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Rerun: Coos Bay Future Explosion? · Crosstabs

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All opinions expressed on cross tabs are those of Brian and
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Reagan and do not
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SPEAKER_00: reflect the views,
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SPEAKER_00: thoughts,
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SPEAKER_00: or opinions of individual legislators or the Legislative Assembly.
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SPEAKER_00: Relax.
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SPEAKER_00: Some things are just for fun.
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SPEAKER_00: Guests likewise join the show to express personal views and opinions.
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SPEAKER_00: We desperately hope they say something funny or entertaining.
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SPEAKER_00: But thoughts shared,
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SPEAKER_00: whether entertaining or stultifying,
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are those of the individual and separate from any role or a
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title a guest may
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SPEAKER_00: possess.
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SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the show.
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SPEAKER_00: Or don't.
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SPEAKER_00: But don't go whining about it if it's the latter.
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SPEAKER_00: We're clear to engage.
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Time on target.
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Fire mics.
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Out.
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SPEAKER_01: When did you first meet Reagan?
1:04
SPEAKER_01: How old was he?
1:06
SPEAKER_01: Let's see.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: It would have been 20 years ago.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but he'd been like seven.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: So 27.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: No, he's 29.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: So he'd been about nine, I guess.
1:16
His dad and I,
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his dad came in for the second time,
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but I came in for the first time back in 05.
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SPEAKER_01: And that's when his family was around at the Capitol all the time anyway.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: So, yep.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: So you were elected in 2004?
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SPEAKER_03: Correct.
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SPEAKER_03: As state representative.
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SPEAKER_03: And you ascended to co-speaker of the House in 2010.
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SPEAKER_03: Yep, 11 and 12.
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SPEAKER_03: Or 11, I guess you guys would have been technically.
1:43
SPEAKER_03: Right, 11 and 12, yeah.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: Which,
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SPEAKER_03: you know,
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SPEAKER_03: in the building today is considered to be,
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SPEAKER_03: they say,
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SPEAKER_03: the most bipartisan session ever.
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SPEAKER_01: That's the word on the street.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it kind of had to be because
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Every one of our committees were equally staffed by Republicans
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and Democrats.
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SPEAKER_01: Every committee had two chairs, a Democrat and a Republican.
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SPEAKER_01: It was hard not to be bipartisan.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: The issue that was good about it,
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SPEAKER_01: though,
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SPEAKER_01: was that Speaker Hannah and I got along really well,
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SPEAKER_01: and our staff worked well together.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
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It didn't mean that when we went back to our caucuses,
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it always went well.
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SPEAKER_01: I can imagine caucus meetings were just insane.
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SPEAKER_01: They often have different ideas than we did, but it was okay.
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SPEAKER_03: I can imagine.
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SPEAKER_03: Well, hey, welcome everybody to Crosstabs.
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Obviously,
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if you haven't figured out,
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we're speaking with former Senator Arnie Roblin.
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SPEAKER_03: If you knew any history,
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you obviously knew he was Speaker of the House and then he
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ascended to the Senate.
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SPEAKER_03: We have his replacement.
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SPEAKER_03: when he retired from the Senate, Senator Dick Anderson with us as well.
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SPEAKER_03: And we're going to talk some Coos Bay and some fun stuff.
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SPEAKER_03: Reagan's not here.
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SPEAKER_03: So we get to talk about him as much as possible.
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SPEAKER_03: And he might come on.
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SPEAKER_03: But I so when you left, when did you leave?
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SPEAKER_01: Did you leave then in 12 to go run for Senate?
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SPEAKER_01: I did.
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SPEAKER_01: So I in 12, I ran because at that time, Senator Verger retired.
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SPEAKER_01: And so
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SPEAKER_01: It was open.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm a moderate Democrat,
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and my caucus was getting more and more what I would call
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progressively liberal,
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and I realized that it was better for me to go look at kinds of
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things in the
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SPEAKER_01: Senate,
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SPEAKER_01: which is a slightly different organization than the House,
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SPEAKER_01: and
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SPEAKER_01: And the system, it was open for me.
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SPEAKER_01: So I ran for that and then served there eight years as well.
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Did you assume like at that time,
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like when you said progressive liberal,
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I'm just curious.
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SPEAKER_03: I love the history stuff.
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SPEAKER_03: So.
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SPEAKER_03: Did you just assume that maybe if,
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SPEAKER_03: because you guys obviously took back the House,
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SPEAKER_03: you won back four of the six seats.
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SPEAKER_03: I think you guys lost.
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SPEAKER_03: So, four of the six seats, you won.
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SPEAKER_03: So,
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did you just think that that ability to become or retain
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speakership was not going
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SPEAKER_03: to be there because of that?
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SPEAKER_01: No, I think they would have elected me speaker, but...
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SPEAKER_01: It would not have been a comfortable place.
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It would have challenged what I believed was the right way to
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move things forward.
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SPEAKER_01: And a person who had been really helpful for me,
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SPEAKER_01: the second half of that term,
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SPEAKER_01: we changed leaders in the caucus.
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SPEAKER_01: The first part of the term, Dave Hunt was the leader.
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He had been the previous speaker,
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and he and my Republican friends did not get along very well.
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SPEAKER_01: And so...
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SPEAKER_01: In the middle of that whole thing,
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SPEAKER_01: Tina Kotek took over as the leader and that worked out really,
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SPEAKER_01: really well for me.
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She was a very good caucus leader when it came to being able to
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speak both the
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SPEAKER_01: language of the moderate and the progressives.
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SPEAKER_01: And she helped me as speaker a lot to make sure that we got things done.
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SPEAKER_01: So I appreciated that.
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SPEAKER_01: I knew that she really did want to be speaker and
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SPEAKER_01: That was not necessarily my goal.
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And I got into it because I felt like I was one of the few
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people who could manage
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SPEAKER_01: it during that weird session of a tie.
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SPEAKER_01: So I chose to do that and then saw the opportunity in the Senate.
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SPEAKER_01: We had worked very closely with Peter Courtney and I was always
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SPEAKER_01: kind of amazed at his leadership style.
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He was a difficult person to have a conversation with if you
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had something you
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SPEAKER_01: really wanted to talk about.
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SPEAKER_01: He would change the subject exceptionally well.
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I could never figure out how he has such loyalty of his staff
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because he would yell at them.
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They'd go off and do different things,
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but he did it in a way that was loving.
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SPEAKER_01: Most of them really cared for him.
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SPEAKER_01: Even after they left, they would come back and work closely with him.
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And I thought that would be a good learning experience for me
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because I've always
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SPEAKER_01: looked at learning about leadership in its different forms.
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And he had been exceedingly helpful for the two of us when we
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were co-speakering
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SPEAKER_01: because he had gone through the same thing a few years before that.
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SPEAKER_01: So the Senate had tied before.
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SPEAKER_01: They went about doing it very differently than we did.
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SPEAKER_01: But he understood the complexities of having that.
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SPEAKER_01: And then
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SPEAKER_01: The governor was helpful.
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SPEAKER_01: We both talked about it.
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SPEAKER_01: It was weird.
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We probably met with the governor almost every day and with the
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Senate president,
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SPEAKER_01: because if it got through the House,
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SPEAKER_01: that didn't mean it was going to get through the Senate.
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We wanted to have,
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because they did have a Democratic majority at the time.
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So we wanted to make sure that we were doing things that we
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cared about that would
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SPEAKER_01: actually have a chance in both sections.
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SPEAKER_01: And then we were working on a budget.
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SPEAKER_01: We were about $2 billion in the hole when we came in.
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SPEAKER_01: That was the end of that big recession that had started.
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SPEAKER_01: And so we looked at our budget, and we had to cut about $2 billion.
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SPEAKER_01: So there were some difficult things we had to make sure we could work on.
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I think there might be a little bit of that budget cutting
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going on right now that
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SPEAKER_03: they haven't had to do since then,
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SPEAKER_03: because the budgets have been pretty friendly since that 2013 scenario,
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SPEAKER_03: right?
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SPEAKER_03: So it's been in our favor in this one is,
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SPEAKER_03: well,
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SPEAKER_03: it looks like it's okay from the state level,
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SPEAKER_03: but the federal dynamics are really...
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SPEAKER_01: It's making us very nervous about what that means with regard to...
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SPEAKER_01: Are they going to help us with the health plan?
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Are they going to help all these different kinds of things that
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we expect money
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SPEAKER_01: from the federal government to help us with?
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SPEAKER_01: Will they be there?
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SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
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SPEAKER_03: Well,
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SPEAKER_03: what do you – so your predecessor – sorry,
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SPEAKER_03: your person that came in after you,
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SPEAKER_03: of course,
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SPEAKER_03: you annihilated him in 2016 by,
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SPEAKER_03: what,
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SPEAKER_03: 300 and some odd?
