Has everybody asked all their questions of Rob Thomas the Tax Assessor?

If it is done we will let the discussion migrate off the page and into the archives where you can access it forever. If not we will bring it to the top of the website and let it continue.

This type of discussion will be improved with a chat room format that Jim Dodds has sent in. Now you see how a long range Q&A session can work we will try a chat room where the discussion is over a shorter time frame and can involve you and your relatives and community residents. All we need is a topic that is of interest to the community.

Why don't you suggest a topic in the comments below and we will see what we can do about getting the chat set up and under way. This is a community enlightening project. You are learning new ways to use your computer that will help all of us get more out of life. I am going to put my choice for a community chat in the comments now.

Has everybody asked all their questions of Rob Thomas the Tax Assessor?

If it is done we will let the discussion migrate off the page and into the archives where you can access it forever. If not we will bring it to the top of the website and let it continue.

This type of discussion will be improved with a chat room format that Jim Dodds has sent in. Now you see how a long range Q&A session can work we will try a chat room where the discussion is over a shorter time frame and can involve you and your relatives and community residents. All we need is a topic that is of interest to the community.

Why don't you suggest a topic in the comments below and we will see what we can do about getting the chat set up and under way. This is a community enlightening project. You are learning new ways to use your computer that will help all of us get more out of life. I am going to put my choice for a community chat in the comments now.

AMTRAK Adventure Awaits You!

When Betty and Bill Hanus took the train back east last summer they returned with glowing accounts of their trip. I thought that might be a fun way to travel to California and join up with Jacky and return home next week.

Here then is the saga of Ron on the train.

Jim Rose took me over to the train depot in Albany on Tuesday. I thought it was out of friendship but he informed me on the way that he just couldn't figure any other way to get rid of me. He would be a hero when he returned to LVH and I would be gone. Pretty good deal.

At any rate we arrived at the newly renovated station in Albany which is beautiful. They've done a terrific job fixing it up. We arrived 2 hours early... I have this thing about being on time. The Amtrak system does not feel the same way. My 2 hours stretched into 6 hours as the train was delayed outside of Portland... Do you know what the term "heavy metal music" is?

The newly renovated train station has a wonderful new sound system.... Speakers are everywhere so that your soul can be soothed by heavy metal music turned up 4 clicks higher than is comfortable. It never stops.. Go to the restroom a brand new speaker seranades you. Go outside.. speakers at every bench under every kiosk.. all the way to the parking lot. Relentlessly for 6 hours... GAAAAAAAH! ARGHHHH!

Somehow the tinitus (ringing in ears) that I have had since the service provides a welcome releif from the constant barage.. of music???

I get on the train. It is baloney that the seats are not filled and you can switch seats if you don't like the one you have. I'm put in with the Snoring champion of the 4 western states. He is very very good.

Aha! I'll try the dining car. You don't get to sit where you want even if all the tables are empty.. No they seat you with someone you've never met.. part of the charm of rail travel and all. I sit across from Ned who is talking to a guy wearing a black suit from the 1800's with a leather hat with some kind of symbol on it... A yeah.. charm of the rail uhmmm! Well, the tables are all built for skinny people which is another group I don't belong to. Although I am starving the total discomfort of the table and the ambiance of my travel companions leaves me hurriedly finishing the meal and leaving never to return. I subsisted on the sugar free care package that Bonnie Rose packed for me before leaving.

I discover the observation car on my way back and no one is there so I get my book from my assigned seat and head for it. Pretty good but the seats are really stiff. Choice between here or snoresville. An hour later my back is killing me and the train drunks are holding a party all over this car. They include two 45 year old leches tring to glomb onto some 20 year old girls by plying them with drink.. That includes the two strange people from the diner.

Back to the snore champ and across the aisle from me s a couple of ladies with a baby born maybe 32 seconds ago. So it went untill Redding. The Snore King debarked. I fell instantly asleep only to awaken minutes later as the baby decided to express himself.

