Letter: Vote for Main to keep experience on commission

Coos County voters should re-elect Commissioner Robert “Bob” Main at the May election. He’s been a Coos County commissioner for more than 15 years and is seeking re-election to his fifth four-year term. Translation: Bob Main has more experience running county programs than his two challengers put together.

Main has worked for Coos County since 1978 and was elected county assessor in 2000, a job he held until being elected commissioner in 2008. He’s been involved with the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association, the Southern Oregon Ocean Resource Coalition and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

He objects to the federal government putting “windmills out in the ocean and disrupt our fishing fleet, ….” He wrote a proclamation opposing wind ocean energy projects. Other coastal counties signed on.

Neither of Main’s challengers have a platform that should encourage voters to support them.

Chris Castleman, has been a Bay Area resident for less than three years. He’s a self-employed handyman/homesteader who has a small sawmill. He’s running because he wants to be a part of the solution, but he opposes the public safety levy on the May Primary Ballot, saying the county is asking too much. If elected, his main goal would be reprioritizing law enforcement and opening more jail pods within a year or two.

Drew Farmer, a Coos Bay city councilor since 2016, has lived in the area most of his life. An independent consultant, he has spent most of his career working for and managing nonprofit social-service organizations. For the past year, he’s worked as an independent consultant for them.

Farmer believes the county needs new blood and complains the commissioners have done little about housing, mental health or the drug epidemic. He supports the public safety levy because he sees a need to maintain countywide police protection.

Dean Brickey

Coquille