Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 07-18-25_FRIDAY_7AM

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

07-18-25_FRIDAY_7AM

The Bill Myer Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Clouser Drilling.com. We have Mr. Outdoors, also Mr. Fire, Greg Roberts at Rogueweather.com and the Outdoor Report sponsored by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority on their way driving Medford. Greg, welcome back here. And I'm going to be emceeing the talent show, the big talent show at the Jackson

County Fair this afternoon. It's day one, second day tomorrow night, and so we're going to be going through all these talented people. It's gonna be a little warm when I'm out there on that stage at four, huh? Hey, I don't know what it is, but something about the Jackson County Fair, even when they moved it earlier in the month to accommodate the now-defunct Country Music Festival. And speaking of which, the Country Music Festival, the big one up at Sweet Home, been going 35 years. This is their last one. So I don't know what it is, but anyway, I got on the tangent there. Well, you know, that's okay.

You know, we need more music in which talk. Let's see. How can you write a modern country song? I got that hot girl, girl, I spotted you across the door or across. No, I spotted you across the room, girl. Come over on my seat and get next to me and we're going to go down the big dirt red road, right? Red dirt road, something like that. Yeah, and we're going to drink wine. No, we're not going to drink. We're going to go down the big dirt red road, right? Red dirt road, something like that. We're going to drink wine.

No, we're not going to drink. We're going to drink. We're going to sip. No, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on. Country music is not, you got to sip something. We're sipping something, sipping something, that kind of thing. God bless you.

Well, Kitty Sesame turned it into wine. He did do that. I was like, boy, I sure did. Yeah, and now it's completely devolved into, you know, being, honestly, way more poppy sounding to me than it does traditional country. Well, you know what's really going on here, Greg. We're older. Yeah, I know. Come on. We got a... you kids see, we're like old guys there yelling at the kids, get off my lawn kids! I went through a metamorphosis when I was a kid, you know, couldn't stand country at all. Then when I was living up in

Central Oregon, got talked into joining a country band because that's when country really went its big transformation back in the Chris LaDue, Garth Brooks days, and even local bands were realizing, you know, we probably better get with this because clearly people love this. Well, the problem a lot of these guys had, especially if they've been around it a long time, they didn't know how to really capture that essence. And so some bands, including the one I was with, kind of asked themselves, well, would

we be better off bringing a rock guy in, quote unquote, rather than trying to make us all learn new tricks literally overnight? So they did. They talked me into joining it. And the interesting part was I immediately brought in all the Eagles, all the Leonard Skinner, all of that stuff I could, and everybody knocked that out in short order. And then over the course of time,

I found myself going towards, you know, George Jones eventually, and all of that stuff, and the stuff you could never get me to listen to when I was a kid. And I'm like, you know, actually, this stuff really isn't that bad after all. I know, I really learned to appreciate that.

You're a fan of the more traditional country. Yeah, before I ended up coming back to work here at KMED, I spent two, three years as a country morning show in Fargo at KFGO, Moose Country. Don't ask me that. Everything was a moose or a froggy or something. But being that as it may, I really appreciated, I kind of appreciated the new traditionalist sound that came in in the early 90s.

I really kind of got into that the Alan Jackson storytelling kind of thing. I was going to mention that name before you brought him up because AJ was the guy that really helped re-infuse that traditional. And then you had that traditional Nashville sound, but then Dwight Yoakam basically brought everything Buck Owens and those guys were doing back to the mainstream with what Dwight was doing. I think Dwight Yoakam's a national treasure. If you listen to my show enough, I play a lot of his music as bumpers. So anyway, hey, I don't want to... I'm burning some daylight here right now. I want to make

sure we get the fire stuff on though, but I appreciate the country music appreciation. Okay now that yeah why don't we kick into what about the the latest fire what is a Shandy board yes, where do they come up with these names? Because in this case this one started as a structure fire on Shandy board Road which is southwest of Grants Pass and up there in the hills and looking at the maps and everything, it would probably be closer to Murphy, I would say really than Grants Pass, but

you know it's all kind of how you orient yourself out there on the landscape. That thing came in as a structure fire. I have PulsePoint, which by the way, I know everybody and their dog is nuts for watch duty. I swear I saw my cats using watch duty. But if you're not using PulsePoint and you're in Jackson and Josephine counties, you better get it now. Because when this came in as a structure fire and I saw pulse point activation for structure fire, it gives you a map. And as soon as I pulled that incident up and I saw the map I went oh boy this could turn out really

