Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 10-03-25_FRIDAY_8AM

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

10-03-25_FRIDAY_8AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Here, KMED and Grants Pass on 105-9, K290AF, Rogue River, in South Jackson County on 1067 K-294-A.S. Ashland. I was just looking up a little bit of background information on Fred Herman. Of course, we used to go to see the Southern Oregon Timber Jack games back in the day. but boy what a sports history

on the Linfield site they're talking about him class of 1961 he had a good tough looking picture on that his love for the game of baseball ended up turning into a career that has lasted him a lifetime all-American pitcher Herman signed by the Cardinals in 1961 pitched for the class AAA Portland Beavers

of the Pacific Coast League six year career there Winnipeg Gold Eyes of the Northern League Tulsa Oilers, after retiring as a player, then he went, well, he went to work in the Eagle Point School District, athletic director there for a number of years. Oregon Athletic Director of the Year in 76, 1986. 1982, Herman accepted an appointment as the GM of the Medford A's of Class A here in town. 1985, he then became owner of the club.

And today remains the owner. Of course, the Athletics Affiliated Club now resides in Vancouver, B.C. He's also named Vice President of the Northwest League. Man, I'll tell you, you are Mr. Baseball here, Fred. Welcome to the show. Good to have you on. Very good. Thank you.

All right. Wanted to just touch into your overall feelings. I called you up a few weeks ago, and I was asking you were trying to see where you are, because a lot of people are looking to get the Eugene Emeralds to come from Eugene. The taxpayers were not much interested in taxing themselves $100 million to build them a new major league quality stadium or something that actually met the major league's standards for a stadium. They weren't willing to do it.

They turned it down. So they're looking to leave. And boom, Metford has been brought up here. And the latest is that it's supposedly part of a half-billion-dollar redevelopment plan, including hotels and conferences rooms. And they're hoping to do this along with a nice ball stadium out by Interstate. and taken up about half of Hawthorne Park.

And first off, I just wanted to just hit you directly here. What is your overall impression of bringing the Eugene Emeralds here? Do you think it could be financially viable from looking at the finances, and you also having been experienced in Medford baseball all these years? Well, I definitely would love to see the Emeralds come to Medford. It's a little unusual for a franchise to move from a large population to a smaller population. But that's something that Eugene has to figure out. Okay.

But I'm definitely all for moving to Medford. The plan that is now being presented is. unreasonable and just completely monster related as far as I'm concerned. When you do it on the backs of

75 to 100 hardworking Medfordites that you're trying to replace there's something wrong with the plan already. And then to make it a, to try to make it feasible and not nonsensical

by putting a baseball stadium and a hotel and so forth the plan on the backs of these 75 to 100 hardworking Methodites. Are you meaning it like 75,000? Is that what you're speaking of? No, 75 people displaced. Oh. Hardworking people that have their homes destroyed. Oh, I didn't. Okay, I didn't understand that part of the proposal. Okay. So we're moving, we're getting a lot of people out of their houses, and then they would be taking about half of

of Hawthorne Park, from what I understand, the way it's been described. It looked like a nice stadium, though, right? You'd agree with that. Oh, wonderful stadium. But I've heard the rumor that out by the current Miles Field, there's not enough land. I do not believe that. And if somebody would like to show me why there's not over enough room out there, I would be happy to meet them. okay now i thought most of miles field was taken up by the walmart is there still additional

land out there oh that's where the present out where the present miles field is and or harry and david on that okay yeah now um if i recall correctly i think there was a uh city council uh resolution that was done that wouldn't allow any commercial ball field or any ball team into the Harry and David field. I think that was an agreement. I don't know if that agreement is still in place or not, but. I do not know anything about that agreement. Yeah.

