Rejoining AOCC
So many things seem so wrong these days. The vote by county commissioners David Loveall, Ryan Ceniga and Pat Farr to rejoin the Association of Oregon California Counties (AOCC) is baffling. This association is not a governmental body. It is a timber industry group. Thanks to these three commissioners, Lane County now pays dues to AOCC of around $80,000 a year. Our tax dollars at work!
AOCC is not a transparent organization. We really only know that we are supporting the timber industry. Plus, these same commissioners voted to have this group represent Lane County with the Bureau of Land Management plans on cutting old growth timber.
As many know, Oregon already produces more soft timber than anywhere else in the nation. And a great deal of it is shipped to other countries.
When I think of Loveall, I think of his gun-toting episode in Springfield to keep peaceful marchers off Main Street. When I think of Ceniga, I think of the huge signs all over his district pushing his reelection. They both get big donations from the timber industries, and Farr gets some, also. So, here we are, $80,000 later!
Sue Craig
Eugene
It is a Rare Write-in Chance
Oregon voters in House District 12 have a rare opportunity this election. Write-in Charlie Conrad.
I served in the Oregon Legislature, so I know what it actually takes to be effective there. It takes integrity. It takes independent thinking. Most politicians talk about those qualities. Charlie Conrad lives them.
Charlie has served in the Legislature before, which means he understands how to build coalitions and move legislation forward. He knows how to bring people together across differences to get things done.
What sets Charlie apart is something harder to find. He took a principled stand for his values and for your rights, knowing full well what it would cost him politically. That kind of courage is genuinely rare in elected office.
House District 12 deserves a representative who puts principle ahead of convenience. Charlie Conrad has already proven he will.
Write in Charlie Conrad for House District 12.
Marty Wilde
Eugene
Issues with Fish-ssues
A lot of people in Eugene reach for fish because they think it’s the “healthy” choice, but the reality is more complicated. Fish today carry risks that most consumers never hear about, and they’re not small ones.
Mercury levels in the Pacific have climbed for years, and mercury doesn’t just disappear once it’s in the food chain. It builds up in the body and can affect memory, coordination and long‑term brain health. That’s especially concerning for kids, pregnant people and anyone who eats fish regularly.
There’s also the issue of what’s actually in the fish we buy. Many species contain more saturated fat than people expect, which raises cholesterol and contributes to heart disease. Farmed fish often come from crowded pens where antibiotics and pesticides are used to keep diseases under control. Those chemicals don’t magically vanish before the fish reaches someone’s plate. Even wild‑caught fish can carry parasites or bacteria that pose real risks when eaten raw.
The nutrients people look for in fish, especially omega‑3s, are available directly from plant sources like algal oil, nuts, seeds and greens. You can get the benefits without the mercury, the contaminants, or the cardiovascular downsides.
If we’re serious about health, it’s worth rethinking the idea that fish is automatically the better choice. In many cases, it just isn’t.
Curtis Taylor
Eugene
4H Extension? Yes Please.
I’m supporting the Lane County 4H Extension levy (Measure 20-380). Of all the taxes I’m charged, I feel this is my best value for the dollar. My tax bill last year was $4800, my cost for 4H Extension was $7.13. The rate has been increased and would now be approximately $13. Vote yes on Measure 20-380, it will make a big difference at a very small cost. Thanks.
Don French
Eugene
The Garden Palette
I enjoyed reading The Garden Palette in the most recent issue of EW (May 5). One of the recommendations made in the article was for cat owners to keep their cats indoors.
I have many birdhouses and nesting areas in my yard and many kinds of birds come to nest and visit. I have found three dead birds in my yard and garden and two maimed squirrels and I have been picking up cat poop and cat pee clumps for years, almost daily. I have chased cats away that are lying in ambush under nesting areas.
I would like to see the city of Eugene enact an ordinance requiring cat owners to keep their cats indoors or, at the very least, in their own yards, however they can accomplish that. People who do not own cats should not have to spend their money on deterrents to keep other people’s cats out of their yards.
The city of Eugene can word the ordinance and figure out how to enforce it.
Chuck West
Eugene
Clearing the air on EWEB
Eugene City Councilor Alan Zelenka mischaracterized Eugene Water and Electric Board’s progress on climate change when he wrote (in EW’s May 7 edition) that during John Barofsky’s “time on the EWEB Board they have gone backwards on climate change, energy efficiency and renewables and salmon protection.”
EWEB is meeting every aspect of its climate change policy with a power supply that is 94 percent carbon free, helping customers decarbonize (including almost 200 building electrification projects in 2025), and being years ahead of target by reducing operational carbon emissions by 55 percent from 2010 levels. EWEB’s Electric Mobility Community Grant Program has distributed $544,660 in grant funds since 2022, including supporting projects of University of Oregon, Lane County, Lane Community College and city of Eugene.