bad meaning not just the structure fire as soon as I saw where this was on the map what was around it I went oh this is going to jump to the wild land and Chris Barnett Josephine County Commissioner even though he was in Grants Pass, he took a series of pictures that actually documented that thing making the jump into the wildland. First you see the column of black smoke, which isn't really that big, which, okay, there's the structure fire. Then you've got the column of black smoke, and then you've got a different column right next to it getting ready to take off and I'm not sure what the time progression was on his sequence of photos but it was really rapid and I know when we went

back and we were listening on the scanner traffic the first incoming units for the structure fire were reporting to Joe County dispatch, this thing is already extending to the wildland. With the time of day, hottest temperatures, lowest humidities, and peak of the wind activity, yeah, that thing was kind of fated to make a big run in the wildlands. How are they doing with that so far then? Because that last official report is like 150 acres. That was last night. Yeah, I am looking at the heat maps and using the scales. I'm looking at something that is probably in that 150 to as much as 300 range. I mean, because when you're trying to use

the scales, it's a bit of a guessing thing but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere between 150 to 250 and the worst part was we're picking up some imagery, heat imagery on the satellite reads that indicate there's still spot fires out there out and ahead of the main fire perimeter and the way the fire is wanting to move with some terrain channeling with winds it's pushing to the northeast so towards Savage Creek Road over in Jackson County the big worry is eventually it could start making a run towards I-5 and if it continues to do spotting, that's going to turn into a major issue. It's not there yet,

it's not happening yet, it's a could thing. And I'll tell you the other thing they did, they got a huge air attack on that fire yesterday almost right away. And when you've got the combination of the high temps, the low humidities, and the wind, even the air attack they had on that fire, which was really impressive. Just with the helicopters right off the start, they could not stop that thing. And then they threw the kitchen sink at it in terms of air tankers, including the DC-10. The first thing the air tankers tried to work on though, up there on Bluey Mountain there's

a communications site up there, and Chris Barnett definitely documented point defense drops of retardant trying to save that communication site up on Bluey Mountain. So... Yeah, it's so interesting. I was talking with Dave Aikens, our climber, tower climber, who was mentioning that they were kind of concerned about that the other day. That what would happen there, because he's been up there a lot. Yeah, and when that fire was making that run up through the mountains, that very clearly was the first thing they were trying to defend with the air tankers because they expended a lot of

effort trying to make sure that communication site did not burn up. I'm not sure yet how successful that was. We're going to find out this morning, but there's definitely going to be extended mop-up on this thing and I don't know if they're going to hand it over to the IMT that's already here because of the Grizzly Complex fires that they're pretty well wrapped up on. I don't know if they'll hand it to them or if they're gonna keep it as local unit jurisdiction, but a lot of work coming up certainly today and probably very likely through the weekend doing mop-up, because there's a lot of timber in that mix and a timber mop-up is always going to be a

longer deal. I would imagine so. Is that the major problem here in southern Oregon, northern California, or do we have some other ones in it? Well, when you're through northern California in the mix, the even bigger problem there is the Butler Fire, which last night made a major run at the forks of the Salmon area in Siskiyou County and that's a populated area. They essentially warned everybody in the Forks of the Salmon area to get out and then they were directing them down a Forest Service Road that goes out through Cecilville and then to Callahan. It's a classic old Forest Service Hall road that they have paved but it's really narrow and it is at times one lane only and if you're

having to stage a major evacuation down there and that's really the only route you have to get people safely out. A little tight. Man, that's kind of a nightmare, especially with the fire making a big push coming at the areas you're trying to get people out of. All right. Mr. Outdoors, Mr. Fire with me this morning, Greg Roberts at roguewather.com. Let's grab a call here, maybe have a question or comment on this.

