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About Oregon news herald. (Drain OR) 2025-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2025)
Vol #3 Issue #1 January 2025 FREE Formerly the North Douglas Herald Our Name Has Changed The North Douglas Herald is now the Oregon News Herald Yes, after a year and a half of expansion and growth, we have changed our name to re- flect that change. We started in the summer of 2023 to service a region that was in a newspaper “desert”. North Douglas county is mostly a rural and small town area that seemed starv- ing for the printed news and information small town newspapers used to serve in this country. Bringing local, community and municipal news, public safety reports, along with school sports and a splash of entertainment and even a monthly crossword seemed to catch on. From a little over a thousand circulation to twenty five hundred within the first few months seemed to confirm my own suspicions of the need for the printed word. It was an auspicious start and has been a steady incline in both successes and obstacles to overcome. Our number one goal was to be able to provide a free newspaper to those who wish to read and have an actual printed newspaper. Initially we mailed the newspaper to local resi- dences but over time we began to get requests from out of the county and even out of state. Since our funding is totally from advertising the mailing costs soon outstripped our advertising revenues by the time we reached about 3200 mailing circulation. About that time, the North Douglas Herald, had also embarked on a distribution model that started as small stacks of newspa- pers on businesses shelves and racks around the North Douglas county area. As we received new requests for the newspaper outside of the local area, the Herald began branching out, first in Cottage Grove and then Sutherlin, but soon in Reedsport, slowly branching out and adding more news subjects and information as we spread the word. Since mailing was stifling Continued on Page 6 Pass Creek Park Recommended for Sale Bird Flu in Oregon & across the US Story by Rusty Savage Photos by Joe Ross ... Advisory Council Hears Public Input When it was announced last September, that the Pass Creek Park was going to be closed, it came as quite a surprise to Curtain and North Douglas County area residents. The Douglas County Commissioners announced the closure, citing low use and revenues, major repair and renovations needed and lack of resources to maintain the Park. It didn’t take residents long to begin launching a citizen response in opposition. The online campaign pitted numerous arguments for keeping the Park. Some objected to the seemingly indifference that the county showed for residents’ opposition and their points of view. Some were solution oriented and some questioned the intent of the county to deprive and squander their resource. The back and forth online and various attempts to get answers through county meetings and other conversations were not very productive nor informative. It came down to Continued on Page 6 Willamette Valley Motoplex Lane County’s 1 stop Motorcycle Mall Story & Photos by Rusty Savage Last month you were introduced to Joshua Sklaroff, Owner & General Manager at Willamette Valley Harley- Davidson® at 86441 College View Rd and Willamette Valley Indian Motorcycle® at 86463 College View Rd, both in Eugene. As Josh told us, they have added the Royal Enfield® brand of motorcycles to their line up and with that they have launched the Willamette Valley Motoplex. The Willamette Valley Motoplex represents all of their model line ups in a veritable one stop motorcycle mall. Motorcycles for every type of rider with accessories, apparel and first rate service for all 3 brands. The Willamette Valley Motoplex has something for everyone, even non riders need a t- shirt or souvenir and a tour through the showrooms. Yes it is the Motoplex, that Story by Rusty Savage Bird Flu is becoming more of a concern to Oregonians and all Americans, especially since the first known case of avian influenza in a pig in the United States was confirmed at a small farm in Central Oregon last October. Agriculture officials say there is no concern about the safety of the nation’s pork supply at this time and if we didn’t hear any more about it, then maybe it is of no concern. But we do hear more. Since 2022 we have heard of nearly 1 million commercial chickens, in Oregon alone, (100M in the US in the last 7 years) have been destroyed due to Bird (Avian) Flu. Still the official standing is that there is no cause for concern for the flu crossing into humans. The news around the nation includes tidbits of possible cross over infection of H5N1 with a dairy cows in central California, 1 death. There was the reported deaths of 20 big cats, including cougars, tigers, and lynxes, at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton Washington. Detected around Thanksgiving, some succumbed to the disease within a day or two of symptoms. 2 house cats died in Oregon and Washington, contracting the H5N1 from a commercial raw Cat food product in December and several more cats in northern California were infected and died as well. So far it looks like Bird Flu is crossing the species boundaries at every juncture. The official word is that there is little chance of Avian Flu becoming a serious problem for human beings and that significant mutations would have to occur before any fears of say - a pandemic - and even then the symptoms and efficacy would likely be mild. Now zoom forward to the CDC report of December 26th 2024. A person that has contracted H5N1 in Louisiana is now severely ill from the infection. The report reveals a concerning mutation has occurred in this patient that makes transmission easier among humans. Genetic analysis suggests the H5N1 virus has the capacity to mutate in ways that could make it more transmissible to humans. H5N1 bird flu samples collected from a severely ill patient in Louisiana show signs of mutations that may make the virus more transmissible to humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, December 26th. An unidentified patient, who was Continued on Page 10 Elk Creek Watershed Coalition Meeting Story by Rusty Savage I was really encouraged to learn that there is a new Watershed for Elk Creek forming in Douglas county. You know the old Continued on Page 5 It is a Growing Concern Elk Creek Watershed Council voted to dissolve over a year ago. The ECWC was run by James Mast and with long time member Lee Russel Continued on Page 10 An example of watershed improvement from perched culvert to flowing steam tributary crossing.
