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8
JANUARY
28
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2015
$1.00
City backs
vehicle
registration
fee on ballot
Port may
require boats
to have
insurance
If passed by voters,
new fees would begin
January 2016
Resolution to be
presented at February’s
commission meeting
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
Siuslaw News
Lane County Commissioner Jay
Bozievich and County Engineer Bill
Morgan proposed to add a county
vehicle registration fee (VRF) at last
week’s Jan. 20 Florence City Council
meeting.
A fee based on size and use of vehi-
cles would cost $35 per year for pas-
senger vehicles, trailers and light
trucks. Motorcycles would get a $20
fee. The fee would be up to voters to
decide.
Councilor Susy Lacer said, “I’m
happy to let the voters decide this
issue.”
The council voted in support of
placing the VRF on the May 2015 bal-
lot. If the VRF passes, it would go into
place in January 2016.
“Under this proposal, 40 percent of
the revenues would be distributed to
the cities within the county based on
population. … The annual amount of
revenue generated by a county VRF of
$35 per year would be approximately
$143,000 per year,” according to a
statement prepared by the Florence
city manager’s office.
“It is a very good use of money –– a
partnership between the cities and the
county. It has somewhat more of a cer-
tainty of funding as it is based on
usage of the road. If you have four
tires on the road, you have a VRF,”
Bozievich said.
Lane County would receive 60 per-
cent of the revenues, which would be
used for maintenance and operation of
the existing county road system, con-
sisting of 1,400 miles of roads and 417
bridges. Any money Florence receives
from the VRF would be restricted to
road construction, maintenance and
operation.
Within those bounds, however, “The
cities’ portion can be spent the way the
cities feel like,” said Bozievich.
During its regularly scheduled
meeting Jan. 21, Port of Siuslaw com-
missioners agreed to put forward a
resolution requiring all long-term
boats moored in the basin to carry lia-
bility insurance to cover the cost of
repair and clean up if a boat burns or
sinks while at the port.
Some boats have insurance, but the
port has not required it in the past.
Port Manager Bob Forsythe said
the insurance company’s last sugges-
tion was that if the port was not going
to demand the insurance, then the port
should segregate the boats that are
insured from those that are not
insured.
Commissioner, commercial fisher-
man and boat owner Terry Duman
said, “It’s the cheapest insurance you
can buy. It is not going to cover your
vessel, but you won’t have to worry
about the clean-up bill. Every other
port we go to requires it. If we don’t
require it, we are behind the eight
ball. The owners can walk away from
the boat, but the port will have to pay
for the clean up.”
A resolution to require all boats to
purchase liability insurance will be
presented to the board for approval at
the Feb. 18 board meeting.
Forsythe also updated the board on
a conversation he had with State Rep.
Caddy McKeown.
According to Forsythe, McKeown
has made two legislative requests: A
modification of ORS777 regarding
the economic development rights of
the Port of Siuslaw, and the question
of Port of Siuslaw autonomy with
regard to the City of Florence.
“We want a modification to
ORS777, which tells us what we can
and cannot do as a port,” Forsythe said.
“We requested that Caddy McKeown’s
office put forward a modification that
See
AROUND
the track in
70 YEARS
J IM A RCHER
RUNS
70
TO CELEBRATE
70 TH
BIRTHDAY
LAPS
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
PHOTO BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
A
lone figure circled the practice running track
behind Siuslaw High School on Monday,
Jan. 26: 70-year-old Jim Archer, who cele-
brated his birthday by running his age in laps around
the 440-yard track, a total of 17.5 miles.
“I got the idea when I turned 60. I ran 60 days in
a row and then on the last day I ran 60 laps on the
track,” said Archer, a Florence resident. “Then I just
kept doing it.”
Running laps, let alone 70, was a feat his pediatri-
cians would have never thought possible.
“When I was born, I had a breathing problem and
they told my parents, ‘don’t get too attached,
because he probably won’t be around too long,’”
Archer said. “Then when I got older, up until I start-
ed school, I had this lung condition and I would go
to the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
My treatment was to put me in front of an X-ray
machine and turn it up full blast for a while.”
Archer got involved in competitive running when
he was in the fourth grade.
“I started running when they told me I couldn’t,”
he said. By high school, Archer was a 440-yard
sprinter. “Anything more than two laps was consid-
ered punishment.”
Archer’s passion for running evolved from being
a 440-yard sprinter to longer runs. About 30 years
ago he met a marathoner who used to live in
Florence. He talked Archer into running a marathon
and trained with him, convincing Archer that going
more than one or two laps was OK.
“Then about 20 years ago I met some guys that
came over from Corvallis to run a trail run up
around Cape Perpetua. They told me to get off the
See
TRACK 7A
FEE 4A
See
PORT 7A
Reward offered for arsonist may rise
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
The International Association of
Arson Investigators is continuing to
offer a reward for information about
the building fire on Pine Street in
Florence on Dec. 7.
Right now, that reward is set at
$5,000 for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the person or
persons responsible for the fire.
The Oregon State Police Arson Unit
is handling the investigation.
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue Fire
Marshal Sean Barrett said, “At this
time, we know it was a set fire and
how it was started.”
However, Barrett said, “It is still in
investigation.”
Building owner Ron Gerber, who
kept his law office there, hopes that
the reward will help someone come
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forward with more information.
Gerber said the amount of the
reward could increase.
“We’re trying to get the insurance
company to throw in an award, and the
net reward could end up as much as
$11,000, but that hasn’t happened
yet,” he said.
Gerber’s daughter Georgette Austin
said, “If more people know about the
reward, more will come forward if
they saw or know something.”
Gerber agreed.
“If we can get the reward increased,
more people will think that this is
important.”
The issue is very important to
Gerber, who bought, renovated and
moved offices into the building in
1986.
“My parents had their office there
for 30 years. Everything they loved
was there, even gifts from grandchil-
B2
B
B1
A2
dren,” Austin said. “How do you pick
up the pieces when all those records
are destroyed?”
Fortunately for Gerber and Scott
Bailey, who had office space in the
building, most of their work records
survived the fire.
“The fire was far more intense in
the other side of the building than in
our end. In some sense, we caught
something of a break,” Gerber said.
The
building
also
housed
Emergence, a drug and alcohol treat-
ment program.
Gerber has moved his office to 12th
Street in the meantime.
“Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to
have reduced the flow of business into
the office at any significant level,”
said Gerber.
“Mr. Bailey, who we share space
with, does social security and disabili-
ty. … He’s the only one in town that
Weather
T ODAY
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F RIDAY
S ATURDAY
Cloudy
Partly
sunny
56
43
Sunny
Sun &
clouds
56
47
57
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Sports—B
PHOTO BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
The search continues for the arsonist responsible for a Dec. 7 fire that
destroyed a building at 19th and Pine streets. Building owner Ron
Gerber plans to tear down the remaining structure and rebuild.
does that. It doesn’t seem to have hurt
his business. Our business was mostly
estate work. … Business-wise, it
seems we’ll be OK.”
See
ARSON 4A
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
125