SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2016
Watershed Council receives special award
The Society for Ecological
Restoration — Northwest
Chapter presented the Siuslaw
Watershed Council (SWC)
with the “Restoration Project
of the Year Award” at its annu-
al conference in Portland, Ore.,
on April 6.
“The board selected the
work of the Siuslaw Watershed
Council due to its comprehen-
sive watershed approach to
restoration, which includes the
Five Mile Bell project of inten-
sive wood placement, re-grad-
ing and native plant communi-
ty restoration, as well as road
decommissioning,” said a rep-
resentative of the Northwest
Chapter.
In addition, the chapter
called the Siuslaw Watershed
Council “exemplary in its com-
munity involvement for both
water quality monitoring and
COURTESY PHOTO
Siuslaw Watershed Council members display their recent award of recognition.
native plant distribution and 24
years of smolt trap monitoring
in the Knowles Creek subwa-
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The Siuslaw Watershed
Council thanked its partners
and volunteers, particularly the
Forest Service for its lead in
many of these projects.
Chamber
in business ownership, adver-
tising, marketing and produc-
tion. Most recently, she and
her husband Michael were the
co-owners of Sandpines Golf
Links until October 2014. Her
skills include organization,
communication, creativity and
design.
“I used to do a lot of pro-
motion and advertising for
Sandpines. This seemed like a
natural fit for me,” Pearson
said. “I love Florence, it’s an
amazing city. I’m looking for-
ward to working with the
chamber — and hopefully
there aren’t any snafus with
the parade.”
Look for Pearson during
the three-day Rhododendron
Festival in Florence, or at the
Florence Area Chamber of
Commerce Visitor’s Center,
290 Highway 101.
from 1A
“Nancy’s talents and enthu-
siasm will be well appreciated
both in the office and in our
community. She is working
hard,” Hannigan said.
Pearson takes over from
former events coordinator
Sherri Bollinger, who worked
at the chamber from August
2015 until April.
“I’ve been working at the
chamber in a freelance capaci-
ty,” Pearson said. “I started as
events coordinator for Rhody
Days, and Bettina told me I got
the job Thursday morning.”
She initially stepped into
the role on an interim basis to
help the chamber prepare for
the annual festival and the
Grand Floral Parade.
Pearson has a background
Budget
from 1A
The budget includes $11.5
million for capital projects,
which Reynolds called an
“investment into the commu-
nity;” City Parks funding
dependent on grants; $1 mil-
lion in water expansion proj-
ects; $40,000 in partnership
with
Siuslaw
Outreach
Services to fund safety servic-
es for at-risk situations; $3.3
million for a new Public
Works facility; and $150,000
for potential remodels to City
Hall.
The budget also includes
long-term planning for proj-
ects through 2021.
Last year’s budget message
said fiscal year 2015-16’s
budget was $33.8 million, with
citywide net spending at $17.8
million.
The budget committee will
meet next on Monday, May 9,
at 6 p.m., and Tuesday, May
10, at 6:30 p.m. at Florence
Events Center, 715 Quince St.
The meetings are open to the
public and City of Florence
department heads will be able
to answer questions.
“I am excited to present this
budget to you and just as excit-
ed to see the work funded
through the budget get com-
pleted,” Reynolds said.
For more information on the
budget, go to ci.florence.or.us.
Band
from 1A
Rowbotham added, “So
freshmen and sophomores are
asked to play junior/senior level
literature (band music) because
in order to qualify for state, you
have to play a required piece
from the 4A list. That list is
usually grade-4 literature
(advanced high school/lower
level college). It is hard on
freshmen and sophomores.”
In addition to the burden of
freshmen and sophomores
being expected to perform at
college level, the band size is
diminutive in comparison to
many other 4-A bands. The
Siuslaw band is currently made
up of 32 members, while com-
peting bands like North Bend,
last year’s 4A winner, has 70
members.
These handicaps did not keep
Siuslaw from qualifying. They
already beat out 30 other 4A
bands to get this far.
