The Tri City Citizen's Alliance has decided to lend its support to the effort to re-establish the Tri City Lion's Club, and we would like to encourage the people of Tri City to support it too.

Many years ago we had our own Lion's Club, and from all accounts they did good work. You can read more about the Lion's Club by following this link.

This time around the Myrtle Creek Lion's Club will be assisting us in getting re-chartered. We need at least 20 charter members to attend our first meeting, so don't sit on the fence, come out at join this worth while cause.

Our first meeting will be held on the 29th of June, at 6:00 PM, at the Veterans Memorial Building. You'll need $35.00 to join -so don't forget your cash.

Also at the meeting, Joe Pospisil, Tri City Rural Fire District 4, Board Secretary, will present to the public for the first time plans to build a new Fire Hall for Tri City. He'll give a PowerPoint presentation on the plans, and field questions from the audience.

All of the TCCA board members hope, that like us, you'll find the time in your busy schedule to attend the event.

See you all there.

We spent the day cleaning up Tri City and enjoying a BBQ with Myrtle Creek's volunteers, as part of SOLV's statewide clean-up effort. I would like to thank everyone who came out today, SOLV, and Zory, Ted, and the rest of the Myrtle Creek folks for providing food and drink. We had 19 adults and 2 youth volunteers today......, and cleaned up 4 truck loads of garbage from Hwy 99, and the Walnut-Wecks loop.

Take a look at our Facebook entry.

Dan Wiggins and Carl White attending the Commissioners meeting yesterday and presented a letter to them requesting that the county put up "Entering Tri City" signs at both ends of our community. They also spoke about our objections to the placement of the "Entering Myrtle Creek" sign that is in Tri City.
Susan Morgan was especially helpful and offered to facilitate a meeting between the relevant parties to work through the issues.

We now have a new web site for the South County Fireman's Cook Off. Go to www.tricityca.org/scfco and check it out.

Remember that the event will be held on the 15th of May, 2010.

See you there.

Due to the efforts of Bill and Mar Palmer we have now applied for, and expect to receive a non-profit designation. Mar has also gotten us set-up with a checking account. Read More . . .

Read all about our meeting with the Douglas County Sheriff's Department. Click Here. . .

This past Monday evening several members of the Tri City Citizens Board, including Dan Wiggins, attended the Myrtle Creek Police Meeting to discuss the presence of the Myrtle Creek Police patrolling and issuing citations to residents of Tri City out along Hwy 99.

Dan spoke up for the many residents of Tri City who have complained to him and others about the patrols and citations. Roy Brogden and several other residents of Myrtle Creek also voiced concerns about the police patrolling outside of the city limits, and would prefer them to patrol in the areas where the tax payers of Myrtle Creek are paying for them to patrol.

Police Chief Don Brown did point out that during 2009, 95 percent of citations were issued north of Ray's Market.

Here is a good article from the News Review by Kathy Korengel that summarizes the meeting: Myrtle Creek police pushing Tri City limits?

The Tri City Citizens Alliance is proud to announce our sponsorship of this first of its kind event, in which teams of volunteer firemen will compete against one another in a barbecue cook-off. The Fire Department of the winning Grand Championship team will get to display a large trophy in their hall for the year.

I think we had a very good year in 2009, and we can expect to have another good year in 2010. Working together, we managed to stop a voluntary annexation effort by the Myrtle Creek City Council, helped to build our community spirit by holding the first ever Tri City Spirit Day and by putting up two "Entering Tri City" signs, as well as holding monthly board and general meetings every month.

Not too bad I think. Here's to a new year!

The Alliance would like to thank our veterans for their service!!!

The Tri City Citizens Alliance would urge you to attend this meeting as the 106 Redevelopment plan  will affect Tri City Citizens.

Susan Morgan- Douglas County Commissioiner, Phil Stenbeck- Douglas County Senior Planner & Colette Granger from Myrtle City Council will be there to brief everyone on the 106 Redevelopment plan and how it will affect Tri City Citizens.

Part of the plan is to expand the Urban Growth Boundary.

For more information on the Exit 106 Project, check the documents section here.

Braving Fall temperatures far above comfortable levels, volunteers came together this past Saturday morning for a community wide clean-up effort along Hwy. 99. The cleanup began at the Ray's Food Market, and finished at the Chicken Place restaurant, near Exit 103. Six trucks and over 40 clean-up volunteers took part in that effort alone. Click here to read a summary of the event.

The Tri City Citizens Alliance met this past Tuesday on September 8th at the Veterans Memorial Building, for our monthly general meeting.

The meeting was well attended and focused on discussing the upcoming Tri City Spirit Day, but we also had a lively meeting about a number of other important issues. Here is a review of some of the discussions that we had and the decisions that were made:

1. We've tasked Dan Wiggins to continue asking the Myrtle Creek City Council to move their sign back to near the Ray's market, where we believe it belongs.
2. We've voted to purchase three signs from Diamond Signs that will sit alongside the hwy, on private property, which will indicate to passing motorist that they're either entered Tri City, or are still in Tri City.
3. The Board has been authorized to spend up to $100.00 without coming to the membership for approval.
4. We have a new reader board in front of the Veterans Memorial Building (VMB) that will display our meeting dates.
5. We voted to change our By-Laws specifying that anyone can join the organization, but only people who live in Tri City, or own land in Tri City can actually vote.
6. We've also started the process of establishing a collaboration between Myrtle Creek residents and Tri City residents who are interested in following the example set by the residents of Rouge River, that requires any new annexations to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the city's residents. You can read more about this effort here.

