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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 25, 2016
Pierce says he needs large
donors to fund campaign
Republican
relied on his
own money
during primary
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SILVERTON — GOP
gubernatorial nominee Bud
Pierce said he is unlikely to
invest any more of his own
money in his campaign for
governor.
“I think my affl uence is
pretty tapped at this point,”
the Salem oncologist said.
“I frankly need to be able
to attract larger Republican
donors.”
Pierce made the comments
during the Oregon Newspaper
Publishers Association con-
ference Friday at the Oregon
Garden here.
For the past 30 years, the
association has traditionally
hosted the fi rst gubernatorial
debate of the general elec-
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
Bud Pierce, GOP candi-
date for governor, answers
questions during a forum
at the Oregon Newspaper
Publishers
Association
convention Friday. The po-
dium next to him is empty
because Gov. Kate Brown
declined to attend.
tion season. The debate turned
into a one-person forum for
Pierce after Gov. Kate Brown
declined to join in the event.
Pierce has contributed $1.3
million to his own campaign.
He has raised about $700,000
in contributions from others
and spent about $1.6 million.
Pierce poured most of his
money into a successful bid
to gain name recognition and
defeat his better-known oppo-
nent, Allen Alley, during the
primary election in May.
Pierce is relying on large
donors to orchestrate his gen-
eral election campaign, said
Stacey Kafka, communi-
cations director of Pierce’s
campaign.
“Kate Brown will have
union backing; that’s for
sure, and she’ll have certainly
large donors, and I need to be
able to do that,” Pierce said.
“That is part of being a viable
candidate.
Pierce made a speech and
fi elded questions from a panel
of journalists during Friday’s
event. A podium next to him
symbolically stood empty,
where Brown had been invited
to appear and debate her
opponent.
Brown is seeking elec-
tion to the top state post after
inheriting the job when Gov.
John Kitzhaber resigned amid
an infl uence-peddling scandal.
In a June email, Brown’s
campaign declined to partici-
pate in the debate, making her
the fi rst incumbent in 30 years
to skip the event, according to
the association . Brown’s cam-
paign gave the reason that the
governor was “focused on
her offi cial duties” and would
hold off on any debates until
September.
Brown originally was
scheduled to attend the Ore-
gon Mayors Association con-
ference in Lincoln City Fri-
day but had to cancel after
she found out two weeks ago
that her mother in Minnesota
was scheduled to have breast
cancer surgery , said Kristen
Grainger, Brown’s communi-
cations director.
Pierce has blasted Brown
for sidestepping the Oregon
Newspaper Publishers Associ-
ation debate, but on Tuesday,
he tweeted to Brown: “I’m
hoping for a good outcome for
your mom. Our thoughts and
prayers are with you and your
family.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Property owners rent luxury
tents, teepees to Bend’s tourists
Comforts of
home in the
great outdoors
By MARINA STARLEAF
RIKER
The Bulletin
BEND — A queen-sized
bed. Wi-Fi. A home-cooked
breakfast.
These amenities aren’t usu-
ally found at the average camp-
ground, where campers are
often responsible for bringing
their own toilet paper and are
lucky to access a shower.
But in the midst of peak
summer tourist season, prop-
erty owners are pitching lux-
ury tents, teepees and campers
on private property and offer-
ing them to Bend’s tourists.
The rentals cost anywhere from
$15 to well above $100, with
some that boast comforts such
as heated massage beds, tribal
rugs and feather pillows.
In Oregon and throughout
the rest of the country, glamp-
ing, or glamorous camping, is
a growing trend, with luxury
tent rentals and resort camp-
grounds popping up in several
states. From a $2,476-a-night
tent with an adjacent teepee in
Utah’s desert to a safari-style
tent for $1,155 a night on a
Montana cattle ranch, people
are paying hundreds of dollars
to camp without the discom-
forts of setting up a tent or start-
ing a fi re.
But there’s only one prob-
lem — it’s not legal to live in
tents, teepees, yurts or mobile
homes in the city of Bend, let
alone rent them out as vacation
rentals, according to city plan-
ners. Deschutes County gener-
ally doesn’t allow it either, with
the exception of RV parks, per-
mitted campgrounds and for
those experiencing medical
hardships.
“It just doesn’t meet our
code in any way, shape or
form,” said Rachel Ruppel,
an associate planner in Bend’s
Community
Development
Department.
Even if zoning laws allowed
people to live in tents or trail-
ers in Bend, property owners
would still be required to get an
operating license from the city
to open a vacation rental, she
said.
“One of the things of being
in a tourism-dependent econ-
omy is that people are often
trying to make ends meet,”
Ruppel said. “So they’re like,
‘Oh, this could be a really low-
cost way for me to get into the
County receives
state money for
prescription
drug monitoring
Tool to combat
drug abuse
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
The North Coast recently
received $40,000 in state
funding to expand the
region’s involvement in the
Oregon Prescription Drug
Monitoring Program.
Clatsop, Columbia and
Tillamook counties are part-
nering to use the funds on a
contractor, who will begin
fi nding and signing up med-
ical prescribers into the state
program. The program oper-
ates a system that moni-
tors over-prescribing opioid
drugs. The system shows if
a person received a prescrip-
tion before, who prescribed
it and when it was fi lled.
Clatsop County Pub-
lic Health Director Brian
Mahoney said about 140 pre-
scribers in the three counties
are not in the system. Pre-
scribers can be anybody with
prescribing privileges such
as doctors, nurses or dentists.
