Oregon Public Broadcasting

The first-ever Oregon Rural Congress wrapped up its session Friday in Cascade Locks. More than 150 representatives from across the state met and proposed over 350 different ideas for ways to help their communities.

Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey was there -- as the summit opened.

At the rural Congress, Clatskanie Mayor Diane Pohl listened to hundreds of different suggestions about ways to rebalance the state's priorities.

Pohl says this summit is especially critical right now because of the distressed economic conditions in rural Oregon.

Diane Pohl: “We don't have a lot of wiggle room. So we have got to come together and get some real, meaningful plans together.”

Rural Oregonians say they feel like they've been treated unfairly for decades - but it's gotten worse in the past two years.

They've lost hundreds-of-millions of dollars in critical federal funding when county timber payments dried up.

They're missing nearly 200 local officials after the Legislature passed an ethics reform bill that hit rural communities particularly hard.

And just this spring, the Governor's Office of Rural Policy closed its doors.

That's why State Senator Ted Ferrioli says this meeting was a landmark. He says there have been separate meetings of small eastern and coastal communities before.

Ted Ferrioli: “The interesting thing about this is there's been an outreach from Eastern Oregon Rural Alliance to the Oregon Coastal Zone management authority, to the Klamath Basin folks. We have surrounded urban Oregon today.”

Ferrioli, and almost everybody here, agrees the real problem isn't that urban Oregon hates rural Oregon. Instead, they believe their city-dwelling brethren just forget about the rest of the state.

At least one attendee was wearing a shirt designed by one of the conference organizers, Colleen MacLeod. She's a commissioner in Union County.

Colleen MacLeod: “It says, 'Every Day is rural Oregon Day!' Every biennium, when the Legislature's in session, there's a 'rural Oregon day'. And everyone goes down and knocks on the doors of legislators. But we realize, the people that live there, every day is their day. So we decided to have a t-shirt that said, 'every day is rural Oregon day.'”

Link Shadley: “The political power is up and down the I-5 corridor, and when they look east, they see the summit of the Cascades.

Link Shadley is a telecommunications professional from The Dalles.

Link Shadley: “And they just do not understand the impact of what they are doing in downtown Portland, on what it is going to mean in small communities.”

Asked to name a specific example, Shadley pointed to the mandate that every teacher in the state must be certified in the field they are teaching.

Link Shadley: “So, if you want a class in art or drama or forestry, you got to bring in a certified teacher, and that is extremely expensive. I would like the state to waive that certification requirement for small, rural schools.”

Organizers say they knew they were going to hear  broad gripes and complaints. But they say amidst those, participants proposed some very specific fixes, like Shadley's school certification waiver.

Other solutions included allowing rural community colleges to add new classes without having to get approval in Salem.

And  localizing control over transportation funding so that bicycle paths aren't built in rural county locations without many bicyclists.

A final document with proposed solutions will be submitted to state and federal lawmakers.

Most rural Oregonians in attendance were hopeful, but something less than enthusiastic.  One attendee suggested that if their voices aren't heard this time, they should reopen discussions about starting a new state.

Diane Pohl, the mayor of Clatskanie, had another  dramatic solution.

Diane Pohl: "Or, get some new legislators.”