Hi, good morning caller. Who's this? Hey, this is Lauren atagle Point. Yeah, Laura. I was, first time ever been on Green Creek Road yesterday visiting a lady about a service I'm going to take for her husband. And I thought I saw somewhere Green's Creek Road showed up on some of the fire information. Is that, she's way up in the woods. It's unbelievable where she is. But anyway, what are you thinking? Is that anywhere on your radar there as far as-

Yeah, absolutely it is. It's in the level two get set zone up there. This morning there were no changes in the evacuation levels. There are no level three go now evacuations on the fire. They were rushing all the structured defense in there they could get, starting with what we had immediately available locally. I have not seen it yet, but I was also hearing they were sending task forces from up north on immediate response, up north meaning Douglas County, Coos County, Lane County to come in

and help do structure protection down here. Obviously, as soon as we start getting information flow out of ODF this morning, we'll probably start hearing a lot more. But back to what you were saying, we're still at level one, be ready and level two gets set evacuations on the fire, which is actually, um, somewhat good news. And you're not the only one knowing people up there on that road. I had multiple people sending me messages on rogue weather asking about that road, including one person who lives on it, going, okay, what's

my real situation? And I told him, I said, well, the winds died down, which definitely decreased fire activity. I know they're putting a lot of structure protection in up there. If you don't have it yet, you probably will have an engine sitting there at your house very soon. Well, didn't get another message back from him, but I am pretty sure he wound up having guests on his property in the form of an engine to protect his house up there. All right, very good. Hey, appreciate the call in there, Loren. Greg, before we take off, anything else that we need to know here as far are we looking at with the cooling temperatures this weekend are we still looking at additional chances for

afternoon thunderstorm activity or is that relatively calm this weekend? It's relatively calm and when we have been seeing it this week I you know I keep looking at it as it's just so marginal and it is and what we have seen the last few days especially east of the Cascades, eastern Klamath County, Lake County and then down into Siskiyou County especially over the Trinity Horn area down there on the boundary of Siskiyou and Trinity you're getting one or two very isolated storms that pop up. They do indicate some lightning activity when we're watching it via the satellite. They build up and then they're collapsing and dying out quickly. And to

this point, we have not had any kind of a fire issue result. In fact, honestly, I'm not aware of any lightning starts since Sunday. That's good. So we've had them, but they just, I mean, there's one here and then another one way the heck over here, about a hundred miles away. There's just barely enough in the atmosphere and they always form over terrain, and then they die out quickly. It's one of those things of, do we mention it or do we not? Right now, honestly, considering how PTSD, our entire populace is down here, anything

to me that might suggest more fire? I'm not going to mention it unless I absolutely have to. Okay, all right. We'll take that to the bank then before... Now, as far as... All right, so we're gonna have less storm activity. That's good news here for the most part. Is there anything else we need to know here before we break for this particular day and then come back next week? I don't think so. I mean, I did post yesterday the six to 10 day outlook, which showed below average temperatures

and a slightly higher than average chance for precipitation. And I posted and said, okay, I'm going to post this. You guys are aware of what a possibility is. But at that point, I wasn't seeing anything in the seven days from either National Weather Service or Pivotal that indicated we were going to be seeing below average temps because we're either going to be just above average, like we are right now with the high in the upper 90s, or we're going to be

pretty much right where we should be for the time of year. Because basically right now, I mean today is the 18th, but starting on the 21st of July and going through the 11th of August, the average daily high in Medford and also Grants Pass is going to be 93 to 94 degrees. Okay. Final question I have for you. The haze that we see in the Rogue Valley, where is most of that coming from? Is there one fire you can point to? The one that has generated the most haze that impacts all basically all over the northwest to areas to the southwest the

south and the southeast 100% the cram fire up in central Oregon and Jefferson County I thought that was the one but I just wanted to ask you okay that has been the chief source of haze now today we've got some elevated smoke over the top of us. That is coming off the Butler fire down in western Siskiyou County. As soon as the Sun broke the horizon to kind of light the sky up, you can see that on the visible satellite. That's where that's coming from. All right, Greg. Greg, good weekend to you. We'll talk to you next time. If anything breaks, of course you know the number, You give us a call. OK, you're welcome.

Yeah, for sure. Will do. Greg Roberts over at Rogue Weather dot com. Mr. Fire. So it's more Mr. Fire about being in the outdoors for right now. Sponsored by Oregon Truck and Auto Authority on Airway Drive in Medford is 735. The popularity of Fontana Rubin's metal division cannot be overstated. Well, at least it's exciting for those who get geeked by seeing metal being bent. Okay we'll see you soon. We've got another contractor who wants a tour of the metal shop. How can you blame them? We're cranking out so much magical stuff they want to peek behind the

curtain. The trick is to take it slow. There's a lot to take in and yet don't want to overwhelm them. Yeah they're like kids at the carnival. Ooh, check out the gutter machine. Wow, look at all the colors and gauges they have in inventory. There's so many profiles for roofing and siding. Holy cow, look at that order of foundational flashing loaded on the trailer. Whew, and now ladies and gentlemen, the grand finale, Fontana's mobile metal fabricator. Ta-da!

