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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (July 11, 2015)
❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ THESIUSLAWNEWS ❘ JULY 11, 2015 ❘ $1.00 SATURDAY EDITION GRAB SOME FLOGRO Texas 4000 rides into town INSIDE — A3 SPORTS — B SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 Rhody Drive upgrade begins Florence City Council approves two road repair, maintenance projects FLORENCE, OREGON Mapleton resident fills port commission vacancy Mike Buckwald will be sworn in as commissioner next week B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News During a special meeting Thursday, Port of Siuslaw commissioners unanimously voted Mike Buckwald to fill the commission seat vacated by Jay Cable on May 26. Competition for the vacancy was stiff. Of the seven applicants applying for the seat, four were selected for interviews by the board. Applicants were interviewed over a two-day process. Buckwald, a certified pub- lic accountant, served on the Mapleton School Board for 25 years. During the inter- view, Buckwald said, “The primary responsibility of the port is to facilitate economic development and community growth.” Buckwald felt his back- ground as a CPA would ben- efit the board. “I know a lot about budg- ets, Oregon budget law and financial statements,” he said. “There was a time when my partner and I did the fieldwork for the Port of Siuslaw audit.” Buckwald said he saw his role as port commissioner was to “get along with every- body, to listen and to set pol- icy; to give direction to man- agement as to how the port is to be run. I don’t have any axes to grind and I’m going nowhere on the political football field.” See PORT 7A CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM SUMMER SLICK B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News Rhododendron Drive will finally start to see improvements beginning later this month. Following its stated goals and objec- tives for 2015, the Florence City Council awarded two bids for projects on Rhododendron Drive on July 6. “The next items on the agenda are very near and dear to my heart: Rhododendron Drive improvements,” said Florence Mayor Joe Henry. The first bid went to Wildish Construction Company for the North Rhododendron Drive Paving Improvement project. The $205,593 project includes all labor, equipment and materials neces- sary for a grind/inlay of a two-inch thick hot mix asphalt cement (HMAC) roadway surface along Rhododendron Drive from Ninth to Wildwinds streets, including the installation of 12,000 square yards of geo-textile paving fab- ric that will be placed prior to repaving the street and 250 square yards of road- way reconstruction to address an area of severe settlement and road base fail- ure. Florence Public Works Director Mike Miller said, “We are taking mate- rial out and putting it back in, following the fog line (solid white line). The geo- textile material keeps whatever is underneath, like cracks or fractures, from reflecting back through the pave- ment. It should provide a long-lasting surface.” Miller said that this surface should last 20 to 30 years, with maintenance. “We were very happily surprised with the bids and the outcome,” he said. Henry said, “I was really happy to see that in there, especially at that price.” According to the city council packet, Wildish’s proposal was $91,552 below the engineer’s cost estimate. See Response crews from the Florence Police Department, Port of Siuslaw, Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue (SVFR) and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Siuslaw River Station arrived at the port’s docks Friday morning to take care of a 20-gallon diesel spill from the fishing vessel Summer Breeze, owned by Greg Helmer. SVFR Fire Boat-1 assisted the USCG in laying booms and absorbent pads to soak up the diesel. Port Manager Bob Forsythe said, “The people that are responsible end up paying for this stuff. It will be rather expensive for them.” According to officials, it will take a couple days to clean up the spill. PHOTOS BY SVFR FIRE CHIEF JIM LANGBORG RHODY 7A DANCING F DOWN THE COAST CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS INSIDE Four blue signs mark the locations of two construction projects taking place on Rhododendron Drive in July and August. Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . A10 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7 In Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A9 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4 Florence Events Center unveils ‘Dancing with Sea Lions’ program for 20th anniversary in 2016 B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 SideShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Word on the Street . . . . . . . A7 Siuslaw News THIS WEEK ’ S lorence Events Center (FEC) is bring- ing attention to sea lions in honor of its 20th anniversary next year. FEC Director Kevin Rhodes and marketing specialist Jennifer Connor met with the Florence City Council to reveal the project during a work session last month. “Our staff is always brainstorming ideas for new events,” Rhodes said. “Out of those con- versations came an idea that incorporates pub- lic art, a fundraising opportunity and the FEC’s 20th anniversary.” “Dancing with Sea Lions” is a program that will include the installation of 20 fiberglass sea lions along the central Oregon coast. “Right now we have plans for a trail of sea TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 63 56 66 56 68 57 69 56 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 lions to go from Newport, down to Yachats, primarily in Florence and extending down to Reedsport and Winchester Bay,” said Connor, who is spearheading the project. She added that the trail of sea lions will end at the Umpqua Discovery Center in Reedsport. These sea lions will be painted by local artists, like the Cow Parade sculptures that started in Zurich, Switzerland, in the late 1990s. “You can see these projects everywhere,” Connor said. Other “animal parades” have included whales, lions, cats, pelicans, bulls, buffalo and ducks. S IUSLAW N EWS 125 TH Y EAR ❘ I SSUE N O . 55 C OPYRIGHT 2015 See FEC 7A
