NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: A Few Fun Things to Begin May

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By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

5/4/26

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

Let’s begin this week with a reminder that next Saturday, I’ve arranged a special opportunity for you to meet with our Secretary of State. Along with being our second highest elected officer, Tobias Read is responsible for elections in Oregon. And with ballots already mailed and sitting on your kitchen counter, the timing could not be better for your questions about vote by mail, election security, or possible changes in who can vote in May to nominate candidates in November.

Of course, you can ask me any questions too! The Town Hall will be moderated by Oregon Coast Community College Vice President Dave Price.


 

This is the second district gathering I’ve organized with the Secretary, with the previous one last week in Philomath. You are welcome to RSVP and submit questions in advance. And please remember to return your ballots by May 19th. Use a local drop box or post your ballot early since all mail is now forwarded to Portland to be postmarked. You can also take your ballot to a Post Office and ask them to postmark it there so you don’t miss the deadline.
Oregonians love to express themselves. And what better way to show the world who you are and what you care about than by spending around $40 every couple of years to sport a special license plate?

 

The state offers a multitude of designs and proceeds from the extra fees required to get one of these plates go to agencies and causes across the state.
A reporter from the Oregonian recently ranked 18 of Oregon’s plates, not on who they support but on how good they look.

 

At the bottom of the list?? The bland Pacific Wonderland plate that benefits the Oregon State Capitol Foundation and the Oregon Historical Society, and Share the Road to support Cycle Oregon and the Street Trust Community Fund.
The newest plate on the list is Golf Oregon to support junior golf. Really? It looks bland but up close, you see the background looks like a golf ball. Credit for creativity there, even though surely it will be impossible to see from a distance. The golf plate became available at the end of April.

 

Also new is an Oregon Zoo license plate, inspired by Portland’s nickname of Rose City and the zoo’s endangered Asian elephant population. Money from putting this trunk on your trunk goes to the Oregon Zoo Foundation.
There are several plates on the list that are not yet available. You can’t buy one but you can sign up for vouchers and commit to buy one if enough other people also sign up. That includes Vibrant Ocean to support the OSU Big Fish Lab, the Tufted Puffin plate for our Oregon Coast Aquarium, and the Dungeness Crab plate to raise money for programs that support and sustain the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery.
That brings us to the good-looking plates that are available now and that you can pick up at DMV.

 

Like color, mountains and hidden designs all over the place? Consider the Oregon Cultural Trust plate that supports grants for arts and culture in Oregon. Oregon vinophiles may need a Wine Country plate that benefits the Oregon Tourism Commission. The old Salmon plate has been updated. It continues to support the Watershed Conservation Operating Fund and Parks & Recreation.
And finally, there is Pollinator Paradise which benefits OSU Extension bee research, Watch for Wildlife for Oregon Wildlife, and the iconic Keep Oregon Green with Smokey Bear (not Smokey the Bear) for the Keep Oregon Green Association.
My own favorite? No surprise here. It is a plate I helped create to benefit the Marine Mammal Institute at Hatfield. Coastal Playground, the gray whale plate, remains one of Oregon’s must popular specialty plates.
There are dozens of other plates available, for veterans, universities, sports teams, and of course, the standard Oregon Fir Tree plate. Public bodies, non-profit organizations, institutes of higher education, and veteran groups can apply to create a new Oregon license plate. That process requires an application, approval of the plate design, and ultimately a check or money order for at least $120,000 in pre-sales that reflects a minimum of 3,000 $40 vouchers.

 

Oregonians are proud to support their favorite causes. But there are a lot of Oregon plates out there and that can get confusing. I’d like to see a new plate—for Oregon pet owners that helps fund spay and neuter services statewide. I’d also like to see a process that eliminates some existing plates when numbers fall to a point it is clear the public no longer supports them.
One of the most frequently visited places on the Oregon Coast is getting a facelift.

 

The D River State Recreation Site will be transferred from state control to Lincoln City, which is planning $6.7 million in renovations including a welcome center, upgraded parking and beach access and “increased accessibility amenities”.

