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126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 45
❘ JUNE 4, 2016 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Plan promotes better partnership,
increased services to rural areas
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
Lane County is beginning a program
to bring progress and prosperity to its
rural areas as part of its strategic plan for
community and economic development.
Once completed, the Rural Prosperity
Initiative will guide how the county
interacts with and provides services to
its non-metro communities.
County
Administrator
Steve
Mokrohisky visited Florence on May 16
to discuss the initiative with Florence
City Manager Erin Reynolds and Mayor
Joe Henry, as well as present the topic at
that night’s city council meeting.
“We’ve been doing a tour of our rural
u
r
T
s
r
o
l
co
communities throughout Lane County
asking, ‘What help do you need? What
support can we provide?’” Mokrohisky
said.
He said that the county has been ask-
ing how it can partner with rural com-
munities and have more of a meaningful
presence. One way it plans to do that is
with the Rural Prosperity Initiative, a
program that will offer a coordinated
support system that draws on local
expertise, builds capacity and caters to
the individual needs of each rural com-
munity.
Lane County has also budgeted for a
county economic development liaison
dedicated specifically to rural areas. The
selection and hiring process should be
completed by August.
“Our feeling is that we can and
should have a significant role in partner-
ing with cities and rural communities
throughout Lane County to support a
vibrant, local economy,” Mokrohisky
said.
In July 2015, the county brought in
Hatfield Fellows Aniko Drlik-Muehleck
and Stephen Dobrinich to work on eco-
nomic development countywide, in the
McKenzie River area and in Florence.
Drlik-Muehleck said to the Florence
City Council and city staff, “We’re so
excited to finally be here tonight and
share this with you. We’ve been work-
ing closely with some of you, but now
we get to share the work we’ve come up
with.”
See
COUNTY 7A
Port to revisit
commercial
ice machine
Trick dog
Tru mixes it
up, donates
painting to
Bark for Life
Commissioners look for
ways to attract commercial
fishermen to Florence
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
PHOTOS BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
Hideaway Gallery in Old Town featured Tru’s paintings in May. One of her paintings will be up for auction
at the third annual Bark for Life of Florence on Saturday, June 11, at Miller Park.
A
INSIDE
lready 4 years old,
and Tru the “painting
dog” is still learn-
ing new tricks.
Cheryl Pinnock, of Florence,
has had the Border Collie-Heeler
mix since Trudy, or Tru, was 5 weeks
old. Before long, Pinnock started trick
training with the puppy.
“This was really good, since Tru is a high-
energy dog. It’s another way to fill her day,”
Pinnock said.
The two began training together using online
dog training programs and Surf City
Dog Training, based in Florence,
and City Dog Country Dog,
based in Portland. This
helped Pinnock work with
Tru’s personality.
“In 2014, we started to do
Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . .
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the ‘Do More With Your Dog’
trick training. Tru is an
expert right now and
is working toward her
championship,”
Pinnock said.
Tru goes for daily
walks with the Trutrax
Pak, a local dogwalking
group.
“All along her walks
and through the day, she
is doing tricks,” Pinnock
said.
It helps that Tru gets treats to
motivate her to lift her paws, stand
up or even imitate a raccoon. Her favorite
snacks are small chunks of cheese, liver and
chicken.
The trick, Pinnock said, is “to mix it up as
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THIS WEEK ’ S
much as possible.”
Tru’s newest trick is painting.
“We started painting in September,
almost a year ago. We just started
fresh. Since I’m an artist, I thought it
would be fun to have a dog as an
artist,” Pinnock said.
Both Pinnock and Tru had their
work on display at Hideaway
Gallery in Old Town
for the month of
May.
Pinnock works in
watercolors and “crafty
things.”
“Anything art. Period,” she said.
Tru uses acrylic paints to create abstract
designs on canvas.
“She really enjoys the paint-
ing part,” Pinnock said.
See DOG 7A
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
During the May 18 meeting, held at the
Triangle Lake School library, Port of
Siuslaw commissioners agreed to explore
the feasibility of acquiring a commercial ice
machine to be located on the port’s wharf.
The discussion and subsequent agreement
to move forward evolved out of a report
commissioner Nancy Rickard made on a
meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers regarding repair of the Siuslaw
River jetties.
According to Rickard, the corps prefers to
dredge the river rather than spend the esti-
mated $120 million necessary to properly
repair the two jetties.
Commissioner Terry Duman said, “We
aren’t going to get the jetties fixed until we
have increased (commercial fishing) boat
traffic. We need to have the boat traffic here,
then we say, ‘you better fix it.’”
Duman, a commercial fisherman, related
the difficulty in getting ice for his boat, the
42-foot Kea Lyn, during tuna fishing season.
“We have to leave here and go to Newport
to get ice,” Duman said. “We have to call
three to five days ahead of time to schedule
an appointment because ice plants only
make so much ice in the period of 24 hours.
We will call up there and they say, ‘OK, you
can be here at 9 a.m., Friday morning.’ If
you are a half-hour late, your appointment
goes to the next person.”
Duman acknowledged that there were
only a few Florence-based commercial fish-
ing boats that would buy ice.
“You can’t support it there. But look at
Coos Bay, look at Newport and look at
Astoria. There are hundreds of boats that
would come in here to get ice if we had it
available,” he said.
Rickard was concerned about how often
the U.S. Coast Guard closed down the
Siuslaw River bar to boaters because of
tides and weather.
Commission president Ron Caputo said
the majority of the closures were for smaller
boats, not commercial fishing boats.
The summer ice-selling season would be
as short as four months, according to
Duman. Crabbing boats do not use ice.
Commissioner Mike Buckwald said, “I
think this is a good time to go back and at least
explore the options of an ice machine. If we
have it, maybe they will come. One of our pri-
mary purposes is economic development. It
would be nice to explore that again.”
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS ❘ 22 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2016
See
PORT 7A
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
County pursues rural prosperity initiative