From championing the Hillsboro Hops in their quest to gain 15 Million dollars in State funding for their new stadium to proposing legislation for tracking chemicals used in cosmetics, Janeen Sollman is a busy Senator. The Democrat from District 15 represents Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Rock Creek, and Cornelius areas. She champions many causes, some on more minor issues and some bigger ones. I have no doubt that she works super hard and is constantly on the go.
This week she is pushing through the “Right To Repair” bill for cell phones and small electronics. What that bill does is:
This bill champions consumer choice and affordability in electronics repair by demanding manufacturers offer tools, parts, and comprehensive repair guides at reasonable prices. This empowers consumers to repair their devices themselves or choose independent repair shops, breaking free from potentially expensive manufacturer-imposed limitations.
Caring about the environment is something we all need to do. And that bill could save money and cell phones from being tossed in landfills. So that is good stuff the Senator is doing. But there is a major disconnect between those sorts of Bills and policies and her fervent leadership of the massive land expansions she pushed through last year in the form of Senate Bill 4. That Bill opened the door to almost 2,000 acres of Industrial expansion here in Washington County, laying squarely adjacent to Hillsboro’s finest neighborhoods, schools, and pristine farmland. North of Evergreen Road and West of Jackson School, these lands will allow for 3 to 5 times more industrial plants, chemical factories, Data Centers, and Chips Fabs than Hillsboro already has. While the jobs coming from these future employment centers will be important to the State coiffures, the resulting environmental damage, pressure on housing prices, transportation, utility systems, and our farmland and wildlife corridors could easily devastate our community.
The purple, periwinkle, and green areas on the left below made it into the list of sites that Senator Sollman wants to come into the Urban Growth Boundary for industrial use. The red area, which could have moved these potentially dangerous uses away from our people, including children, was specifically excluded by the Bill. In addition, the Bill dictates that no citizens will have any legal standing to appeal or complain against the inclusion of these lands if that happens. Sollman championed all of those things. Not the sort of policies that a caring Democrat who does so much to help people would be expected to push through, but she did.
The other issues that have use puzzled about the Senators push for this include:
- No Environmental Impact Statements or Studies are required by SB 4 to include these lands. Why?
- Sensitive creek and stream corridors in the area need protection. Does that matter?
- No Traffic impact studies- and these future users represent thousands of car trips per day.
- Sewer, Water, Power, and other sensitive utilities are at the breaking point with fees rising. How will her voters and constituents be able to afford that?
- Proximity to Jackson and Patterson Elementary Schools, Evergreen Middle School, and Glencoe HS
- No surprise here, but her campaigns have received financial support from some of the landowners who could easily increase their land values from 30K per acre to as much as 700K per acre as a result of this legislation. Disclosure anyone?
NO INPUT ON INTEL EMMISSIONS DOUBLING? Sollaman’s frantic work to push through the Chips Act- Senate Bill 4 and her “no-show” on any input over Intel doubling the levels of pollution in Hillsboro under their new DEQ permit is just as concerning. She has had nothing to add to this very important issue, at least not any I have seen at hearings or looking into the record. So we have to wonder if she cares at all about these huge issues where over 1,600 Tons of Fluoride, CO2, Nitrogen Oxide, and other dangerous gases are being approved and dumped into Hillsboro’s air every year. The record is dismal on these potential life and climate-altering realities. People are so worried in Ohio, where Intel is expanding, that they are looking to Oregon for answers:
Johnstown residents look to Oregon’s Intel plant for environmental impact expectations
See our story on this pending matter here: https://hillsboroherald.com/intel-seeks-permit-from-deq-to-double-emmissions-of-hazardous-substances/
I like Janeen Sollman, although she was unwilling to answer questions like those that I raised above in the last exchange we had- in fact, she stood there and allowed the landowners to shout me down and said nothing. It was not a pretty scene. She does care about people, education, and some environmental issues.
Her new legislation will potentially do some good things, and yes, it will provide some help to the environment. However, that could not even begin to equal the climate hazards and other impacts these users in the SB 4 lands will cause. So I want to hear from Janeen. I want to understand how she can care so deeply about fixing cell phones and yet care so little about these sensitive lands right in the middle of where so many of her voters live.
I want the real Janeen Sollman to stand up, and I hope she will sit down with me and lay this all out for us.
Perhaps……This may put it all in perspective.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1084111/PETER-HITCHENS-The-night-waved-goodbye-America–best-hope-Earth.html
Sollman, Callaway, Pace, North Plains, The Hops. Drugs & the Hiomeless, All of this and much more.
As I said in an earlier post….YOU GET WHAT AND WHO YOU VOTE FOR!
The impacts on housing cost and availability, traffic, infrastructure, these are important things that should be discussed before making these decisions. I live in Hillsboro just a few miles from the areas to be developed and have been a Hillsboro resident for nearly 30 years, so it matters.
There are too many decisions being made by elected officials and bureaucrats without thought to the future results.
I think that money and re-election is what’s important to most of the elected officials. The reality of that is sad.