I have now been at the location of Landfill Park 15 times more than anyone in Yamhill Couty Parks Planning Department

I see there is a new article in the News Register- (Wine Country!) about the proposed new park on next to the old unlined dump full of undoubtedly toxic waste and one time proposed superfund site.
That is interesting to me as I just planted for the farmer that rents the ground. I have now officially been there a few more times than the illustrious Ken Huffer and the rest of the parks department. Except for the jail crew that does the grounds keeping. Well, probably also more than that crew as well...
I found a nice quote at the end of the article which I think pretty well sums up not only the attitude of the clever folks that run "Wine Country USA" but also illustrates what is a major irritation about parks in general.
"Huffer responded by saying the Yamhill River is already open to the public along its entire length under the Public Trust Doctrine. "The development of this park is not intended to allow or open unwanted access to private properties, so Yamhill County Parks and Recreation has worked hard to create a park design to keep park users on-site and limit accidental trespass," he said."

I respond:
1. The problem with rivers in Oregon is not so much the people going up and down them-I understand, it is for the public good... It is when they get out of the river and start wandering around on private property and stealing stuff and doing vandalism or being victims of something-like their own stupidity. Or start telling you how you are miss-managing your own land.
This they do on a regular basis...
This is why people oppose parks, rails to trails, bike paths, and anything else open to the public that is going into your backyard or down the street where you live.

2. Yamhill Wine County Parks and Rec- nor any other local or state agency is actually capable of creating, "a park design to keep park users on-site and limit accidental trespass."

As for the continuing comments about Linn and Benton Counties having more parks than Yamhill I say, good for them. How about building a park at the farm end of Yamhill County, like say on the border between Lincoln and Yamhill out there towards Rose Lodge. Then everyone could drive by the Casino and could get lost on Federal Forest Land instead of our corn field...

And Furthermore... Enough of this "Wine Country," BS. All it brings in is arseholes in short pants, people from Portland, and bicycles. The whole Wine Country tourist traps BS was started by a couple winery owners and people desperate for income after the timber industry was shut down a few years back-by the same sort of people who now patronize our local wineries.
Just what Yamhill County needed, to replace good paying industrial jobs with minimum wage tourist industry jobs!
I remember setting in a Newport City Council meeting years ago and hearing the retiring mayor of Newport talking about the jobs tourism was bringing to Newport. He laughed about it and said that while they had to support tourism now that fishing and logging had been killed off everyone knew what tourists did for the city of Newport, "They come here, take a shit, and leave," he said. Of course this was said in private session so it couldn't be reported...
But, it is oh so true...
We all just pretend it ain't so... And we have purple grapes on the police cars (funny, police cars advertising drinking and driving) and pretentious eateries, and farmers wearing short pants and Keens.
Do you realize you can do a bicycle tour of wineries? Oh yeah, and who exactly is the designated driver!!!!
I leave you with photos of Landfill Park, in the rain... It is so beautiful-wish I had a sip of wine!

Yamhill County wants to build a park because they want to build legacy, bad smells and grumpy neighbors be damned!

The Head of the Yamhill County Parks Department wants to go places in life. He needs to justify his job and he needs to build a resume.
He says Yamhill County needs more trails and campsites and there are 90 acres that Yamhill County owns which are just sitting there doing nothing. Well, much of it is being leased for farming, but that is not a huge income.
The vehement opposition of residents surrounding the proposed park means very little to the Parks department or the parks board. The issue of a huge landfill across the river, which smells very bad in the summer, is not an issue either.
What matters is following through with their proposal and essentially, winning their argument.
It is fascinating to watch the process in action. The issues that we argue about are essentially meaningless. Traffic and crime are items on a graph or report to those who do government planning. They are issues to be addressed by regulations and conditional uses restrictions by the Yamhill County Planning Commission.
No one in Yamhill Government will discuss the old landfill as the landfill has already been closed and has regulated through DEQ and I suspect that as long as their approved long range plan is followed, liability is limited.
They will not acknowledge the stink of the Waste Management site across the river. They claim that it will have no impact.
This denial will work as there is no accountability. Ken Huffer, Head of the Parks department, will be long gone to bigger and better things before anyone in government discovers that the sort of people who want to camp and walk nature trails are also the sort of people who object to a mountain of garbage.
Ken will have his legacy park on his resume, the Parks Board will have done their civic duty by building a park over the objections of a bunch of "selfish farmers," and the local meth heads and kids will have a place to party that is closer than Deer Creek park.
So really, it is a win-win situation for everyone but the neighbors.
And that is the definition of "for the public good..."

