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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 2015)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS SATURDAY EDITION ❘ NOVEMBER 7, 2015 ❘ $1.00 Veterans Day special State/league awards announced SPORTS — B INSIDE SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON Port releases Forsythe as manager Forsythe tendered his resig- nation as port manager on Sept. 23. His last day of employment was to be Dec. 23. Board President Ron Caputo said, “We have discussed this with Bob and he is willing to do it. We will pay him up through his scheduled retire- ment date of Dec. 23.” Forsythe’s official last day B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News D uring the Port of Siuslaw special meet- ing held Thursday, Nov. 5, commissioners voted to release current port manager Bob Forsythe from a 90-day resignation notice clause in his contract. was yesterday. “I don’t have any immediate plans until after the first of the year,” he said. “My wife Cindy and I will be staying in the Florence, Dunes City area and will be around for quite some time.” The port paid Forsythe $8,657 for the early release. The commissioners also School addresses attendance issues approved a motion to appoint administrative assistant Dina McClure as interim port man- ager until the commissioners select a new full-time port man- ager from the 10 applicants the port received prior to the Oct. 30 cut-off date. “I have looked at the contract and I want to make sure that she is making as much money as port manager Bob Forsythe was,” Caputo said. The contract with McClure will expire Jan. 1, 2016. If the new port manager has not been chosen by that time, then an additional interim contract will be drawn up. “Hopefully we can appoint a new port manager in the next two to three weeks,” Caputo said. The 10 applicants for the port manager position were culled to six at the Thursday meeting. The commissioners plan to meet with the six remaining applicants individu- ally on Monday, Nov. 16, to view their power-point presen- tations and begin the interview process. P ROTECTING Correlation drawn between attendance and dropout rate B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News Siuslaw High School vice principal Corky Franklin gave a presentation to the Kiwanis Club of Florence on high school attendance issues during the Wednesday, Nov. 4, lunch meeting. Low high school graduation rates have plagued Oregon and Siuslaw High School for several years. Both state and Siuslaw High School graduation rates are well below the 2014 national average of 81 per- cent. “Ninth grade attendance is a better predictor of dropout rates than eighth grade test scores,” Franklin said. He shared what steps the high school has imple- mented to reverse this trend. “Students have to be present and engaged in order to learn,” Franklin said. “If you are going to do well in school you have to be in school.” According to Franklin, the district has adopted a green, yellow, red color-code system to flag students with attendance problems. “Green is good attendance, which means 95 percent attendance or better,” Franklin explained. “Over the course of a school year we have approximately 177 school days. That equates to about nine absences, for any reason, good or bad. “Yellow is the middle zone, between 90 and 95 per- cent. “The red zone is chronic absence, missing over 10 percent of school, 18 days or more,” he added. Franklin said based on the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills third grade reading tests, even kindergarten and first grade students who miss 18 or more school days score, on average, 60 points lower than students with good attendance records. “Attendance problems are not just a high school concern,” he said. “This is a kindergarten through 12th grade issue.” See ATTENDANCE 6A FIRE STATION REPORTS THEFT INSIDE Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue (SVFR) reported that a burglary occurred at the Canary Road Station earlier this week. Approximately $12,000 worth of valuable equipment was stolen between 11 a.m. Nov. 1 and 7 p.m. Nov. 2. The stolen equipment included a weed eater, two generators, a chainsaw, a computer and monitor, radios, binoculars and a Firefinder heat gun. SVFR Fire Marshal Sean Barrett said, “Lane County Sheriff’s Office is investigating. The items are insured and are going to be replaced.” The City of Florence is joining SVFR in looking for more information on the break in. They ask that com- munity members with information, or who see any of the stolen items for sale, contact the SVFR Operations Division Chief Marvin Tipler at 541-997-3212 and Lane County Sheriff’s Office. Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7 A8 A2 A4 A PARK Petition protests Lane County’s proposed sale of Ocean Woods Park CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Ocean Woods Park, an undeveloped Lane County Park, is currently inaccessible to the public, though neighbors, especially in the Heceta South and Idylwood subdivisions, enjoy the pristine view and wildlife watching opportunities. B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News ane County Parks (LCP) is work- ing on a draft of its Master Plan Update, which indicates the pro- posed sale of Ocean Woods Park, a 40- acre undeveloped county park within the City of Florence’s urban growth boundary. The plan is up for public comment, and the public is commenting. More than 70 area residents attended a meeting at the Florence Elks Lodge on Wednesday to discuss the park. Charlie Campione, president of Heceta South Homeowners Association, said that a petition against Ocean Woods’ sale already has more than 300 signatures. “We are inviting Heceta South and Idylwood residents and those living in the City of Florence and surrounding areas who may be interested in preserving this land as originally intended as a park to sign,” he said. One speaker at the meeting said, “When we moved here, I looked out my back window and said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at that.’” Many of the properties near Heceta South and Idylwood subdivisions border L Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A7 Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Word on the Street . . . . . . . A6 THIS WEEK ’ S or have views of the park, located at the end of Heceta Park Way from the north and Saltaire Street from the south. “I am sure that you can predict the many adverse situations if this property is sold, such as negative impact on wildlife and endangered species, decrease in prop- erty values and more,” Campione said. Robert Hursh is a “self-appointed spokesperson for scores of wildlife, large and small, living in Ocean Woods Park.” He wants to preserve the property in its current condition, or very minimally develop it. “Give us a long term lease on it, and we’ll put some trails in there, some view- ing areas, a bench or two. We’re not going to asphalt, or change the look, we’re just going to make some choices for people to walk in there and view the wildlife,” he said. “It should be used as such to serve the Lane County residents in the area who are underserved by mini and neighborhood parks,” Campione said. The park provides seasonal birdwatch- ing opportunities and chances to glimpse bears, eagles, deer and other wildlife. “The people that surround this land haven’t really damaged it. It’s a case of TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 57 49 54 44 52 42 56 48 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 respect and protect,” another speaker said. “This is a pristine, protected piece of prop- erty that will only increase in value over time.” LCP supervising analyst Dave Stockdale addressed area residents at the public comment session in September, held at Florence City Hall. “Right now, it’s just proposed for sale,” Stockdale said. “Nobody knows what the future looks like if the property is trans- ferred.” He said that LCP discovered 19 years ago that Ocean Woods doesn’t fit the way LCP operates its park system. “The basic thing is that all of us realize is that we’ve been treated with callous dis- regard by the county,” a speaker said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We’re the ones who live here and care about this land, and we’re not being considered in this equa- tion.” The meeting provided background information on the history of Ocean Woods Park — which has belonged to Lane County since 1940 — as well as on legal issues tied to past attempts to sell the property. S IUSLAW N EWS 125 TH Y EAR ❘ I SSUE N O . 89 C OPYRIGHT 2015 See PARK 6A CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Port of Siuslaw administrative assistant Dina McClure appointed interim manager