   At the last Myrtle Creek City Council meeting, Dan Wiggins presented and read aloud a letter from the Tri City Citizens Alliance thanking them for changing their position regarding annexation of Tri City, and also requesting that they move the "Entering Myrtle Creek" sign back to where it use to be, near the Ray's Market.

   We hope to hear back from the Myrtle Creek City Council regarding the sign before our next general meeting. We'll keep you informed about the city's decision.

   You can read the letter here.

 Do you know your state and local Representatives? Are they representing us after making phone calls, e-mails and  attending our functions? Are they listening to us? The ones that are deserve our vote.

 Yes, I think it is very important that your children o votingf age  register and vote.  As a large number of young adults living at home with Mom and Dad  could help make a difference.  All votes count and could make a difference for your family.

If you need assistance in obtaining a Voter Registration form, e-mail us at www.tricityca.org and let us know how we can get one to you.

The Tri-City Citizens Alliance met this past Tuesday, August 11th at the Tri-City Elementary School for our monthly general meeting. Here is a report of the meeting:

1. The Alliance thanked the following people for participating in the Myrtle Creek Parade: Laurance and Mary Stevens, Bill and Mar Palmar, Mark Garcia, and the Tri-City Fire Department.
2. Candance  Courson purchased some extra "No-Annex" signs. They can be purchased for $10.00 and placed in your front lawn to show your support. The signs are 2ft X 2ft . Email us at admin@tricityca.org to purchase the signs.
3. The members present at the meeting passed a set of By-Laws for the organization. You can read the By-Laws here.
4. The alliance voted to Sponsor the first ever Tri-City Spirit Day. You can read about the Tri-City Spirit Day here.
5. A "No Annexation" sign is being made, which will be placed at the VFW.

The meeting was well attended. We would also like to thank Mar Palmer for her first meeting as Secretary and Treasure. Good Job!

   We had a great presence at the parade and festival last weekend. While we didn't win any float contests, we surely won over a few people to our cause. Also the Tri City Fire Department passed out our "No Annexation" stickers on Friday.
   We would like to thank the Myrtle Creek Tri-City Chamber of Commerce for hosting the parade and allowing our entry into it.
   You can see some photos of the parade entries by clicking here.

   Our County Commissioners have sent a letter to the City of Myrtle Creek in support of our opposition to annexation to the City Of Myrtle Creek. In that letter the Commissioners say " . . ., you will thoughtfully take into consideration the perspective of those who signed the petition and are extremely wary of non-citizen initiated annexation."
   We would like to especially thank Susan Morgan for the letter and her support. You can read the letter in it's entirety here.

   The general meeting held on the 14th authorized a committee to be set up for the purpose of creating a county ballot initiative.
   Were seeking volunteers to help out on the committee. If your interested in being on the committee, please contact me (Mark Garcia) at mgarcia@lacodiatech.com.

   Keith Cubic sent us this letter explaining that in the case of a Double Majority Election, a city is not required to submit the proposal to the residents of the city unless required to do so by the city charter.

On Thursday the 4th of June our Tri City Citizens Alliance Board Members met with County Commissioner Susan Morgan, and Planning Director Keith Cubic to discuss the issue of annexation. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Susan for facilitating the meeting, and just as importantly, thank her and Keith Cubic, both for the professional presentation of the laws governing the issues surrounding annexation, and the support they are giving in their capacity as public officials in meeting the needs of concerned citizens.

Read More...

Dan Bain, of KPIC covered our meeting with Commissioners yesterday, and also conducted some revealing interviews with Myrtle Creek's Council President, and City Administrator. Click here to read more.

Cara Pallone, from The News Review, wrote an excelent article yesterday covering our last meeting, and the annexation issue more generally. You can read the full article here.

There is a quote in the article, from the Myrtle Creek City Administrator Aaron Cubic, that to me anyways, says it all:

“No further development has occurred from the city’s stance,” Cubic said. “The council has looked at annexation options available and the only options explored would mean individual property owners wishing to come in at their own desire.”

My reading of this, is simply that the city council still has Tri City on it's radar, and has no intentions of adopting any kind of binding resolution that recognizes the will of the people of Tri City. Perhaps I'm wrong, and if I am, the Myrtle Creek City Council is invited to clarify their position -or rather change it.

Mark Garcia

State Rep. Tim Freeman   rep.timfreeman@state.or.us

Senator Jeff Kruse   sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us

Fed. Rep. Peter DeFazio   www.defazio.house.gov

Senator  Jeff Merkley   jeffmerkley@merkley.senate.gov

Senator Ron Wyden   www.wyden.senate.gov

Thank you so much  for your time and expertise in creating a fantastic web page for our alliance. It's people like you who make this community such a great place to live.