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❘ JUNE 6, 2015 ❘ $1.00
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SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Adventure
in the great
outdoors
Revived Outdoor Adventures education program includes more students and experiences
PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Students from Siuslaw School District join together to kayak, hike, fish and learn in a four-day outdoor program
sponsored by the district and the Girl Scout Camp at Camp Cleawox.
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
M
ore than 200 Siuslaw elemen-
tary and middle school students
got to experience first-hand just
how exciting and fun education could be
when they attended the second annual
four-day Outdoor Adventurers camp put
on by the Siuslaw School District and held
at the Girl Scout Camp at Camp Cleawox .
This is the program’s second successful
year after several years’ forced hiatus due
to educational budget cuts. The new pro-
gram, under the direction of Outdoor
Adventures camp coordinators and
Siuslaw schoolteachers Andy Marohl and
Ben Wells, has expanded the scope and
goals of the original Outdoor Education
program.
Outdoor Education, the predecessor of
Outdoor Adventures, was only for sixth-
graders. The new program includes sev-
enth- and fifth-graders with a focus on peer
mentoring, building inter-class relation-
ships and respect.
The program included a four-day out-
door experience that included fishing, hik-
ing, kayaking, archery, games, Native
American
culture
and
Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math
(STEAM) education at 18 different learn-
ing stations located throughout the camp.
“Our biggest theme is peer mentoring,”
Wells said. “We are trying to create posi-
tive relationships between our fifth and
seventh graders at the end of the year so at
the very beginning of next year, when they
are eighth- and sixth-graders, they will
have bonded.”
See
OUTDOOR 9A
Closing the doors for the last time
Siuslaw School District bus drivers retire with a total of 56 years experience
After 33 years of driving for
Siuslaw School District, Linda
Westlund and Sharon Waite,
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Linda Westlund (above) and Sharon Waite (right)
both retire from driving school buses for Siuslaw
School District this Wednesday with the close of the
school year.
with 23 years experience,
close the doors on their careers
at the end of this school year.
Westlund has driven the Sea
Lion Caves route for her entire
33 years. The route takes her
as far north as Muriel O.
Ponsler Memorial State Scenic
Viewpoint.
Through the years she has
driven more than one genera-
tion of several local families.
“I have guys that are teach-
ers in the school that used to
ride my bus,” Westlund said.
In addition to bus driving,
Westlund operated Chocolate
Sins, a bakery,
“I’ve baked wedding cakes
for 68 of my kids,” she said
with a hint of pride.
Westlund saw her job as
more than just transporting
children to and from school.
“She really did care about
the kids,” said Noland
Huntington, former school bus
driver trainer and supervisor,
“She took the extra effort to
challenge them, hold them
accountable. And she reward-
ed them too, like when she
would take the activity trips.
She would bake cookies for
the kids when they went on
the trips.”
“But they had to earn
them,” Westlund said.
Waite has driven the same
kindergarten and North Fork
routes for the last 10 years.
She plans to spend more time
with her grandchildren and
working in her garden now
that she is retiring.
See
DRIVERS 9A
Budgeting for a successful city
Florence City Council approves $33,877,033 budget for 2015-16
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
F
INSIDE
lorence City Council approved Florence’s
$33,877,033 budget for the 2015-2016 fis-
cal year at its June 1 meeting.
Interim finance director Andy Parks worked
closely with staff, the budget committee and
former finance director Erin Reynolds, who is
now city manager.
Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Councilor Joshua Greene said, “Great job
staff. We had a great work session. You made it
really helpful for us to see how all the parts
connected. I just commend you on where we’re
going.”
“We’ve said that we’re a city in motion,”
said Mayor Joe Henry. “We’ve kind of been a
city on hold for several years, with mainte-
nance and park and a number of other things,
and now there is a whole new level of excite-
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Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
THIS WEEK ’ S
ment in all our departments.
“Everybody is just really excited, and the
council is excited that we’re able to do some of
these things that we haven’t been able to do in
a number of years. It’s just a great budget and a
great effort on everybody’s part.”
Greene agreed.
“ The community will get to see that a lot of
things are happening because of the staff and
how they figured out ways to find money, like
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for the Rhododendron Drive Multi-Use Path. ...
They’re working at it in every way,” he said.
“It certainly has been a team effort and is
much appreciated,” Reynolds said.
In addition to the budget, they also approved
extended worker’s compensation for the city’s
volunteers.
Reynolds said, “Our volunteers are impor-
tant, and we want to make sure they’re safe
while they’re working for us.”
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