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Green
Continued from Page 1A
just abandoned the previous process,”
— taking over a defunct non-profit —
“which turned out to be harder than
just starting our own.”
In 2019, the Silverton City Council
affirmed its support for a local energy
study. It authorized Sustainable Silver-
ton, then a citizens advisory commit-
tee, to begin the study in cooperation
with the city and its environmental
management committee.
Early on, the group worked with
Power Oregon, a clean-power advocacy
organization that studied climate is-
sues. That group was contacted by
Charles Baldwin, another of Sustain-
able Silverton’s three founders, who
obtained information from Power Ore-
gon relating to Silverton’s particular cli-
mate and environmental issues.
Power Oregon came up with one sta-
tistic that “really blew our minds,” Hues
said.
“Silverton spends $30 million a year
on fossil fuels," she said. That was hard
to fathom and this is not helping our
town in any way, to be sending that
amount of money out of our city.”
She said her group wants to promote
as much solar as possible, such as the
increased use of electric vehicles and
solar-powered homes and businesses.
For instance, they want to assure the
planned new Silverton Civic Center in-
corporates as many green options as
possible.
The results of those actions have en-
couraged additional benefits, Hues
said.
“It can’t have hurt that Sustainable
Silverton was involved with the city
and so active that Silverton was select-
ed for the University of Oregon’s Sus-
tainable City Year Project,” she said.
APPEAL TRIBUNE
The project “adopted” the city and
worked with it on plans to make the city
pool “greener” with more efficient heat-
ing, work on the new civic center’s
plans for sustainability, and work to
implement Sustainable Silverton’s en-
ergy plan and turn it into a set of cli-
mate action recommendations.
Baldwin, who last year was awarded
the Silverton Mayor’s Award for Civic
Engagement, noted that several action
committees were set up to focus Sus-
tainable Silverton’s energy.
“We have a committee to address
waste and recycling and a school action
team that created a plan to help restore
a teaching garden at Robert Frost
School,” he said.
A land use and transportation com-
mittee focuses on promoting walking,
biking and the use of public transit. It
has held events such as a “Car Free
Day” last Sept. 22.
The group’s consumption and waste
committee on the first Saturday of each
month takes in for recycling standard
items plus additional items such as sty-
rofoam, plastics (clamshell containers,
clear plastic tableware), and egg car-
tons.
Other committees advocate for the
environment through tree and shrub
giveaways and other smaller events.
Through all of these approaches,
Sustainable Silverton is reaching out to
residents to make their community
“green” and energy-efficient.
Get involved
For more information or to get in-
volved,
email
the
group
at
sustainablesilverton@gmail.com
or
visit its website at https://www.sus-
tainablesilverton.org/
Freelance
writer/photographer
Geoff Parks is based in Salem. Have a
Silverton story idea? E-mail him at
geoffparks@gmail.com.
With Oregon state parks a popular place to fly drones, state officials are
drafting new rules on where drones can take off and land. A public comment
period ends April 7. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
Drone
Continued from Page 1A
there would be times of the day or
dates when it might work.”
When would the rules be
finalized?
After the current public comment
period, parks officials will tweak the
rules — or not — and then bring them
to the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Commission meeting in either April or
June. The Commission would vote on
whether to adopt the plan.
“Our hope is that they’d be in place
for the 2022 summer season,” Chris
Havel, spokesman for the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department,
told the Statesman Journal in 2020.
What’s led to the need for this?
The number of drones flying at Ore-
gon’s most scenic places, particularly
the Oregon Coast, has been rising for
years, and that’s led to increased con-
flict between unmanned aircraft and
everything from nesting shorebirds to
rock climbers.
"It's something that is becoming a
concern, not in the majority of parks,
but really at the most scenic ones —
places like Smith Rock, Silver Falls and
on the Oregon Coast," Gauthier told
the Statesman Journal in 2019.
At Smith Rock State Park, drones
have crashed into rock cliffs right next
to climbers. At a nude beach at Rooster
Rock State Park, a drone with a camera
was spotted. And on the Coast, drones
have been driving endangered sea-
birds off their nesting sites, allowing
predators to swoop in and steal their
eggs, officials with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service said.
Beyond that, drones are often seen as
invasive and loud, spoiling the outdoor
experience.
Problem is, Oregon has no authority
over airspace — only where people take
off and land with drones. And legally,
they needed legislation from the Oregon
Senate to begin that rule-making. That
happened last session with the passage
of Senate Bill 109.
Drone pilots have also welcomed the
creation of straightforward rules, saying
Oregon’s lack of rules make it difficult to
know where pilots can fly. Drones are a
common tool for hobbyist and filmmak-
ers, supporting local economies, as well
as an important tool for search and res-
cue. They're not going anywhere, and
advocates say creating a good set of
rules is a win for everybody.
“The current situation is confusing,”
Kenji Sugahara, chief pilot for A-Cam
Aerials and an advisor on state and fed-
eral drone policy, told the Statesman
Journal in 2019. “There is no great re-
source to show where it’s good to fly.