Who's that agreement with? I think it was something at the city council came up with. This was like, I want to say 2004, 2005. I'd have to look that up, but we'll just set that aside. It seems to me like they could come back to that decision and look at a little more seriously, possibly. Yeah, possibly. But, all right, so do you think that the ball stadium, even though it's replacing some

people or taking people's houses, I guess it would be like eminent domain, that's certainly one concerning thing, though. Do you think it is well suited for that particular area of town? I have no doubt, though, city fathers would be looking at that area, trying to attract more people to the downtown area but do you think that is an effective place to put it in your experience with the timber jacks and the ace no i do not think that's a good place for it if that's what you're asking yes no there's uh you know i i i have not had time to go around and look at different possibilities but there's got to be a better uh a better plan there's

and again displacing 75 to 100 families. I've kind of wondered about what the transportation system would be like around that if you were to drop that stadium in there and you had room for 2,000, 3,000 people in there. That'd be a lot of folks going in and out of there, wouldn't it? Yes, because I'm pretty sure that even 1,000 people, people at a stadium there would bring 350 to 500 cars into that area. And, of course, if you're talking about 2,000, I don't know how many fans they got this stadium planned for, but you're talking about a lot of cars.

If you were in charge of this project, and like I said, this is, you know, this is all in planning stages right now. In fact, we don't even know if the funding's coming. They're going to be going to the voters, Fred, in November to ask for permission to raise the hotel motel tax a percent, maybe two, I suppose, but I think it's only 1% at this point in time. If you had your druthers and you were running this deal right now, where would you take a stadium? Where do you think it would be best plopped down here into southern Oregon? I know you talked about where Miles used to be, but I don't know, the old U.S. cellular, which is now Lithia, you know, or is it, I forget the name,

they always sell the name to someone else, you know, each year. What would you say? I'd still say we need to look at Miles Field in that area out there. There's a lot of land out there. And possibly over in the area by where the KMED offices, are I don't know whether they're still there but out in that area to the left there there's I don't know how much land but there is land out there so you're still talking about more of the South Medford more of a South Medford location not a you know not a downtown area

definitely not a downtown area okay and and that's a nice plan I'm all for development, but it does have to use some common sense on where it goes. Okay. When you ended up moving the timber jacks, you know, back at that day, did Vancouver come shopping to you or did you just figure it? No. No. No. No.

I had spent 20 years here in Medford, and it's, believe me, it's my home, and I love Southern Oregon. and the Medford area grew up in Central Point. But I just cannot see raising again. I'll bring it up again, 75 to 100 hardworking Medford families to complete a plan of a stadium and a hotel and so forth. So I and I'm all for development, but common sense development. In the world of baseball, I know that, you know, you're probably not paying as much attention to baseball economics of Southern Oregon at this point because you, you know, concentrate on the, you know, Vancouver, British Columbia, which is a considerably larger market than Medford. And I got to bring that way.

Sorry to introduce myself into your question, but again, I spent 20 years here with a Northwest League team, which is the Eugene Amarles and so forth, and saw an opportunity to go to a very large market. And that's why I had to move at the time. Do you believe that, you know, looking at Southern Oregon, we're larger now than we were when, you know, you ended up moving and the team to a larger market at that point in time? Do you think the baseball economics make more sense now than they did back then in the timber jacket and Medford A's time or not? I don't know if you could, you know, give us an opinion on it, nothing else. Oh, yeah, I can give you opinion. Okay.

You're moving from a 180,000 population to, what, 90,000. So that's... But you got a couple hundred thousand in the county, I suppose. Well, what would that make the area around Eugene? Yeah, it's bigger. All I'm saying is that come, we want the Eugene Emeralds here, and all I'm saying is that the nonsense, sensical plan they have now for a stadium right at Hawthorne Park is not common sense. Not common sense. All right. Has the economics of baseball improved over the years even your experience in Vancouver?

I'm wondering how that has been working out. Oh, it's great in Vancouver. They're doing very, very, very well because the gentleman that purchased, and I did sell that franchise in a very, around 08 to a gentleman that I got to say this had a lot of money and was well connected in Vancouver, and that's proven to be a very good thing for the Vancouver area now. I know that having the baseball team is looked at if we were to have that. I know some are talking about this, Fred, as if it were something that would help the tourism industry,

in your experience, do people fly or travel into the area to see even AAA teams? How does that work most of the time? Do you know, or could you spitball on that maybe? Well, and yes, but not near as much at the Northwest League level, except for the larger markets that they currently have less than the larger markets. like your AAA teams and so forth. So you would be looking, then, to have, if you had the Eugene Emeralds here, most of the people who would be going to the ball games,

most of the time, would be from the local community. It's going to be a local draw, is how you would see that? Yes, yes. Okay. All right. Well, I guess the voters are going to have some decisions to make. Medford City Council is certainly going to have some to make, but the general takeaway is you'd love the team here,

but not where they're planning on dropping a ball stadium if the voters approve this, right? Yes. And I did say the same thing to the city council a couple nights ago. So it all for the move of the Emerald to Medford because it's good for the area. But the nonsensical plan they have now is not. what I would agree to. All right. Fred Herman, I really appreciate your time.