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SPEAKER_01: 300, yeah.
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SPEAKER_01: My elections were always close.
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SPEAKER_01: That was never something that I – I didn't have runaway elections.
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SPEAKER_02: Neither one of us did.
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SPEAKER_01: He scared you enough that you retired in 2020.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was a –
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SPEAKER_01: As my staffer at the time,
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SPEAKER_01: Rosie Shacken,
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SPEAKER_01: used to say,
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SPEAKER_01: you voted for that crazy build called Motor Voter.
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SPEAKER_01: That destroyed us in the coast from the Democratic perspective.
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SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it was kind of interesting.
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SPEAKER_03: Well,
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it's been it's obviously I work for Senator Anderson now and it
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was I worked on
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SPEAKER_03: that 2020 campaign.
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And I'm glad you chose to retire because that made that made
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the ascension a little bit easier.
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SPEAKER_03: That's for sure.
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SPEAKER_03: So how do you think he's done in your stead since you've left?
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SPEAKER_01: I only hear really good things, actually.
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SPEAKER_01: He tends to be what I would call the old business Republican,
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SPEAKER_01: that person who cared about the economy,
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SPEAKER_01: wanted to make things
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SPEAKER_01: work for the economy,
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SPEAKER_01: not quite as progressive in some ways,
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though housing he's been pretty progressive on trying to figure
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out housing stuff.
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SPEAKER_01: I have been pleased that it hasn't gone
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SPEAKER_01: what I would have called the more mega part of our deal.
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SPEAKER_01: I know that he has to work with both sides and his group,
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SPEAKER_01: but when he made the decision personally for me,
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when he made the decision that he got hired to do a job and he
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stayed and worked,
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SPEAKER_01: I was very impressed actually,
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because there's a lot of pressure put on people that the rest
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of the world doesn't
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SPEAKER_01: really understand.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Life can be very miserable if you're out there on your own.
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So I was pleased to see him do the work that he said he was
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signing up to do.
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SPEAKER_01: And I have had one of my staffer, Rosie, still talks about how
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SPEAKER_01: it's good to work with him.
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SPEAKER_01: So I've heard positive things since I've taken over this job.
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That doesn't mean I wouldn't want to get a Democrat in that
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position,
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but...
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Thank you,
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Senator.
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SPEAKER_02: Those are nice words.
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SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
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SPEAKER_02: And I know you're watching, so... Yeah, that's true.
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SPEAKER_02: And Rosie does keep tabs on me.
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SPEAKER_01: Yes, she does.
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SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
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SPEAKER_01: But even before I got elected,
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SPEAKER_01: the very first election that I had,
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SPEAKER_01: Dick,
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SPEAKER_01: as mayor of Lincoln City...
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SPEAKER_01: was very helpful.
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SPEAKER_01: He got me engaged in a couple of the programs that were up there.
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One was a senior day at the casino where they went around from
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table to table and
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SPEAKER_01: he said,
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SPEAKER_01: you really should do that.
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SPEAKER_01: That's an important way to get to know people up here.
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SPEAKER_01: In his own way, it was very helpful.
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SPEAKER_02: Well, it kind of all comes full circle, right, Senator?
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SPEAKER_02: That's right.
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SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of similarities between the two of us,
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SPEAKER_02: you know,
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SPEAKER_02: and,
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SPEAKER_02: you know,
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SPEAKER_02: certainly the senator was,
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SPEAKER_02: you know,
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SPEAKER_02: in a tough spot in his own part of the district,
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SPEAKER_02: you know.
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SPEAKER_02: I don't know that you ever won right in that part of the district.
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SPEAKER_02: And I've never.
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I was always hopeful to win Coos Bay,
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the city itself,
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not necessarily the county.
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SPEAKER_02: Yes.
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SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_02: And I've got a similar situation.
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SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it's kind of ironic.
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SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
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Well,
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we do have something,
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you know,
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more things in common,
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you know,
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it's down,
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you know,
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port of goose bay you know yeah definitely so you've how so now
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you've transitioned
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into obviously retirement out of this building but like most
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people that leave this
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building you guys just can't really retire and go play golf or
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as this senator
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anderson says to me all the time you failed at retirement so
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that's why he's in the
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building and you obviously failed at retirement so you're now
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at the port of goose
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bay and you've been there for a while you obviously have all
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the history and
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SPEAKER_03: knowledge but
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Yeah,
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but relatively,
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it's only been a couple of years for Port of Coop's Bay.
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SPEAKER_01: I first got into the school board, so I'm still on the school board.
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SPEAKER_01: I've been doing that for four years.
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And then I'm on a healthcare board for a federally qualified
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healthcare center
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SPEAKER_01: called Waterfall Clinic.
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So I'm engaged in a lot of different things in the community
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that I really care about.
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SPEAKER_01: The port was one of those that I really cared about.
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SPEAKER_01: And so...
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SPEAKER_01: I got appointed by the governor because we're that international port.
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SPEAKER_01: Our positions are appointed by the governor.
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SPEAKER_01: So yes.
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SPEAKER_03: That was two years ago.
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SPEAKER_03: Yep.
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SPEAKER_01: How many people are on the commission?
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SPEAKER_01: There are, um, I gotta have to go count my people.
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SPEAKER_01: One, two, six, five of us, I guess.
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SPEAKER_01: Yep.
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SPEAKER_03: Wow.
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SPEAKER_03: And the,
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SPEAKER_03: the port,
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SPEAKER_03: at least in my mind,
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and you probably have better at the history and Senator
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Anderson can fill in as
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SPEAKER_03: well.
12:59
SPEAKER_03: Um,
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SPEAKER_03: All I know,
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it really came into my purview with the LNG stuff and all the
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things that happened
13:07
SPEAKER_03: there.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: And of course, it's close to abandoned dunes in my world.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: And I remember when Senator Anderson and I talked about his race in 2020.
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SPEAKER_03: I remember we were sitting at a coffee shop in Dallas,
13:21
SPEAKER_03: Oregon,
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SPEAKER_03: and he was like,
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SPEAKER_03: well,
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SPEAKER_03: what do you know about the coast?
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SPEAKER_03: And I go, I know there's water there.
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SPEAKER_03: I think I went to the Coos Bay once.
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SPEAKER_03: It was on my way to Bandon, I think.
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SPEAKER_03: But I've learned a lot since then.
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I think the port is really on the cusp of doing something
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incredible for that part
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SPEAKER_03: of our state.
13:43
And I think when the LNG stuff fell apart,
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I think that was like a big balloon got popped.
13:48
And then all of a sudden,
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out of nowhere,
13:50
at least in my feeling,
13:53
this thing is now emerging.
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SPEAKER_03: And I don't know if you could just,
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both of you guys can maybe just give us kind of a little bit of
14:00
a background of how
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SPEAKER_03: we got here.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
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SPEAKER_01: to go back for a ways,
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SPEAKER_01: the port has always been a bipartisan issue,
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SPEAKER_01: Democrats and Republicans.
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All of the Southern Oregon Republicans worked with the
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Democrats to figure out how
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could we make the Port of Coos Bay more viable as a port for an
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international
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SPEAKER_01: climate setting.
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When I first came here in 1970 to be a math teacher at Marshall
14:26
High School in
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SPEAKER_01: 1972,
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SPEAKER_01: we had 13 or so mills on the bay.
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SPEAKER_01: We were the largest
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SPEAKER_01: lumber shipping port in the world.
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SPEAKER_01: We had over 300 ships a year calling on our port.
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SPEAKER_01: It was a major impact on Oregon's economy.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: Then with Spotted Owl,
14:45
SPEAKER_01: with fishing issues,
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SPEAKER_01: all of a sudden the port got to be less and less important.
14:49
We have been fortunate that we've had enough timber shipments
14:53
going out of here
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SPEAKER_01: that we continue to get
14:56
SPEAKER_01: dredged by the Corps of Engineers.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: So we are an international port.
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SPEAKER_01: We still get that done without having to pay for it.
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SPEAKER_01: If we had, we wouldn't have a port any longer if we hadn't had that.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: So keeping tonnage up is really,
15:07
really important for us to keep the bay a viable alternative
15:11
for different things.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: So then we had a steel mill was going to come in,
15:17
and we had a big fight in our community about a steel mill out
15:21
on the North Spit.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: That fell apart, and then we had this opportunity for natural gas.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: I have always been a proponent of figuring out how to use this port.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: Oregon now,
15:36
SPEAKER_01: to be considered part of the West Coast shipping industry,
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SPEAKER_01: Portland likes to think of themselves as an international port,
15:44
SPEAKER_01: and they are.