Sacramento, the baby is gone. Maybe now... Nope here come the hippies. Now this is not going to sound like the truth but I swear on Bill furgason's sox it is. The hippies have a filthy, medium size poodle with a hat on. It is not in a cage .. sits right there in the seat with them no leash, nothing. Train people don't mind at all. She has a melage of clothing nose rings and boots. He is in Levis and an undershirt. Both stink to high heaven. The head drunk from last night moves into the seat in front of them. They are noisy and pungent.. My cup runneth over.

Ariving in San Jose 5 hours late and exhausted. They close the baggage claim area.. No one there. Finally after waiting for someone to show up I go find a ticket person who says they will get it for me.

I love the train... U betcha!

FOR SALE... ONE USELESS CAT!

Cat Talking

Hood River in the recent Storm. Sent in by Ed Simon.












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This is a scam to get your social security number,

JURY DUTY SCAM: This has been verified on Snopes.com (link listed below) and by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS. In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty . The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen. The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people int o giving information by pretending they're with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud. Check it out here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/092805.htm

Property tax discussion

EDITORS NOTE:
Now that storms are out of here we put this discussion back on the top of the thread (a thread is computer geek talk for a srolling blog such as ours) 8 of you in the poll said you wanted to join in this chat with our Tax Assessor, Rob Thomas. So, where is your input? Down the road we willask other county officials to do this same type of thing. It is a good way for you meet your government.

Our Tax assesor speakes to the community

Here begins our series on property taxes.. Rob Thomas, Assesor is writing directly to our community website and will answer your questions with articles and in the comments below.

This article will stay at the top of the webpage for a few days..

All,

Let's start with a little history.

Oregon's property tax system began when Oregon became a state in 1859. Back then the Sheriff was the tax collector, and the property tax system financed all government including the state.

As you can imagine, people felt that the system was over used and that property taxes were too high!! The legislature tried to deal with the issue but failed for many years. Finally, in 1929 they were able to implement the first property tax relief measure to help ease the burden on the property tax system. That legislative action implemented the income tax system which was intended to help finance the state.

In 1990 the voters approved measure 5 (a constitutional amendment) to limit the amount of tax a property could pay to support general government and education services. These limits are still in effect today and they are $10. per thousand of assessed value for government and $5 per thousand for schools. Of course, there are allowances for bonds and local option levys passed by local voters.

Then in 1997 measure 50, another constitutional amendment, was implemented into the property tax system. This amendment was called the "cut and cap" amendment. The 1997 assessed value was figured by taking the 1995 real market value less 10% and using that number as the 1997 assessed value and maximum assessed value. This new maximum assessed value is limited to 3% growth per year. However, the final assessed value is the lesser of the maximum assessed value or real market value.

As a result, when a property has been paying on the real market value because it was less than the maximun assessed value the assessed value could increase as much as the real market value increases....up to the maximun assessed value.

There are some very good publications that explain this process better than I can. Please click on the link below to get a list of Oregon Department of Revenue publications on these and other topics.

http://egov.oregon.gov/DOR/PTD/ptd_pubs.shtml

Rob Thomas

Assessor

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.'"

Focusing on the Issue of Aging, and Growing Into the Job - New York Times

Focusing on the Issue of Aging, and Growing Into the Job - New York Times: "Q. Your report mentions that the elderly are left out of most emergency planning. Why is this important?

A. Because most of the people who died in New Orleans were older. Following 9/11, my wife, Myrna Lewis, who was a social worker and who died in 2005, went to seek out the elderly in the neighborhoods around the World Trade Center. She found lots of older people who were really neglected in the emergency. They went without medications. Home health aides couldn’t get through to them. Some were living in feces.

Both events should get us thinking about what happens to older people in assisted care and nursing home facilities during emergencies — tornados, blackouts, hurricanes. Society is not sensitive to the fact that old people are not as able to survive under perilous circumstances. Homeland Security needs to be considering this."