And thanks. I know that when I had mentioned you were coming on, people were telling me, calling me up and talking about, hey, you know, I worked with him. We're, you know, played with him at Eagle Point and everything else. So a lot of love for you in the community, Fred. We appreciate that.

And thanks for your time this morning, okay? You will. Thank you very much. Take care now. Fred Herman. It is 827 at KMED and 993 KBXG. Hi, this is Bill. Meyer and I'm with Cherise from No Wires Now, your Dish premier local retailer. It's time to switch to DISH.

If you have DirecTV or cable TV, call me today to see how I can save you money. Plus, I'll lower your internet and cell phone bills. And those offers in the mail from DISH, you can go through No Wires Now for those. Call me at 541-680-5875. Call Cherise like I did or visit their showroom off Biddle Road in Metford, nowiresnow.com. Restrictions apply. Call for details. Internet and cell phone service not provided by DISH. I'm Matt Jordan, join me for Fox 26, First News at 10. I'm Andrea Boyd. Tune in every night at 10 for late nights first news and weather. Fox 26, first news at 10.

Local news and weather are important. You can watch Fox 26 First News at 10, the encore playback at midnight, or online 24-7 at Fox26 Medford.com. When you want the news first, tune in to Fox 26, first news at 10. Because local news and weather matters. He had described some remarkable thunderstorms, and what he had to say after that was very intriguing. He claimed... Crown Zero.

The clouds looked as if they were bubbling up like magma. It looked like the sky was on fire. Where he was awakened to a rumbling noise that shook his house and was disturbing the neighbor's dock, ran outside, looked up. What the? Early evenings at 8. Ground Zero. News Talk 1063, KMED.

You're here. The Bill Myers Show on 1063 KMED. Stream.kmED.com. It is 830. Any thoughts on Fred Herman's conversation? And I reached out to Fred a few weeks ago because some people who were in favor of the ball team coming here. We're saying, you really need to talk with Fred. So I'm okay, okay, okay.

Finally, we were able to make it work in the schedules. I have to tell you when I reached out to him, I was expecting him to be all over approval of the current city of the current city of Medford plan. And I was kind of shocked to find out that he was not. And it's like, oh, okay. And so I wanted to talk with him about it. And I think he pretty much laid it out. Once the team here thinks the plan for the stadium as currently construed over there by Red Robin essentially taking about a good portion of Hawthorne is just –

He's not workable. He doesn't think that's a good idea. Bob's here. Hello, Bob. Good to have you here. You want to weigh in on it? Yes, yeah. Good morning, Bill. Morning. You know, I'm hearing some echoes of the Rogue X project where they want you to raise the transient lodging tax and let the tourists pay for everything.

And I think it's good to actually be aware of that because there have been situations that we've experienced here in the past like Rogue X in which they sell that sizzle of the, you know, that the tourists will end up paying for it by raising this. But as you know well, each and every family here in Southern Oregon is paying, what, five, six bucks a month, I think, in order for paying off that bond. It's something like that on the utility fee. We have to remember that.

Homeowners and renters alike. Yeah. The thing is, this percentage of TLT tax increase, 47% of it goes to Travel Medford. as part of their cut. And 53%. Whoa, whoa, okay, so this is in the tax-increased proposal? Yes. Half of it, almost half of it goes to Travel Medford?

Correct. What the hell for? To promote travel and tourism in Southern Oregon as part of their contract with Travel Medford. That doesn't help pay for the projects, though. No, it does not. And the money that does come out of that TLT will not buy a brick. I don't know sure what they intend that money for other than further promotions to develop more money to get something happening. And it's not addressing the ball stadium.

