The good fight: Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I...

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Lonewolf

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stich of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the axing entity we also issue he permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did he work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

teabag09

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

You of anyone should know what the President is dealing with. Congrats with sticking with it. Mike

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

teabag09 wrote:

You of anyone should know what the President is dealing with. Congrats with sticking with it. Mike

When you are a public servant it is what you do. You are there to serve the people and do your duty. Serve with honor or not at all.

teabag09

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

When you are a public servant it is what you do. You are there to serve the people and do your duty. Serve with honor or not at all.

Amen Brother, can't argue with that, unfortunately too many don't serve by that credo. At the same time it was for your benefit. That makes it personal and worth a prolonged fight. Mike

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

teabag09 wrote:

Amen Brother, can't argue with that, unfortunately too many don't serve by that credo. At the same time it was for your benefit. That makes it personal and worth a prolonged fight. Mike

We are planning on paving our streets in the next 2 years. It involves meeting with our representatives Peter DeFazio and Caddy McKeon to get $200,000 in grants and we have to put it to a vote of the people to purchase a $50,000 bond as would be required. We are almost there.

debeda

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

debeda

teabag09 wrote:

You of anyone should know what the President is dealing with. Congrats with sticking with it. Mike

TRUE STORY, Mike

Rose42

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

Well done.

Kazudy

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

Too bad your first belief wasn't, don’t buy anything sight unseen. People that buy motorcycles, boats, cars, property, and livestock sight unseen are called litigants according to the people’s court and Judge Judy. Lets hope you learned something.

Big dog

Coos Bay Tom wrote:

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public official and this is the story of my struggle. I had just sold a property that I had owned and had to move quick. I made a phone call and bought another place over the phone sight unseen. The streets in the are were in horrible shape and I kept wondering when the road grader would come. The seller conveniently failed to tell me that the grader would never come unless I paid for it. It seemed I had bought into a property where it was deeded a private road -public access. Nothing on Gods' green earth was going to change that and my county absolutely would not do a stitch of maintenance on our little road system. That winter the roads mudded out so bad that the road disappeared and peoples yards became the new road--not exaggerating. The school busses refused to run and police and fire left us on our own. There are 73 tax lots and 200 residents out here. We tried going door to door for donations and got a whopping $35 that is it. A couple of well off retirees paid to get some rock delivered and the road graded. By spring the road was going away again so I took a week off and hauled rock all day long every day and put it back in shape by hand. I had a resident approach me with the idea of forming a road district to ensure we had money to do maintenance. A few of us pooled our money and got an attorney and then we went through several meetings with the county commissioners before we could call a special election to vote our road district into being. Well the opposition to paying the 2.19 per thousand of taxable value caused us to lose by one vote. We had no choice to maintain the road ourselves for next 2 years till we could get it on the ballot again. This time we won by a single vote. Well the opposition started a recall petition the very first year that we were going to get tax money to bring in rock and a road grader. We beat the recall 2 to 1 with 66% voter turnout. Once the people saw they were getting something they did not want to give it up. That recall cost us $1150 out of our budget of just over $9000. That meant for anther year we had to put our own money into the road again. For 9 years the opposition threw every stumbling block they could in front of us and hatred took over the minds of some on the district board. Now comes the moral issue---It is my belief that the purpose of government agencies is to provide services to tax payers and should not be withheld due to prejudice or animosity from the governing body. The individual who had given us so much pain became in dire straits with a flooding issue and needed our help. The solution would be a drainage ditch and a few culverts however the State did not require us to do so and the two other members of the board refused to help. Now since we were the taxing entity we also issue the permission to do work on the road frontage and the county road department oversees the work done. The property owner took out a permit then started digging a 3 foot deep ditch along the very edge of the road. Before I knew it the county was called in and the work stopped and the damaged road was left that way. Now became a 2 year battle for me to get this job done. This past winter 5 inches of rain fell in one night and a major 24" culvert going under the road plugged and flooded over the road and flooded 3 homes. I was president so I called an emergency session and we decided to put in the ditches and culverts needed to prevent this situation from happening again. I rented an excavator and did the work myself. This made the former president very angry and he turned me in to the special districts of Oregon and tried to get me in major trouble. I had done every thing right and the special districts took my side. The project is done now and the opposition has backed off.. I have 2 years to go on this term and I am trough. It has been an uphill battle but worth the years of putting up with opposition from within and without. Our road system is in very good shape now and I am glad I held to my beliefs.

Some of you are aware that I am an elected public ... (show quote)

Good job 👍.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Kazudy wrote:

Too bad your first belief wasn't, don’t buy anything sight unseen. People that buy motorcycles, boats, cars, property, and livestock sight unseen are called litigants according to the people’s court and Judge Judy. Lets hope you learned something.

Not in my case. Other than the road maintenance issue I live in a nieghborhood with good neighbors . I have low property taxes and a low mortgage balance. I would however not do this again. In another thread coming up I'll tell all on how I got into the roofing biz---

kc2wex

It seems to me that a city will welcome more construction proj but the towns are not crazy about building and try to discourage construction and just deal only with maintainence. the way that I see it.