The elimination process start-
ed at the Western Oregon Band
Festival in March.
“We received qualifying
scores from the judges at the
Western Oregon Band Festival
Festival
from 1A
According to Rhody Court
adviser Cindy Wobbe, the kind-
ness campaign came from an
idea by Sally Rash to promote
positive and intentional acts of
kindness. The project is spon-
sored by The Good Deed
Project, an area nonprofit.
The “kindness” T-shirts are
part of the Rhody Court’s mis-
sion of being ambassadors to the
community. They are available
at the Visitor’s Center, 290
Highway 101, and 100 percent
of the proceeds are donated to
the Rhody Court Scholarship
Program.
Through the senior princess-
es’ speech platforms, volunteer-
ing, visiting clubs like Rotary,
Kiwanis, the Elks and
Soroptomists and appearing at
Monday’s Florence City Council
Meeting, all 13 members of the
courts are demonstrating that the
youth of today still have some-
thing to offer.
“Our kids saw first hand the
transformational power of kind-
ness,” Wobbe said. “Our hope is
that they take those life lessons
with them back to school and
practice them on the playground,
in the classroom and after
school.”
Bartlett said, “We tried to be
really great ambassadors for not
just the Rhody Festival, but also
Florence. We’ve been doing a lot
of visits to try and bring a little
cheer to people. Each senior
court member also has a com-
munity service project that
they’ve been working on with
their teams.”
The Scholarship Showcase is
Wednesday, May 11, at 6:30
p.m. at the Florence Events
Center. For tickets, go to
www.eventcenter.org.
7 A
that put us into a pool where
another panel of judges listened
to a recording and decided we
were state material,”
Rowbotham said. “We found
out we qualified near the end of
April.”
The band will play four
pieces during the competition -
three of their own choosing and
one selected from a list given to
them by the OSAA committee,
“Velocity” by Larry Neeck;
“Elegy for a Rose” by Barry E.
Kopetz; “The Great Loco-
motive Chase” by Robert W.
Smith and the band’s OSAA
selection, “Cajun Folk Songs”
by Frank Ticheli.
The band has about 18 to 19
minutes of music to play, but
they only have 30 minutes from
the time the band’s first foot hits
the stage until the last member
is off the stage, or they lose
points.
“I have students that have
been with me since beginning
band,” Rowbotham said. “They
know how I do things. They
know the level of expectation I
set for them. They know what
our goals are for the year. This
year one of those goals was to
go to state.”
“It’s going to be a blast and
different from any showcase
you’ve ever seen,” Bartlett said.
Later in the meeting, City
Recorder Kelli Weese presented
the application for a one-block
street closure on Maple Street
for the Rhody Days Vendor Fair.
The city council approved the
street closure.
“We have quite a few mem-
bers of the chamber here to rep-
resent: Jenna Bartlett, chamber
president,
‘Rhody
Days
Extraordinaire’ Jim Martin,
Nancy Pearson — and they even
pulled (former chamber director)
Cal Applebee out of the woods
as well,” Weese said.
The chamber annually
requests to close Maple Street
from Bay to First streets for a
vending area for food carts, pro-
duce, artwork, crafts, souvenirs
and other small items.
“This is the fifth year of the
Vendor Fair. They propose to
close that block of Maple from
Friday, May 20, at noon, to
Sunday, May 22, at 7 p.m.,”
Weese said.
The proposal involved a
detailed site plan, sanitation
facilities, security, hours and “no
parking” signs. In the future, the
committee will also look into
providing recycling, at the
request of City Councilor Susy
Lacer, who is a Master Recycler
in Florence.
Martin has been involved
with the Rhody Days committee
for three years. He said, “We’re
looking forward to the fair. This
looks like a good set up, with
basically the same type of things
we’ve had in the past.”
“And kettle corn is coming,”
Pearson added. “We’re so excit-
ed.”
For more information about
the Rhododendron Festival, go
to www.florencechamber.com.