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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2015)
4 A ❘ SATURDAY EDITION ❘ MAY 23, 2015 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 RYAN CRONK , EDITOR ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM Opinion NEIGHBORS Westlake crab feed B OB J ACKSON N EIGHBORHOOD C ORRESPONDENT For the Siuslaw News I have heard it said that when names appear in print of people long departed from this earth, they live again, if only in memory. And so it is with all the honest, hard working souls that made the Westlake crab feed possible. George Miltonberger, a local con- tractor, had designed the building for the Western Lane Sportsman’s Club that had been sponsoring shotgun trap shoots in the dunes behind Fred Cheek’s house in Westlake for years (pieces of black “clay pigeons” still can be found in the area). George supervised the construction, including the framing, the roof trusses, the plumbing, electrical, etc. The labor was all done by volunteers. A little history: the Westlake ele- mentary school house where I went through all eight grades, once stood here, with an outside pit toilet and even a slide and a swing set. Eventually the school building caught fire and burned to the ground. A big crab feed was dreamed up as a way to make some money to pay for the construction of the building — lumber, concrete, etc. Unfortunately, I doubt that anyone involved in these ventures still exists to help in coming up with accurate dates and figures. However, fortunate- ly for myself it is also doubtful there will be any challenges to what I can remember. Many hours with no success have been spent trying to find a copy of the flyers I made up advertising the crab feeds. It may have been $1.50 or per- haps even $2.50 for the all-you-can- eat crab feed, which included coleslaw, potato salad, garlic bread, coffee, etc. The Westlake men manned a crab cooker, which was set up just outside the kitchen door, also a crab cleaning station where the crabs were backed and cleaned, then delivered to the women inside the kitchen who were busy making coffee, potato salad, slaw and garlic bread, plus acting as waitresses at the long tables that were always full of hungry customers. It became a yearly event, popular beyond belief. Doctors and lawyers, merchants and chiefs came in droves. A dentist and a druggist might be seated alongside a choker setter just in from the woods, or a deckhand from an offshore fishing boat, or on rare occasion a tourist who may have in a rare case of serendipity just luckily stumbled onto the event. The crab feed was a great leveler of persons — an evangelical hellfire and brimstone pastor might be seen rubbing elbows and chatting with a lifelong incorrigi- ble and openly iconoclastic town drunk. The men outside the building were tireless, working far into the night. There were Harvey Hanson, Elmer Peterson, Glenn Puderbaugh, Bill Risenhuber, Art Roos and Bud Entgelmeir, to name just a few. Sometimes, men who had just eaten their dinner would pitch in at the back of the building and relieve the work- ers for a spell. Inside, there were always Zelpha Peterson, Gladys Entgelmeir, Maxine Risenhuber, Rita Hansen, Peggy Jackson and many others whom I cannot recall, includ- ing some teenage gals. We were aided in many ways. One year when we were running low on our supply of crabs, a miracle hap- pened. Dave Holman, publisher of the Siuslaw News at the time, heard of our problem and offered to fly his lit- tle Piper tri-pacer down to someplace like Bandon or Gold Beach and bring back a plane load of live crabs — thus saving the day, and all just from the goodness of his heart. One year I became the club presi- dent, and I remember with a deep sense of chagrin how in an overly zealous act I had advertised our feed on a radio program. I was probably proud of this brainstorm, but as it turned out, it was to become a disas- ter. One of the club’s most respected founding members was concerned that I had purchased way too many crabs and began selling jumbo crabs in the parking lot for 50 cents apiece. They were disappearing like grease on a hot skillet. The ladies in the kitchen informed me later that evening that we were about to run out of crab, and I should go out to the street and tell this to the people as they turned in. It was a nightmarish scene that I will always remember. From where I stood in the middle of the street, I could see the headlights of the bumper to bumper cars turning in off 101, and they were all headed for me. Would they never stop? And they were mad. I made no attempt at adopting a suave, unctuous cover up. I had goofed up and had to grovel shame- lessly, over and over again to these people who informed me that they had driven all the way from Corvallis, or Salem or Newport, and we were out of crab? It wasn’t one of my best days — ever. Eventually Dunes City was formed to thwart the national park services interest in the area. The new city needed a hall, the Sportsman’s Club was unable to keep up with taxes and upkeep on the building, so it was decided to let our beloved community building become the new city hall. I may be wrong, but I believe it had been a gift from the people of Westlake with the understanding that the club could continue to use the hall for occasional functions. However, because the years were taking their toll on Westlake’s aging population, there was never to be another crab feed. Peggy, my wife, tells me in retro- spect, that despite being a lot of work, it had also been a lot of fun. LETTERS for allowing us to use the gym, Vonnie McClellan and Jessica Rowbotham for helping coordinate the use and the wonderful team from the facilities department that let us in. We live in a great community with a caring school district. Michael G. Rose Club Director Siuslaw Volleyball Club Voters punished Was anyone else surprised by Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich’s interview on TV after the defeat of his road use fee by the voters? Instead of saying that he regretted not being able to increase the funding for the roads, he announced that they were going to punish the voters by taking away over a million dollars from the road funds. Who does he think he represents? It certainly does not appear to be the voters and road users in Lane County. Maybe we should look into resurrecting the “State of Jefferson” movement. Robert Miller Florence Saving Palmyra So ISIS now has control of the historic ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. Where is the moderate Syrian opposition when we need it? To paraphrase what FDR once said about the dictator Somoza in Nicaragua, Assad may be a sociopathic mass murderer, but he’s our socio- pathic mass murderer. We should have danced with the one who brung us. Rob Spooner Florence School district that cares The Siuslaw Volleyball Club would like to thank the Siuslaw School District and the Siuslaw Middle School for once again opening up their gym for our girls to practice volleyball. This is the 12th consecutive year that they have let us use the gym so the teams can prac- tice for the season. This year the club had two teams with over 25 girls, ages 9 to 14, playing. These young ladies practice two to three times per week from mid-November through April. Through the generosity of Siuslaw School District, the club uses the middle school to prac- tice. They played in one to two tournaments per month competing against teams from all over Oregon and Southern Washington. These tour- naments are usually one-day tournaments that start at 8 a.m. and continue into the early evening. Each team plays an average of five matches per day. These young athletes, the volunteer coaches and families have come to embrace these times, have fun and have had great success. This year the teams finished in the top half of the leagues, each taking second place in their bracket at the yearend regional tournament. All this would not have been possible if it was not for the school district and the middle school letting us use the gym. We would espe- cially like to thank Principal Andy Grzeskowiak USPS# 497-660 L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR P OLICY The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor concerning issues affecting the Florence area and Lane County. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters should be limited to about 300 words and must include the writer’s full name, address and phone number for verification. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Libelous and anonymous letters and poet- ry will not be published. All submissions become the property of Siuslaw News and will not be returned. Write to: Editor@TheSiuslawNews.com Copyright 2015 © Siuslaw News John Bartlett Jenna Bartlett Ryan Cronk Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry Publisher, ext. 327 General Manager, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Advertising Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Thursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $71; 10-weeks subscription, $18; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $94; 10-weeks subscription, $24; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $120; Out of United States — 1-year subscription, $200; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: www.TheSiuslawNews.com 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; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. 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