Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra
Tammy's views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy's neighbors, Earl Fisher, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Obama, Tony Hyde, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia's dog, or Claudia Eagle's Cats. This Tammy's Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone.

We have a very important election coming in May. We have three positions at the Port of St. Helens that will be crucial in the way Columbia County fairs in the future. Whichever candidate wins whether an incumbent or a challenger, they will ultimately make decisions that will affect our community, our environment, and sustainable jobs for many years -that is if they make the correct decision in what types of industry is developed on Port property. In making these decisions about industry we need the elected to make sure that we protect our family farms near Port Westward. As a community we need to remember that we are in it together and if one fails we all fail.

The port has made some very poor calls when courting companies, they seem to attract dirty, questionable finically unstable fly by night carpet baggers. Companies that are run with little backing or companies that depend on government subsidies that come and go as fast as the company can cash in on taxpayer funded money. Instead of waiting for companies to seek the port out for possible contracts the port commissioners should be pro-active in trying to lure clean companies to site on port property.

So whichever way you decide to cast your vote take into consideration the ports past failures, the massive debt they have incurred-- in fact so much debt they have had to extend the pay off until 2032. They have asked for extensions several times and as recently as 2014.

Take in consideration the many back door deals, the way of doing their business on behalf of the taxpayers which are often secretive. The way they treat the public in all aspects even the lewd gestures that are often given to the public when they are ask simple questions. We do not need or have to take companies that no one else wants because they are so unacceptable. We are better than that and we deserve much more.

Vote whichever way you believe is right. The important thing is that we exercise our right to vote. As they use to say before we had vote by mail. See You at the Polls.