Graph

If you click on the image you will see it is very sharp and easy to read. It is a picture of the traffic on our website. I told Cleda I would post something so she could see how many people visit us on a daily basis.




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I have received info that the "youtube" shorts I put on this site cause a computer to flash erradically when they are scrolled over... Anybody else out there seeing this problem?

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK

Be Careful all you beach walkers!

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PORTLAND OR
534 AM PST MON NOV 13 2006
ORZ001-002-WAZ021-141400-
NORTH OREGON COAST-CENTRAL OREGON COAST-SOUTH WASHINGTON COAST-
534 AM PST MON NOV 13 2006
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHWEST
OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT
A HIGH SURF ADVISORY WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS MORNING.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
STRONG WINDS ARE POSSIBLE AGAIN LATER TUESDAY NIGHT AND
WEDNESDAY.

The Clubhouse Door

For a long time we (the community) were not suppose to use the Clubhouse door for announcements. Then slowly, due to a lot of us, we began to use the door as announcement place to communicate what was immanent ...Like it was happening tommorow and we wanted the word to get out. Now the door has become the bulletin board.

The trouble is there just to much stuff on it and people are not reading it again. I mean, would you like to stand in the cold and read all those posters? Probably not. Maybe it's time to rethink how we do announcements. The Bulletin Board wasn't working to well because a lot of folks don't take the time to read it which is peculiar to me as one thing we all have is all the time there is in a day...being retired we have all 24 hours.. there is no more than that and we have it all. An old Platitude urges us to, "Slow down and smell the roses"... That probably is good advice even so I think Jim and Bonnie Rose might not appreciate it.

My inclination is to turn to technology to fix a problem. That is simply the way of my mind. We were thinking about some sort of sign announcing the latest event or storm warning on a sign as you leave the park or a mini radio station that broadcasts to the park. See how a techie starts looking at things?

A lot of folks use the calendar as a place to find their information. Did you know that the calendar can be continously updated by anyone? Right now it's just Jacky and me. Suppose we get the clubs together and the Social Club Board and just interested folks and show them in ten minutes how to put stuff on the calendar. I would keep the guts of it under control so the calendar program could not be hurt but you could put in whatever you want.. Change times, fix mistakes, cancel events. All that on your computer in just a few minutes.

This is so very easy..

Make announcements here on the website.. You don't have to learn anything if you know how to send an email. Just write an email to the website and it publishes itself. Remember Barb Dudley's stories as they traveled across the USA last month? All she did was email them to the website's email address and they were published instantly... She had to know absolutely nothing about the website... Ask her in the comments.

Barb found it so much fun that we sat down for an hour and showed her how to write with more features and how to do the calendar. Then she built her own website.. Took about an hour for all that.

You know we built a state of the art computer lab and we could have classes in this stuff.. You could do it whether you are 59 or 90 at some level from very easy to pretty easy.

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.'"

Machu Pichu

Discover ancient Machu Pichu follow the link. The controls allow you fly over the city and see it viewed from the air... Drill down to look at people walking the ruins or fly high above. Fascinating..

Click here

CERT Team prepares... for Hi wind.

We had warning that high winds were on the way. That could mean power outtages from a few days to a few hours.

There was one person in the park that had indicated on her Neighborhood Watch form that she needs oxygen to survive. What if we had a power loss of a few days like they did when the roof blew off IZZY's restaurant. This person could use up her reserves and be in trouble.

We searched the park for a good samaritan with a motorhome that had an electrical generator. We found one and drove the home to our neighbor's home and wired it all up for emergency power so they would not have to worry about losing their life saving oxygen.

In addition, like many of you in the park, the person did not have an emergency FRS radio yet. We have spares that were donated to us and one of our members took one to the person and taught her how to use it.

Our volunteer HAM Radio operator volunteered to come from his home on the other side of
US 101 and sleep in our parking lot if we thought we might need him. Another motorhome was offered... One more of our team came to learn how to hook up the motor home.

We are prepared for the worst now and got it all done ahead of the storm. I would like to thank all those who helped with donated time and material.