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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2015)
❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS WEDNESDAY EDITION BOWLING TOURNEY ❘ DECEMBER 16, 2015 ❘ $1.00 Santa visits military museum INSIDE — A10 SPORTS — B SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON P ERFECT P ORTER First Dancing with Sea Lions commemorative sculpture arrives Florence finalizes marijuana land use Monday’s three-hour hearing continues year-long legalization process B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Community members and Florence Mayor Joe Henry (front, wearing a wetsuit) welcome “Porter” the sea lion sculpture to the Florence Events Center. Dancing with Sea Lions officially kicks off in January, but Porter will be on display in the lobby through December. F lorence Events Center (FEC) received an unexpected present this year: the early B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News arrival of “Porter,” ______________________ the first of 20 life-size sea lion sculptures that make up the Dancing with Sea Lions public art display. “Porter just arrived,” said FEC Marketing Director Jennifer Connor. “Just like expecting babies, you can’t count on when they will come.” See SEA LION 9A On Monday, the Florence City Council and Planning Commission assembled for a three-hour public hearing about land use amendments in the Florence City Code, especially those pertaining to the growing, processing, wholesaling, testing and sale of recreational marijuana. More than 85 people attended the hearing at the Florence Events Center, and 14 testified dur- ing the public comments period. This was in addition to the more than 100 phone calls the nine written comments that city staff received prior to the hearing. Mayor Joe Henry said the comments indicated the almost 50-50 for/against split that Florence-area vot- ers felt toward legalizing marijuana in Oregon. “Marijuana has been legalized at a personal level since July 1, so regardless of what’s decid- ed tonight, it will remain legal throughout the state of Oregon,” said City Manager Erin Reynolds. She added that Florence did legalize marijuana use by a small majority. “When we’re talking about these land use codes, it’s only for those licensees for commer- cial use as issued by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission,” Reynolds said. “Personal growth and use ... we’re not regulating that. This is for the commercial aspect.” Ordinance No. 12, Series 2015 defined loca- tions and zones that could support marijuana use. Under the city code, residential districts can only grow marijuana plants and manufacture marijuana products in a “home occupation” for- mat. This means in a non-dwelling separate building on a property with odor control, limits on artificial lighting and no employees. Greenhouses or high tunnels will not comply to the code. Commercial districts, such as the Mainstreet, Commercial, North Commercial and Highway districts, allow the “home occupation,” as stated above, and add varying levels of recreational sales, wholesales and testing facilities. Most locations will not allow any outdoor growing of the plant. “So that no one would know this would happen on your property,” Reynolds said. The code also defines buffers for both recre- ational sales and medical dispensaries. Schools retain the state-mandated 1,000-foot buffer, resi- dential zones have a 175-foot buffer and day- cares, the library and most parks now have a 200- foot buffer. Miller Park has a 400-foot buffer. See CITY 9A COURTESY PHOTO Travel Channel to explore ‘mystery’ of exploding whale in special program B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News INSIDE Florence’s very own explod- ing whale will be featured on the Travel Channel’s series “Mysteries at the Museum,” Friday, Dec. 18, at 9 p.m. Births . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 B6 A5 A4 For the uninitiated, on Nov. 9, 1970, a 45-foot, eight-ton sperm whale washed ashore one-half mile south of the South Jetty. It was dead and had been dead for some time. After two days ashore, it became quite odiferous. Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 KidScoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2 An assistant highway engi- neer with Oregon State Highway Department announced that he would dis- pose of the whale carcass by demolition. The rest is history. As a side note, to this THIS WEEK ’ S reporter’s knowledge, no whale since has been disposed of in this manner. The Travel Channel piece takes a look back at that explo- sive moment in Florence histo- ry and the sole remaining arti- fact, a fractured whale verte- TODAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 50 45 56 47 52 42 50 44 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 bra, on display at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum. A production crew from New York and a sound crew from Portland spent Saturday, Jan. 31, recording at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum in Old Town. “Mysteries at the Museum” is an hour-long series that has aired on the Travel Channel since 2010. It features seg- ments about museum artifacts that have unusual or mysteri- ous origins and the stories regarding them. S IUSLAW N EWS 125 TH Y EAR ❘ I SSUE N O . 100 C OPYRIGHT 2015 CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