This TLT increases just for the Creekside Quarter, which would include the motel, hotel, conference center, and maybe some parking and some other development. It's not going to pay for all of the things that's on their wish list. All right. Then how does the ball stadium get paid? for. They don't know yet. Okay. You know, why does this feel sometimes like a little bit of the, you know, when the Democrats say, we're not paying for illegal aliens on health care and we're not doing this

and they'll be technically right, but what happens is that other money coming from the feds in this particular case are used to backfill it. So then they spend it on what they want to and then they find another funding source for that. Does it feel that way? kind of the same sort of bait-and-switch, kind of deal? Exactly, yeah, it does. On the comment as far as the sighting of the ballpark, you go on the City of Medford's website, there was a gentleman from a sports entity

that gave a presentation and some paperwork that showed the warehouse district in the south-central part of Medford as a possible location for the conference center and the ball stadium. that would promote, you know, downtown and promote, you know, a different alternative. Why is there such a focus on cutting up Hawthorne, you know? Any idea? I don't know. I don't know.

I know, you know, there's about three people who own most of the property to the west side of I-5 between Riverside and that corridor there. One of our big corporations is one of the primary owners, so I would look at that as why. Oh, okay. A good old boy network, in other words, translation. Yeah, it would benefit a couple of different corporations if all that were located right there. All right. So, and they're saying, you know, we can't pursue any of this if we don't get that TLT tax passed. And our very own Kevin Stein, I looked on the Oregon State political thing, and he's,

the headliner of the Political Action Committee for the Creekside Quarter. All right, Bob. I always appreciate your insight on that. Thank you very much. All right, Bill. Have a good morning. By the way, is your neighborhood getting improved and redeveloped yet? We are going to get Manzanita Street redeveloped because we don't have any sidewalks or curbs there.

And a short section of the street by Kids Unlimited, Harts with the Mission, is going to get some sidewalks on the north side of their street. We lost a couple of hazard homes, as they were, you know, were knocked down that were really big magnets for homeless and drugs. Oh, yeah, I have to tell you, there has been such a battle to get Liberty Park taken care of, you know, for a long time now. I know, gosh, who was the old city councilor used to talk to all the time? John, gosh, what was the name? Oh, John, yeah. Yeah, you know, his first name. Yeah, yeah, but I don't know why I just lost his.

last name, but he would call me for years we were just talking about it. And it was just the ugly stepchild of Medford Redevelopment for some reason. All right, Bob, I appreciate the talk. Thank you for that. John Michaels. Was it John Michaels? I think John Michaels. Okay.

Could be. I think it's John Michaels. Anyway, hi, good morning. KM.ED. This is Bill. Who's this? Hi, Bill. Good morning.

This is Jay calling. And it was great to hear Fred, who I worked with for about three years. He's a tremendous businessman in person. was a great baseball operator. And if only today, Fred would have had the support of Jackson County that he didn't have back in his day and had the Medford Council and all this support, who knows what Medford would have right now, but probably a very, very nice stadium and a great baseball team in a tremendous thriving league. Yeah, but is it something which is economically viable?

because I can't think of many other businesses, though, that are requiring taxpayer land and taxpayer financing to make their... Understand that. Yeah, make that happen. Totally. Understand that totally. And that'll be the issue, obviously, in November. That'll be the first hurdle they'll need to get over. But Fred is right.

Let's look at a couple things. Number one, we have an existing ballpark, Herring David, and bless Fred, he's slipping a little, he calls it Miles Field. But there is land out there. But in the existing complex where Harry David sits, They're going to tear that up right now and redo the drainage system that they didn't put in correctly the first time, and they're going to install Bermuda turf. That's a huge complex. You throw in a parking structure or two, and there are areas right beyond left center field and two right field that they could build a multi-level parking structure, put in lighted intersections to get traffic in and out of there, partner with Harry and David to build a walking bridge over the highway to utilize their corporate parking lot that has tons of space. to get fans over there, and then build up on the third base side, a two-level covered

because they get a lot of sun there in the summer, build the locker room, the facility maintenance, and the indoor field house beyond that third-based parking lot area that's vacant now. Visitors' locker room, a small one on the first base side, and add more to the base complex mezzany level. And you've got a ballpark that's seat, 4,000 people for probably a third to half of the cost that they're proposing today. So you're not looking at $90 million. You're thinking maybe $30, which would be much easier to take? 30 or $40.

Absolutely. Okay. Again, Fred mentioned common sense. Let's look at this common sense. The idea to bring the answer is great. Okay? No, not everybody supports that, but it is a great economic boost to this area for two and a half months out of the year.

