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A Message From
Representative Whitsett
The months of July and
August have found this
office very busy since the
ending of the 77th Oregon
legislative session on July
9, 2013. All legislators and
most staff have left Salem
and the Capitol, and are now
officially in the “interim”,
where we are in our local
home districts once again.
Senator Whitsett and I
returned to House District
56 and Senate District 28 in
early July for meetings with
many private citizens,
including business owners,
farmers and ranchers, civic
clubs, the elderly, veterans
and active military who are
our district constituents.
We have also engaged in
district informational
meetings with Klamath
Community College, Oregon
Institute of Technology,
Kingsley Field, some K-12
school and senior citizen
center administrators,
private natural resource
companies, local public
officials, and Oregon’s
Secretary of State Kate
Brown. We’ve participated in
Legislative townhalls,
historic dedications, county
fairs, and even a film
documentary on the Klamath
River System!
A few of the major
happenings in the last 6
weeks that are of major
importance:
KCC Expansion to Lakeview
July 15 –
We participated in an
afternoon program with new
president Dr. Roberto
Gutierez and selected KCC
and community members to
determine the direction that
the college will take in the
coming years. New offerings
include the implementation
of four-year agricultural
degrees in conjunction with
OSU, working with the local
public school systems to
provide advanced placement
classes that will result in
completion of the first year
of college in high school.
This will allow for a major
reduction in tuition and
room and board expenses when
transferring out of the area
to other universities.
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Klamath Community
College and new President
Dr. Gutierez |
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KCC has expanded to
Lakeview, where a floor of
the old Daly Middle School
is being retrofitted to
encompass part of the KCC
campus, thus allowing
students in Lakeview to live
close at home and avoid the
90 mile drive to Klamath
Falls.
New professional vocational
offerings include commercial
culinary and truck driving
degrees, and for the first
time on-line degrees, all in
an effort to provide new
employees for the immediate
needs of industry and
businesses in Klamath and
around Oregon. Former KCC
president, Gerald Hamilton,
has recently been named to
interim executive of
Oregon's Department of
Community Colleges and
Workforce Development by
Governor Kitzhaber. This
should retain a high profile
at the state level for our
local community college.
Appointment to Special
University Governance
Committee
On August 18th I was
appointed to the eight
member Special Legislative
Committee on University
Governance and Operations
with Representatives Smith,
Dembrow, Buckley, and
Senators Girod, Hansell,
Courtney and Devlin to make
recommendations for the
establishment of governing
boards for the regional and
technical universities in
Oregon.
Read further details here.
This committee will make
recommendations based on the
recent passage of
Senate Bill 270.
This includes:
- Issues of
administration within
the state post-secondary
education system with an
emphasis on four-year
public universities
- Coordination of
operations, academic
programs, shared
services and other
elements of that system
- Focusing on how best
to coordinate academic
services among the
universities in order to
increase student access,
affordability and
success
- Consideration of the
unique mission
associated with each of
Oregon’s seven public
universities and how
these missions can best
be accomplished and
sustained over the next
10 years
The special committee will
convene in September to
submit interim
recommendations to the
Governor and Legislative
Assembly by January of 2014
for consideration during the
2014 regular session.
Lake County Legislative
Townhall
On August 12th I held a
Lakeview, Oregon Legislative
Townhall. We had two of the
Lake County Commissioners in
attendance, Ken Kestner and
Brad Winters as well as the
city manager Ray Simms and
Lakeview Schools
superintendent Sean
Gallagher. Members of the
public were invited to
participate in a roundtable
discussion of the
legislative session with
Senator Whitsett and me and
a two hour interactive
discussion resulted.
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Our in-district legislative
assistant, Kelsey Ferry, has
attended nearly all of Lake
County’s Economic
Development special meetings
as well as the weekly Lake
County Commission meetings
since July 10th on behalf of
myself and Senator Whitsett
and the citizens of House
District 56 and Senate
District 28.
MC Ranch Dedication in
Lakeview
After the townhall we
attended the
MC Ranch Chuckwagon
dedication
and celebration with Kelsey
and her father, Dr. Rodney
Ferry, DVM of Lakeview.
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The
MC Ranch
was one of the largest
ranches in Oregon, covering
over a million acres in two
states and four counties and
was founded by William (Bill
Kitt) Kittredge in the early
part of the last century.
His nephew, D.L. Jack
Nichol, and some of the last
cowboys from the ranch made
the dedication of a new
building in Lakeview which
will house the last
chuckwagon and articles of
saddlery. We had an
authentic beef cowboy dinner
served from the back of the
chuckwagon before it was put
into the museum and heard
from a number of Hollywood
dignitaries and authors
during the dedication,
including from Jack Nichol
himself. The magazine “Ranch
and Reata, the Journal of
the American West” has an
article on page 16 of v. 3.2
describing the ranch and the
new museum. Additionally,
the new website for the
museum will be at
www.mcranchchuckwagon.com
New Klamath County Chamber
of Commerce Video
The Klamath County Chamber
of Commerce has produced an
outstanding tourism and
business video with
Wrinkledog Productions and
Werner Reschke. Senator
Whitsett recently attended
the premiere of the Klamath
Community promotional video
and we would like to present
it here for everyone to see
and pass along to friends,
acquaintances, potential
businesses looking to
relocate and future KCC and
OIT students. The
photography and videography
is simply stunning and shows
the true beauty and
potential of the Klamath
Basin and southern Oregon.
A special thank you to
Werner Reschke, Director
Chip Massie at the Chamber,
the Discover Klamath Tourism
office
www.discoverklamath.com,
Trey Senn at the Klamath
County Economic Development
Association and the many
other local community
members who participated in
the production of this
outstanding video.
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Future E-Newsletter Topics
We have many more topics to
discuss in future
newsletters, including our
August visit with Kingsley
Field Base Commander Colonel
Jeremy O. Baenen regarding
our tour of Klamath County’s
Air National Guard base and
the only F-15 Fighter Pilot
training facility in the US,
the federal sequester and
upcoming meetings with OIT
regarding the special
committee on university
governance.
Legislative Days
I will return to Salem for
Legislative Days in
September and interim
committee meetings, where I
have been assigned to Energy
and the Environment,
Agriculture and Natural
Resources and Human Services
and Housing.
- Agriculture &
Natural Resources -
Tuesday, Sept 17, 2-5pm,
Hearing Room D
- Energy & Environment
- Wednesday, Sept 18,
8-11am, Hearing Room E
- Human Services &
Housing - Tuesday, Sept
17, 8-11am, Hearing Room
D
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Best regards,
Representative Gail Whitsett
House District 56
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