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SPEAKER_01: But again, they've dredged Colombia for the last time.
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SPEAKER_01: They're not going to get big enough for these new Panamax.
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SPEAKER_01: ships,
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whose they can fairly inexpensively in comparison to what other
15:55
ports have had to
15:56
SPEAKER_01: pay to get dredged to deep enough to make that happen.
15:59
And so if Oregon wants to continue to play a part on that
16:03
shipping on the Pacific
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SPEAKER_01: Rim,
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SPEAKER_01: we have to figure out how to make the port a viable one.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: So the LNG was one of those things that would have worked, I think.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people uptight about LNG.
16:17
SPEAKER_01: The other part that was important for me, if you understand
16:20
SPEAKER_01: gas in Oregon.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: There's a pipeline on the east side.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: There's a pipeline comes down the valley.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: The one that comes down the valley comes from British Columbia.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: It dead ends in Medford, Ashland area.
16:33
We have been told over many years from time to time that maybe
16:37
they would turn the
16:37
SPEAKER_01: spigots off for our gas,
16:39
SPEAKER_01: and that would take the whole west side would not have gas.
16:42
We built a Ruby pipeline that came in from the Dakotas and came
16:46
in over into eastern Oregon.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: It feeds California and it feeds Eastern Oregon,
16:52
SPEAKER_01: but it doesn't make it across the mountains to feed us.
16:56
And the port project that would have had LNG would have brought
16:59
another pipeline
17:00
SPEAKER_01: over from Malin,
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Oregon and Eastern Oregon and connected all of them.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: And now we would have had a system of gas in Oregon,
17:10
SPEAKER_01: which would have allowed gas to get from anywhere in the Midwest,
17:15
SPEAKER_01: Canada,
17:16
SPEAKER_01: to all these different ports,
17:17
SPEAKER_01: and we wouldn't have had a dead end like we do in Ashland right now.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: So for me, that made a lot of sense.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: If you understand Coos Bay, we used to have mills on the bay.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: They had their own power plants.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: They provided electricity for our hospital and emergency services.
17:33
When they have gone away,
17:34
we don't have that secondary resource for power.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: It all comes across the
17:39
SPEAKER_01: coast range, and it makes it very uptight for us.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: If there's a big storm, we can be without electricity for a long time.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: And we don't do any producing of our own.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: When they were talking about bringing in the natural gas,
17:51
SPEAKER_01: they were going to build their own power plant.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: We would have, again, had power on the coast itself.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: So for me,
17:57
you have to look at the bigger picture when you're talking
17:59
about each and every one
18:00
SPEAKER_01: of those.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: That was not a favorite of my party.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: It was one of those things that I felt was important for Coos Bay itself.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: And it would have brought jobs.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Then we had a drought when they left.
18:14
SPEAKER_03: Was the fight...
18:16
SPEAKER_03: With bringing in the metal,
18:19
SPEAKER_03: doing a bunch of metal and all that sort of stuff,
18:23
SPEAKER_03: steel,
18:25
SPEAKER_03: was that fight,
18:27
SPEAKER_03: that was within the community,
18:29
SPEAKER_03: whereas the LNG,
18:30
SPEAKER_03: everybody was kind of on board in the community relatively,
18:33
SPEAKER_03: and then it was really more the external forces,
18:36
SPEAKER_01: or was it still?
18:37
We've always had a group of people in our community who don't
18:41
want that kind of a
18:42
SPEAKER_01: development in the bay because it poses a threat.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: from their perspective to the bay itself.
18:49
So there has always been local as well as statewide opposition
18:53
to different kinds of things.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: The steel mill had some of the same.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: It had some local and some other opportunities.
19:03
The production of steel in our country changed for a while,
19:07
went back and forth.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: China was doing most of it.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: Then we started bringing it back.
19:11
And so the markets always make it difficult for different kinds
19:14
of things to happen.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: And that one
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Bit the dust because of a lot of that different stuff.
19:21
The town halls we've had in Coos Bay and North Bend are always
19:24
the most colorful,
19:25
SPEAKER_03: that's for sure.
19:26
SPEAKER_03: Always have been.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: You do get every issue, it seems.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Every one.
19:35
My first entry into government stuff was the Coos Bay-North
19:39
Bend Water Board.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, this can't be that bad.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: My first meeting,
19:43
they sent me to Lakeside where they were trying to put a dam so
19:46
we could have more
19:47
SPEAKER_01: water resources.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: And it was crazy.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was one of the craziest meetings I've ever been to.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't matter what we try to do.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: It creates opportunities for different people to express their opinions.
20:00
And I will say Coos Bay,
20:03
actually Oregon coastal people express their opinions.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because you really do.
20:08
SPEAKER_03: You get this group of...
20:10
SPEAKER_03: Well, you know this.
20:11
SPEAKER_03: You guys are both retired like or at least professionally.
20:14
SPEAKER_03: And then you have this job.
20:15
SPEAKER_03: But I mean,
20:16
you get a lot of those folks that move in and then they don't
20:19
want to see anything
20:19
SPEAKER_03: change.
20:20
SPEAKER_03: Right.
20:20
SPEAKER_03: But you got to have a younger.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: You don't have younger people moving in.
20:24
SPEAKER_03: I mean,
20:24
SPEAKER_03: you see this up in Lincoln City,
20:26
SPEAKER_03: Florence,
20:26
SPEAKER_03: these towns that are literally the average age is higher,
20:29
SPEAKER_03: highest in the state.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: It's probably on the coast.
20:33
I think Arnie and I both have the advantage of 1RH,
20:37
though,
20:37
talking to these people as well.
20:39
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: True.
20:41
I think at least I've been able to call them and play it right
20:45
back at them.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: You live on a pension.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: You're not as reliant on the economy of Coos Bay and the workforce.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I've felt comfortable in talking with them at that level.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: And they agree.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's, it's a tough, tough argument for a lot of people.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: They've come for the ocean,
21:09
SPEAKER_02: for the bay,
21:10
SPEAKER_02: uh,
21:10
SPEAKER_02: lifestyle,
21:11
SPEAKER_02: uh,
21:12
SPEAKER_02: and hate to see it,
21:13
SPEAKER_02: you know,
21:13
SPEAKER_02: change.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: But yet knowingly, intellectually that it needs to, uh, community.
21:21
When I came here,
21:22
the high school had about 2000 and North Bend was about 1800.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: We're now both under 800.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: So, um,
21:29
SPEAKER_01: And yet the city of Coos Bay,
21:31
SPEAKER_01: the city of North Bend,
21:32
SPEAKER_01: haven't changed the population much at all.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: So it's just gotten older.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: So you realize that without a thriving economy where you can hire people,
21:41
SPEAKER_01: it's hard to keep young families and people in our areas.
21:44
And to make a vibrant community,
21:48
you need all of the people,
21:50
including a lot of young people.
21:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you've got to have a reason for the kids to stay, right?
21:56
And that's just what hasn't happened over the last 20,
21:58
30 years,
21:58
obviously.
21:59
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
22:01
SPEAKER_03: They go away and they just don't come back.
22:03
SPEAKER_03: I mean, but hopefully this small town resurgence kind of helps.
22:07
SPEAKER_03: I think these former timber towns,
22:10
SPEAKER_03: as they say,
22:10
I think you got a lot of things working for you and that you
22:15
didn't really have
22:16
SPEAKER_03: available before,
22:17
SPEAKER_03: i.e.
22:18
SPEAKER_03: the Internet and a lot of work from home.
22:20
You know,
22:21
now you have a lot more opportunities,
22:23
but you still need the anchor.
22:24
SPEAKER_03: And that's that's right.
22:26
SPEAKER_03: Fast forward, LNG kind of goes away, right?
22:30
SPEAKER_03: I think just the political nature of it just wasn't there.
22:34
SPEAKER_03: But the port's always been there.
22:37
SPEAKER_03: So take us back.
22:38
SPEAKER_03: So now where are we?
22:39
SPEAKER_03: When was that roughly?
22:40
SPEAKER_03: That was LNG was 21.
22:43
SPEAKER_03: Did they finally say no to that?
22:44
SPEAKER_01: They finally said no.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: It was about that time.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right around then.
22:49
So this one was interesting in that one of our old students
22:53
from Goose Bay,
22:54
Brian Clem,
22:56
SPEAKER_01: had made some money doing a lot of different kinds of things.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Brian Clem.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: You know, those bald-headed guys are super.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
23:06
So Brian decided that he was going to invest some of his money
23:09
in this company from
23:11
the Midwest that wanted to build a shipping terminal here
23:16
because at the time,
23:18
SPEAKER_01: when they first started doing this,
23:20
SPEAKER_01: the West Coast ports were clogged.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: They hadn't finished building a lot of rail out of the Los Angeles area.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Tacoma, Seattle was pretty packed up.