But we already have an existing beautiful facility. and any clause or term that somebody claims they can't bring a professional team into that complex is, I've never seen it. Number two is it can be amended by city council. Yeah, I think it was a 2004 city council decision at that point. But you're right, that could be rescinded, all right. Absolutely. So it's a great, great idea.

But downtown Hawthorne Park, the shopping center, like at Oregon Duck Games up in Eugene, I mean, they're not going to want those people in that parking lot because it deters from their business during evening shopping hours. So, and the traffic plant is a disaster downtown, and I know they want to revitalize downtown, but that's not a great area. There's a better area either out by the Rogue X area that you can get to in and off of I-5 or at Harry David Parkica currently. And if you look at other towns, Bend, Oregon, and what they did in that partnership there with their West Coast League franchise, And you look at the city of Kaiser and what they did there for 25 years, they moved it from the idea of being downtown Kaiser along River Road out toward the freeway, develop private property, you get tax revenues from that. Yeah, but you understand, though, they're hoping to get the shiny object developed downtown. I get that.

Yeah, that's what's been driving a lot of this, I think. Jay, I appreciate the take on it, okay? And we will continue to take your calls on that just a minute. This is the Bill Myers Show. So Friday the 3rd of October talking baseball, talking anything else on your mind here for the final few minutes. I'm Matt Jordan. Join me for Fox 26, First News at 10. I'm Andrea Boyd. Tune in every night at 10 for late nights first news and weather. Fox 26, first news at 10. Local news and weather are important.

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Call for details. Internet and cell phone service not provided by DISH. Good morning. This is News Talk 1063, KMED. And you're waking up with the Bill Myrase. show. It's 843 taking your calls. Anything that's on your mind here as we wrap up the week here. A lot of conversation on baseball earlier with Fred Herman. And let me go to Dennis. Dennis, you've been holding on here a little bit. You want to the way in? Go right ahead.

Thank you. I just calling and I didn't get the first part of the interviews. But to me, it just seemed like this is not a viable project. The population in the Rogue Valley is too small to support this. The infrastructure in Medford, downtown, will not support it. And to me, it just seems like a, like the Rogue X project, where the good old boy network just kept pushing, and pushed it down, the taxpayer's throat until they finally got what they wanted. And now, you know, now they're moving on to the next big project, a nice, shiny object. Well, hopefully to get somebody else to pay for it, I guess. And I understand, you know, the challenge with Southern Oregon, You know, cities like Metford and her Ashland Grants Pass and all the rest of it is that

were too large to be cute, but too small to have that that huge financial gravitas magnetic pool. You know what I mean? That sort of thing, the economy of scale. And that does make it a struggle when you're that small to small, medium city size. I'm not surprised at all that the Medford Aids have been very successful over in Vancouver, B.C., because that's a huge city. There's a lot to draw from there, you know. And I guess I figure if, you know, somebody with their own private money wants to take a flyer

and make it happen, you know, more power to them. But I'm sick and tired of them putting it on our back to the taxpayers. All right. I appreciate your call there, Dennis. That's why we're here with opinions. Ray's here to. Ray, you want to the way in on the ballpark, too. Go ahead.

Yes. Jay Reese has a great idea. re-doing the hurry of David Field out there, re-do it completely. And then you can have your stadium and hotel and the parking. Yeah, it doesn't look like the city is planning to do it. They don't really seem to want to do anything with that location right now for whatever reason. I guess we'd have to talk to some of the city counselors to find out why. Because where they want to put it is an impossibility.

And only that, they will reroute one of the RFETD bus routes completely. All right. I appreciate the call. Ray, thanks for checking in. 770563. And we're also going to be talking about a couple of events going on this weekend, too. Let me go to, I think we got Neil. Neil, you are a bird fan, aren't you, from what I understand?

I am. I am a big bird fan. Yeah, I am the vice president for our local Northwestern Bird Club here in Southern Mefford, Oregon. What do you have going on this weekend? Because there's a show going on. I want to make sure people know about it. There is. So, on October 5th, we have our 45th annual Bird Mart this weekend. We've been in the Valley quite a while, so 45 years this year. We're going to have everything from bird food, cages, perches, toys. where you even have vendors coming in from all over Oregon, some from Idaho.

This is a bird. This is a big feathered friend time this weekend. So it's going to be Sunday, Sunday at the Expo. What time you open up there? It's going to be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the expo. Yep. Adults are $5 at the door. Children age 12 under are free.

