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❘ 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
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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
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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.
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FEC 7A