23:31
You had ships out in the water waiting and waiting,
23:33
costing lots and lots of money.
23:37
SPEAKER_01: Eventually,
23:39
this company came in and I think they worked with Target and a
23:43
bunch of other
23:43
SPEAKER_01: companies importing materials for them.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: They came up with the idea.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: We looked at ports before,
23:51
SPEAKER_01: big shipping companies coming in here and doing port stuff,
23:55
but this one became really viable because of the need to have
24:00
another port.
24:02
Our port would be the shortest transit from the ocean into the
24:09
docks of any on the West Coast.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: The idea of making this happen became evident from a group of people,
24:16
SPEAKER_01: and Brian invested a bunch of his money in it.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: Then they started having these conversations,
24:22
SPEAKER_01: looking at what they would have to do to the bay,
24:24
SPEAKER_01: how much would they have to dredge the bay,
24:26
where is the turning radius going to be to turn the ships
24:29
around so they can go and
24:30
SPEAKER_01: dock.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: Does the port have enough property to really make it viable?
24:34
How are we going to get car loads off of the boat and onto a
24:40
rail and then get that
24:41
SPEAKER_01: rail off to Chicago or other places in the east?
24:44
SPEAKER_01: So all of those things have been conversations.
24:47
We've gone out and looked for loans and grants from the federal
24:52
government.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: We've got a couple of them,
24:54
about $54 million worth right now waiting to do the planning
24:58
for our rail and for
25:00
SPEAKER_01: dredging and for the building of the site out on the North Spit.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: All of those things have been coming together,
25:09
SPEAKER_01: and the company out of Kansas City is still interested,
25:14
SPEAKER_01: still wants to do it,
25:15
SPEAKER_01: has continued to be committed.
25:19
They signed an agreement before I got on board a number of
25:22
years ago,
25:23
actually,
25:23
to do a joint
25:25
SPEAKER_01: public-private partnership.
25:28
We've looked at what does it take to get the rail so you can
25:30
double stack?
25:31
What does it take to get the rail to have over mile-long
25:35
sidelines so that you can
25:36
SPEAKER_01: get one trying going and one coming back at the same time?
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So all of that stuff,
25:42
the high estimate is a billion dollars for the rail and about 2
25:45
billion to build
25:46
SPEAKER_01: the project.
25:47
That would be all private money on the North Spit for the docks
25:51
and all the
25:52
SPEAKER_01: infrastructure for putting the trains there.
25:56
They believe that they can ship by having the train formed in
26:01
Korea or in China,
26:03
SPEAKER_01: wherever they're bringing the ship from.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: They'll come off in the order they need to go on the rail.
26:08
So there won't be a big issue of storing a whole lot of boxcars
26:12
and stuff out on the North Spit.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: It's really have the train there, load it and send it off.
26:18
But that meant there's other things you have to look at along
26:21
on the rail line.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: You've got to figure out when a mile long train goes through Reevesburg,
26:25
SPEAKER_01: it kind of cuts the city in half.
26:28
how do you get over the rail or under the rail or what are you
26:30
going to do to do that?
26:31
SPEAKER_01: All of those places have some concerns about this.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: So we've got the...
26:40
Department of Transportation has been working on a grant to
26:43
look at how do we get
26:45
SPEAKER_01: the resupport things figured out,
26:46
SPEAKER_01: all of those different stuff.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: So we've been going through lots of planning.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: As you know,
26:51
SPEAKER_01: whenever you start a dredge the bay,
26:52
SPEAKER_01: it takes a lot of permitting and other kinds of stuff.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: So we've been working on all of that.
26:57
What's really interesting is one of the very first bills that I
27:00
signed on to with
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Joanne Verger was a dredging the bay bill.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: And we have been using that money, still are.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: That was $60 million.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: It was set aside to dredge our bay.
27:13
They now have to estimate the total cost for the bay is
27:15
probably $500 million to do
27:19
all the dredging that's needed and to build a new turning basin
27:22
down the bay,
27:22
SPEAKER_01: a bay right in front of where they were going to put these ships.
27:25
SPEAKER_03: Just because I'm curious.
27:29
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
27:30
SPEAKER_03: Walk me through, Senator Ian Chaiman, to dredging.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: Like, I mean, give me the lamians.
27:36
SPEAKER_03: Like,
27:36
is there just a bunch of dirt on the bottom and they just got
27:39
to shove that stuff
27:40
SPEAKER_03: out to sea?
27:41
SPEAKER_03: Is that kind of the very simple version of what dredging is?
27:47
It is a maintenance dredge because all a maintenance dredge is
27:51
you've already got
27:51
SPEAKER_01: the bottom,
27:52
SPEAKER_01: the rock at the bottom or the solid bottom.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: The rivers bring sediment down.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: It gets stuck there in the bay.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: It settles in the ground.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: And every five or six years,
28:02
SPEAKER_01: the Corps has to come in,
28:04
SPEAKER_01: bring a big scoop,
28:05
and they just pick up all the dirt and all of the sand and
28:08
stuff that's on the
28:09
SPEAKER_01: bottom of the bay,
28:10
SPEAKER_01: put it in barges,
28:11
SPEAKER_01: take it out and dump it in the ocean.
28:13
So that's a regular dredging operation that happens here on a
28:16
regular basis.
28:18
But when you're deepening the channel so that they can actually
28:22
dredge it,
28:23
there are
28:24
harder spots throughout the bay um there aren't a whole lot of
28:28
them that are really
28:29
really hard most of it's sandstone but a few of them are if you
28:32
look at if you go
28:33
out to shore acres and look at the way you'll see there's a lot
28:36
of basalt around
28:36
here too um okay all sorts of volcanic action has happened over
28:41
the years and so
28:42
there are spots in the bay where you're really going to have to
28:44
do some hard heavy
28:46
SPEAKER_01: work maybe
28:47
SPEAKER_01: explosives,
28:48
SPEAKER_01: drilling,
28:49
SPEAKER_01: all those kinds of things to get it to the 47 or 50,
28:53
SPEAKER_01: however deep you want to go.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the bigger dredging issue.
28:58
The one that will cost the extra money is figuring out where
29:01
all those places are,
29:03
SPEAKER_01: how wide you want to make it.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: So these boats are a lot bigger.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to widen the
29:07
SPEAKER_01: the area that's already the channel,
29:10
SPEAKER_01: and make sure that if you've ever been at Charleston,
29:13
SPEAKER_01: you can see where the boats come in,
29:15
SPEAKER_01: they come straight in,
29:15
SPEAKER_01: they're heading right for the city,
29:16
SPEAKER_01: and then they have to make a sharp turn and go up the bay.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: You've got to make sure that area can make the turn every time.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: Our pilots have been training on that for the last 10 or 15 years,
29:27
SPEAKER_01: so they have models of all the bay and all the different kinds of stuff,
29:31
SPEAKER_01: and they need to know that they can make that corner
29:34
SPEAKER_01: and take it up the bay 100% of the time.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: One mistake is not okay.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: So there's been training and work on that all along.
29:44
SPEAKER_03: You're in the type of ships we're talking about.
29:46
We're talking about those massive ones that have just the huge
29:49
amount of containers
29:50
SPEAKER_03: on top,
29:51
SPEAKER_03: right?
29:51
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the ones.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: And they can't transport those up the Columbia any longer.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: They don't have enough depth, the Columbia.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:02
SPEAKER_03: Can they even get underneath the I-5 bridge, I guess?
30:06
SPEAKER_03: The new one?
30:07
The big one at Astoria,
30:11
they probably could get under,
30:12
but the rest of them might be a problem.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
30:15
SPEAKER_03: Ah, that's why.
30:17
SPEAKER_03: That's interesting.
30:21
Another one of the interesting things,
30:22
you know,
30:22
we have a rail bridge that is on a swing span.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: It was the largest swing span bridge in America for most of its history.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: And it was built over 100 years ago.
30:34
It is,
30:35
when it's open,
30:36
it's the width of the smallest part of the Panama Canal.
30:40
It was built so that any ship that went through the Panama
30:43
Canal could come into Coos Bay.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: A lot of interesting history on the port.
30:49
SPEAKER_03: What is that?
30:50
SPEAKER_03: At least, what is it, like 200 feet then on each side of that swing span?
30:54
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think the old ships were that wide.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: The new ones are bigger like that.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how,
31:00
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember exactly what that width is,
31:03
SPEAKER_01: but that's what it was designed for.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: But none of the proposed ships would be going that way.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: No, none of them go there, nor do they go under the bridge.
31:12
SPEAKER_03: Because they go to the North Spit, right?