So it's a big family event. Can you actually buy birds there or is it just like a show? I don't know how that goes, huh? Yeah, yeah. So we have all sorts of vendors. have birds, so we have finches, we have a vendor that brings in African gray parrots, parakeets, cockatiels, cockatoos. Any California condor is available for sale? I don't know. There might be.

No spotted owls either, right? Nothing like that. Okay. No spotted owls. Nope, nope. And then we even have, I think, Grange Co-op's going to be there with some chicks and some other – poultry items to sell as well, too. All right, well, I'll tell you what. I appreciate you calling, Neil. Everybody can know about that. It's going to be Sunday, Sunday at the Expo, Jackson County Expo. Good hearing from you, all right.

We have Bob Hayworth. Bob Hayworth, my favorite banjo player. Of course, you're the only banjo player I know. How are you doing there, Bob? What's up? Well, I'm doing it. I hear I teach you to play banjo. Oh, it's okay.

You know, I'd rather learn how to play accordion. Oh, my God. I'm just kidding you. All right. But anyway, how are things with you? What's going on? Well, pretty good. First of all, on the baseball issue, I just can't imagine tearing up downtown for how ever long it would take to build what they got in mind. And I think if they could figure out how to do it out by Harry and David, that would be the best thing.

What would you think about the, you know, even the, it's not U.S. cellular, but, you know, the big area over there, you know, those of that series of parks. Do you think that might work better, too? Yeah, anything away from downtown. I just can't imagine ripping up that whole area to build that. So, anyway, just my opinion. Okay, that's all right. That's why we're here. And did you have a little something going on that you wanted to mention briefly or what?

I thought you had. I'll tell you about this. John Hollis and I have been playing together for almost 10 years now. Yeah. And we started out doing the winery thing. And then we started doing what we called yard concerts over at a place in Jacksonville. and we attracted a pretty good crowd over there. And what we found is it's a lot easier to have a venue that we own,

and we don't have to move our PA system all over the place and set it up every time we do it. So we build a venue here at our new place in Central Point, and we've been doing concerts here. It's a private event. If you want to come, we'd love to have you join the party, but I do need to control how many people we have. It's a limited seating.

thing. So go on my website and contact me through the contact page, and we'll get you on the list if you want to come. So it's a fun deal. John and I play some old music, new music. We're having a lot of fun and some different things. All right. What's your website so people can find that and sign up? It is Bob Hayworth, H-A-W-O-R-T-H-com. All right, very good. Hey, good luck. Thanks for the opinion on the ball thing, okay? Thank you. All right. Take care. Have a good weekend. See you then. It is 10 before 9. Let me grab another calls. It's open phones. Find your phone Friday. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Hello. Good morning. Hi, who's this?

Morning. Hi. This is Tracy from up in Mount Vernon, Washington. I didn't hear the truce noise. Well, Tracy, I'm glad you hear one way or the other. What's on your mind today? All right. I want to talk baseball for a second. All right. So I drive down I five a lot through the city of Everett, Washington, in the middle of winter. And there's the Aqua Sox Field sitting there, which is the Class A team, it's vacant. It's not being used probably eight months out of the year. And is that really something you want to put in the downtown to attract people? A far better use is multi-purpose enclosed arena where you can have things in the middle of the winter

like tractor poles that are trucks and maybe a Marley Gauki or something. It's got to be a multi-use. Yeah, you'd be talking about looking for. almost a competition to the Jackson County Expo in some ways, right? Right, but you need something much larger to track bigger acts and things like, I don't know about the Jackson County Expo facility, but baseball fields, and even to some extent football fields are notoriously just empty spaces for most of the year, and that's not really a good use for the taxpayers' dollar.

All right. And that's just my thought. All right. Well, and that's the reason why I think people are kind of looking at scantzer, wanting to be very careful about how this ends up getting financed because you, you know, what do you do with it during the time it's off baseball when it's not baseball season? And so that is a big question that needs to be answered somehow. The multipurpose might be more useful. Taxpayers might be more friendly to that, too, Tracy, ultimately. Right.

