Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
Sorted by date Results 751 - 775 of 1812
In the early morning hours of January 9, 2018, intense rainfall loosened debris and mud in the Santa Ynez mountains, in Santa Barbara County, that had been torched by the Thomas Fire just months before. The resulting debris flow killed 23 people, injured another 167 and damaged at least 400 homes. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain witnessed the aftermath in person. "It gives you a sense of the physical forces involved," he said. "You see cars up in trees and boulders the size of trucks strewn...
LEABURG: The Eugene Water & Electric Board is reviewing four options dealing with the Leaburg Canal - ranging from full decommissioning to complete restoration. Officials say changes are needed on the 1920s era canal because of seepage and internal erosion of the canal levees. EWEB has not generated electricity since 2018. Today the canal barely flows as water from tributary streams is channeled to the McKenzie River. During the entire process, safety has been EWEB's top priority, for both the c...
BLUE RIVER: Candidates for Oregon's governorship and State Senate District 6 were in Blue River recently for a meet and greet with local residents. Both say they would like to avoid partisan issues and help rural communities have a stronger voice. Patrick Starnes, who'd like to become the state's top official, said he was drawn to the idea of "working on the bigger picture, which means the whole state." A Democrat, one of his key issues is campaign finance reform, which he's put into practice...
RAINBOW: People interested in local medical care can learn more when McKenzie Valley Wellness (MVW) holds its 2022 annual meeting next month. From its start in 1977, the McKenzie River Clinic provided primary health care to the upper McKenzie River Valley. But in 2019 the organization's annual report explained that increased administrative costs, computer expenses, and equipment purchases - as well as changes to insurance reimbursements - had resulted in withdrawals of funds from the clinic's...
RAINBOW: Candidates out to challenge political incumbents made their case last week at Takoda’s Restaurant. Seeking a post at the national level is Darin Harbick, who would like to replace Ron Wyden as one of Oregon’s two U.S. Senators. Seeking the Eastern Lane seat on the five-member county board of commissioners, Kyle Blain is facing off against Heather Buch, who has filed for re-election. Harbick, a local resident who owns a number of businesses, would first have to beat six other Rep...
The Willamette National Forest will close part of Forest Service Road 19, also known as Aufderheide Drive for fire recovery and safety mitigation. The closure order went into effect on April 4th and will continue until June 3rd. The work will take place between milepost 54.32 and milepost 56.32 near Cougar Reservoir, and a gate will be installed south of Forest Road 1900-408. Access to several popular recreational day-use sites and campgrounds, including Terwilliger "Cougar" Hot Springs, will...
https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/or/vida/KORVIDA8...
11-year-old Blue River man who has been missing for almost five months still remains a mystery. His sister, Stacy Sprenger, says the family hopes that as the weather improves and snow melts people will help look in areas where he could possibly be found. Shane Sprenger's abandoned silver 2009 GMC Sierra was found near U.S. Forest Service Rd. 15 east of Blue River Reservoir last November 4th. Cellphone pings seemed to show Sprenger had been near the reservoir, but his phone had been turned off....
7-year-old Eric Ray Brazil was reported missing to the Springfield Police Department by a friend earlier this month after last being seen on March 14th. Yesterday Lane County Sheriff's deputies responded to a wooded area near the end of Goodpasture Road in Vida after a passerby reported finding Brazil's car unoccupied. Personnel fromLane County Sheriff's Search and Rescue responded and have been searching the area for him. Brazil is described as a Latino male adult approximately 5'11" and...
McKenzie Locals Helping Locals vice president Cliff Richardson recalls that Joel Zeni, Project Manager for Suulutaaq, approached him last year with a novel idea. That proposal focused on what to do with hazard trees that were being removed from private properties. "A lot of those folks that did not want to market their logs, didn't have enough to market," Richardson says, or they didn't have marketable logs. Instead, under the plan, people could donate their resources to one of three...
VIDA: For the last two years the McKenzie’s Woden Boat Festival has been canceled because of COVID restrictions. But this year it returns on April 23, 2022, at Eagle Rock Lodge which is located at 49198 McKenzie Hwy, Vida, Oregon. The Lodge is located on the McKenzie River between milepost 34 and 35 East of Eugene, Or. Come, relax, and learn about the river and the history of this influential double-ended boat from 10 am – 4 pm. Admission is free. The McKenzie River Guides Association will hav...
EUGENE: Lane County is partnering with the Oregon Building Codes Division to launch a grant program to help owners of homes and businesses rebuild after the 2020 Oregon wildfires. Homeowners, including those with a manufactured home, or a business that was damaged or destroyed by the 2020 wildfires can receive money to cover the costs of using more fire-resistant methods and materials when they rebuild. People who have already rebuilt also qualify for the grants. Fire hardening is an important tool to help make homes more resistant to fire. It...
MCKENZIE BRI DGE: Efforts to construct a new access point for the McKenzie River Trail are moving forward - on the ground, at least. Three weeks ago members of the Dirt Dogs gravel cycling group completed leveling a pathway from the Clear Lake Cutoff to a ledge at the edge of Robinson Canyon. Sam Taylor, who's been leading the volunteer group's work party said they've reached the edge of a sharp dropoff where a new "We're ready," Taylor said, "and have already packed in the main cables and...