31:13
SPEAKER_03: The North Spit and then they're...
31:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: The west side of the... Yeah.
31:18
SPEAKER_01: They would not be able to go underneath the North Bend Bridge either.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:21
SPEAKER_03: And then I was with the train stuff.
31:24
SPEAKER_03: So the idea is they would pick up their... Goes to Eugene, right?
31:28
SPEAKER_03: That's kind of where... Correct.
31:30
SPEAKER_03: And then isn't there some tunnels and stuff too that you got to work on?
31:33
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of tunnels.
31:34
Actually,
31:35
when I first ran for this district,
31:37
my son-in-law is a geomorphologist.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: He studies land forms.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: And he called me and said, you have a distinct district.
31:45
you have more lakes than any other district,
31:47
house district in the state of Oregon.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: And I said, really?
31:51
SPEAKER_01: And they said, yep.
31:52
SPEAKER_01: And they're all named.
31:52
SPEAKER_01: They're little lakes, but you got lots of them.
31:54
SPEAKER_01: And our rail goes across a lot of those lakes.
31:57
So there's a lot of work that needs to be done to make it a
32:00
class A railroad where
32:03
you can get the speeds back up and they can handle the weight
32:07
of these cars going
32:08
SPEAKER_01: over night and day or for a lot of days.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: So
32:11
Getting all of those fixed up,
32:14
all of the bridges fixed up,
32:16
all of the tunnels
32:18
SPEAKER_01: so they can double stack.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Everybody used to think that's going to be horrible how you do that,
32:22
but it's really not quite as hard as you think because you can
32:25
dig the bottom out.
32:26
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to take the top off.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: There's ways to get through the tunnels,
32:29
SPEAKER_01: and we've got most of them already close to where they need to be,
32:33
SPEAKER_01: but it is work that has to be done,
32:35
SPEAKER_01: and you have to shore up all that kind of stuff,
32:37
and you have to make sure that you don't have a lot of water in
32:40
those tunnels
32:40
SPEAKER_01: because that creates problems.
32:44
SPEAKER_01: We've put in a lot of new ties on the railroad.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: It costs us at the port a lot of money.
32:50
And that was another thing that we took over that when they
32:53
were going to close
32:54
SPEAKER_01: that railroad down.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: Everybody came together,
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Democrats,
32:57
SPEAKER_01: Republicans,
32:58
SPEAKER_01: federal,
32:59
SPEAKER_01: everybody,
32:59
SPEAKER_01: and had a big meeting in Eugene.
33:01
And the transportation board allowed the Coos Bay to buy it,
33:05
the port of Coos Bay.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: So we own the rail line all the way to Eugene.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: And so...
33:13
SPEAKER_01: We need all of the ties need to be concrete.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: They need to be changed.
33:17
They can't be the wooden ties anymore if you really have this
33:20
kind of stuff.
33:20
So that's a lot of work for 100 and some miles of rail to be
33:25
all fixed up.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: Is that just the weight because of the weight?
33:29
Yes,
33:29
because of the weight and the overall how much it's going to be
33:34
used in the future.
33:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
33:36
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
33:36
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
33:37
SPEAKER_03: That's a pretty massive undertaking.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: It is a massive undertaking.
33:42
How do you get through Reedsport and Lakeside without the
33:44
citizens getting upset?
33:47
And you want to make sure as you're doing that that your
33:54
regular train that's
33:56
bringing in logs for a couple of our boat areas that they can
34:00
move every day.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
34:01
SPEAKER_01: you know,
34:02
SPEAKER_01: you don't,
34:02
SPEAKER_01: or every two days,
34:03
you don't want to cut off the railroad entirely while you're
34:06
rebuilding it.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to rebuild it while you're running it.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: That's another part that makes it hard too.
34:12
SPEAKER_03: Oh, so logs already come in on the rail now.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: We have lots of logs coming in on the rail.
34:18
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I didn't know that.
34:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:19
SPEAKER_03: Did you know that?
34:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
34:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, I see them stacked up.
34:25
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's pretty awesome.
34:27
SPEAKER_03: And I've already noticed some.
34:30
SPEAKER_03: We were there, I guess last time I was there was this summer.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: We were doing some town halls and we went down and had dinner with,
34:38
SPEAKER_03: well,
34:38
SPEAKER_03: that guy that works for you,
34:40
SPEAKER_03: Matt.
34:40
SPEAKER_03: What's his face?
34:41
SPEAKER_03: I don't like to talk about him.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:44
uh matt freeson we went down and had uh had dinner there at the
34:47
port we actually
34:48
saw we actually saw you there that's right yeah yeah and but
34:52
you there's already
34:53
been a lot of development happening and a lot of changes who's
34:56
bay and i think it's
34:58
you know obviously the the money that representative clem and
35:01
and and his group and
35:03
what you guys are all trying to do and i really and we're
35:06
starting to see housing
35:07
SPEAKER_03: now happening in coos bay which is a huge problem as well right so
35:13
SPEAKER_03: I think it's on the cusp of something big.
35:16
SPEAKER_03: And I've always believed,
35:19
SPEAKER_03: especially being a guy that did economic development in Prineville,
35:22
SPEAKER_03: that was a former timber town.
35:24
SPEAKER_03: And I was president of our economic development group.
35:28
SPEAKER_03: And we took a chance,
35:31
a huge chance in our community on this tiny little crappy
35:35
little technology company
35:37
SPEAKER_03: called Facebook.
35:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:40
SPEAKER_03: In 2009.
35:40
SPEAKER_03: And everybody was like, what is nobody knew what this company was.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: They didn't really know.
35:45
SPEAKER_03: Nobody was like Internet, social media.
35:48
SPEAKER_03: What is this thing?
35:49
SPEAKER_03: And and they want to build what and they want to do.
35:53
SPEAKER_03: And it was really a leap of faith.
35:55
And I and it's turned out to literally change the stripes of a
35:59
former timber town,
36:01
SPEAKER_03: turning it into one of the fastest growing communities in the state.
36:04
SPEAKER_03: And I. Yeah.
36:05
SPEAKER_03: I really see this being potentially that for Coos Bay.
36:10
SPEAKER_03: Well, not even potentially.
36:11
SPEAKER_03: This would be that for Coos Bay.
36:13
This would literally change the stripes of that community for
36:17
the foreseeable future.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: And because it's trade industries,
36:22
the average salaries are higher than the average salaries
36:25
anyplace else in the
36:26
SPEAKER_01: state.
36:26
So it would change the outlook of our whole community and the
36:30
people who live here.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: The services needed.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: Services needed.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: There would be a reason to build new houses.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
36:38
SPEAKER_01: we have a housing problem,
36:39
but we don't have a whole lot of people that can afford houses
36:42
if we build them.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's how do you get which comes first, the horse of the cart.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: Right.
36:49
And we've got you have to have something going to have other
36:53
people want to invest
36:54
SPEAKER_01: in the community.
36:56
SPEAKER_03: It's so true.
36:57
And then and then you also need private insurers because
36:59
that'll save your house.
37:00
SPEAKER_03: Right.
37:00
SPEAKER_03: There you go.
37:02
SPEAKER_03: All that stuff matters.
37:03
SPEAKER_03: And then the young people got to have a job.
37:05
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's right.
37:07
SPEAKER_03: That community, young people want to raise a family in a smaller town.
37:12
SPEAKER_03: We're seeing that.
37:13
SPEAKER_03: I agree.
37:14
Look at Bend and some of these other areas where people are
37:16
really flocking to,
37:17
SPEAKER_03: I think,
37:18
SPEAKER_03: having this.
37:19
SPEAKER_03: And it's also a little bit, it's like an Oregon job.
37:22
Like it's probably there's tech to it,
37:25
but it's kind of blue collar,
37:26
right?
37:26
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's still a lot of that.
37:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
37:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
37:29
It really could be the panacea that we've been looking for on
37:34
the Oregon coast.
37:35
SPEAKER_03: And I really think there's some great opportunity.
37:38
SPEAKER_03: We can actually be the other Bay Area.
37:42
SPEAKER_03: Well, just make sure that they vote the right way.
37:48
SPEAKER_03: Let's not invite those Bay Area folks.
37:51
SPEAKER_03: Do we hide it from Californians?
37:52
SPEAKER_03: How do we hide it from Californians?
37:55
But there's the one thing,
37:56
you know,
37:56
I was talking to somebody about Coos Bay.
37:59
SPEAKER_03: And I remember they said,
38:01
SPEAKER_03: if you think about water on the West Coast,
38:04
SPEAKER_03: like it's completely sucked up with housing,
38:07
SPEAKER_03: right?
38:07
You can't get around Seattle without finding a piece of ground,
38:11
you know,
38:11
housing on it.
