4 A
The First Amendment
Letters to the Editor:
C
ongress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press, or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.
Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com
Press Releases:
PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com
WEDNESDAY
MARCH
11
•
2015
1 2 5 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y F L A S H B A C K
1890 ❙
T
T HE W EST
F LORENCE T IMES
T HE S IUSLAW O AR
T HE S IUSLAW N EWS
S IUSLAW N EWS
❙ 2015
his year marks Siuslaw News’ quasquicentennial, our 125th anniversary, a remarkable achievement for any business in a small
community like Florence. To commemorate this milestone, throughout the year we’ll feature some of the town’s history as origi-
nally published in the newspaper, including historic articles and photos from more than a century ago.
Boy saved from fire
O RIGINALLY P UBLISHED M ARCH 25, 1960
Billy Bones, 13-year-old son of Mr. and
Mrs. Joe Bones, risked his life to save that
of Bobby Stewart, 11-year-old son of Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Stewart, Friday night,
when the tent they were sharing caught on
fire during a campout.
The boys were part of Boy Scout troop
191 camping out on Mapleton mountain.
Twelve troop members along with Craig
Bouchet, scout master, and his son, Don, a
17-year-old Explorer scout, were on the
trip.
The scoutmaster returned to Florence to
attend a meeting at the Lutheran church,
after the boys were all bedded down for the
night, leaving them in the care of his son.
Bobby Stewart awakened to find the tent
on fire, apparently from a candle which had
T HE S IUSLAW O AR , V OL . 32, N O . 43
been left burning. Although Stewart spread
the alarm, he was unable to get out of his
tightly zipped sleeping bag.
Billy Bones, assistant senior patrol leader
for the troop, pulled him from the tent in
the sleeping bag.
Stewart suffered burns to his ears, hands,
shoulders and back.
Bouchet returned to the area just as the
tent was being consumed by flames about
10:45 p.m. He brought Stewart to the local
hospital.
The 7x7 foot wall-type tent and two
sleeping bags were destroyed by the fire and
a third partially destroyed. All were proper-
ty of the troop.
No personal gear was lost, according to
Bouchet.
LETTERS
Historic need for USCG helicopter
I hope that staffers for U.S. Sens. Merkley and Wyden in
Washington, D.C., are reading this letter. They need to consider
this story and work with their colleagues to help keep the U.S.
Coast Guard Air Base in Newport, Ore., open.
According to the March 4 issue of Siulsaw News in the 125th
Anniversary Flashback series, a young Scott Milnes of Oregon
State University was rescued in no small part because of two U.S.
Coast Guard helicopters used in his search and rescue after 22
hours in the water near Heceta Head.
That was in 1975. Google tells me Mr. Milnes graduated from
OSU in 1979 with a degree in zoology. I wonder what he has
done with his life since 1975. Perhaps some immeasurable good
has come of his rescue. I hope so.
Mr. Milnes would be celebrating his 59th birthday this year. He
likely has paid lots in taxes to the U.S. government since then.
These taxes have helped keep the Coast Guard helicopter base
open in Newport. Let’s keep it open! The time to travel from the
Newport Airport to the Heceta Head area and then search for a
significant time and even have time then to make an air rescue is
greatly increased by having a central Oregon coast base.
Everyone who appreciates how profound the saving of one life
can be should know that many lives have been saved since 1975.
Many would be lost in the next 40 years should that base be
closed. Write your congressman today and urge support to keep
the U.S. Coast Guard Air Base in Newport open.
Bill Olson
Florence
Broken medical industry
First, I wish to give kudos to the clerks here in our PeaceHealth
offices. You do so much and take the brunt of so many things
from patients, and sometimes doctors and nurses. But, here
comes the bad. The medical industry here is broken.
My husband recently was injured in a freak accident to his left
leg. Here begins the saga of this issue. Through a course of five
weeks, with two good physicians and two not so good, my hus-
band is still out of work.
He had seen one orthopedist, but that one wasn’t there. So he
had the experience of one doctor’s diagnosis not really melding
with another. This second doctor gave him a leg brace, which
went from ankle to thigh, four weeks after injury, even though the
first doctor had questioned issuing a brace.
My husband couldn’t even get into his car; his leg didn’t bend
at all. When he went to the pharmacy, he fell three times because
of the leg brace and severely cut his arm, falling into brush that
had one- to two-inch thorns. When he got home, he called the
doctor’s office. I heard every clean but frustrated word my hus-
band said, but the staff felt he was threatening the doctor.
In the past 16 years of being here, we have never threatened to
hurt anyone over any of the myriad of things we have encoun-
tered from PeaceHealth, such as the loss of my MRI for 1-1/2
months, during which the physician had to hand-search for it
when it never reached her. It showed a woman’s fist-size tumor
on my brain, and the technician never called to tell the doctor the
MRI was being taken.
Although this is our incident of irritation, I have heard horror
stories from my friends, too.
I am sure there are others who have had similar issues, and I
am here to say we need to stand up for our issues and not be treat-
USPS# 497-660
ed like we are the ones wrong, or denied treatment or told we will
be dropped as serviceable.