RAINBOW: After a particularly bad round of golf, Robert Becker said he decided not to go to the nineteenth hole [the clubhouse bar] and started to go straight home. As he was walking to the golf car park to get his Range Rover, a Sheriff's Deputy stopped him and asked, "Did you tee off on the seventeenth hole about twenty minutes ago?' 'Yes', Robert answered 'Did you happen to slice your ball so that it went over the trees and out of bounds and completely out of sight?' "Yes, I did. How did you...
CLEAR LAKE: A group of tourists spent almost four hours last Saturday night hunting for a missing woman near Clear Lake, only to find her among the search party. The group was traveling through the area on a tour bus and had made two prior stops at Koosah and Sahalie Falls. Soon after having an early lunch at the Clear Lake Resort, word spread that a female passenger was missing. The woman, who had changed clothes, didn’t recognize the description of herself and joined the volunteer party. But the search was called off about 3 p.m. when it b...
SPRINGFIELD: When it comes to hitching a ride to school, we're told by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that riding a school bus is the safest way to go about it. In fact, the NHTSA reports that while four to six school-age children die each year in school-owned vehicles, school buses are the safest roadway travel mode. While those kinds of statistics are impressive, the Springfield School District wanted to know, "if school buses really are safer than cars, why don't most...
LEABURG: The McKenzie Valley's housing stock took a severe hit when 464 dwellings were destroyed in the 2020 wildfire. Residents of some homes along the Leaburg Canal say as many as eight others probably won't be lived in much longer, after they're sold to the Eugene Water & Electric Board. A memo from Lisa Krentz, the utility's generation manager, was posted on social media this week. It noted EWEB is purchasing properties "in anticipation of future construction work on the Leaburg Canal in...
FINN ROCK: RAIN wasn't part of a weather report but the acronym held some promise of better days ahead for people interested in local business. Representatives of the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network delivered that message during their presentation last Monday night in the McKenzie High School gym. Caroline Cummings, executive director of RAIN, explained was formed to work with people interested in starting or improving businesses in rural communities. The organization is currently...
The Oregon Legislature has passed the Private Forest Accord, which is aimed at bringing durable protections for salmon and cold, clean water across 10 million acres of private Oregon forestland. The legislature also established the Elliott State Research Forest, intended to transform this coastal rainforest into a sanctuary for science. And the legislature allocated a first-ever river resilience funding package to protect streamflows in the face of drought. "Oregon is now responding with needed...
LEABURG: Dreams of a state-of-the-art interactive visitor center moved closer to reality during the Oregon legislature's 2022 short session. Their approval of a $3 million lottery fund package was earmarked for the development of the McKenzie River Discovery Center (MRDC). "The board of directors sin-cerely thanks the legislature for this vote of confidence," said Shirley Braunstein, treasurer of the MRDC. "We appreciate the near 50 letters of support from community leaders, business and...
Worries about fire weakened trees and sloughing hillsides became realities Saturday night when high winds and heavy rains hit the McKenzie Valley. In addition to knocking down power lines serving Lane Electric and the Eugene Water & Electric Board, trees also impacted highway travelers. First responders answered a 911 call shortly after 8 p.m. on Saturday when a report came in that a 10-inch diameter tree was blocking the McKenzie Highway near milepost 31. The caller also said the tree had fallen on a vehicle whose two occupants were "out,...
BLUE RIVER: The Holiday Farm Fire raged through the heart of the McKenzie Valley in 2020. It left behind some sobering statistics: 173,000 acres burned, one fatality, 431 homes, and 24 structures lost, along with a $103 million lawsuit seeking damages from two utilities. Destroyed as well was a 1970's era medical clinic in Blue River. McKenzie Valley Wellness (MVW), a local non-profit, owned the building and had operated it as the McKenzie River Clinic until 2019. That year MVW sold the medical...
Mountain regions have a large potential for hydropower that cannot be harnessed effectively by conventional technologies, says the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. IIASA researcher Julian Hunt and an international team of researchers developed an innovative hydropower technology based on electric trucks that could provide a flexible and clean solution for electricity generation in mountainous regions. In the transition towards a more sustainable future, hydropower will...
The Willamette National Forest will hold a virtual public meeting on a proposal to decommission Delta Campground on the McKenzie River Ranger District. The Zoom meeting is scheduled from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on March 17th. Officials say their proposal is being considered because the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire burned the area at a very high intensity and killed all the trees in the campground as well as the adjacent Delta old-growth grove. The dead and burnt trees have been identified as posing an...
During McKenzie Fire & Rescues' morning and evening drills on February 23rd, crews were able to get valuable training on a structure owned by Jon and Jerri-Jo Payne. The house, at 42831 Leaburg Drive, stood behind the Leaburg Store and was scheduled to be torn down to make room for a new home. Over 25 fire district members were able to take part in the training - breaching interior and exterior walls, as well as the ceiling and roof. Breach a wall is viewed as a lifesaving skill. "If a...
