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Florence real
estate market
on the mend
Greentrees
hosts council
candidates’ first
forum
Current outlook is
moderate but positive,
says local analyst.
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
Jack
Mobley
Construction, Inc.
Remodeling
New Construction
Sub-Contracting
Additions
Foundations & Flatwork
(541) 999-0742
CCB# 164472
Ron Preisler, Clarence Lysdale, Councilor Joe
Henry, George Lyddon and Mayor Nola
Xavier comprised the panel that addressed
voters on Aug. 27.
S TORY AND P HOTO BY T HERESA B AER
Siuslaw News
Last week a number of Florence City Council
candidates lined up to meet the public at a forum
hosted by Greentrees homeowners’ association. It
was an opportunity to take a look at the unusually
long slate of candidates, although four were no-
shows. Invited were Alan Burns, Joseph Henry
(both mayoral candidates), Shayne Burnem, Susy
Lacer, George Lyddon, Clarence Lysdale, Ron
Preisler, Dr. Mildred Rowley and Florence Mayor
Nola Xavier. Burns, Rowley, Lacer and Burnem
were no-shows, although Rowley submitted a writ-
ten statement to be read to the audience.
The audience turnout was a bit mediocre, too,
approximately 40 in a room set up for at least 100.
Several participants were surprised with the small
attendance, especially since the recent furor in the
area around Greentrees over a proposed multi-use
path on Rhododendron Drive.
Regardless, a lot of ground was covered during
the two-hour meeting. Following are summaries of
each candidates’ introductory statements as well as
their responses to audience questions.
Look to future issues of the Siuslaw News for
further comments from all candidates.
PHOTO BY THERESA BAER/SIUSLAW NEWS
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Vicar Georgia DuBose and Clare Hawkins are drenched
with ice water by Ernie Doud and Jo M’Gonigle as part of an international fundraiser, the
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The church raised more than $500.
Ron Preisler
Preisler has been a resident for more than six
years, during which he has become involved with a
number of organizations, including hospice, home-
owners’ association and the local Democratic Club
of which he is currently president. He has also
worked with AARP for the community tax service
and with Habitat for Humanity. Before retirement
Preisler owned small businesses.
“I’ve never been in politics,” he said. “It could
be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. That’s up
to you to figure out.”
He added, “I do believe in some things very
strongly: working together to get goals accom-
plished; we have a problem with poor people here
…; starting a warming center. It’s things like that
we need to focus on, as well as educating our kids,
providing a quality education at all levels and a
path to jobs after that.”
Preisler said that he believes the proposed fuel
tax seems the best way to pay for road mainte-
nance. He pointed out that the federal gas tax of 18
cents has been in place, without increase, for 30
years. It’s not keeping up with real costs.
COOL CHALLENGE
B Y M OTHER G EORGIA D U B OSE
Special to the Siuslaw News
T
here are much worse things than having a
bucket of ice water dumped over your
head.
On the other hand, it is not an experience
that people normally find entertaining. (That is
not to say that those who watch others being
soaked don’t find it amusing.)
When Clare Hawkins of St. Mary of the Dunes
Catholic Church and Mother Georgia DuBose of
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church took the Ice
Bucket Challenge, they did it not for fun, but to
raise money for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
So far, the international Ice Bucket Challenge
has raised over $100 million for the ALS
Association. The more than $500 raised Saturday,
Aug. 30, in the Labyrinth at St. Andrew’s
Episcopal Church is, truly, a drop in the bucket,
but it was a meaningful moment for the partici-
pants, the observers, and, it is hoped, for the peo-
ple it honors.
Until this challenge was initiated by Pete
Frates, a former professional basketball player in
Boston who now has ALS (amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, a disease that destroys the nerve cells
that make muscles work), the disease was under-
funded and under-researched.
Earlier in the summer, the congregation of St.
