Fighting for opportunities in Oregon

Senator Wyden held town halls over the weekend in Josephine, Klamath and Lincoln counties where constituents asked about local issues such as the agreement he helped to broker in the Klamath Basin and his work with the Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Oregon congressional delegation to keep the Coast Guard rescue helicopter in Newport.

Ron had the honor of taking his neighbor, 100-year-old World War II hero Dario Raschio, to lunch at Otto’s -- a must-stop deli in their southeast Portland neighborhood. And on Martin Luther King Day Ron had the privilege of speaking at The Skanner’s annual breakfast in Portland about the need to fulfill Dr. King’s challenge by repairing our nation’s broken criminal justice system and providing equal opportunity for all children to a good education.

“Stop allowing the size of a parent’s wallet and the color of a child’s skin to determine the quality of a child’s education,” he said at The Skanner breakfast.

At the Josephine County and Klamath County town halls on Saturday, Ron spoke of the urgent need to pass his O&C Act, which will double harvests and provide a steady supply of trees from federal O&C lands that will mean more jobs and new certainty for the mills and timber companies that rely on federal forests. Owen Dwyer, an eighth grader from Cave Junction, also asked Ron to keep up the fight to preserve net neutrality.

He also spoke about the water compromise in the Klamath Basin that he helped to work out among tribes, irrigators and conservationists -- a message he emphasized again that evening when he attended the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce’s 94th annual gala in Klamath Falls.

At the Klamath County town hall, Ron also lauded the efforts by Kaye Cory in the wake of her husband Lyle’s death to ensure veterans like her husband always receive timely and adequate health care from the VA.

Before Senator Wyden’s town hall in Lincoln County on Sunday, Ron toured the Coast Guard facility in Newport and then met with the Newport Fishermen’s Wives, an essential ally that helped Oregon’s congressional delegation keep the Newport facility open through 2015. The helicopter there is critical for the safety of Oregon fishermen.

Ron stressed that the fight to stop the Coast Guard from closing the Newport facility last year will allow work throughout 2015 to develop a longer-term solution to keep the helicopter in Newport.

“This is a life-or-death question,” he said, noting that Coast residents and visitors depend on the rescue helicopters to survive accidents in  the cold waters of the Pacific.

Senator Wyden has held 718 town halls in fulfillment of his pledge to have annual meetings in each of the state’s 36 counties to hear what is on the minds of Oregonians.