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SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
T HE F INEST H OURS
City Lights hosts movie premiere with Coast Guard
FLORENCE, OREGON
POLICE
Missing
senior
found safe
Florence first responders,
citizens locate Don Schug, 85,
after 10-hour search
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
A missing elderly resident of Regency Florence
Rehabilitation Center was found safe Monday
morning following a 10-hour search that involved
more than nine response agencies.
Don Schug, 85, of Florence, went missing
around 1:25 a.m. on Feb. 1. He was located and
returned safely home around 11 a.m. that same
day.
Florence Police Department (FPD) was called
early Monday morning to investigate a missing
person from the 1900 block of 21st Street.
Regency reported that Schug, one of its patients
with mild dementia, had broken a window screen
and left the facility.
Schug was last seen wearing blue short-sleeved
flannel pajamas and brown shoes.
When Regency personnel could not locate him,
they called the police.
“Over 30 first responders participated in the
search, including two search dogs,” reported
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue (SVFR).
FPD, SVFR, Western Lane Ambulance District,
Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians Police Department, Lane County
Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, Florence
CERT, Siuslaw School District, the U.S. Coast
Guard and news and social media outlets helped in
the search.
B Y D EBORAH H ELDT C ORDONE
Special to Siuslaw News
T
he U.S. Coast Guard
and Florence community
came together last
Thursday evening to celebrate
the opening of the new Disney
thriller, “The Finest Hours.”
To acknowledge the professional and
often heroic work of the local Coast
Guard, City Lights Cinemas offered
Station Siuslaw River and Station Umpqua
River members and their families a private
screening of the film, after which the pub-
lic was invited to a preview showing.
Active-duty guards men and women were
on hand before the movie — with a 25-foot
response boat and safety display — to answer
questions about local operations, offering an
insightful understanding of their duties. The
Siuslaw High School culinary team provided
a Cape Cod themed menu for guests as well.
See
MOVIE 11A
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Western Lane Ambulance begins strategic plan
District consults
community members
on 5-year work plan
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
Western Lane Ambulance
District (WLAD) invited more
than 20 community members to
take part in its five-year strategic
plan on Jan. 19.
Emergency Services Consult-
ing International (ESCI) led the
two-hour meeting. ESCI previous-
ly worked with Siuslaw Valley
Fire and Rescue on its strategic
plan in March of last year.
Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . .
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A6
B6
A5
A4
“We are here to assist WLAD in
developing a strategic plan,” said
Don Bivins, senior associate at
ESCI. “This is a customer-cen-
tered strategic plan, which means
you folks as the customer are the
focus. We want to get your feed-
back, which will guide the process
that we use with the internal staff.”
WLAD Interim Executive
Director Brian Burright welcomed
the group and presented back-
ground information on the district.
The community group, which
included taxpayers, medical and
law enforcement personnel and
other citizens, filled out surveys
and discussed the district’s per-
formance.
Out of seven priorities for the
Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A7
Scoreboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
district moving forward, the com-
munity group listed technical
competence of responders, reli-
able and functional facilities and
equipment and compassionate and
empathic customer service as
goals.
The community members
ranked the district as “appropri-
ate” for staffing, response and cost
of service.
“Your results are encouraging. I
think the group gets it. I think peo-
ple are on the same page,” Bivins
said. “You don’t see a major prob-
lem, and you aren’t necessarily
seeing more investment for more
services.”
The group also discussed some
of the issues that the internal staff
THIS WEEK ’ S
of the district will have to deter-
mine: future tax rates and the
expansion of facilities.
“We worked with the district to
make sure we had representation.
We didn’t want a room full of
cheerleaders,” Bivins said. “We
didn’t want a room full of naysay-
ers. This group is pretty well bal-
anced, and we got some pretty bal-
anced perspective on your com-
munity and your ambulance serv-
ice.”
The internal staff met for two
days to go over the community
group’s feedback and create a
work plan for the next five years.
The final strategic plan will be
available to the public once it is
completed.
TODAY
THURSDAY
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
POLICE 11A
LCC drops
Perkins student
loan program
Congress stalls renewal for
three months, adds restrictions
that create problems
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
The Perkins low-income student loan program,
which has been available to college students since
1958, might be dropped from Lane Community
College’s (LCC) student loan options.
LCC was not able to offer the Perkins student
loan program for the 2015-16 fall term because
congress failed to renew the program. The pro-
gram was not signed into law until Dec. 16, at the
start of winter break.
LCC Florence Center Interim Director Russ
Pierson said, “The program was not reauthorized
for three months. It was a dead program.”
According to LCC Director of Financial Aid
Helen Faith, approximately 70 percent of current
LCC students receive financial aid. Of that 70 per-
cent, only 4 percent had Perkins loans last year.
The total number of Florence Center students with
Perkins loans was about 16.
See
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126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 10