And I think there are other cities in the Northwest that would love to have a minor league baseball team. Vancouver, Washington has been always asking for one. Of course, now they're getting collided with because Porton is wanting to get their major league baseball team downtown. So there's less attraction there. Salem, Oregon, obviously the Kaiser Volcanoes, they were jipped out of getting a franchise because of the stadium upgrade issue. just Medford, you really don't want a team. Rogues are a wonderful operation, and to me that's the way to go. All right.

Appreciate the opinion. Thank you, Tracy. 7705-633-770 KMED. We still have a little bit of time before we wrap it up here. But, you know, we've had a lot of heavy conversation. You know what that means? Time for a dad joke. Russ and Donna create the dad joke of the day this morning.

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That's pound 250. Micro. Hi, I'm Amber Rose with Sisku Pump Service and I'm on KMED. I'll get right to your calls to just a moment, quick email of the day. That's sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson, Central Point Family Dentistry.com. Next to the Mazelan Mexican restaurant, you will love the experience while you weigh crowns in-house lab. You'll love it. Okay.

I'm going to give an email of the day to Hans Albuquerque. Hans Albuquerque writes me often and then says, hey, Bill, you know, the city wants to get rid of the car washes, or they think there are too many car washes so they have to put limitations on them. funny, the city never had a problem with too many pot shops. Well, I think it's because of the pot money, Hans. Boy, well, take it, all right. Let me go back to the phones before we wrap. Hi, good morning.

Who's this? Welcome. Morning, Bill. This is Jim in Medford. Hey, Jim, what's your take? Go ahead. Well, I had two things to say. I was going to say, if they put a stadium anywhere downtown area here in Medford,

they're going to have to do a heck with traffic study because I don't think the town can't allow it. Yeah, it's not a lot of fun going through downtown right now, especially as they, especially as they nail you with speed cameras and everything else. But, you know, I digress. All right. Anyway, the next deal was, what about out there by the 3M area? Oh, White City, that White City area?

Yeah, there's a big top of the land out there. Yeah, I have a feeling that if the city fathers and the council wants to get involved in this, They want the draw here within the city of Medford itself, not out in Jackson County, unincorporated Jackson County, I think, all right? Appreciate the call. Thank you for making it. I'm going to get everybody's calling before we can squeeze it in. There's the pot shop caller.

Thank you for the call, whoever you are. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hi, you're on.

Who's this? Go ahead. Hi, this is Dennis, Bill. Yeah, Dennis. Have they considered a crime that's going to be attracted to this area? Because if you go to any area that has a big ball stadium and convention center, it's a crime regal. Well, President Trump said it best. That's hole.

Ah. Okay. Every place I've ever went to watch a ball game, and I love baseball. it attracts crime. It just, I, yeah. Okay, so you're thinking of this as an attractive nuisance rather than a enhancement. Yeah, and I love baseball. All right, well, these are the sort of things we'll be thinking and talking about a lot as we lead up to that special election.

Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Donald Fickner. Oh, hi. Hello, sir. Thickner. Hello, Don. Welcome.

I'm the treasurer of the Metford Host Lions Club, and the Metford Hosts Lions Club gave Hawthorne Park the land. But it has restrictions on it, and if they violate the restrictions to our contract, it reverts back to us, back to the Metbertoe Lions Club, the entire Hawthorne Park. I did not know that. Well, as Prentice, as well as up on Roxanne, we donated that. land also. So they just can't do what they want, wish it, or with it, rather, in order to redevelop for whatever purpose without you approving it? Is that what I understand? That's correct.

They cannot violate our contract. And Bill Dames, actually, he's the president. He went down to planning and informed them a couple weeks ago, and they didn't say anything about it. They cannot invade upon that contract. So the idea of taking Hawthorne Park in turn to the turning it into a ball stadium may not necessarily pass the Lions Club terms. It has a commercial use clause in it that you cannot violate. You cannot put anything commercial in here. That is really interesting. I really appreciate you sharing that.

Maybe we'll have to talk more about that next week. Okay. You'd be well. Sounds good. All righty. Thank you. Okay. Man, that's pretty wild.

What you learn. Yeah, that's the problem. You take a land donation. Do you own it and just do anything you want? Not necessarily. Check the strings out. Okay. Hey, 858 got a roll. Have a great weekend. We'll pick up these issues on Monday morning. And if you have an email, I want to email a comment. We'll have an extended one tomorrow. I make that Monday, rather, build at Billemeyer Show.com.

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