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At Sky Park, we make insurance easy. At 736, we'll catch up on the rest of the news here in just a moment with Bill London. And then, state representative, Court Boyce, joins the program. Haven't talked to him for a little while. I've been mostly suffering from PTSD with what happened in the state legislature,

although it wasn't all good news for the Democrats, they actually didn't get everything they wanted. But my concern has always been that the Republicans didn't fight enough for what we shouldn't have got in the first place. But I'll talk with court about that here in a bunch more. Granny emails me this morning because I mentioned a little while ago that starting a week from tomorrow, two to four on Saturday afternoons is going to be talking pets. So I moved handle on the law back a little bit. It'll be noon to two and then we'll have another hour of it Sunday morning. And then we bring on talking pets. And I think it'll be a nice palate cleanser on the weekend,

right? Because we love our grandkids and kids and their pets and everything else. And it's about everything. It'll be live at that time. You can call in, which I always try to do as much of that as possible. And Granny says, yay, animals are my life. I don't listen to that law guy. He's rude. Well, I listen to that law guy because he is. I listen to that law guy, Granny, because he is rude. Yes, Bill Handel, rudest guy on the radio and he makes me laugh. But yeah, sometimes it could be a little much. But anyway, so we can have... we can agree and disagree on that.

But one way or another, Talking Pets starting a week from tomorrow, 2 to 4 on KMED. Freddy's Diner has lots of family... Hi, I'm Mark with Oregon Truck and Auto Authority and I'm on KMED. Hi, I'm Mark with Oregon Truck and Auto Authority and I'm on KMED. 7.42 State Representative Court Boyce joins me from out on the coast. Curry County, how you doing this morning, Court? Welcome back. Bill, thanks for having me on. We have the Oregon taxpayers at least in a temporary protection plan. Okay, so a temporary, I thought you were going to say a temporary headlock. I thought that was what was going to be going.

No, we're on the opposite side. We're going to free him up from that headlock. Hey, I'm headed to Rogue River to make a trip here to Blossom Bar in a little bit. That's my therapy. Good to be able to talk to you. That's a much better use of time today than being in the state legislature right now, Court. Hey, I wanted to find out, what is your overall take on this?

Because I've made no bones about the fact that I have been very irritated with what I viewed as a lack of Republican spine to it's almost like you know okay give us something in the Christmas tree bill and we'll let the gun bills pass we'll let the the porno and the bills in the schools pass and and we won't use the one tool that we have when we're a minority party. And there seems to be a lot of squish in the GOP caucus. I'm not claiming that you are, that you remember that, but it's, you know, sometimes even a symbolic pushback would be really welcome, other than instead of the letters that say, hey, we got a half million

dollars for the new fire hydrant in our district or something, as if that's the job of a state representative. But that's me. So maybe I don't understand. Please help me out. What are you thinking? No, you stated well. I got a couple of unexcuse absences on Senate Bill 243, which is the gun bill. I testified in committee strongly against that. You know, the bill, I got to give our leadership a tremendous shout out. Christine Drazen on the House side, Daniel Bonham on the Senate side. I mean, they took a strategy. They worked together, super minority. And, you know, they still got that bill passed and we're just

going to keep fighting. You know, there's different... But you know, we were in the last few days of the legislature, there was absolutely no penalty had you all just said, no, you know, quit attacking people. These are concealed handgun license holders who cause no trouble. And that's what 243 is about. That's all this was. It was a completely unforced error. And you all could have taken off for, you know, through the end and said, okay, you want us to do budgets, great, you negotiate to come back in. And I seem to be reading excuse after excuse after excuse for not using the only tool that a minority has, because it was the final few days of the legislature.

There was no penalty. You all could have walked out and had eight unexcused absences and it wouldn't have mattered on Measure 113 for that ability to rerun. Where am I wrong on that? You're not wrong. The South Coast delegation worked extremely hard on the 24 Republicans on the House side and the 11 on the Senate side, and we just weren't united on that, unfortunately. and Drazen worked very hard to get us united so that we could have that. Well you're telling me then that we got a bunch of squishies.

