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WEDNESDAY EDITION
LADY VIKS
CAGE TIGERS
Yard Sale yields
great finds
SPORTS — B
INSIDE — A3
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 28
❘ APRIL 6, 2016 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
WEARING AWAY
Port closes part of campground due to worsening erosion
Sea lions
prepare for
‘splash off’
Florence Events Center’s
20th anniversary festivity
starts Saturday
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
COURTESY PHOTO
Port of Siuslaw recently closed the east end of its campground due to riverbank erosion. A FEMA grant is being sought to help with repairs.
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
P
ort of Siuslaw has
closed a portion of the
campground located
at the east end of the
property along the Siuslaw
River to the public due to
ongoing riverbank erosion cre-
ating safety concerns.
Bank erosion along this section of the park has
been an ongoing concern of the port for years,
but the high tides and storms from last December
has exacerbated the problem, prompting the clo-
sure.
“There is significant erosion to the shore
bank,” Port of Siuslaw General Manager Steven
Leskin said. “This will require extensive repairs
and renovation to prevent further loss of land. In
the port must submit a grant request.
the interim, we need to close the area. This is a
The port announced it has retained a maritime
necessary step to protect public safety in this
engineer to assist with repairs to the shore-bank.
area. The port will have the beaches open as soon The current plan is to bioengineer a solution.
as possible. At this point, it is unknown when
Bioengineering consists of using natural material,
that will be.”
such as vegetation, grasses and logs, to repair
Satellite images show the extent of the erosion, shore bank instability. It is not harmful to aquatic
going back more than a decade. In some places
life, is easier to have permitted by the state and is
the riverbank has eroded more than 50 feet. The
considered a permanent solution.
port had been considering
how to address the problem,
“This will require extensive repairs and
and the December storms
that accelerated it may also
renovations to prevent further loss of land.”
have created a solution.
—STEVEN LESKIN, PORT MANAGER
“We weren’t alone,”
Leskin said. “There was a
lot of other water damage done during those
The other option, according to Leskin, would
storms. The Federal Emergency Management
be to place large rocks called rip-rap along the
Agency (FEMA) has offered grant money specif- shore and down into the river, but rip-rap is not
ically to help repair storm damage from
favored by state regulators.
December 2015. The FEMA grant is not 100 per-
“We had the river surveyed last week and we
cent. I believe it is a 75/25 percent grant with 25
expect to have a presentation by the April 20
percent coming from the port.”
board meeting,” Leskin said.
According to the port, FEMA has inspected the
eroding shore bank twice since February. Now,
See PORT 9A
Visitors: ‘Spend another day in Florence’
Travel Lane County presents semi-annual
report on marketing the Florence area
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
Florence City Council listened to a
report by Travel Lane County at the
council meeting Monday night. Kari
Westlund, president and CEO of
Travel Lane County, and Meg
Trendler, tourism sales manager, pre-
sented marketing information on
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Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Florence and how they plan to draw
more visitors to the coast.
Travel Lane County is a private
corporation that invests funds generat-
ed through the 9 percent Lane County
and Florence Transient Room Tax
(TRT) as well as funds from Travel
Oregon, which receives the 1 percent
statewide TRT.
“Our mission is to increase the
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Scoreboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . B2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
number of overnight visitors to Lane
County,” Westlund said.
Travel Lane County does this by
marketing
four
regions,
the
Willamette Valley, the Cascades,
Eugene and the coast. Each region
gets its own campaign.
“Our basic brand premise is that we
have a variety of enriching, approach-
able, authentic adventures for all ages
and abilities. We’re focused on what is
common for the entire 4,722 square
miles of the county, and we’re repre-
senting quite a good number of our
THIS WEEK ’ S
communities,” Westlund said.
The marketing group prints
130,000 copies annually of its visi-
tor’s guide. Florence and the sur-
rounding sand dunes of the Oregon
Dunes National Recreation Area are
on the cover for the guide promoting
the coast.
“It is my great pleasure to go out
into the world and promote Lane
County, and in particular, promote
Florence,” said Trendler.
See
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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59 47
57 44
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
After months of hard work for project
managers, staff, suppliers, artists and
volunteers, Dancing with Sea Lions will
finally be revealed at its Splash Off!
event on Saturday, April 9.
Dancing with Sea Lions celebrates 20
years of the Florence Events Center’s
(FEC) commitment to the arts and the
Florence community. Twenty full-sized
sea lions will grace the Oregon coast
from Reedsport to Newport with a long
dance leading to Florence.
“I think people will be very surprised
and impressed by how well the artists
did,” said FEC marketing specialist and
project coordinator Jennifer Connor.
“Each sea lion is different and unique,
just like the artists who painted them.”
Besides small snippets of the sea
lions shown on social media, the
appearance of the sea lions is a secret
until Saturday, when all 20 will gather
at the FEC for the free Splash Off!
event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We wanted families to get a chance
to see the sea lions right here in town,”
Connor said. “It was especially impor-
tant to our sponsors, such as Siuslaw
Outreach Services, that the Splash Off!
be presented at no charge. It’s our gift to
the community for all the support it has
given the events center.”
The public is invited to drink coffee,
eat a cookie or two and see the sea lions
together for the first and only time. The
next time the sea lions will be together
will be when 16 of them are auctioned
off in the fall. Four sea lions will be
permanently placed.
See
SPLASH 9A
Teen Center
now serving
hot meals
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane
County Teen Center is now serving free
hot U.S. Department of Agriculture
approved meals to members as part of its
after-school program.
The club received a $6,000 grant from
the Oregon Department of Education in
February to install a new kitchen, includ-
ing stovetops, two refrigerators, a dish-
washer, cabinets and stainless steel sinks,
and began serving hot meals in March.
“We are now providing healthy, nutri-
tious meals that will help curb childhood
obesity, which is an enormous problem
today,” said Boys and Girls Club
Executive Director Chuck Trent.
The Teen Center has passed the Child
and Adult Center Food Program health
inspection. The staff has been trained and
all have current food handler’s cards.
TRAVEL 9A
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CLUB 9A
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