In a world full of sadness, an empty schoolhouse may not be the saddest thing you ever see, but it’s still pretty sad. This lament is prompted by the sight of Fir Grove Elementary School in North Albany, vacant since 2011, when the school board was forced to close it as part of a range […]
Four Albany City Council members made what could become a big mistake on Wednesday. Councilors Floyd Collins, Ray Kopczynski, Dick Olsen and Bill Coburn voted not to place in the city charter the debt-limit initiative voters had approved in March. Only Councilors Rich Kellum and Bessie Johnson were against rejecting the voters’ decision this way. […]
I stopped my bicycle on Spring Hill Drive on Tuesday to take a quick look at this field. It looked like a field of rapeseed or, as we now call it, canola. I would have been surer of this if there had been a sign telling passersby what they’re looking at. I’ve long had an […]
“No Coal Exports, We Can Do Better.” That’s what the lawn signs say, and they are right. We can do better than to export coal to Asia or anywhere else. But we won’t. We could do better by using the coal in our country. We have lots of it and it is relatively cheap. We […]
Tom Cordier, holding papers, after Monday’s city council work session. By declaring Albany’s debt-limit charter amendment to have passed, the city council could make peace with the more than 5,000 voters who approved it last month. But apparently it won’t. At a work session Monday, the council majority seemed to agree to go ahead and […]
This is how the Albany City Council plans to deal with voter approval of the debt limit initiative last month: At a work session on Monday afternoon it will preview the draft of an ordinance which the council could then enact on Wednesday. The outlines of the draft were agreed on — though not […]
Oregon will cut universities loose
Oregon’s three biggest public universities are about to undergo a big change in how they are governed. This could be good if it holds down or even lowers the price of attendance, as unlikely as that is. It will be a mistake if it accelerates the soaring rise in tuition and fees and results in […]
Tags: Mark Hass, Oregon State University, Oregon universities, SB 270