(It is pretty funny that Yamhill County may one day be known for Landfill Park, the park that stinks. But, I suppose that will be called a positive as in some sort of green recycling project and everyone but the people who smell it will think it is all a great idea...)

If I had a million dollars

If I had a million dollars. Aspirations weblog has this as a topic. I think there is a weblog challenge to write a certain number of words or something. This if you had a million dollars thing is along those lines.
You see my problem is my attention span.
I look read her blog and Ed Winkles, then I get distracted by some other link and then I wander off through the internet and I can never remember where I started or what I wanted to look at to begin with.
This whole million dollar windfall thing is a game that Sadie and I play sometimes. It has to do with my faulty logic, which comes from attending a public school where logic is not taught.
I once read that you have nearly the same chance of winning the lottery if you don't play as if you do play. I don't play as I am to uptight to spend the dollar but somehow I have it in my head that I still could win. The illustration is supposed to make you understand that playing the lottery is such a long shot that actually buying a ticket doesn't really increase your chances that much. It is faulty reasoning to say that if you don't play you still might win. Still, it may happen to me....
S. wants to by legos.
I have simple needs. I want to pay off the bills and the farm and get my brother and I a retirement.
Now if I was filthy rich... The example of Nicolas Cage was brought up. It seems that he is as nuts as I have always suspected. He bought an island, lots of houses, all kinds of stuff and now I guess he is broke...
If I was like a 250 million dollar winner then that would be something else. I'm not sure I want that. It would either be really fun to farm, because you could do it anyway you wanted, or there would be no point to farming. I don't think I would know until my first crop failure.
The extra cash would be bad for the kid. Anything she would want. You don't really have the hunger to do something if you know you have a safety net.
I would like to set up a program of preschools which use retired people to give the kids a link to the past. Like grandparents. S. went to a preschool like that and it was amazing.
I'd like to own a couple thousand acres all in one spot. I would pick a year, like say 1967, (that way I could have a G1000 Vista) and I would allow nothing on that farm newer than 1967. (Except for children...)
There would be a visitor staging area, kind of like a qaurantine  facility. If you didn't have the right clothes you could check some out. (like bowing shoes at a bowling alley.) Any deliveries would have to be transferred to period vehicles. I'd let antique tractor people bring in their old tractors and play with them. I'd have lots of implements for them to pull. I'd have a farm that looked like the Marx Lazy Days farm. I would have the place divided into smaller farmsteads. So there would be a mix of small and large farms. Each farm would be out of a different decade. I'd try all the old techniques out of the Farmer Stockman's hand book of 1945. I'd raise old breeds of cows and real tomatoes and wooley pigs. There would even be some horse farmers. Perhaps I'd expand by inviting some Amish to start a colony.
No cell phones...
There would be no wine.
Hard cider perhaps.
I would allow banjo music but only once a week.
Visitors over 16 would not be allowed to wear short pants except when swimming at the ol' swimming hole. I would have a steam powered ice cream maker.
I would wear a Fedora and drive a 1953 Pontiac around the farm at break neck speeds. Perhaps I would have a very cute intern to drive me around.
But, I digress...
Sometimes Sadie and I play the three wishes game. We have pretty well figured that one out. We will ask for good fortune. I think that is bullet proof.
We will not ask for a sausage. I read a story about that once. Those folks ended up in the end with nothing...