38:11
But you go around Coos Bay and like that whole kind of area,
38:15
there's a lot of land.
38:16
There is a lot of land,
38:21
not necessarily in the city boundaries,
38:23
but we can extend those.
38:25
I mean,
38:25
there is a lot of property in and around the Bay,
38:29
which people could put housing on.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple of big housing developments that are going right now.
38:34
The same person that developed the bay front is working on a
38:37
big housing development as well.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, I think that the places to build it are available.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: Getting the services to them, you know, our water board and others.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: I was on the water board for a long time.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: We built a dam.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: We have much more water now than we used to.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: Everybody always thinks that we're on the coast.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: We have lots of water.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not fresh water you can drink.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
39:01
We had to build a dam to increase the water because we were
39:04
getting to the point in
39:05
the summer when it's a desert here that we were out with
39:09
shovels moving the water
39:10
SPEAKER_01: so we could get it to our plant.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
39:12
SPEAKER_01: it was very,
39:13
very low possibility of water for some of those days when I was
39:17
first on the board.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: So now we've got plenty of water, which is really important.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: And all of those things are things that we need to work on.
39:24
SPEAKER_03: Doesn't rain all the time on the coast?
39:26
SPEAKER_03: No.
39:27
SPEAKER_03: Not in the summer.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: In the summer, we're a desert.
39:32
SPEAKER_03: Senator Anderson, talk to us about the housing.
39:35
SPEAKER_03: I think you've been working on that.
39:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, both Coos Bay and North Bend have different projects in the works.
39:43
SPEAKER_02: And even the port's got some property they've looked at as well.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: So just a lot more excitement around that whole area.
39:53
SPEAKER_02: Because they recognize,
39:54
SPEAKER_02: I think,
39:55
SPEAKER_02: the need,
39:55
SPEAKER_02: one,
39:55
SPEAKER_02: the need for housing and how,
39:57
SPEAKER_02: you know,
39:58
SPEAKER_02: I think the senator made the point of chicken or egg.
40:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:02
SPEAKER_02: You know,
40:03
but they seem to be energized enough to get ahead of the game
40:06
here and I think
40:08
SPEAKER_02: ready to pop.
40:10
And this ultimately,
40:12
at the end of the day,
40:13
the Asian ships now,
40:15
as I said,
40:17
SPEAKER_03: did my research, they go up to Canada for the most part.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Canada built a new port, which Alaskans think of them as their port.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: And about 60% of the materials that come in in that port
40:32
SPEAKER_01: come back to the United States.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: Port Rupert, which is up in northern BC, was a new one.
40:41
Their dredging for their port was over $2 billion because it
40:46
was mostly basalt.
40:49
SPEAKER_01: Ours is much less
40:52
SPEAKER_01: than that one, but it's going now.
40:55
They had some problems getting their rail line across the
40:59
Rockies and doing the
40:59
SPEAKER_01: other kinds of things that they needed to do,
41:01
SPEAKER_01: but they do have a viable port that's up there,
41:05
and much of what's coming in there is really destined for the
41:08
United States,
41:08
and we would rather that came directly into the United States
41:12
and came out of Coos
41:12
SPEAKER_01: Bay.
41:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think so would President Trump.
41:16
SPEAKER_03: I agree.
41:17
SPEAKER_03: Canadian tariffs, you know.
41:19
SPEAKER_03: And then also, but we would cut down that timeline, right?
41:24
SPEAKER_03: So basically,
41:24
SPEAKER_03: if you had stuff going to Chicago,
41:26
SPEAKER_03: they could come in through the Bay and goes into Eugene,
41:29
SPEAKER_01: gets on a truck,
41:30
SPEAKER_01: and away it goes.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: No,
41:33
it goes into Eugene and gets onto the Class 1 railroad and goes
41:36
by rail all the way
41:37
SPEAKER_01: to Chicago.
41:38
SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
41:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Where does that rail line go from there?
41:41
SPEAKER_01: It goes directly down through California and across.
41:45
SPEAKER_03: Like Reno and over that way?
41:47
SPEAKER_01: It's the UP, yeah.
41:50
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: They used to own this rail line.
41:55
SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
41:56
And then they sold it to a little company that eventually was
41:58
going to go bankrupt,
41:59
SPEAKER_01: and we bought it from them.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: So, yes.
42:01
That's usually where you like to buy stuff when someone's ready
42:04
to go bankrupt.
42:05
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
42:07
what is do what do you think is like the major where we're at
42:12
now we've talked
42:13
about the dredging and the train that seems to be the two big
42:16
ticket items right
42:18
and building the plant itself where all the cranes and that
42:21
kind of stuff so yes
42:22
those are the big things but from the horse perspective because
42:26
that's that's
42:26
really the private company's business ours is the rail and the
42:30
dredging okay
42:32
SPEAKER_01: You know,
42:33
SPEAKER_02: Senator,
42:33
SPEAKER_02: are there other kind of developments in the wings to,
42:39
SPEAKER_02: you know,
42:39
SPEAKER_02: not offset,
42:40
SPEAKER_02: but while the container operation is being built,
42:44
SPEAKER_02: that timeline and dredging?
42:46
SPEAKER_02: But I'm thinking the Georgia Pacific property, you know, more...
42:52
SPEAKER_01: We own that,
42:53
and we would love to use that with our rail if we could ever
42:57
figure out what we
42:58
SPEAKER_01: want to bring in and ship out.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: Again,
43:00
SPEAKER_01: those would be smaller ships,
43:03
SPEAKER_01: the ones that are kind of floating up right now that come down the bay.
43:06
Anything we could use to fix that property,
43:08
we took that from Georgia Pacific.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: I think there's been lots of discussions, but no one right now has really
43:15
SPEAKER_01: bought on to do stuff.
43:17
We rent out some of the buildings for different groups and
43:19
organizations because
43:20
SPEAKER_01: they need it for certain things,
43:22
SPEAKER_01: but we would really like to develop that property.
43:24
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
43:26
SPEAKER_02: That brings some nice diversity through that.
43:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:47
SPEAKER_03: But they could have nice commercial spaces and they could grow up.
43:53
So those three challenges,
43:55
obviously we've got to build the system,
43:58
right?
43:58
SPEAKER_03: To get the boats.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: You've got to get the money for the rail.
44:03
SPEAKER_03: And then we've got to dredge.
44:04
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
44:06
what's if if literally you know donald trump gave you five
44:11
billion dollars tomorrow
44:13
SPEAKER_03: how soon do you think that what's our timeline looking like yeah i think
44:18
everybody's timeline is is looking at two or three years out
44:21
not that far really i
44:22
mean they've been they've been doing that already but once we
44:26
get the okays the
44:27
SPEAKER_01: permits the other kinds of stuff that goes pretty quickly then
44:30
So that deep water dredging of blowing stuff up,
44:33
that doesn't take very long?
44:34
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't take very long.
44:35
Once the permits are in and once everybody knows what they're
44:38
going to do and where
44:38
SPEAKER_01: they're going to go about doing it,
44:39
SPEAKER_01: that does not take that long.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Does the Army Corps have to do the work?
44:45
SPEAKER_01: No, you can hire private companies to do a bunch of it.
44:49
Once it's done,
44:51
then the Corps will take over the maintenance of it from then
44:53
on.
44:54
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
44:55
SPEAKER_03: Wow, I want that job.
44:57
SPEAKER_03: Drop that dynamite.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: We could do a crosstabs episode from the boat.
45:07
That seems like that would take a while,
45:08
but it sounds like you can go on the rail.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: There are companies that that's what they do.
45:17
It's pretty amazing how quickly they can get things done once
45:20
they have the
45:20
SPEAKER_01: go-ahead,
45:20
SPEAKER_01: all the permits are in hand,
45:22
SPEAKER_01: and all the right-of-ways and everything are taken care of.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: then that can go fairly quickly.
45:28
SPEAKER_01: There are companies that know how to do that in a rapid way.
45:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:32
SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
45:32
SPEAKER_03: And we're in the wrong business.
45:35
SPEAKER_03: Political business.
45:36
SPEAKER_03: It takes a lot longer.
45:37
SPEAKER_03: It just takes money, right, at the end of the day.
45:39
Well,
45:39
this is a better bet than the CHIPS Act and some of the other
45:44
things.
45:44
SPEAKER_03: And I think we need, as a state,
45:48
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
45:49
And I know you guys both know this,
45:51
but I think for our listeners,
45:53
we're an income tax state.
45:56
We invest our taxpayer dollars into these sort of projects that
46:02
create jobs.
46:03
SPEAKER_03: Guess what that does?
46:04
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
46:05
SPEAKER_03: Taxes.