When you are wrong, PeaceHealth, admit it and change. We
are all beginning to watch more, and we are done taking abuse.
Roxanne Bowman
Florence
Herbicide spraying
The recent notification for more herbicide spraying in the Clear
Lake Watershed (CLW) and the North Florence Dunal Aquifer
(NFDA) has again strengthened our community’s resolve to
ensure the protection of our drinking water.
The spraying on 80 acres is expected to begin as early as this
week, and is expected to continue twice yearly (spring and fall)
for up to four years. The first large-scale application took place in
fall of 2013 and included an aerial spray that had the potential to
also impact the Siuslaw Watershed.
Prior to the spray, citizens filled the Heceta Water District
office, and with the owner present, objected the spray. Heceta
Water valiantly offered $40,000 to help defer manual clearing
costs and community members offered aid. There are programs
that also can help defer costs. The applications are taking place in
the Watershed in what Lane County calls “the Clear Lake
Watershed Protection Zone (CLWPZ).” What is uncertain is why
the property in the “protected zone” is zoned forestry. The CLW
provides drinking water for 4,500 in Florence.
In a document on Lane County’s website, the CLWPZ is
described as “recognized as an area deserving protection in order
to maintain high water quality in Clear Lake.” It lists purposes
that include “to protect the aquifer and surface waters (the Lakes)
of the CLW” and “achieve the water quality standards ... to ensure
that all uses within the CLW are consistent with the objective of
achieving these water quality standards.”
The property is not only within the CLW, but also in an
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated Sole Source
Aquifer (SSA). The NFDA is a large network of inter-connected
lakes in our community. The EPA’s website defines a SSA as “one
which supplies at last 50 percent of the drinking water consumed
in the area overlying the aquifer.” The EPA also stipulates that
“these areas can have no alternative drinking water source(s)
which could physically, legally and economically supply all those
that depend upon the aquifer for drinking water.”
A document on the county’s website cites an EPA document
that states, “Rapid infiltration rates into the sand cover combined
Live and let live
Right on to Sharon Stiles and Barbara Prisbe-Sutton for their
letters of Feb. 28 (“Suspend Judgment” and “Homeland Un-
Security,” respectively).
My father’s great-grandfather and grandmother fled Germany
to Russia because of the government oppression, but Russia was-
n’t any better, so they went to the USA. My mother’s father’s
father came from England.
Does that make me have more right to live in the USA than
someone who came to the USA a hundred years later? I don’t
think there was a government official there to take down their
names and tell them it was OK to live in the USA in the 1800s.
I have relatives who are married to black people and Native
Americans. I sit down at their table to eat just like anyone else’s
table.
A few years back, out of Denver, there was a raid by immigra-
tion officers at a large rock pit. After they hauled the illegal immi-
grants off, the owner had to shut down. He couldn’t find experi-
enced workers to work for the wages he could afford to pay.
I read a lot of western books, so I know a little of the Southwest
history. Spain owned all the way from almost the Oregon border
to the Gulf of Mexico, including Texas, Arizona and New
Mexico. It was inhabited by Mexicans and Indians.
So what gives Caucasians the right to think they have more
right to live here than anyone else? I don’t know when the first
slave ship came to America, but I would bet it was before my
ancestors came here.
We give visas to foreign students to go to school, then kick
them out after we educate them. What a waste! We should let
them stay if they want to.
I believe in live and let live.
Virgle Bechtold
Florence
Copyright 2015 © Siuslaw News
Publisher, ext. 327
General Manager, ext. 318
Editor, ext. 313
Advertising Director, ext. 326
Office Supervisor, ext. 312
Production Supervisor
Press Manager
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WHERE TO WRITE
Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National
Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore.
Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439. Phone (541) 997-3441 (See
extension numbers below). FAX (541) 997-7979.
John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ryan Cronk
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
with a shallow water table make the NFDA highly susceptible to
contamination from surface activity.... Possible sources of aquifer
contamination include” (among other items) “pesticides and
chemical fertilizers.” It goes on to state, “No feasible alternative
sources to the North Florence Aquifer system exist in the area.
Therefore, contamination of the aquifer would create ‘a signifi-
cant hazard to public health.’”
It is disturbing that large-scale forestry operations can take
place in the direct vicinity of a drinking water source. This proj-
ect is also adjoining and partially within a neighborhood. The
neighborhood faces property devaluation, as well as stress and
possible direct health implications from being in the immediate
vicinity.
Notifications are available only with subscription. The area is
prone to runoff from clear-cut hills. Notification maps show fish
streams that appear to flow directly into the water source. These
receive a scant 20-foot buffer.
Numerous studies link pesticides (herbicides) to a wide range
of human health problems. The added adjuvants and surfactants
can be more toxic than the herbicide itself.
Let’s hope the property owners will realize, before it is too late,
the importance of protecting our Watershed and the North
Florence Dunal Aquifer. Also, county, state and governmental
departments should enforce programs put in place to protect the
safety of citizens and purity of our drinking water.
Shauna Boyd
Florence
Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us