,
they can't they can't handle that extra pressure
if the Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay
closes. So I think we're gonna prevail on
that. But the point is,
what is happening in rural Oregon compared to
the bigger cities?
There's so much we can and must do.
I don't serve on the medical committees, but
(51:15):
I have,
reps and senators on both sides,
that do serve,
and they keep me well informed. And I
think that's an excellent question. Glad you asked,
and,
we're gonna swing that back. Okay. We we're
getting down close to the wire right here.
We only have less than eight minutes left,
and I think we the maybe the elephant
(51:35):
in the room, if,
is,
we understand that you are in favor of,
having a vote to end,
mail in voting.
You want that to be I'm I'm sorry.
That's okay.
Oh,
well, I I was wondering how you were
gonna do that vote, but that's another thing.
(51:57):
What do you what do you have against
mail in voting?
In my district,
and it's an excellent question,
I believe the majority
wanna do away with mail in voting because
they wanna make it easier to vote and
harder to cheat. And, you know, my first
cousin was secretary of state, Bev Clarno, and
she was very strong in favor of,
(52:17):
mail in voting.
The issue is, what if we had the
people in the interest of democracy? What if
we had the people of Oregon say, yeah.
We want I'm not promoting one way or
the other.
But if we let them decide,
it's just like the $3.09 $9.01 gas repeal
that,
is gonna raise taxes for families that can't
afford it, that hurt rural Oregonians the most.
(52:39):
You know, democracy
prevails when the people get to vote. So
I think the people I I don't think
people would vote to do away with
mail in voting, but I'd like to see
it go before. That's that's, that's the part
you're quoting the audience. Yeah. I I I
think if you were to bring that up,
that that, gallows that they didn't get to
use on Mike Pence would be moved here,
(53:00):
and they'd be searching you up. Mail and
voting is people love it. Absolutely love it.
And it's safe and secure. I can vote
anytime of the day or night, and I
have days to make decision and drive down
at a little mailbox and drop it in.
There are people in places like Florida that
stand in line for three or four hours
and lots of places like that.
(53:22):
And we have it so convenient.
Tremendous. And we're you know, it's nineteen twenty
five. There's 300 and
something
million people in this
country. Twenty twenty five. Let me correct you
there. Well, it doesn't say what? That's okay.
You said 1925,
but that's okay. Oh, well,
okay. I'm I'm a little bit beyond. That's
alright.
(53:43):
We yeah. We have to have a better
way of voting than stand in line and
and and flip,
levers. Maybe we could have you
stick your thumb in I don't
Go ahead. I don't disagree with you on
that.
What do you think about a national holiday,
Ray, where, you know, you just give people
a day off? That encourages everybody to vote.
(54:03):
You know, the Department of Motor Vehicles and
the Oregon Health Authority both automatically
register new citizens coming in. Right. And so
that helps a lot of people the wrong
way.
You know, so It rubs people in the
wrong way.
It rubs people in the wrong way. What
did you say? They want well, they want,
you know, the other side wants people to
(54:25):
take the responsibility
and register to vote on their own, not
just make it automatic.
And so,
you know, I'm I'm just saying I'm just
reporting to you. That's what a lot of
people think. I'm not saying I have a
a It's a
opinion either way. What's the what's the thinking
there? If I if I fill out my
driver's license form, I'm automatically registered. Is there
(54:47):
there's a problem with that? Well, there's a
if if you're not interested in voting, why
should we make it easy for you to
vote? We want you to be a responsible,
energetic voter, I I would think. Well, this
this doesn't require you to be energetic or
responsible. It just requires you to to give
some thought to it and
(55:07):
not registering automatically
is is is the most sensible thing.
What what the things you're proposing would definitely
cut cut down on the amount of people
that are voting,
which seems to be the Republican,
desire to limit the vote. At some reason,
they seem to think that
(55:28):
unless people vote, Republicans do better. I I
don't know
how they come up with their thinking, but
that's pretty pretty,
settled
in. Well, I'm we got some text. I'm
gonna have to break in. We're gonna have
to take this to the time court you're
gonna be on our show, and I hope
it's gonna be here pretty soon. I hope
you and Shannon will be back. Oh, well,
(55:48):
I you're definitely invited back. Okay. I have
a text here.
When I was waiting in the long line
for my prescriptions, I was told that Fred
Meyer corporate lobbied against getting another pharmacy.
Do you have any information about that? Wow.
Not a bit. Wow. Okay. They lobbied against
what? They Fred Meyer lobbied against getting another
pharmacy.
(56:09):
So,
that's what the text says and but, of
course, you
you don't know what to say. Antitrust. Okay.
There you go. That's And I see the
line That's the the word you had in
the line?
Oh, no. That person that yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, if somebody said it doesn't mean We
all know that rural
rural, hard to say that, rural health care
(56:31):
is a problem no matter Great place to
live if you're not sick. I was Well,
when when I first moved up here, there
was so now I'm lucky to be qualified
for tribal health in California. That's a little
different down there. I don't have to experience
a lot of the troubles that most people
have. But I've been in Fred Meyer at
times when I see the line forming,
(56:53):
for the prescriptions. I've counted 15 to 20
people and the cards are lined up. That
was a good day. Well, I tell you,
it it can be a it can be
a hassle for anybody,
much less senior citizens. The line goes all
the way to the other door. Right? Right.
Well said. Well said, Rick.
Well, sir. Alright, Court. We're we are running
down. Really, really appreciate you coming on
(57:16):
and,
getting us all informed about
the the Southern I say Southern Oregon. Again,
my little sliver of Northern California, but, like
I said, I call myself almost an Oregonian.
I spend so much time I must go
to the Ag Station 3 or four times
a day sometimes coming up here,
spending all my money in Brookings, but that's
(57:36):
where it should be spent. Yeah.
Give it to us. Yeah. Those Californians
don't need it.
What a what a privilege to be on
and, great questions, and,
thanks for the volunteering on this very important
process, and
best of luck to KCIW.
Well, thank you because we are an all
(57:57):
volunteer station, and,
we could use any support out there that
y'all wanna chime in on, KCIW,
one hundred point seven FM.
And I'm in. I am really looking forward
to you coming back because I'd like to
put a little bit more time into this
mail in ballot thing. And I also would
like to hear,
(58:18):
where you got the information that school kids
are being medically treated without their parents mowing.
Well, again, that'll have to be on another
next one. Yeah. Because we only have thirty
eight seconds. Alright. Court again, man. Solve that.
We really appreciate you coming on. We here
at the radio station appreciate it. A lot
of good info,
and I hope to have you back
real soon.
(58:38):
Keep up the good work, guys. Thanks again.
Alright, Paul. See you. Thank you.
Alright, y'all. You've been listening to KCI WLP
one hundred point seven FM in beautiful Brookings.
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