46:07
SPEAKER_03: And lots and lots of taxes.
46:09
And I think,
46:11
you know,
46:11
then everybody in this building gets to spend it,
46:13
right?
46:13
SPEAKER_03: And that's what they love to do.
46:15
SPEAKER_03: But you got to invest in jobs,
46:18
SPEAKER_03: because if you invest in jobs,
46:20
SPEAKER_03: it really,
46:21
SPEAKER_03: the return on that investment is tenfold times ten,
46:26
SPEAKER_03: right?
46:26
SPEAKER_03: It's just, it's amazing.
46:28
Yeah.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: It's those middle class and higher jobs that really pay the taxes too.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: You need to have people who are employed who are going to pay taxes.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: They anticipate that the population in the Southern Oregon region,
46:41
SPEAKER_01: if this goes into effect,
46:43
SPEAKER_01: and I've heard numbers that are crazy,
46:44
but I'd say around 15,000 people would move between Coos Bay
46:50
and Eugene to fill the
46:52
SPEAKER_01: jobs and do all the things that have to be done with rail,
46:55
SPEAKER_01: with the
46:58
SPEAKER_01: all the stuff that's going on with this.
47:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, plus we'd have our real contingent of longshoremen back in our area.
47:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:05
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that'd be interesting.
47:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:07
The original construction,
47:09
they say is about 2000 people working out there.
47:12
SPEAKER_01: So that's how you get things done quickly is you have a lot of people.
47:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:16
SPEAKER_03: Well,
47:16
SPEAKER_03: a lot of those construction guys that were the contractors,
47:19
SPEAKER_03: even building the data centers in Prineville,
47:22
SPEAKER_03: uh,
47:22
SPEAKER_03: all took jobs with the data centers.
47:25
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, it's only temporary jobs.
47:27
SPEAKER_03: A lot of those guys end up staying.
47:29
SPEAKER_03: Yes, they do.
47:30
SPEAKER_03: Because they become part of the maintenance crew.
47:32
SPEAKER_03: They become part of the stuff because, yeah, they like the area.
47:36
They like,
47:38
you know,
47:38
they end up knowing the facility,
47:40
all the things,
47:41
right?
47:41
SPEAKER_03: And those guys end up
47:43
SPEAKER_03: Staying there and just the amount of jobs that comes.
47:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a, I think it's an incredible opportunity.
47:49
SPEAKER_03: I think that it would be huge.
47:51
SPEAKER_03: 15,000 people redistricting could be a problem.
47:53
SPEAKER_03: Southern area.
47:55
SPEAKER_01: That could be hard for your reelection there.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
48:04
SPEAKER_01: and the reality is we also,
48:06
SPEAKER_01: all of us who live here,
48:07
SPEAKER_01: and I like to say this to people,
48:10
SPEAKER_01: we do care about the environment.
48:11
SPEAKER_01: That's why we live in the places we live.
48:13
SPEAKER_01: And so we want them to do this right, and that's important to us.
48:16
SPEAKER_01: That's why the permitting and all kinds of stuff is important.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: When we built the dam for Coos Bay,
48:23
SPEAKER_01: where we had the water,
48:24
SPEAKER_01: all of a sudden we found out,
48:25
SPEAKER_01: well,
48:26
SPEAKER_01: you've got to buy...
48:28
SPEAKER_01: You have some really nice wetlands up here.
48:30
They're freshwater wetlands,
48:31
but you need to replace them if you're going to put it
48:33
underwater.
48:34
SPEAKER_01: So we had to go and buy stuff all around the bay to then flood it,
48:39
SPEAKER_01: take the dikes out and other kinds of stuff,
48:43
SPEAKER_01: and re-bring it back into productive wetlands water.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: And we know,
48:50
and we have people who show us up at every port meeting
48:53
explaining to us how
48:56
SPEAKER_01: important
48:57
the seagrass and all these other things are for our bay and for
49:02
our fishermen and
49:03
SPEAKER_01: for the fish and all those other kinds of stuff.
49:05
Part of this whole thing is to make sure that we add value to
49:09
the rest of the bay
49:10
as we go throughout doing this and the companies end up having
49:13
to pay for part of
49:14
SPEAKER_01: that.
49:15
SPEAKER_01: We do care about each and every one of those things.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: It's really important to us.
49:19
SPEAKER_01: We're doing a lot of studies.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: South Slough Sanctuary,
49:21
SPEAKER_01: which I anticipate being put on because of the port in the near future,
49:27
SPEAKER_01: is a really gem of a special place.
49:29
And if you haven't ever gone out there to canoe or do other
49:32
kinds of things or just
49:33
SPEAKER_01: hike on the trails,
49:35
SPEAKER_01: you realize how unique and special it is.
49:37
And we don't want to lose those things at the same time that
49:40
we're doing this other stuff.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: So I think all of those things are really important to us.
49:44
SPEAKER_03: And you have a tribe down there as well, right?
49:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, we have two tribes.
49:48
Actually,
49:49
as you know,
49:52
we have four of the nine tribes are in your district.
49:57
And one thinks it is,
49:58
so it's really five,
49:59
because Cal Creek thinks they are too.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: They like to be a part of everything.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: He takes them all.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
50:07
SPEAKER_03: I think the tribes have really,
50:10
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say come full circle,
50:12
but I definitely see them really looking at economic
50:15
development differently than
50:16
SPEAKER_03: they have in the past.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: I think you need to include them.
50:19
SPEAKER_01: They need to be a part of whatever you're doing.
50:22
SPEAKER_01: You have to include and talk to them.
50:24
You need to respect what they care about and how we're going to
50:27
go about doing it.
50:28
SPEAKER_01: But yes, I think they can be a partner.
50:33
They can also say,
50:35
hey,
50:35
that's not what we want,
50:36
and they can do other things.
50:37
So you need to make sure you're open,
50:40
inclusive,
50:41
and talk to them all the time.
50:43
They were very important for me over the years when I was in
50:46
the legislature.
50:47
I was on the Legislative Commission on Indian Services for most
50:50
of the time I was
50:51
SPEAKER_01: in the legislature.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: And
50:52
So listening and hearing and recognizing what they bring to our
50:57
community and they
50:58
SPEAKER_01: offer is really important.
51:00
SPEAKER_02: I just got appointed.
51:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm following you, Senator.
51:03
SPEAKER_02: Oh, good.
51:04
SPEAKER_02: I was well.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: It's a great group of people.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
51:11
SPEAKER_03: Well,
51:11
I just really just have seen a marketable shift in kind of
51:16
where the last three to
51:17
SPEAKER_03: five years,
51:18
I just really see them looking at how do they start utilizing
51:22
their grounds?
51:23
SPEAKER_03: How do they start utilizing their voice for economic development,
51:26
SPEAKER_03: for change,
51:27
SPEAKER_03: not necessarily just give us another casino,
51:30
SPEAKER_03: right?
51:30
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of like,
51:31
SPEAKER_03: okay,
51:31
now we need to look at how are we best serving our communities
51:35
and also their
51:36
SPEAKER_03: surrounding communities.
51:37
SPEAKER_03: So I think that's
51:38
And the coast is a big place is singularly the most important
51:45
thing for tribes.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: Their identity is their place.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: That's where they're going to be.
51:49
SPEAKER_01: That's where they've been for 10,000 years.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: That's where they want to be for the next 10,000 years.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: They need things for their people to do as well.
51:57
their kids are moving away too that's not what they want they
52:01
need for them to
52:03
continue to be the viable tribes that they are they need people
52:06
to stay and i have
52:08
a number of tribal members in my family up in northern up in
52:11
washington and that's
52:12
a constant conversation is how do we make sure that we have
52:16
amazing places and work
52:17
for our people and our kids so they want to stay here they want
52:20
to be a part of our
52:21
SPEAKER_01: community they want to continue the traditions
52:24
SPEAKER_01: that the tribes represent.
52:25
So I think they've come to a conclusion that they have to
52:28
figure out what economic
52:29
development things they can do with their land and their other
52:34
avenues that they
52:34
put together to make sure that there are places for the kids as
52:37
they grow up that
52:38
SPEAKER_01: they want to aspire to.
52:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
52:42
SPEAKER_03: So last question, and then I'll let you go.
52:44
I know it's getting late and Senator Anderson's got to drive
52:47
home and Sue gets
52:49
SPEAKER_03: upset if I get him out of here too late in the day.
52:53
SPEAKER_03: What's inside the Capitol since you were here for so long?
52:59
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
52:59
SPEAKER_03: And you were a moderate.
53:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, Dick considers himself a moderate.
53:03
SPEAKER_03: I think he's a conservative, but he calls himself a moderate.
53:07
SPEAKER_03: But and then Representative Clem was always seen as a moderate.
53:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:11
SPEAKER_03: Do you see macroly like with everything happening,
53:15
maybe Democrats in Oregon shifting a little bit back towards
53:20
the moderate side now?
53:21
SPEAKER_03: Or do you see doubling down?
53:24
SPEAKER_03: I'm just kind of curious your perspective.
53:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
53:27
SPEAKER_01: I think I'm,
53:28
SPEAKER_01: you know,
53:29
SPEAKER_01: I,
53:30
SPEAKER_01: John Lively is a moderate Democrat from Eugene,
53:34
SPEAKER_01: which is,
53:34
SPEAKER_01: well,
53:35
SPEAKER_01: Springfield,
53:35
SPEAKER_01: he'd say Springfield.
53:39
SPEAKER_01: And he had a bill on open primaries because,
53:43
SPEAKER_01: you know,
53:44
47% of our population doesn't get to vote in the primaries
53:47
because they're NAVs.
53:51
His bill got a hearing in the House the other day,
53:53
which was really interesting for me.
53:55
SPEAKER_01: I was online and gave some testimony.
54:01
I think there is a movement to recognize that Oregon is not
54:05
quite the bluest state in the world.
54:06
SPEAKER_01: It's more purple.
54:09
It has a lot of people who would rather things happen more in
54:14
the middle than they do today.
54:16
SPEAKER_01: I think there are
54:19
political people who are starting to recognize that how do we
54:23
engage those people
54:24
in getting into our individual parties or how do we engage them
54:27
in the general
54:27
SPEAKER_01: elections?
54:28
How do we make sure that they feel that they're a part of
54:30
what's going on?
54:31
And I think that is moderating a little bit,
54:34
those different kinds of things.
54:36
SPEAKER_01: I've been impressed actually with
54:38
SPEAKER_01: our governor who has gone to every county.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: She goes around and talks to people.
54:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, she kind of said she was going to do that.
54:45
SPEAKER_01: She has had a special place in her heart for Coos Bay.
54:48
SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that.
54:49
SPEAKER_01: So,
54:49
SPEAKER_01: so there's a lot of parts that indicate to me that maybe there is a,
54:54
SPEAKER_01: a feeling that you can't go too far.
54:57
SPEAKER_01: You got to figure out how do we work together to make this stuff work?
55:00
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that's happening on the Republican side as well.
55:04
SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm not in their politics and their stuff as much.
55:06
SPEAKER_01: Um,
55:07
We're going to have to wait and see because half of you guys
55:09
are going to be gone
55:10
SPEAKER_01: at the next election because they couldn't run again anyway.
55:12
So it's going to be an interesting thing to see what happens
55:16
and what the outlook
55:19
SPEAKER_01: of that will be over time.
55:21
So I hope personally that more people spend some time talking
55:27
to each other and
55:28
seeing if they can come to a conclusion that doesn't have to
55:30
put one against
55:31
SPEAKER_01: another.
55:32
SPEAKER_01: But look at all Oregonians and serving the population of our state.
55:37
SPEAKER_03: I have my opinion on the Republicans.
55:38
SPEAKER_03: I'll let you go first, Senator.
55:39
SPEAKER_02: I would say it's tough being not only a minority but a super minority.
55:45
SPEAKER_02: Right.
55:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, life's tough.
55:50
You know,
55:50
I don't think it's as conservative today as it was yesterday
55:57
inside the caucus.
55:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
56:00
SPEAKER_02: But to Arnie's point, there's four...
56:03
SPEAKER_02: individuals that are going to be gone in next year.
56:09
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
56:11
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, who knows how they get replaced, what that looks like.
56:16
But again,
56:17
I'm,
56:18
you know,
56:19
I wrestle with the impact that,
56:22
you know,
56:23
12 people can have.
56:26
SPEAKER_02: So,
56:27
SPEAKER_02: you know,
56:27
SPEAKER_02: my tactics clearly have been,
56:29
SPEAKER_02: you know,
56:30
SPEAKER_02: stay the course,
56:32
SPEAKER_02: you know,
56:33
SPEAKER_02: of my district,
56:34
SPEAKER_02: take care of policy,
56:36
SPEAKER_02: you know,
56:36
SPEAKER_02: keep out of the politics of things and let's get things worked.
56:42
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I think it's made, we've made progress.
56:49
SPEAKER_01: You've gotten some, you've gotten really good committee assignments.
56:52
SPEAKER_02: Yes, very, yeah.
56:55
SPEAKER_03: I think the Republicans,
56:57
SPEAKER_03: I think you guys are,
56:57
SPEAKER_03: I think both parties in Oregon,
56:59
SPEAKER_03: and I think I've seen some moderation happening.
57:03
SPEAKER_03: Some of the newer Democrats, they're changing as they come in.
57:08
SPEAKER_03: They have a different mindset.
57:10
They're not maybe coming in with wearing kind of,
57:13
we like to call the wokeness on their sleeve.
57:15
SPEAKER_03: They're coming in more like, let's just get things done.
57:18
SPEAKER_03: Yes, I'm left, but that's not what defines me.
57:23
SPEAKER_03: Right.
57:23
SPEAKER_03: Want to get things done.
57:24
SPEAKER_03: And I think I'm seeing that on the Republicans a little bit more.
57:28
I think we're seeing,
57:29
you know,
57:29
we've become a little bit more of a populist party.
57:31
SPEAKER_03: So we're, you know, right.
57:33
SPEAKER_03: The blue collar workers have kind of we've seen that on the coast, right.
57:36
SPEAKER_03: It was in the coast from blue to red.
57:39
SPEAKER_03: So and it's really just because the electorate just kind of,
57:42
SPEAKER_03: you know,
57:42
is that that populist movement and that populist movement tends
57:46
to moderate a
57:47
SPEAKER_03: party.
57:47
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's probably good.
57:49
SPEAKER_03: And I'd love to see.
57:51
SPEAKER_03: Doesn't mean that we can't we can't we should be different.
57:54
SPEAKER_03: We shouldn't be because that wouldn't work either if we were all one.
57:58
But I like the idea of having different voices where you can in
58:03
this building,
58:04
SPEAKER_03: we need to focus on what's good for Oregon.
58:08
And sometimes that's a Democrat policy,
58:11
and sometimes that's a Republican policy.
58:14
And then we can leave here and put our jerseys on and go to
58:16
battle,
58:17
which I love to battle.
58:18
SPEAKER_03: That's always fun, too.
58:20
SPEAKER_03: Because there is some excitement to that.
58:23
SPEAKER_03: But I think projects like this...
58:25
SPEAKER_03: You guys have obviously your history on the coast,
58:29
SPEAKER_03: just in I think Representative Gomberg does a really good job of,
58:33
SPEAKER_03: you know,
58:33
trying to play both sides of the fence as best he can and just
58:37
ultimately get
58:37
SPEAKER_03: things done.
58:39
We need more of that,
58:40
but we also need the conservative voice and we need the liberal
58:43
voice.
58:44
And I think we're getting closer to that in this building
58:48
versus getting further away.
58:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I would say.
58:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
58:51
SPEAKER_03: I hope to see more of it.
58:53
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah.
58:54
SPEAKER_03: Well, good.
58:54
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for your time.
58:55
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
58:56
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
58:57
SPEAKER_01: Hope things go well for you.
58:59
SPEAKER_01: As this session now kind of starts to wind down,
59:02
SPEAKER_01: you've got all your first session bills done,
59:04
SPEAKER_01: right?
59:06
SPEAKER_01: It's now they're out of one committee,
59:08
SPEAKER_01: and if they aren't out,
59:09
SPEAKER_01: they're not going to go anywhere,
59:10
SPEAKER_01: right?
59:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, they're scheduled.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's right.
59:13
SPEAKER_01: They're scheduled.
59:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
59:15
SPEAKER_03: President Wagner was up here earlier today,
59:16
SPEAKER_03: and I said,
59:17
SPEAKER_03: so when are you going to put the sine die imminent?
59:20
SPEAKER_03: When is that coming?
59:21
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
59:23
SPEAKER_03: Because the faster we get out of here,
59:24
SPEAKER_03: the better off we all are,
59:25
SPEAKER_03: I think,
59:26
SPEAKER_03: at the end of the day.
59:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, Senator Roblin, thank you so much for your time.
59:30
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
59:30
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
59:32
SPEAKER_01: And appreciate everything.
59:33
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
59:34
SPEAKER_01: You take care and good to see you.
59:36
SPEAKER_01: And I'll try to get up to Capitol from time to time, stop by and say hi.
59:39
SPEAKER_01: So take care.
59:39
SPEAKER_01: Please do, Senator.
59:41
SPEAKER_01: Good to see you.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: Bye-bye.