That's what you're telling me here, Gort. You got a bunch of squishies. You know we continually work on that Bill. We continually try to persuade them and you, some of them are in purple districts. We lost one seat as you know, last election, and we're trying to gain seats. And so the primary focus to get control of the agenda is the gavels in the committees. And when we do that, we get a Republican governor, we can swing Oregon back. That's going to be some hard work, but we've got to reach out to our independent voters and the 125,000 Oregon Republicans that didn't vote.

I think that tide's starting to turn. I hope so. You know, I'm too old to move to Idaho. Yeah, well, yeah, I get that. But of course, Idaho would like to move here through the Greater Idaho Project, but we digress. Well, they wouldn't even give a hearing for that. And so it's obvious that the Democrats hate Southern Oregon and out on the coast.

They hate us all anyway. But at the same time, they wouldn't want to let us go. I find that really interesting. It's like, if I can't love you, even though I hate you, nobody else can, I think is what the state legislature said, not even giving the Idaho people a hearing on this one. And you know what, that's I'm not felt like that is rational, but the more the more that we battle the urban rural divisions in this state, as you just said, they hate us. That might be a little strong. But if you serve in legislature for three years,

and as a county commissioner, you see things that just make your head spin. You mentioned the pornography for kids that was House Bill 1098. We fought with everything we could on that and it's just a system of government and the philosophy that you know government continues to expand and we get out voted by the simple Portland metro area. Yeah, well you see, in my benevolent dictatorship, Courtney, I'm just having a little fun with you right now, so bear with me, okay? In my benevolent dictatorship, there will now be required a passport under Greater Idaho. You would have to have a passport from Portland approved by the

Idaho governor in order to come visit all of the gang green monuments and everything else that Portland seems to want to love. You want to come down to the wild and scenic rogue, we have to approve you. Oh no, I'm sorry. We really don't like you, you know, hardcore commie. You don't get the wild and scenic. That would be my benevolent dictatorship fantasy. That benevolent dictatorship is actually a biblical concept. It goes back to our founding fathers. George Washington did not want to take a third term as president. He knew he couldn't, there was not being able to handle the power was too great a risk for him and he personally understood that. So benevolent dictators are rare, but boy it sure saves a lot in resources. Yeah, saves a lot of time. You can see though how I just envision Democrats in the state legislature that are kind of, my precious, my precious,

doing their little golem thing. Let me set that aside here at the moment since I've just been fantasizing with you here and I really should edit myself on the air more. But now as far as, you know, we did dodge a bullet temporarily on the big tax increase that Democrats wanted. They didn't have the votes and Democrats did not have the votes. So there were Democrats that didn't want this. The story is that the governor is going to want to call a special session because they got to find more money to shove out to a very inefficient and getting laid off right now, from what I understand, the Oregon Department of Transportation. Are we still looking for this in September, as you see it?

What do you think? Yeah, we're just not legally bound to go. I mean, it may ultimately result in us getting unexcused absences back to measure 113. But as long as they are going to put tax increases, fee increases, rate increases on the table as part of the solution. You know, I'm one person and I know that there are most of the Republicans on the House side will not support that, so we don't even have to go to this session. Now that's really interesting. So how could it be counted as an unexcused absence if you, if enough of you stay out, you don't gavel in. If you never gavel in, nothing ever happened to be counted as an excuse. That could... Right? Yeah, I can't speak for all

the Republicans, but we'll be back to that same dynamic that can we actually count on everybody to be united. Oh, in other words, Mannix and Javadie will be there, right? Yeah, but again, I think the Asians is working very hard on them and they're not all bad. Okay, well, Drazen needs to pull out her magic wand or something like that and say, hey listen, I'm going to put a curse on you. You might beat him over the head. Or do something like that. I know she's diminutive in physical stature, but you know, she has the gavel for crying out loud in the caucus.

I've just worked with her three years now and got to know her and her team better, and I couldn't be more impressed with, you know, I'm hoping she runs for governor if she does and the whole bottom does or vice versa, and that's our chance to really turn this state and I just keep beating that drum because I believe there's just no question that that's the combination to save our state and bring the state together. Do you believe then that a special session could be headed off? If you were to take a straw poll of your fellow legislators, would enough of you be united in not showing up to legislators, all right? Would enough of you be united in not showing up to not have the session go off in the first place, which means no unexcused absences, which also means no tax increases?