 

Groundbreaking is scheduled for 1 pm Wednesday. The money comes from lodging taxes collected in the city, and also from $2.5 million in lottery funds I secure for the project in 2021.

 

The site gets 1.5 million visits per season and is a centerpiece for access to the 7 miles of beach that highlight the town. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is transferring management of the property to Lincoln City at no cost.

 

“We’re grateful to Oregon State Parks for their longstanding stewardship of the D River State Recreation Site over the past 60-plus years, and we look forward to ushering in a new era of facilities and experiences for visitors old and new,” Lincoln City Manager Daniel Hunter said in a statement. “We intend to uphold the legacy that has been established for one of the most visible and highly used recreation sites along the Oregon Coast.”

 

During construction, the restrooms and much of the site will be closed, though Lincoln City plans to make beach access, parking and temporary restrooms available as much as possible.
The D River Wayside has a colorful history on multiple levels—many of which are very personal to me.

 

The site is probably best known for the annual Kite Festivals held there twice each year. For many years, I helped organize those events and for several years, Susan and I had a kite store across the street. (Due to the construction, this year’s June festival will be moved to Chinook Winds Casino Resort.)

 

Purchased by the state in 1969, the site was once home to an aquarium and later to a go-kart track. Its name comes from the fact that the D River, which begins at nearby Devil’s Lake, rolls across the beach and empties into the ocean. At just 440 feet, the river was once known as the world’s shortest river by the Guinness Book of World Records.

 

In 1989, however, the title was usurped by a fifth-grade class from Montana, which re-named a drainage ditch as the Roe River at 201 feet. I was director of the Chamber of Commerce at the time and was told to fight back. I had the length of the river reassessed by a state geologist and then held a press conference, ankle deep in the short river to re-claim the title. The notorious (and often hilarious) spat between Oregon and Montana continued in the early 1990s.

 

Guinness no longer lists a world’s shortest river.
At the same time Lincoln City is acquiring the Wayside from State Parks, Lincoln County is gaining ownership of the 10-acre Don Lindly Park along the Alsea River from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.

 

Thanks to $320,000 from an anonymous donor, the county is going to pay back two grants and buy the park from the ODFW. Lincoln County will use the donation to return $210,000 to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s sports fish restoration program, $75,000 to the Oregon Marine Board and $35,000 to the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation—all of whom helped buy what once was an RV park seven miles east of Waldport on Highway 34.
Without the donation and agreement by ODFW to sell the property to the county, the park would have gone back on the market and sold to the highest bidder. Read more in the Lincoln Chronical.
Speaking of the Alsea area, The Oregon Historical Society research library staff recently processed the Rural Settlement and Resources of the Alsea Valley (Coll 1118). The collection consists of a thesis that Ray Mervyn Northam (1929–2003) wrote in 1955 for Oregon State College (now Oregon State University). The thesis concerns the Alsea Valley in Benton County, and includes charts, maps, and photographs. The thesis was written during a time when several sawmills operated in the region during the post World War II lumber boom, although most of those mills had closed by the early 1970s.

This image of a photograph of the main street in Alsea is included in Ray Mervyn Northam’s thesis.
Free books for every Oregonian (including postage)!

Thanks to the Ford Family Foundation, new books on democracy, parenting and issues affecting rural communities in Oregon are now available at SelectBooks.org. To browse new titles, log in to SelectBooks and place a free order. Whether you are an educator, student, parent, community leader or curious learner, the Ford Foundation have free books for you.
This seems too good to be true. What’s the catch?

There is no catch! They just ask that you help be good stewards of these resources by reading, reflecting and sharing new ideas or insights with the people around you. Then, pass it along to someone else who could benefit or share it in a free library.
We live in a remarkable part of Oregon which is frequently captured by remarkable photographers.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read has announced the start of the 2027-2028 Oregon Blue Book Cover Photo Contest. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office holds the contest every even-numbered year in preparation for the launch of the upcoming edition of the Oregon Blue Book.

