Meeting Security No Longer Free
It was initially offered as a courtesy to help control possible volatie situations that may occur, but providing an officer’
s presence to local board meetings has become a challenge to the limited amount of personnel available at the Florence Police Department. For the past several months an officer has been posted at the Oregon Coast Humane Society after Board members felt that the meeting were getting too volatile,
201: “Initially we were providing some of those services for free. So as the officer was available they would get called to go over there and be present for the meeting to try and keep the decorum there.”
but Chief Tom Turner says it is an expensive measure for the department to underwrite.
202: “What happened is we started having such a number of these requests that we had to charge for our presence. First we started to try to minimize that now it’s a full rate we have to charge to be present at a meeting.”
Chief Turner says another issue is the attention that is turned towards the police by having to be present at these meetings.
203: “Suddenly the police are becoming the focus of the problem and not the issues that were going on.”
He says the police are always available for emergencies that may arise in situations like this, but he is encouraging them to find alternatives such as private security or perhaps running their meetings in a way to limit volatile responses from the audience.
Making Health Care Changes
If you have had to seek changes in your health care or otherwise needed a new policy the last day for making changes to your coverage is Friday, December 15th. You can access essential benefits such as emergency room visits and prescription drug coverage, as well as preventive care including important shots and screenings from any of the marketplace websites or find out more information by accessing healthcare.gov. failure to make the December 15th deadline means you will not have access to Marketplace coverage for the entire 2018 calendar year.
Revenue Office Closing
The Oregon Department of Revenue has announced the closing of its Coos Bay office. The office has been manned by a single employee and the state decided not to keep the office open after the announcement of that person’s retirement. The ODOR says they are committed to helping taxpayers with issues or question that they may have through their online presence, by phone, or through their offices in Eugene and Medford. The final day of operations for the office will be on December 28th People can contact the Oregon Department of Revenue by visiting Oregon.gov/dor.
