Hasso Hering

IP’s Albany Mill: A demolition update

Written May 18th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 3 responses.

Not much is left of the Albany Paper Mill in Millersburg except for an exhaust stack and piles of metallic debris. But the name at the former entrance off Old Salem Road remains, and it’s surrounded by a patch of well tended lawn. It’s as though somebody wants to keep our memory of the mill […]

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany Paper Mill, International Paper, Millersburg, Western Kraft

Paddle access? Yes, but it’s not easy

Written May 17th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: one response.

The state parks department has been planning for years to build a paddlers’ access on the Luckiamute River in Polk County, and maybe this is the year it finally gets done. In the meantime, though, boaters do have a way to get their small craft in the water, as the video shows.

Posted in: Commentary, News, Videos
Tags: Luckiamute Natural Area, Luckiamute Paddlers' Access, Luckiamute River, Oregon State Parks

Crash: A chance to test NA detour

Written May 16th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: no responses.

As you can see above, Pacific Power crew members worked Saturday afternoon to replace a power pole on North Albany Road. The road had been closed since Saturday morning. A worker manning the roadblock at the south end of the work zone told me that a trailer had come loose and slammed into the pole by the […]

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany Public Works, Emery & Sons, Gibson Hill Road, North Albany Road, power pole crash

Lawmakers labor over weed; why?

Written May 15th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 3 responses.

Nobody asked them, but Oregon legislators nevertheless want to change the law on marijuana. Mainly they want to construct an elaborate system of regulation and control. Apparently that would be on top of the regulations and tax system Measure 91 obliges the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to set up.

Posted in: Commentary
Tags: marijuana, Oregon legislature, SB 964

Ivory bill: Let’s create another crime

Written May 14th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 11 responses.

The Oregon ivory bill, you will not be surprised to learn, is alive and well and on its way to becoming law. It’s an example of the majority party’s tendency to create new crimes out of transactions that until now are legal under Oregon law because they do Oregon no harm.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: ivory, Oregon legislature, rhino horn, SB 913

Want to relax? Watch this …

Written May 14th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 2 responses.

Click on the video and you’ll see a whole fleet of not-so-little ducklings in what looks like a feeding frenzy at Albany’s Talking Water Gardens. Why show this? In case you need something totally mundane and unexciting to watch.

Posted in: Commentary, Videos
Tags: Albany wildlife, Talking Water Gardens

Albany asks that trains be funded

Written May 13th, 2015 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 6 responses.

Whether letters to legislators get results probably depends on whether legislators are inclined to do in the first place what the letters request. So Albany’s plea to fully fund Amtrak’s Cascade passenger trains may do no good, but it can’t hurt.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany City Council, Albany Station, Csacade trains, ODOT, Oregon legislature, passenger rail