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INSIDE — A11
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 15
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Staff to research process that could increase
efficiency within both departments
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue
(SVFR)
and
Western
Lane
Ambulance District (WLAD) are
looking at ways to increase effective-
ness and efficiency, and that might
mean combining administrative serv-
ices. WLAD’s board of directors
gave Interim Executive Director
Brian Burright direction to meet with
Fire Chief Jim Langborg about the
possibility.
The SVFR board of directors
approved the beginning of the
research process at its board meeting
on Feb. 17.
Regional
10-year
vision plan
underway
According to WLAD Board
President Mike Webb, the decision to
look into sharing administrative
services came out of the district’s
January strategic plan meetings.
Webb and Burright attended the
SVFR board of directors’ meeting to
discuss the possibilities.
“The concept we’re working with at
this point is establishing a common
administration and oversight, but still
maintaining some separation between
the entities. ... This might be a step in the
direction to get us into some kind of
mutual arrangement that would be com-
plementary and beneficial, as well as
beneficial to taxpayers,” Webb said.
Under the potential Intergovern-
mental Agreement (IGA) between
the two districts, administrative serv-
ices already provided by finance and
human resources manager Julie
Brown would expand to include
director’s oversight by Langborg.
SVFR and WLAD currently have
an IGA that allows Brown to work
for both districts.
“Under the new agreement, these
districts would still be separate oper-
ationally,” Langborg said.
Both districts would retain their
own uniforms, equipment, vehicles
and spaces.
Langborg and Burright both
stressed that they plan to “look into”
sharing services, and that nothing
was set in stone.
See
ADMIN 9A
BARBERSHOP TRIO
Action team receives
Florence, Mapleton input
for area’s future
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
W
hat will the Siuslaw region look
like in 10 years? That was the
question posed to Mapleton-
and Florence-area residents during two
forums in January by the Siuslaw Regional
Visioning (SRV) action team.
The Siuslaw region is defined as the
area served by the Mapleton and Siuslaw
school districts. The area includes Florence
and Dunes City as well as the upriver
communities of Mapleton, Deadwood and
Swisshome.
As part of the meeting, an open house
period allowed participants to hear from
vision team members located at six sta-
tions. The six stations were education, nat-
ural resources/environment/outdoors, gov-
ernment/infrastructure, health and human
services, arts and culture, and business and
economy. The list of goals at each station
came from input received during SRV
focus group sessions held last November
and December throughout the region.
Following the open house, SRV facilita-
tor Jane Barth gave an overview presenta-
tion of the project. Participants then broke
up into table discussion groups to further
explore goals and ideas.
Input from both meetings will be com-
piled by the action team and be presented
as a vision statement presentation
Wednesday, March 16, at the Florence
Events Center.
“Pursuing a vision for the region emerged
from a program called Pathways, which was
offered to the Florence area by the Ford
Family Foundation,” said SRV action team
co-chairwoman Becky Goehring. “That pro-
gram was chosen because it included a com-
munity survey and the action team felt that
the survey would bring in a lot of great data
about what people were thinking and feeling
about the area.”
The survey was conducted online
September through October 2014. Almost
650 people completed the survey.
The SRV project was adopted by the
City of Florence, which, along with
Siuslaw Public Library, Florence Rotary
and the Ford Family Foundation, donated
money to support the program.
INSIDE
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Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . .
Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VISION 9A
B7
A8
A2
A4
PHOTOS BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
Camp Florence youth bring haircutting
skills to Helping Hands Coalition
Salvador, Austin
and Shawnell
(above) from
Camp Florence
donated their
barber skills Feb.
15 at Helping
Hands Coalition.
At left, Austin
cuts a woman’s
hair using his
own tools.
amp Florence, an Oregon Youth
Authority transitional facility on South
Jetty Road, teaches
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
youth offenders
Siuslaw News
________________________
important skills and life les-
sons. Shawnell, Salvador and Austin, who trained as
barbers at the facility, brought some of those lessons
to light by cutting hair at Helping
Hands Coalition last week.
See BARBER 9A
C
Water-shuttle service continues for Mercer Lake tank
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Heceta Water People’s Utility
District and Siuslaw Valley Fire and
Rescue renewed their Intergovern-
mental Agreement (IGA) Wednesday
during the fire board’s regular meet-
ing. The IGA allows the fire district to
provide Heceta Water with water-
shuttle service.
The two districts first formed the
IGA in January after the water district
called a Level 4 emergency water cur-
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5
SideShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Word on the Street . . . . . . . A9
THIS WEEK ’ S
tailment when a landslide in
December reduced its capacity to fill
the Mercer Lake tank.
Since then, the fire department has
used one of its water tenders to deliv-
er water to the PUD’s supply tank on
View Road, north of Florence.
“We’re still filling the tank and still
plugging along,” said Fire Chief Jim
Langborg, adding that the tender can
fit in about 10 trips a day.
According to Heceta Water PUD
Manager Carl Neville, the water cur-
tailment continues for residents of the
Collard Lake area. The fire depart-
ment estimates that the agreement
could continue until this summer.
“When we started this, the PUD’s
hope was that this would be a little
quicker than it’s turning out to be. We
built that into the IGA extension,”
Langborg said.
The original goal was 90 days, but
permit delays prevented Heceta Water
from breaking ground on a new sup-
ply line to the tank.
“The fire department is doing a
wonderful job for us. We are very
TODAY
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
thankful,” Neville said. “... Everybody
in the area has been wonderful in
meeting the requirements of the cur-
tailment.”
The updated IGA allows the fire
department to switch between its two
water tenders and continue to provide
service, as well as use the tenders for
their intended purpose during fires.
The districts check each load of
water before it is pumped into the tank
to ensure it meets all health require-
ments. Residents may call the PUD at
541-997-2446 for more information.
S IUSLAW N EWS
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FIRE, AMBULANCE DISTRICTS LOOK INTO COMBINING ADMINISTRATIONS