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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2015)
WWW.THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM WEDNESDAY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF FLORENCE • DUNES CITY • WESTLAKE • MAPLETON • SWISSHOME • DEADWOOD • YACHATS AND ALL POINTS BETWEEN 125 Y T H E A R • I S S U E N O . 22 MARCH 18 • 2015 $1.00 Election deadline tomorrow S PRING C LEANING Candidates must file by 5 p.m. Thursday B Y C HANTELLE M EYER PHOTO BY CHUCK TRENT Members of the Boys and Girls Club board and the community trim shrubs and trees last week at the club’s Teen Center. are S G N I H T looking UP Work parties, loan brighten Boys and Girls Club outlook B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News T he Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane County announced Monday that it had reached an agreement with Oregon Pacific Bank (OPB) for a consolidation loan to help the club stabilize its financial situation. “Working with OPB, the Boys and Girls Club has successfully put together a consoli- dation loan that will reduce our payments and assist the club in keeping its doors open,” said club board member Bob Forsythe. The club was seeking approximately $300,000 in loan consolidation. The final loan amount was not disclosed. After acquiring ABC Preschool in 2013 and Quality Child Care of Florence daycare facility last year, the club struggled financial- ly. It has since adjusted both facilities’ rate structures, but not before becoming burdened with significant additional debt. The Boys and Girls Club board of directors stepped in to take over the operation of the club’s facilities. Club director Jonathan Hicks was laid off. His last day was Feb. 27. Additional staff layoffs, salary cuts and tem- porarily closing the Teen Center were some of the hard decisions the board deemed neces- sary to get the club through the crisis. “We are going through a reorganization of the Boys and Girls Club, which includes ABC Preschool and Quality Child Care of Florence daycare,” Forsythe said. “We have done a restructure so that the seven board members have divided up the tasks required to run the organization. Each board member has taken on one or more of those tasks. We will con- tinue to do this until such time as we are comfortable in hiring a business manager, a marketing person and the staff necessary to support those people.” In addition to slashing costs, the board, with an outpouring of community support, has launched a clean-up and beautification initiative at the Teen Center. See CLUB 7A CITY SETTLES LAWSUIT, BUYS PROPERTY Landowners, City of Florence reach $350K settlement to avoid trial process B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News The City of Florence is now the owner of a property north of town after buying two lots at 5150 Highway 101 to settle a pending lit- igation and avoid going into a lengthy jury trial. The property owners, Michael Your INSIDE W E D N E S D AY Classifieds B7 In Brief A11 Library Tidings A5 Ned Hickson A8 Opinion A4 Police Scoreboard Sports Tides Weather and Colleen Ohran, first filed fault with Florence in 2011. Since then, they have sued the city in Lane County Circuit Court. Public Works Director Mike Miller said, “What the property owners are contending is that after the construction on Spruce Street — the Spruce Street extension north of Munsel Lake Road — that A10 B3 B B1 A3 the building of that has caused a disruption in surface and ground- water movement, which they claim has inundated the property and caused them problems … especially during prolonged rainfall events.” The city denied this. “We’ve reached an agreement to actually purchase the property to settle the lawsuit,” Miller said. “It also finds no fault with the city. There is no fault with the city for purchasing the property.” According to documents pre- pared by city staff, the settlement does not assign fault to either party. “The city still disputes that the construction of Spruce Street played any part in the flooding. ... The settlement calls for the City to purchase the property for $350,000 in exchange for the Ohrans dismissing their lawsuit and releasing the city from any related claims they could bring in the future,” the document said. See CITY 7A Candidates who wish to be considered for board and commission positions for the Lane County May 19 Special Election must file before the 5 p.m. deadline on March 19. There is a noon filing deadline for explana- tory statements, candidate statements and measure arguments. The last day for voters to register and be eligible to vote is April 28. While many positions have one to three applicants already, several positions do not have any candidates. Siuslaw School District has three director positions that need to be filled. Port of Siuslaw has one applicant for two open positions. Heceta Water District and Mapleton Water District both have commissioner positions that need applicants. Candidates may still file for positions with multiple candidates. For more information on filing a candidacy and to find forms, go to the Lane County Elections website at www.lanecounty.org or call the Lane County clerk at 541-682-4234. Planning commission returns to 7 B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News The Florence Planning Commission will return to seven members now that the city council has adopted Ordinance No. 5, Series 2015. The planning commission consisted of seven members from at least 1993 through 2012. The Florence City Council at that time, which included Councilor Joshua Greene and current mayor Joe Henry, reduced the membership to five when the economic downturn reduced the amount of development. Now, however, the economy is picking up. On Feb. 24, the planning commission recom- mended expanding the membership back to its historic size. According to their recommendation, seven members will allow for greater diversity and a wider range of opinions. This will produce a better product and will better represent the citi- zens of Florence. Two new members also will allow a quorum to meet more easily during busy development periods. Greene said, “It’s staff that has really come forward and said that they have had difficulty having a quorum and difficulty getting certain work done.” City Recorder Kelli Weese said, “It’s histori- cally been seven — it’s only been five for the last few years. It makes sense to bring it back.” “Since we are all optimistically looking for- ward to the deluge of all kinds of new projects here to come before the planning commission for the near future in Florence, we just want to sort of get everything in order and make it as efficient as possible,” Greene said. Weather T ODAY T HURSDAY F RIDAY S ATURDAY Mostly Sunny 57 51 Clouds & Sun 60 46 Rain Rain 58 46 56 43 Sports—B CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Siuslaw News