Oh, I'm very optimistic right now. I'd have called it 50-50. The governor's in a jam. They control all five of the state elected offices, as you know. They have supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, and we miraculously stopped this session and stopped most of the really bad bills. So, you know, we're not in a bad position. Yes, we need to increase our numbers, but they don't have the ability to govern, and they prove that this ODOT thing was an absolute debacle. Bill, as you know, there are 33 major departments in the state of Oregon. We never have one of those departments ever come to us as a legislature, any of our committees, and say, hey, we have a budget surplus.

We have really managed well. We have done a good job. Instead, DEQ needs a 20% increase. Oregon Department of Agriculture needs a 15% increase. And the taxpayers have just had enough. Businesses are leaving Oregon, and it's at an alarming rate. We don't even have a good system to track the small businesses that are leaving our state. Could I, since you've been in the legislature court, court boys with me, could you tell me if Oregon Department of Transportation has been able to come to the legislature

and tell you the people who would be voting on such tax increases and or budgeting, can they talk about what they have done well? Or is it, in other words, what works within ODOT and what does not? And the reason I'm asking is that perhaps what does not work within ODOT needs to be spun off and no longer ODOT's purview. This is why I'm bringing this up. There's

5,000 people that work at Oregon Department of Transportation and there's not a lot of projects that seem to be completed for a reasonable cost. And I think it's a reasonable question to ask. And I don't know how they approach you in the legislature. Maybe you can help us. They only have one option. And they have allies on the majority party, the Democratic side, that says, yes, the answer is always to tax more and not hold them accountable.

Okay. Is this because this is mostly union? Is it a union push here from the Oregon Department of Transportation or is this something different? And that's a very good question. It's all combined, Bill. Let's just put it this way. The 500 that they've laid off, 480, whatever it is, those are all blue collar workers. Those are all the people we depend on most to fix potholes. It's not the white collar people that suffered here to get the three-figure salaries that the state of Oregon, the taxpayers, cannot afford. Are you speaking of the project managers, those kind of things, those kind of people? Nothing ever happens? Of course. You know, I would venture to say a good

50% of them work from home. They're not productive. They're not appreciative of the whole public employee system that, oh my God, the health insurance that they get, the benefits that the average person does not get. I bet you don't have that kind of health insurance. The list just goes on and on. And again, I got to emphasize, every department in Oregon needs to be reined in. They are not held accountable because the Republicans have been out of power for so long.

Most of us are business people. Most of us understand controlling costs and managing well and showing a profit at the end of an annual effort. So they just don't come from that world, And that's why they are so hard on businesses. The regulatory, the tax system, that's why businesses are leaving Oregon. Intel laying off $2,200 in the next, I think, six or seven months. Do your Democratic colleagues even see a problem with that? You know, that's what makes your head spin, Bill, because even the ones you can work with that you can dialogue with and say, look, this is, I mean, what's an example? There's so many. 916 was the word that unions get to when they go on strike, they get unemployment benefits

for 10 weeks. I mean, the average person that's out there working trying to pay his electric bill, raise his family, get him through school, They don't even believe that's possible, but that's the kind of bills that we are overwhelmed by and outnumbered. That we just had trouble stopping and there's a lot more. What could be coming out of the system here in the next a few weeks? Because what they're doing right now with the Oregon Department of Transportation is that they're doing like what the Democrats in Congress or what Congress would generally do.

You know, in the federal government is that what do the people like the most when they have a government shutdown coming up, right? You know how that ends up working. We'll close the national parks and the national monument and, you know, all those kind of things and we're going to make the regular poopies heard out there you know this and have them clamor and call for this you know this sort of thing but it sounds like that's what they're doing with Oregon Department of Transportation oh we're not gonna be able to plow the roads oh okay so you keep the non-functioning

project managers and you fire the guys that the women and men that are actually driving the trucks and plowing stuff, right? They know one end of the shovel from the other. And don't forget, Bill, people are going to die, okay? Children are going to suffer, so we need to tax the people that are productive in our culture more and more and more. And I think they're finally getting, we don't have to do this. We had a $700 million savings, ODOT proposal we couldn't get in the hearing. Drazen and Bonham did an incredibly good job on that.

It just showed about seven different ways that ODOT could come under a two-year stabilization period and get it done. And no, it's a, let's see again, that's what business people do. And that's how they overcome you know bad habits and bad spending and lack of results. All right so we're looking for possibly a legislative session special session in September because they're still remodeling. By the way why were they remodeling the state capital? Oh don't get me started please please. I mean, the millions of dollars, of course, that was approved five, six years ago. It's a four-year project.

