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St. Paddy’s
Pet Parade
SPRING
AIR
INSIDE — A12
SPORTS — B
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 25
Rotary
Auction
soars over
$100K
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
LANE COUNTY
COMMUNITY JOB FAIR
Workforce
welcome T
Job seekers attend inaugural event
to check out local employers
Last-minute donations
bring “Sky’s the Limit!”
fundraiser past goal
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Rotary Club of Florence announced
the grand total of this year’s Rotary
Auction at its lunch meeting on March
24, and the sky really was the limit as
community members raised $101,390.
Last year’s “Roaring Good Night for
Giving,” a 1920s-inspired event, raised
just over $100,000, setting the previous
record for most money raised.
Rotary held the auction at the
Florence Events Center on March 12.
By the end of the night, cashiers counted
$98,240 raised for student scholarships
and area programs. The final tally, how-
ever, took a little bit longer.
Auction Committee co-chair Kevin
McMullen said, “We had a goal this year
of $100,000. Whether we make the goal or
not, I will say that we are very, very proud
of our club and what they did. It’s a heck
of a goal to get up to where we are.”
During the Rotary lunch, McMullen
and co-chair Kim Erickson revealed that
they had one more item to auction off.
Erickson also said that McMullen
would shave his impressive beard if
Rotarians could reach $100,000.
Adding those funds to the total, as
well as including money from coin jars
and a Rotarian fundraiser contest,
pushed the auction’s limit to its final
amount.
“We want to thank everyone we can,”
McMullen said.
More than 300 people attended the
Rotary Auction, filling 38 tables with
costumes that fit the “Sky’s the Limit!”
theme.
“One of the things that makes this
event possible for us is all the sponsors
that we get before the auction even
starts,” Erickson said. “Everything
raised that night is money in our pocket
for scholarships.”
See
❘ MARCH 26, 2016 ❘ $1.00
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
he Florence Community Job Fair
demonstrated success for the 28
employer and community vendors as
well as the nearly 200 people who attended
the March 24 event hosted by Three Rivers
Casino Resort in its Event Center.
“All 28 people with tables showed up and
made the event so successful. They were able to
make offers, hire people and accept applications
throughout the day,” said job fair coordinator
Pam Hickson, recruitment specialist for the
casino and the Confederated Tribes of Coos,
Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.
Job seekers and community members
attended the fair throughout the day, with the
highest attendance from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“It was a really good day and was very well
received. We’re hoping to make it an annual
event,” Hickson said.
PHOTOS BY JACK DAV
IS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Nearly 200 people attended the free job fair
Thursday at Three Rivers Casino Resort.
ROTARY 6A
Vision 2025 findings shared with community
Siuslaw region residents receive
results of 2-year project
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
Siuslaw Pathways Regional
Visioning Forum met at the
Florence Senior Center March
16 to share the proposals and
plans developed from 10
regional community meetings
held since January.
In addition to the regional
meetings, the vision action
team compiled input gathered
from surveys, focus groups
and community forums over
the past two years.
More than 75 people from
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7
Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . A10
Courts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
as far as Deadwood and
Swisshome attended the meet-
ing to hear the long-range
vision for the Siuslaw region,
focusing on what services and
community objectives would
be available by 2025.
The Siuslaw region is
defined as the area encompass-
ing the Mapleton and Siuslaw
school districts.
At the meeting, the team
shared 15 near-term action
items that would require vol-
unteer vision keepers to con-
tinue development of those
items.
Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5
SideShow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Word on the Street . . . . . . . A7
Action items include devel-
oping a community center,
creating a Siuslaw Region
Parks and Recreation District,
establishing affordable region-
al transportation, creating an
upriver community health
clinic, strengthening local jobs
creation, creating affordable
workforce housing and sup-
porting local workforce reten-
tion and others.
“We were thrilled with
the meeting,” co-coordinator
Becky Goehring said. “We had a
number of people step up to
become vision keepers. They
will carry the vision forward and
help move things into reality,
See
THIS WEEK ’ S
VISION 6A
JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
More than 75 interested community members gathered
at the Florence Senior Center March 16 to hear the
results of a two-year study conducted by the Siuslaw
Pathways Regional Visioning Forum on the future of
community services and resources in 2025.
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS ❘ 22 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2016
Sheriffs
return to
24-hour
patrol
Response times
expected to improve
with more deputies
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Lane County Sheriff’s
Office has completed a two-
year process to hire and train
enough deputies to restore
24-hour patrol.
“We know how important
24-hour patrol is to our resi-
dents,” said Lane County
Sheriff Byron Trapp. “We
have high standards for our
deputies and we have rebuilt
a very talented and dedicated
team focused on providing
our community with quality
public safety services.”
Funding for 24-hour
patrol was originally elimi-
nated during significant
budget reductions in 2010.
Patrol was reduced to 16
hours per day, leaving eight
hours per day with no
deputies on duty in Lane
County.
The Lane County Board
of Commissioners restored
funding for 24-hour patrol in
the 2013-2014 fiscal year
and the Sheriff’s Office initi-
ated recruitment, hiring and
training immediately follow-
ing the return of funding.
“We’ve been working
since then to hire and train
enough staff to cover our
roster,” Trapp said.
The process of hiring and
training a new deputy takes
more than 12 months,
including written and physi-
cal testing, a rigorous inter-
view, in-depth background
check, medical and psycho-
logical examinations, 16
weeks of academy training
and 15 weeks of field train-
ing.
“Returning to 24-hour
patrol means that we can
respond more quickly to life-
threatening, in-progress calls
rather than calling in off-
duty staff, which can create
significant delays in serv-
ice,” said Trapp.
The new deputy sheriffs
will be based at the main
office patrol, but will assist
the sheriff’s office with late-
night calls throughout the
county.
“It won’t change our cov-
erage to the south and west,
but having people in this
third shift means we can
close the gap in response
time,” he said.
Trapp said there are
350,000 residents in Lane
County and about 150,000
of them rely on the sheriff’s
office for direct law
enforcement.
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