Andrew’s invited Mary Rebar of the ALS
Association of Oregon and Southwest
Washington to speak at a church forum on the
impact of the disease locally. They already knew
about its personal impact: Jo M’Gonigle’s broth-
er, Bob Hawkins, of Florence, died of the disease
Clarence Lysdale
Lysdale has been a resident for 20 years and
lives in Wildwinds where he served on the home-
owners’ association board of directors. He served
for 10 years on Florence Planning Commission and
was involved in other projects for the city, includ-
ing the riparian inventory assessment and a guide,
“Native Vegetation and Rhody Preservation for the
City of Florence.” He is known as a long-time
advocate for wild rhododendrons. A professional
engineer, he was co-founder and president of a
marine controls company that employed 40 and did
business around the world. He has also volunteered
as a math tutor at Siuslaw schools.
He stated that while in business he believed in
hiring locally and promoting from within. He still
See
Full construction
custom homes
since 2002.
Your
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FORUM 7A
in 2013. He was Clare Hawkins’ husband.
(Clare’s friend, Ken Stone, was buried as a result
of ALS on Saturday, Aug. 30, the day of the Ice
Bucket Challenge at St. Andrew’s.) Mother
Georgia’s friend, Father Rick Rutledge of Oak
Hill, W.Va., was struggling with ALS, as was
another friend of hers, Marcy Handsfield, of
Atlanta. Mother Georgia also knew of the story
of Mother Jennifer Durant, the assistant rector of
Church of Our Savior in Charlottesville, Va., who
contracted the disease not long after being
ordained in 2011.
The plan at St. Andrew’s was that congregation
members would support ALS research with indi-
vidual checks. But then, along came the “viral”
Ice Bucket Challenge, and along with that, con-
siderable resentment about the amount of money
raised and stories about how the ALS Association
was misusing the funds. An annoying Internet
meme went around, showing some guy sitting at
a table with a bottle of bad Mexican beer, with
the headline, “When I support a charity, I write a
check, and ice and water are not involved.” It was
a beer commercial that also slammed a successful
fundraising effort for a killer disease.
That was when Mother Georgia decided she
had to do more than write a check. She
announced at church on Sunday, Aug. 24, that she
would do the Ice Bucket Challenge. Clare
Hawkins, who had already done the challenge,
offered to do it again with Mother Georgia when
she heard about it. Checks to the ALS
Association began to come in, and many more
came on Saturday, Aug. 30. Jo M’Gonigle
See
ALS 7A
The roller coaster ride of Florence-
area residential real estate prices over
the last several years appears to be
leveling out, according to certified
residential appraiser and real estate
market analyst Tawfik Ahdab.
“Median sale prices have remained
relatively stable for the last five quar-
ters. That is an indicator of stability.
The median sales price right now is
about $162,000. Median sales price
means half the sales were above that
number and half were below that
number. It’s the number we like to use
the most,”Ahdab said.
Ahdab, who has been an appraiser
in Florence since 1993, is a partner in
Pacific Valuation Group, a company
that specializes in residential
appraisals and residential market
analysis.
The volatility of the Florence-area
real estate market began shortly after
USA Today rated Florence the best
place to retire in the country in August
2004.
“After that article was pub-
lished,”Ahdab said, “Realtors’ offices
had phone calls from all over the
country. People wanted to purchase
properties sight unseen. It was a dis-
aster. The hyper-inflationary trend
that was created by the artificial
demand of the early 2000s was mag-
nified by the reputation of Florence
being the best place to retire. The net
effect of the article was to aggravate a
See
MARKET 11A
Free meals for
all Mapleton
school students
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
Breakfast and lunch will be offered
free to all Mapleton School District
students because the district has been
approved to participate in the Oregon
Department of Education’s child
nutrition service.
The federally funded four-year pro-
gram will run from July 1, 2014, to
July 1, 2018. All students in the
Mapleton School District are eligible,
and do not need to sign up for the pro-
gram.
The program is the Community
Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the
National School Lunch Program and
the School Breakfast Program. It is
designed to provide schools with high
percentages of low-income children
the option to offer free school meals
without collecting applications.
The school district is required to
record the number of breakfasts and
lunches served. The school district is
then reimbursed for the cost of the
meals.
According to Mapleton School
District Superintendent Jodi O’Mara,
the district will be able to apply for a
four-year extension at the end of the
program.
Weather
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Partly
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Sports—B
F AVORITE F RONT P AGES 2014 • 11