Inquiring Minds on Land Use
In spite of the excellent investigative reporting by Christian Wihtol (EW) and Zac Ziegler (KLCC) concerning the mansion constructed illegally by Kathy Jones-McCann on the McKenzie River, I am left with several intriguing questions: Don’t general contractors, septic system installation companies and related construction folks like electricians and roofers, routinely inspect building permits, site plans, environmental impact statements and related documents before digging holes, pouring concrete and pounding nails?
How were heavy trucks transporting these materials able to do so crossing a hostile landowners property using roads deemed inadequate for fire trucks?
Is there a provision (loophole) in the county codes that allows a homeowner occupying a finished home to retroactively supply inspectors with snapshots taken during construction in order to circumvent live, in person inspections by county staff? If so, are such selfies sufficient to warrant after the fact waivers of building laws and codes and abatement of delinquent property taxes?
And finally, has Jones-McCann been issued a certificate of occupancy or is she, legally speaking, squatting on environmentally sensitive land? Keep up the good work, Chris & Zac; inquiring minds want to know.
Tom Arnold
Eugene
OCF Security Concerns
As someone with 45 years in the live music industry, helping launch and produce festivals throughout California, I attended the Oregon Country Fair for the first time this year. I loved the creativity, community and classic hippie spirit. The Fair is truly unique.
I also served nearly 19 years in the U.S. Navy, where I learned that public safety can never rely on good intentions alone. Today’s world has changed, especially with rising international tensions, and large public gatherings are increasingly attractive targets for those who wish to do harm.
My biggest concern was the inconsistent security screening at the entrances. I also found it difficult to understand why vendors inside the Fair could sell large knives and similar items while attendees are prohibited from bringing weapons through the gates.
I offer these observations with respect and appreciation, hoping they encourage thoughtful improvements that keep this wonderful event safe for everyone.
John Johnston
Eugene
Sounds Like a ‘Trump-ism’
Did you watch the Lane County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday afternoon, July 7? The public hearing was about a landowner (the applicant) who did not follow county building permit law, ignored procedure and regulations, dismissed the process and violated state fishery habitat conservation plans. Planning and building codes are in place and enforced to protect the public’s health, safety and environmental reasons. Without these protections, society would not function.
The three male commissioners (two of whom recently received large campaign contributions from the applicant) voted to approve the permits, after the fact, for this wealthy landowner who constructed a dwelling without permits, affecting a backchannel of the McKenzie River — where endangered Chinook smolt take refuge, develop and rest before continuing their journey (a sensitive fish area, per the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife).
The commissioners directed staff — experienced land use planners who know the laws — to go back and change their decisions (to deny the permit) in order to give the landowner what she wanted.
Sounds like a “Trump-ism” to me. If you’re rich, you can do whatever you want — and the electeds will take your “contributions” and support you — even if you are breaking laws, harming species, undermining your own staff and setting terrible precedent. We need change! Vote them out!
Debra E. McGee
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
I Want Off!
Captain Trump, skipper of The Ship of State, sent the first mate down into the hold to check on the cargo.
When the first officer returned, she said, “Every box with the Epstein label I opened was full of potatoes shaped like penises. I want off!”
“No can do,” answered the captain. “This is a dictatorship.”
Michael Foster
Eugene
Asking for Trouble
Two political rising stars recently flamed out due to morality problems: Eric Swalwell, a California congressman and Graham Platner, a Maine U.S. Senate candidate.
The lesson here is that “power corrupts.” People just cannot be trusted with political power for an extended period of time.
Ancient democratic Rome was so sensitive to term limits that their chief executives, called “consuls,” were only allowed to serve for one year before they were turned out to pasture.
Abigail Adams, the wife of America’s second president, warned her husband, “Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.” She knew what California and Maine need to learn.
America added term limits to the Constitution for our presidents in 1951 but set the term way too long. We also have failed to regulate terms for Congress and the Supreme Court.
We need to open our eyes to history. We are asking for trouble and we are getting it.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Republican Fear Mongering
Now that the Republicans are rightfully worried about losing the 2026 midterm elections, they are playing up fear of Communism again in the media, conflating the Democratic Party’s left agenda of making life better for working Americans as a socialist path to Communism. This is fear mongering, a pathetic leftover from the country’s Joe McCarthy’s Communist baiting era of the 1950S. The Republicans would have us believe that the current wave of Democratic Socialist candidates winning primary elections will lead to an American Politburo and Moscow-like military parades down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue. This is nonsense, like the wild QAnon “pizza-gate” rumor or the blind belief that Obama is really from Kenya and not an American. Left-of-center (not radical) Democrats want to change their sclerotic party, which mostly nibbles around the edges of change while not making waves with big donors. Among the changes the new Democrats want is a healthcare system that will truly serve the nation and make a major correction to the high cost of living. Universal free healthcare paid for by our taxes, like the military, would be overwhelmingly positive and welcome. No more military adventures and tax cuts for the rich alone would easily pay for such a system. Getting rid of Trump is fine, but removing the huge burden and quagmire of healthcare insurance off the shoulders of the working class is a needed change, no matter what you want to call it.