Current News You Can Use

A Proposed Oregon Constitutional Amendment To be included in Article II, “Suffrage and Elections:” All-Non-Partisan Elections (1)    All elections within the State of Oregon shall be non-partisan, with no indication of political affiliation on the ballot. (2)    A candidate for any lucrative office shall be placed on the primary election ballot only after submitting a sufficient number of signatures of qualified electors.  (a)The number of nominating signatures for the primary election ballot shall be: a percentage of the total number of qualified electors for that office in the previous general election in which a Governor was elected to a full term; shall be set by the legislature; shall be uniform for all offices; and shall be not more than 0.1%. (3)    Only candidates who receive the highest and second-highest number of votes in the primary election for any office shall be placed on the general election ballot.  Nomination...

The old Rays on North 7th Street is perfect for this project I am Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener, and I have a dream: a no-frills hostel. Grants Pass will soon have a place for intoxicated people to sleep off their intoxication, thanks to Chief Landis and company.  A Medford non-profit is proposing to start a juvenile shelter here like they have in Medford.  Grace Roots, a Medically Assisted Treatment Center (MAT-C) for opiate addiction, is in the works, thanks largely to Nancy Yonally and the people she has gathered to help her.  We already have the Gospel Rescue Mission with its showers, meals and residential rehab, and Faith House, a shelter for battered women and their children.  The Salvation Army soup kitchen is another long-established feature in Grants Pass. Now we need a cheap place to shower and sleep for people who are not intoxicated, not juvenile, not seeking help for addictions, not battered, or for whom there is no room in other shelters....

Three-hour parking on 5th next to First Call Resolution Once again, Dale Matthews brings us useful news on the Bill Meyer Show on KMED.com.  We learned that, at the City Council’s January 11th workshop, the City of Grants Pass presented a plan to hand off downtown parking enforcement to a private company.  The main difference between this and our present parking code enforcement is that, if you are ticketed and want to contest the ticket, you have to pay the fine first and then appeal the verdict of the parking attendant.  You will be guilty until proven innocent in the name of “efficiency.” The company will collect its contract payment from parking violators and pay any collections over that to the City, on a monthly basis.  While the company says that cities never pay for enforcement, there is no guarantee that they will pay anything to the city. It turns out that separation of powers has long since taken a walk, not surprising in a city where the Mana...