The 2027-2028 Oregon Blue Book Cover Photo contest runs through October 31, 2026. Photographers are encouraged to carefully read the contest guidelines before submitting their images.

The Oregon Secretary of State selects one image for the front cover and one image for the back cover of the book. Contest winners will be announced in January 2027.
The Oregon Blue Book is the state’s official almanac and fact book. It’s produced every odd-numbered year by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office and has been in continuous publication since 1911. The Blue Book contains listings and descriptions of government agencies, elected officials, and educational institutions. It also features an almanac, maps, facts about Oregon history and elections, as well as information on the arts and other cultural institutions in Oregon.

The 2025-2026 Oregon Blue Book can be purchased online through the Secretary of State’s Oregon Blue Book website and independent bookstores around the state.
It has been a busy week! Among other things, I auctioned eggs, pedaled my candidacy, and dined under the stars.

Auctioning eggs? Yes. Last year eggs were expensive and hard to find. For fun, the annual B’nai B’rith Spaghetti Fundraiser decided to auction off a few dozen to raise money for local kids to attend camp. This year, eggs were easy. But gas is expensive. I told the crowd that we were hoping to auction off a fill-up but couldn’t afford it. So we sold the eggs again. About $10,000 was raised to help kids attend the wonderful camp on Devil’s Lake.

This is the same camp that stepped up to serve free meals to Lincoln County wildfire survivors in 2020. To date, they have delivered nearly half a million meals.
Saturday, throngs in Newport braved a light rain for the annual Loyalty Days parade. I rode my small bike among the marching bands, horses, and fire trucks in what seemed like mostly uphill. Someone yelled out—your bicycle shrunk! I yelled back—yes! It used to fit better. Kinda like my old jeans.
Susie and I rushed home from the parade to shower and change. That same day was the Culture of Course fundraiser for Lincoln City’s Cultural Center with an “Under the Stars” theme.
Highlights of the coming week include a Town Hall with Senator Wyden at the college in Newport Thursday afternoon, May 7 at 4:30pm, Oregon Coast Community College – Newport; and a workshop on development of the Blue Economy Workforce at Hatfield on Friday. And of course, we’ll have that Secretary of State Town Hall Saturday. See you out there somewhere!
People have been asking and the answer is yes! I’m bringing them back!!

Are you reelin’ in the years or just stowin’ away the time?? Let me ask that another way—Are you a Steely Dan fan like I am? Then please save the date! Or better yet, buy your tickets now!

June 27 at the PAC in Newport, I’m again sponsoring Nearly Dan, flawlessly performing the music of Steely Dan. Buy your tickets here.

Enjoy an evening with these 12 exceptionally talented musicians, a Seattle-based Steely Dan tribute band. Nearly Dan masterfully presents their own arrangements of masterpiece compositions such as the bouncing Reelin’ In the Years (“So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last…”), the troubling Don’t Take Me Alive (“Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon…”), the best lyrics of any 70’s pop song in Kid Charlamagne (“Is there gas in the car? Yes, there’s gas in the car.”) and the best drum solo ever in Aja (“Here at the dude ranch above the sea…”).

Not convinced? Ask anyone that was there last year or check out some Nearly Dan videos here, here and here.

Yes, that’s Susan and me in the front row.
Please note, this is not a political fundraiser, and all proceeds go to the PAC—that is, the Performing Arts Center. But I am sponsoring the show and thank Chinook Winds for their gracious lodging sponsorship of this great band.

We’re in fact bringing Nearly Dan back to Oregon for their second tour. Can’t make Newport or can’t get enough in one show?

  • Thursday, June 25 at WOW Hall in Eugene
  • Friday, June 26 at the Elsinore in Salem
  • Saturday, June 27 at the PAC in Newport
  • Sunday, June 28 at Alberta Rose in Portland

Note, that the set list is different each performance. Susan and I will be at all four!