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WEDNESDAY EDITION
HISTORIC
RELAY
❘ MARCH 23, 2016 ❘ $1.00
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HUNTING
SPECIAL SECTION — C
SPORTS — B
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 24
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
Town hall
to discuss
fire protection
assessment
FLORENCE, OREGON
POWERFUL POWWOW
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
700 Florence properties
reassessed as forestland
after state error
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF)
announced that 700 properties in the
Florence area were reassessed as forestland,
which changes the tax lot designations of
the properties. An upcoming town hall
meeting on Monday, March 28, will discuss
fire protection assessments.
According to ODF, Oregon Sen. Arnie
Roblan, District 5, will attend the town hall
meeting, which is set for 6 p.m. at Siuslaw
Valley Fire and Rescue’s main station, at
2625 Highway 101.
“When we got information from local
residents with regard to the issue, we decid-
ed to set up this town hall,” Roblan said.
Rep. Caddy McKeown, District 9, and
West Lane County Commissioner Jay
Bozievich may also attend.
At the meeting, ODF’s Western Lane
District will give information on fire pro-
tection assessments for wildfire protection.
ODF will explain the assessment process to
attendees and answer questions.
Many landowners in western Lane
County received a letter from ODF in late
February stating that a recent audit “found
that many lands formerly paying forest
patrol are now not paying.”
ODF referred to the issue as an error, and
said that it may have resulted when larger
tax lots divided into several smaller ones.
In reviewing the existing Forest Patrol
Assessments in the area around Florence,
ODF determined that 700 additional lots
meet the definition of forestland for the
purpose of wildfire protection.
The last review of the area was conduct-
ed more than a decade ago.
“The ODF is responsible for providing
wildfire protection. All rural properties pay
this fee,” Roblan said. “I think it just came
as a shocker that people who hadn’t paid it
will need to.”
See
PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
M
ore than 500 people attended
the 23rd annual Siuslaw Indian
Education Program Powwow
Saturday, March 19, at Siuslaw
Middle School. Families came
from as far away as Montana, Arizona, Colorado
and Wyoming to attend the event, the largest of
its kind in Oregon. “We’re very fortunate to
have this historic celebration in our town,” said
Florence City Councilor Joshua Greene at the
council meeting on Monday. He said there were
about 133 youth participants.
MEETING 7A
Engineers have
determined that the
area on Chapman
Road, where a
landslide originated
Dec. 18, is unstable
for Heceta Water
PUD’s current
pipeline. The district
plans to build a
new line on Collard
Lake Road.
Heceta Water awards
bid for new pipeline
Unstable land after landslide necessitates
moving pipe from Chapman Road
FILE PHOTO
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
Heceta Water People’s
Utility District Board of
Directors voted to award a bid
for the construction of a new
pipeline on Collard Lake Road,
instead of the pipe’s former
location on Chapman Road,
after engineer reports advised
against unstable land.
Careers & Employment . . . . . C
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Eighteen people, including
four members of the five-mem-
ber board of directors, district
staff and members of the pub-
lic, attended the March 15
meeting.
A large section of the PUD’s
main fill line for the Mercer
Lake tank ran along Chapman
Road until Dec. 18, when a
landslide originated at the road
and flowed onto Mercer Lake
Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Scoreboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Road near Santa Road. One
woman died in the slide.
After the landslide, the dis-
trict shut the line and began
reviewing alternate ways to
bring water to a neighborhood
consisting of View Road, View
Cul-de-sac, Ocean Way, Collard
Lake Road, Collard Lake Loop
and Collard Lake Way. A water
curtailment will continue for 90
customers in the area for about
THIS WEEK ’ S
two more months.
Heceta Water created an
Intergovernmental Agreement
with Siuslaw Valley Fire and
Rescue to coordinate a water
truck to deliver water to the
reservoir in the area. The cur-
rent contract will end May 29.
In the meantime, Engineer
Aaron Speakman from Dyer
Partnership in Coos Bay
advised the district’s board to
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
55 48
53 46
53 41
55 47
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
seek a permanent alternative to
the Chapman Road Line. PUD
District Manager Carl Neville
and the engineer then looked
into installing a new line on
Collard Lake Road.
At the board meeting on
March 15, Speakman presented
three bids for the project. The
lowest bid, at $597,900, was
under the project’s estimate,
but did not include working
with Central Lincoln PUD to
provide power to the site.
“Costs came in really low, at
some of the lowest costs we’ve
seen in six to eight years,”
Speakman said. “Knife River
Materials was the lowest bid
contractor. ... They’ve been
very successful on projects and
given great results.”
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HECETA 7A