Bad information is disseminated on so-
cial media. There’s confusion between
state, national and even county parks.
Even drone apps are often wrong."
Overall, the goal is to establish more
straightforward rules that allow pilots
and the public to use public lands safely,
officials said.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors re-
porter in Oregon for 15 years and is host
of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To sup-
port his work, subscribe to the States-
man Journal. Urness is the author of
“Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and
“Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be
reached at zurness@StatesmanJour-
nal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on
Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
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Evictions
Continued from Page 1A
years, said. “It took from the end of
July to Feb. 3rd to receive that notice.
We luckily have the current communi-
cation in there, but (the state) didn’t
even have the correct landlord infor-
mation.”
The state received $204 million
from the federal government in 2021 to
provide emergency rental assistance.
After it opened the program, it was
swamped with applicants. The Legis-
lature passed multiple bills in 2021 to
to keep those who applied for help
from being evicted while the state
worked through the backlog, provided
they showed proof of their application
to their landlord.
But as of March 1, those who owed
rent accrued from April 2020 to June
2021 must pay that back rent or land-
lords can now take steps to collect that
money, including by eviction.
The state isn’t saying exactly when
it anticipates sending the notices to
landlords, but they won't all be at
once.
Delia Hernandez, spokesperson for
Oregon Housing and Community Ser-
vices, said 3,290 applicants who were
denied for reasons including receiving
assistance from another source or
having too much income have had
their denials reported to their land-
lords.
Another 3,129 are in pre-denial,
which means they likely won’t get help
and their landlord likely will soon be
told they're denied.
Then there are the landlords of 3,791
applicants who have been formally de-
nied are soon going to receive notices
their tenants won’t be getting help.
“Those are gradual,” she said.
“We’re not going to grab them all and
send them.”
Evictions already on the rise
Evictions for non-payment in Oregon
spiked to 566 in November, from 361 in
July, according to data compiled by the
Oregon Law Center. Evictions fell to 437
in January and were back up to 497 in
February.
“I expect we’ll see larger upticks in
March and April,” Becky Straus, an at-
torney for the Oregon Law Center, said.
Landlords are required to give renters
10 days notice of eviction. Tenants who
are summoned to eviction court can get
free help from the Oregon Law Center’s
Eviction Defense Project at 888-585-
9638 or at oregonlawcenter.org/eviction
-defense-project.
Renters can still apply for rental as-
sistance. They can find information on
how to apply at www.oregonrental
assistance.org or www.211info.org.
Hernandez said the department will
announce when it will stop taking new
applications for the program – which
was funded by $100 million dedicated
by the state Legislature last year – later
this week.
“The likelihood of the assistance re-
maining, like I said, is pretty iffy,” Imse
said. “That’s going to leave a huge
amount of housing providers that are
never going to get the money that
they’re entitled to get for past due rent.
It’s going to cause providers to lose
thousands of dollars."
Smith said people who have been
counting on the state assistance to pay
their back rent and are denied have few
options for making up that debt. She
said it’s difficult to make payments
when someone is six months behind on
rent.
“I have residents that come to me
worried, stressed, crying, all of that,
wondering what’s going on with their
application,” Smith said.
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Reach him at
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
Mandate
Continued from Page 1A
On Feb. 24, the state moved up the
date for both, to March 19, saying hospi-
talizations were dropping faster than
expected. School districts also asked
that the school mandate lift at the same
time as the general mask mandate, Colt
Gill, Oregon Department of Education
director, said.
Health officials now predict the
state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations could
drop below 400 next week, or possibly
even this week. On Monday, there were
479 people hospitalized with COVID-19
in Oregon.
However, the state does not antici-
pate moving up the date again.
"By choosing this date, that gives
time for people to prepare for how
they're going to react when the mask
mandate is lifted," Dean Sidelinger,
state health officer and epidemiologist,
said.
On Friday, the U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention released
new guidance for masking, based pri-
marily on hospitalizations and hospital
capacity. It recommends masking be
optional in counties where COVID-19 in-
fections are a "low" or "medium" risk.
Some Oregon counties are consid-
ered "high" risk. But decisions about
masking will now be made at the local
level, Sidelinger said. The CDC currently
considers Marion and Polk counties to
be "medium" risk.
Individual school districts, too, could
decide to continue requiring masks, Gill
said. ODE expects to release new guide-
lines for school testing, quarantine and
contact tracing Wednesday.
Businesses also can decide whether
Gov. Kate Brown in her office at the
Oregon State Capitol.
ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
their employees or customers must
wear a mask.
Other state and federal mask re-
quirements, including those for health
care settings and public transit, re-
main in place for the time being.
Tracy Loew is a reporter at the
Statesman Journal. She can be
reached at tloew@statesmanjour-
nal.com, 503-399-6779 or on Twitter
at @Tracy_Loew