Since 2023, EWEB has provided incentives supporting approximately 400 solar projects, and since 2001 has provided incentives for over 12,000,000 kilowatts of solar nameplate capacity. In 2025, EWEB incentivized almost 1,800 energy efficiency projects resulting in over 14,500,000 kWhs of energy savings in the first year alone. EWEB has helped plant over 1 million trees in the McKenzie Valley, supporting habitat protection and spent over $17 million on watershed recovery. EWEB has invested $4.9 million on habitat projects since the license was issued. This includes reservoir projects (Carmen Diversion, Smith and Trail Bridge) and in-stream (Lower Carmen Bypass Reach and Spawning Channel).
In my opinion, Zelenka is wrong.
John H. Brown
EWEB commissioner, Wards 4 & 5
Eugene
Editor’s Note: Brown is writing as a private citizen, not on behalf of EWEB’s board.
Go to EugeneWeekly.com for online extra election letters for the May primary!
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Your Health!
Worried about your health? Has “conventional” “medicine” failed you? Worried about what’s in the pills and potions “doctors” are forcing on you?
Well ladies and gentlemen, worry no more, for Dr. Bobby’s All Natural Miracle Rectifying Syrup is at hand! One Hundred Percent Guaranteed to cure all common ills!
Are you suffering from Creeping Glaborousness, Corpuscular Intrigue, Mormal, Rugby Ear or Cheeto face? Worrying about Auricular Loosening, False Munchausens Syndrome, Ostrich Knee, Spontaneous Combustion or the Pompitus of Love? Are you afflicted with Andromeda Strain, Coruscation Tendons, Cranial Orogeny or Reluctant Elbow? Has Quokka Grin, Broccoli Tongue, Plurb, Hyperactive Eye or The Whimpering Blorphs kept you from living life to its fullest? Is your sleep troubled by Phlumacious Globules, Sailor’s Waddle, Haggis Gullet, Dangling Participles or Reverse Benjamin Button Syndrome? Are you developing Displaced Frontal Lobes, Reversed Teeth, Hapsburg Jaw or a False Plastron?
Friends, the Cure is at Hand! Just imbibe two delightful spoonsful of Dr.Bobby’s All Natural Miracle Rectifying Syrup every half hour* and watch your Ills Disappear! No Chemicals! No expensive treatments, no “Doctor” Visits. Nothing but 100 percent pure Roadkill-Penis-Powder (with just a skosh of fermented Whale Carcass for flavoring). What could be simpler?
Set yourself free from pain and disease forever by simply sending $1.50 per bottle to The Big Beautiful Ballroom, sub-sub level basement #3, Room 1,332, Washingtrump D.C. 20543.
We won’t be sorry you did!
— For three years. If you miss a dose, you must start over.
— Plus $89.99 for shipping and handling.
Jamie Selko
Eugene
No Government-Prescribed Healthcare
I served in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 1992. I cycle and lift weights every day, follow a vegan diet and receive a clean bill of health every year when I visit my doctor at the VA.
Every day, I see advertisements for processed and sugar-filled foods. I understand the constant temptation to indulge, but I refrain simply by not buying unhealthy food. We have a host of wonderful and delicious vegan foods in our area that I instead choose to support.
Last weekend, these local vegan vendors were showcased at VeganFest. While my wife and I visited the booths, we stopped at the Healthcare for All Oregon table, an organization trying to achieve universal health care for Oregon’s residents.
I served dutifully to our government and its democratic values. I don’t believe healthcare should be governmentally prescribed. That will become a slippery slope to authoritarianism, which we’re already experiencing.
And while I believe there are benefits to Western medicine, doctors in America rely too much on prescription and additive services that only exacerbate basic health issues.
Yet I also recognize my healthcare is a right not guaranteed to everyone else. I have contacted the Universal Health Plan Governance Board and shared my concerns with them. We need healthcare to be separate from government control and we need doctors who are trained in non-Western approaches to medicine. Please consider visiting hcao.org to help create a more accessible healthcare system and more importantly, a better healthcare system.
Tom Atkerson
Eugene
Why Work?
Our society, through our government, pays farmers not to grow crops, ranchers not to raise livestock, and workers not to work (welfare). Supply and demand means non-idled farmers, ranchers and workers can charge higher rates while those idled will enjoy pure profit (paid for doing nothing). To provide the funding, surely the wealthy will pay the cost of increased taxes and regulations. Ignore that a tax is punishment for being a wealth producer (winner) while a subsidy is reward for being a wealth consumer (loser). Perhaps this is on purpose as bureaucracies must grow to enforce, collect and redistribute the taken private wealth.
Nonprofits try hard to keep administrative/labor costs below a third; how efficient are our public agencies? With some exceptions, public workers are paid twice as much for twice as long while only being half as productive compared to the private sector. I have been a naval officer, civil servant, NGO body-shop workforce, business owner, and elected official. Our middle class are now the public workers since most in the private sector have been driven down or out, feeding the expanding bureaucracies. Those creating extra wealth being targeted; millions now only produce just enough to meet their needs, denying society the benefits of their abilities. I shrugged in my 30s, realizing how little it cost to live comfortably; the less I produced, the better was my quality of life.