The contractor will hold
group meetings or one-
Proposed campaign
would promote
donating to charity,
not panhandlers
Associated Press
Joe Kline/The Bulletin via AP
A king stargazer suite is visible at Panacea at the Canyon Resort near Terrebonne.
long-term or short-term rental
market.”
An Airbnb spokeswoman
said the company asks all its
hosts to comply with local laws
when they sign up for Airbnb.
Right after property owners
select the location of their list-
ing, they’re provided with links
to webpages on complying
with local laws and how to be
a responsible host.
It’s also in HomeAway’s
terms and conditions that peo-
ple follow local laws when
listing properties as vacation
rentals, said Adam Annen,
a spokesman for company.
But because HomeAway.
com works like an advertising
agency, it doesn’t keep track
of clients’ booking records and
whether each one is complying
with local laws, he said.
Still, several Deschutes
County property owners are
offering up their land, tents
and trailers for rent to visitors,
with more than a dozen list-
ings on websites like Airbnb,
HomeAway and VRBO. With
names like “CAMPTIQUE,
boutique camping,” “Tipi
to the Sun” and “The Chief
Deschutes,” the listings say
visitors can expect an experi-
ence more similar to staying in
a hotel than roughing it in the
wilderness.
About an hour drive north of
Bend, visitors can pay between
$450 and $750 a night at Pan-
acea at the Canyon, a luxury
tent resort in Terrebonne. The
resort was opened to serve
as a sanctuary for those look-
ing to unplug from cellphones
and computers and reconnect
with nature, said owner Darren
Kling, who started planning
the resort with his wife nine
years ago.
Joe Kline/The Bulletin via AP
Darren Kling, owner of Pan-
acea at the Canyon Resort,
straightens a bed in one of
the resort’s king stargazer
suites on the property near
Terrebonne. Kling said he
spent nearly two years ob-
taining all the permits re-
quired to operate his resort.
The permitting process took
at least two years to complete,
Kling said, adding that the
resort was approved as a per-
mitted campground, rather than
short-term rentals.
Since then, “the whole lux-
ury camping thing has caught
on quite a bit,” Kling said.
But the vast majority of tent
and camper rentals listed in
and around Bend cost less than
most hotel rooms. Meanwhile,
the occupancy rate in Bend
hotels and lodging rose as high
as 90 percent in 2015, accord-
ing to Visit Bend data. And on
summer weekends, the occu-
pancy rate is even higher.
Over the last several years,
visitors to Bend are increas-
ingly opting for vacation rent-
als instead of hotels, which has
spurred pushback from some
Bend residents who say the
rentals have replaced long-term
housing and are a nuisance to
neighbors.
In response, a city task force
established new rules last year
that made it more diffi cult to
operate a vacation rental by
imposing a density limit. The
rules prevent two rentals from
being within 250 feet of each
other if approved after April
2015. Rental owners were also
required to purchase an operat-
ing license from the city, which
must be annually renewed.
Since the new laws went
into effect, there are few
enforcement issues with ille-
gal rentals, most of which
are spurred from complaints
by Bend residents, said Julie
Craig, a code enforcement offi -
cer for Bend. And so far, the
city hasn’t received any com-
plaints about visitors offering
tents or mobile homes as vaca-
tion rentals, Craig said.
“We are defi nitely com-
plaint-based, especially in the
short-term rental world at this
point,” Craig said. “We are all
about education and gaining
compliance, so very rarely with
code enforcement do we issue
any citations.”
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one-one sessions this sum-
mer with prescribers to edu-
cate and encourage them to
use the system. The funded
effort will continue through
September.
Columbia Pacifi c Coor-
dinated Care Organization
— which coordinates health
services for Oregon Health
Plan (CareOregon) members
in Clatsop, Columbia, Til-
lamook and coastal Doug-
las counties — is also pro-
viding a physician and staff
person to assist with signing
up prescribers into the state
system.
“When you go talk to a
physician, they like to talk to
other physicians,” Mahoney
said.
Mahoney said he hopes
the short-term project offers
better pain management for
patients and better commu-
nication between medical
providers and community
members.
“Hopefully, this can
increase the number of pre-
scribers in Tillamook, Clat-
sop and Columbia counties
who have access to this pre-
scription drug monitoring,”
he said.
BEND — A proposed
campaign in Bend will
encourage people to donate
to charity, not panhandlers.
The Bulletin reported
a group under the city’s
Downtown Livability Com-
mittee determined there was
more success in promoting
donations than increasing
enforcement and citations.
Bend Police Chief Jim
Porter and the rest of the
group told the council last
week that money goes fur-
ther when donated to orga-
nizations that help the
homeless.
Family Kitchen Develop-
ment Director Donna Burklo
was on the committee and
said panhandlers may use
money to feed addictions.
She said that to move the
campaign forward a com-
pany needs to be hired to
develop a marketing plan
and slogan.
Options include donation
stations and giving via text
message.
One group estimates over
2,000 people are homeless in
central Oregon.
Nurse surrenders license
after violating probation
The Daily Astorian
Registered nurse Jamie
D. Grijalva, of Astoria, vol-
untarily surrendered her
license last month for violat-
ing the terms and conditions
of her probation, according
to the Oregon State Board of
Nursing.
Grijalva was placed on
probation in November 2012
after she was reported to
the state board for diverting
eight hydrocodone from the
workplace in October 2011,
and supplying improper
documentation.
Since beginning proba-
tion, Grijalva has missed
urine drug tests and tested
positive for ETG, a metabo-
lite of alcohol, according to
the state board. Both are vio-
lations of probation.
After three years, she can
submit an application to the
state board to reinstate her
license .
Grijalva was originally
issued her registered nurse
license in July 1998.
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