But it has a $600 million bill, wasn't it? Yeah. And it was originally at $480 million. That's one of the biggest challenges I have as a state representative, as a legislator, a lawmaker, that trying to prioritize spending, trying to identify waste. I'm working with the Oregon Taxpayers Association. We go back 20 years, Bill. The millions, when you look at it in kind of an inventory concept, the amount of money that's been wasted in this state because of the wrong people being in charge, it's heartbreaking.

All right, so what happens then if there is a united front here and Republicans don't even allow the Democrats and the governor to get their special session in September? What happens then at that point if it is never able to gavel in? Yeah, that's a good question. That's the $11 billion question right now with the tax raises that they were promoting to save ODOT. And by the way, I want to emphasize a lot of the bridges that go nowhere, the bicycle paths we can't afford back to the core mission. Don't forget the sidewalks. That's what I remind people. We have that super wide sidewalk and taking away a lane of traffic out by the Rogue Valley Mall.

Yet another example of ODOT efficiency in action, but I'm sure that's ordered by the governor though. Oh, but it's the whole climate change. It's the whole green energy concepts that basically say, oh, by the way, you're responsible to paint out all the graffiti in downtown Portland, the millions of dollars that that takes. And rural Oregon is fighting for snow plows in the winter. Yes. So you know the rest of the story. We just have to keep closing that gap. I went into legislature three years ago. I thought, I can do my part to try and help save Portland. I hate to be pessimistic, but those people are, I they are they are off the deep end they drank the Kool-Aid and are just it's tragic what they believe in how they govern. And as much as it might hurt it might be smarter just to keep

them from having their session at this point court that's how I would see it right now unless we're hearing something you know unless you hear some real reform and frankly reform would be spinning off I would think a lot of ODOTs. In other words maybe ODOT does nothing really other than just managing projects and having and then hiring contractors to do that rather than doing it themselves. I could be wrong but we'll see. You get private businesses involved in some of those contracts and everybody wins. All right. Taxpayers save money. All right.

Well, keep us in the room there as we get closer. In the meanwhile, head out on the river and get a little bit of boat therapy. Okay? Thanks. Thanks, Bill. I'm going to tell them Bill Meyer said, by the way, we took the capital. I'm sure they'll listen to me. Okay.

Thank you very much, your court. Take care now. Thank you, Bill. You take care. Court Voice, State representative, Curry County. It's a minute after 8 at KMED. KMED HD1, Eagle Point, Medford, KPXG, Grants Pass. Oregon Truck and Auto Authority is your tonneau cover source. Where clouds are drilling.

Three minutes after 8, Town Hall News is coming up here in just a moment. Palva Clancy here. We're gonna have a dad joke of the day. We need that Friday, right? You think about what they wanted to do over at Oregon Department of Transportation. We're gonna fire the plow drivers. That's how we're gonna balance the budgets. Roads will be impassable for months at a time. You have to get We the Sheeple to bleat to our state representatives and senators. Please, please give ODOT what they want. I don't know. But I'm gonna give a dad joke of the day to Doug once again. He has one.

Hi, Bill, why don't you call an alligator in a vest? It's an investigator. Oh, I love that. Thank you, Doug. Dad Jokes of the Day are sponsored by Two Dogs Fabricating on Bryan Way off Sage Road in Medford. If you have a better joke than what Doug submitted, go to twodogsfab.com, email it to them and maybe I can share that. Two Dogs, by the way, Iron Bull for heavy duty. Yeah, they sell these. Iron Bull for heavy duty made by Norstar and Norstar trailer for the lighter loads. They have a new line of heavy duty Horizon trailers in stock too.

Lots of sizes, tilt equipment trailers and dump trailers to Two Dogs Fabricating, Brian Way, off Sage Road in Medford. Also speaking of the Palette Cleanser, a little bit later this hour, we're going to satisfy your palate with a Diner 62 Real American Quiz, a little bit later this hour. Okay. And that's going to be great fun. We're going to be talking about the Gold Star families here in just a moment. And that is an interesting story. We have a man who has written a book about his experience of honoring all people who have died in the line of duty in our war. And I'll have that story coming up. You'll hear town hall news. Kim Comando, Digital Update 2.

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