WELCOME THE NEW Y
Went to the Y’s opening ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 16. Very inspirational. Then worked out at the facility on opening day, Monday. Fantastic! And the staff was on top of all the inevitable (minor) glitches. Here’s hoping the community will get behind this incredible resource. Join now!
Mark Thompson
Eugene
SUPPORT NONPROFITS THROUGH THE CULTURAL TRUST
For more than two decades, the Oregon Cultural Trust has played an essential role in enriching cultural resources across our state by supporting more than 1,600 nonprofits. The Cultural Trust and its donors continue to weave a unique and awe-inspiring cultural tapestry, united by artistry, defined by stories and guided by wisdom.
Now, the Cultural Trust is calling for all Oregonians to #MakeCultureCount by supporting the amazing cultural nonprofits that define our communities and our quality of life.
How? It’s simple. The Cultural Trust empowers Oregonians to leverage their support to arts, heritage and humanities nonprofits with the Cultural Tax Credit. When you match your cultural donations with a gift to the Cultural Trust, you play a vital role in funding more than 1,600 cultural organizations. And come tax time, you will receive a 100 percent state tax credit refund for your donation to the Cultural Trust.
By using the Cultural Tax Credit, Oregonians and the Cultural Trust have awarded close to $40 million, and counting, to nonprofits across the state. This year alone, close to $3 million was awarded to 136 organizations — including block grants to 45 County and Tribal Cultural Coalitions that annually make an additional 450 local awards.
Please join the movement and #MakeCultureCount in your community. Add up the donations you made to cultural organizations this year, then match them with a gift to the Cultural Trust. When you file your taxes, enter the amount you matched to the Trust on your 2023 Oregon Tax Form to claim your tax credit.
Learn more and donate at CulturalTrust.org or by calling 503-988-0088.
Marsha Klosterman
Cultural Trust board member
PS: Maximum tax credit limits are $500 for individuals, $1,000 for couples filing jointly and $2,500 for C-class corporations.
RESPONSE TO FARM CAFÉ
Please take what Bob Emmons writes with a grain of salt, and a bit of skepticism.
Yes, Emmons is right. We have been determined we qualify to use our land as a farm brewery.
That determination was handed down on Oct, 19, 2023.
That does not make us a brewery.
That means we can proceed to the next step. Now it’s about how we install our nano-brewery into the big red barn. Electrical schematics, plumbing, etc.
And then it will be a proper OLCC brewery license.
And then the Federal Tax and Trade Commission.
There’s also the fact we are a seasonal, outdoor venue. The season ended on Halloween for our hospitality (food trailer).
But, maybe Emmons is right? Maybe we can hold agritourism events now even with just the approved land use? But we can’t make or sell any beer without a brewery license. So that should be interesting.
I hope that I have some miraculous fortune to keep the hospitality business alive here at the farm.
And that’s been my gripe from the beginning. Lane County LMD is approaching this as if we need permission, and I hold that is already an approved land use. That determination should have taken Lane planning two weeks. Not two years. Then we proceed on how we handle the install.
We are not building anything at Hentze Family Farm. We are installing a small brewhouse.
This will allow us to create value added products (beer) from our harvests. And allow us to sell them.
Emmons has portrayed us as the authors of the Farm Cafe Bill. We are not.
We are supporters, yes.
And we feel that all Oregonians should support the Farm Cafe Bill.
As Emmons alludes to in his incredibly disingenuous op-ed, all Oregon farmers may only monetize the sale of alcohol on their farm four times per year and 90 days apart. And when we are a brewery? Those outdated outdoor gathering statutes will not apply to us.
We champion the Farm Cafe Bill because it will help other small farmers that want to moonlight as an event venue. Farmers generally do not know how to hold events, like weddings, and they need the proper staff to do so. A caterer. Properly trained alcohol servers. And, perhaps most importantly, event insurance to limit the farm’s exposure.
I’m here to tell you that Emmons is full of poop. Yes, the Farm Cafe Bill does allow for the 5,000 square foot seating area. And maybe the construction of something like that might lead to more global warming? But restaurateurs, and developers, are not going to be rushing to build cafes in rural areas because there just isn’t the traffic.
The Farm Cafe Bill just gives those farmers that want to embrace agritourism an opportunity.
Read the bill introduced: (olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB1087/.
