This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Oregon’s two senators and the congresswomen representing Lincoln County got a letter of reassurance Friday from the U.S. Coast Guard’s commandant that he intends to permanently keep its rescue helicopter in Newport.
But the attorney representing the two organizations suing the Coast Guard in federal court says “show us” by asking that the government drop opposition to its lawsuit.
Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and Rep. Val Hoyle on Friday released a two-page letter they received just hours before from Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, and issued a joint news release touting the commandant’s statement.
In it, Lunday said his “intent is to permanently maintain” a helicopter operating from the Guard Guard’s air facility in Newport “except when maintenance, crew readiness, or emergent mission needs require short-term, temporary movement of the helicopter and crew until their presence is restored.”
Not so fast, the attorney for Newport Fishermen’s Wives and Lincoln County said just hours later.
Eric Brickenstein, the Portland-based attorney for the two organizations, said despite what Lunday’s letter says what matters is what happens in U.S. District Court in Eugene.
“…it is important to be clear that notwithstanding these statements, the Coast Guard and and (U.S. Homeland Security) Secretary Noem continue to oppose the county and Newport Fishermen’s Wives in federal court.”
In federal court
The Coast Guard moved the helicopter without notice 70 miles south to North Bend in late October to make up for a shortage of aircraft there, court filings say. It also cleared out much of the support equipment at the air facility.
But many in the community also tied the departure to outreach by contractors for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who indicated the agency wants to repurpose the 3-acre air facility and building and staff it for a potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility.
The Fishermen’s Wives organization, Lincoln County and the Oregon attorney general’s office successfully received a temporary order Nov. 24 to have the helicopter returned to Newport from North Bend after it had been moved without congressionally-required notice. Their injunction request says the helicopter is needed for rescue operations in the Newport area, especially for the start of the Dungeness crab season.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have argued in court filings and during a Dec. 8 hearing that the groups shouldn’t be allowed to interfere in routine and temporary operations as to when, where and how the Coast Guard deploys its rescue helicopters. Although the helicopter returned to Newport after U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken’s Nov. 24 court order, federal attorneys said in court it would remain there only through next spring when the agency “will assess its resources for the summer season as it has for the past several years” and may request permission to consolidate resources in North Bend.
Aiken is scheduled to rule on the injunction request Dec. 22.
The court filings seem to contradict what Lunday told Merkley and Wyden during a phone call last month and why the senators sent a two-page letter Nov. 21 asking him to clarify what the Coast Guard intends to do in Newport.
In his letter Friday, Lunday said the Coast Guard will “do better to communicate and be transparent” with regards to helicopter operations, that it would comply with congressional requirements should it consider closing the Newport air facility, and that he accepted the senators’ invitation to visit Newport in 2026.
On Friday, Aiken agreed to an emergency request by the Coast Guard to allow the Newport-based helicopter to move to northwest Washington to help with flood rescue and relief efforts there.
Letter celebrated
After they got Lunday’s letter, Merkley, Wyden and Hoyle issued their own statements hailing what backed up a verbal commitment the admiral made in November to keep the helicopter in Newport.
“For fishermen and coastal communities, this is a huge win, especially during winter crab season and in the face of cold-water conditions,” said Merkley.
The senator, who had put a hold on Lunday’s nomination as Coast Guard commandant, said Friday he would lift it “and look forward to his visit to Newport and for a productive working relationship going forward.”
In her statement, Hoyle thanked Lunday for the commitment letter and called it a “huge win” for the coastal community.”
“ … it wouldn’t have happened without the collective effort of Senators Wyden and Merkley and every Oregonian who raised their voice,” Hoyle said. “When our community stands together, we get results.”
But those statements quickly drew a rebuttal from the attorney representing Lincoln County and Fishermen’s Wives in federal court.
Brickenstein said the best indicator of what Homeland Security and the Coast Guard are doing is what’s happening in federal court.
“As far as I am aware, the Coast Guard and Secretary Noem have not withdrawn their opposition (to our injunction request) in light of Admiral Lunday’s statements to the senators,” he said. “Our actions will continue to be guided by what the Coast Guard and Secretary Noem do in court, not what is said in the political arena.”
