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SATURDAY EDITION
BASKETBALL
RESULTS
Remodeled
teachers’ lounge
INSIDE — A8
SPORTS — B
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 11
Siuslaw
wins state
lottery
School district to receive
$4 million grant for
upgrades if bond passes
B Y J ACK D AVIS
❘ FEBRUARY 6, 2016 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
CHAMBER
Bollinger
named
interim
director
Taking the
spotlight
Search continues
for hiring permanent
replacement
Siuslaw News
S TAFF R EPORT
Siuslaw School District Business
Manager Kari Blake announced to the
school board on Wednesday that the dis-
trict was selected to receive a state
matching fund grant of $4 million, which
would be used to help pay for a new high
school building.
Siuslaw was one of six districts select-
ed from 13 applicants to receive the
matching fund grant, Blake said at the
Feb. 3 special board meeting.
Now, the school district must move
quickly to complete the steps necessary
to place a school bond initiative on the
May 17 ballot. The grant will only be
available if district voters approve the
bond measure.
Siuslaw School District Superinten-
dent Ethel Angal said, “We have the
opportunity to save our taxpayers $4 mil-
lion. These funds will only be available
in this biennium and we had to be willing
to go out for a May bond election, which
creates a very short timeline.”
According to Angal, the district facili-
ties planning team determined, after
careful evaluation, that the high school
built in 1970 has reached the end of its
useful life.
“It still looks fine,” Angal said, “but
systems are starting to fail. We are start-
ing to have to invest a lot of general fund
dollars in repairing and replacing sys-
tems like heating, cooling and water. We
are just one major catastrophe away from
a real financial pickle.”
The school board will be presented
with a final election resolution for poten-
tial approval at the Wednesday, Feb. 10,
board meeting.
Sea lions arrive for FEC’s
20th anniversary
The Board of Directors of the
Florence Area Chamber of
Commerce
announced
this week
that Sherri
Bollinger has
agreed to
serve as the
organiza-
tion’s interim
Sherri
executive
Bollinger
director until
a permanent director is hired.
Bollinger will shadow cur-
rent chamber Executive
Director Cal Applebee, who
will retire Feb. 26.
Bollinger is not a stranger to
the Florence Area Chamber of
Commerce or working with
businesses. She has been the
chamber’s events coordinator
since July 2015.
“The future of the Chamber
and continued growth is vital to
our success and the success of
Florence. I speak for the execu-
tive board when I say, Sherri
has our best interest in the fore-
front and will lead the chamber
on an interim basis,” said Jenna
Bartlett, chamber board presi-
dent. “We continue to strive to
achieve the mission of promot-
ing business growth as we tran-
sition to new leadership.”
The chamber plans to contin-
ue the recruitment and hiring
process to select a permanent
executive director.
P
orter the sea lion took the
stage at Florence Events
Center (FEC) Feb. 1 as the
last of 21 life-sized sea lion
fiberglass statues arrived in Florence.
The statues are part of the FEC’s 20th
anniversary celebration, “Dancing
with Sea Lions.” Now, local and
regional artists will spend the next
two months painting and decorating
each sea lion. All 21 sea
lions will gather at the FEC
in April before they are
installed at locations from
Reedsport to Newport, but
mostly in Florence.
PHOTOS BY
C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
See
SCHOOL 11A
Red Cross offers free smoke alarms to Florentine residents
Volunteers install record amount as part of nationwide
campaign to reduce home fire deaths
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
A
INSIDE
merican
Red Cross
is on a
mission to prevent
home fire deaths
and injuries and
recently teamed up
with Florence-area
agencies to install
free smoke alarms
in Florentine
Estates.
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7
Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . A10
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Linda Stent and the Florence
Red Cross Disaster Action
Team invited the Red Cross
Disaster Project Manager for
Lane County, Frank Spangler,
to attend a meeting about the
Home Fire Preparedness
Campaign at Florentine Estates
in early January, during which
residents were able to sign up
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5
SideShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Word on the Street . . . . . . . A9
for home installations. More
than 100 residents signed up to
participate.
“The amount of deaths
caused by home fires is
extremely high — too high,”
Spangler said. “The majority
of those deaths or injuries are
caused by homes that either do
not have a working smoke
alarm or do not have a smoke
alarm. We recognize that num-
ber is way too high.”
The Red Cross plans to
reduce home fire deaths and
injuries by 25 percent over the
next five years.
“We do that by installing
smoke alarms in communities
that are at-risk. When I say at
risk, that’s everybody. Fires do
not discriminate,” Spangler said.
Thirty volunteers from
THIS WEEK ’ S
American Red Cross
volunteer teams of
three installed nearly
300 smoke alarms in
Florentine Estates
homes last Saturday.
Red Cross Disaster
Project Manager Frank
Spangler, Florence
Red Cross Disaster
Action Team member
Linda Stent and Red
Cross volunteer Henry
Bodkin made up one
team. Far left, Spangler
demonstrates the
proper placement for
a new smoke alarm.
PHOTOS BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
Florence Red Cross, Siuslaw
Valley Fire and Rescue,
Community Emergency
Response Teams (CERT), the
Florence Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and
the Florence Siuslaw Lions
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
54 42
59 47
61 46
62 48
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
Club met at Florentine Estates,
a 55-and-over gated communi-
ty, first thing last Saturday
morning, Jan. 30.
Andrew Swift, the disaster
preparedness and safety coor-
dinator for the Red Cross
Cascades Region, split the vol-
unteers into groups of three.
Each team had an educator,
to teach residents how to test
and maintain smoke alarms
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