The real message is equity. Only a “Large Winery” can operate a brick and mortar restaurant in EFU. No other farmer may. It’s not fair. And land use activists deserve scrutiny.
Patrick Fay
Hentze Family Farm
HEALTH CARE MALARKY
Impoverished alter-abled Benthamite Hippie craftsper sez the hand-wringing over University District closure is privileged firstie malarky. Yes, tens of thousands will perish in agony when Cascadia rips loose, but most people get through life with few life-threatening problems. If a delay of several hours to reach a hospital means they die, perhaps it was their time to die.
My brain sprang 27 leaks while I was supporting my family by transcribing from a weekly rent motel. Scarred Heart dispensed the mandated emergency care, then discharged me to the street at 1am without notifying my partner. A passerby called and we squatted in the Overpark garage for a week before social workers arranged medicare and transport to OHSU.
I survived. Takes a lot to kill most people.
Best way to ration emergency care is to have people call a central triage site. A few questions with AI will prioritize uncontrolled bleeding, heart attack and stroke. Send EMS.
Next tier — ortho trauma, kidney stones, high fever in kids, messy nausea and vomiting — assign an ER or urgent care check in time.
We have squandered millions on treating complex social service problems with ER care. Time to live within our budget.
Six percent of University District ED patients are admitted, 21 percent of RiverBend ED patients are admitted (University District) fact sheet.
joi cardinal
Eugene
UNCOMFORTABLE ER WAIT
PeaceHealth has been in the news a lot lately due to the unfortunate closure of their University District branch, and that glaring loss demands resolution. My complaint is far more pedestrian than those big issues for those people seeking medical care.
As an occasional visitor to their ER, patients are obliged to wait for treatment sitting in hard office style chairs, often for hours in pain and discomfort, adding another level of stress.
Unless you present cardiac symptoms or are losing blood on the carpet, the triage process does its sorting, and those deemed not as dire are left to wait it out, uncomfortably in rigid chairs designed more for staff meetings (which can be their own form of agony).
Waiting is a fact of life, of course, whether in an airport, office or food line. However, for those who are suffering, every minute is interminable, and the wait times are usually unknown.
I know a budget is a compromise, from CEO pay to public bicycles, but even some Costco reclining folding picnic chairs would be an improvement in this case.
Let me close by saying I have deep appreciation for the care, compassion and skill of the PeaceHealth staff, but a little empathy by management for those of us enduring patiently on the other side of the door would go a long way.
Mark Murphy
Eugene
SHAME WITHOUT A CEASE-FIRE
Eric Howanietz, in his letter about the suffering of children trapped alive under rubble, reminds us of our guilt and inaction in this ongoing indiscriminate revenge on civilians.
The death toll in Gaza reaches over 20,000 (probably a minimum), representing about 1 percent of Gaza’s population. If the equivalent war mortality were to be inflicted on the U.S. (current population 331.9 million in 2021 ) the number of casualties would be an astounding 3.32 million! A picnic compared to 9/11’s horror, although it launched us into two long, murderous, costly and devastating wars; one (Afghanistan) lasted 20 years, neither ended triumphantly.
As some celebrate the holidays here in Fortress America, a CNN article informs us that, since Oct. 7, the U.S. has provided Israel with more than 5,400 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs. Reports (by CNN and The Washington Post) suggest that around 45 percent of the bombs dropped on densely populated Gazan neighborhoods are so called “dumb” (without GPS-guidances). The collateral “gift” of destruction brought upon civilians by these American-made bombs is indescribable. The latest UN Security Council watered-down bid to remedy the suffering is far too little and too late to rejoice about, no immediate cease-fire is included, allowing for the safe distribution of desperately needed aid. How can I not enter the new year with my head hanging down in shame?
maRco Elliott
Eugene
WHAT WAR IS NOT
I am concerned with the letters and speeches condemning Israel for the way it wages war. As if war is a game that has to be played by your rules. Hamas is an organization that has in its charter the call for the destruction of Israel and the death to the Jewish people. The slogan “from the river to the sea,” is just another way of stating Hamas’s aims.
In the 12/22 Register-Guard, it was reported that 11,500 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel. Every one of them was aimed at civilians. Where is the outrage? Israel is in a fight to the death. People call for a pause in the fighting on humanitarian grounds as if war is a humanitarian activity. War is not a humanitarian activity; just ask the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Norman Bellitt
Springfield
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