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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2016)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS WEDNESDAY EDITION Car show revs up in 9th year SPORTS OFF TO A RUNNING START SPORTS — C 126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 74 ❘ SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 ❘ $1.00 INSIDE — B SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON Sports editor expands focus to the front page S iuslaw News is entering a new era as Editor Ryan Cronk moves away and Sports Editor Ned Hickson takes the editorial helm. If you have enjoyed Siuslaw News’ CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Siuslaw News Editor Ned Hickson, left, sits at his new desk as former editor Ryan Cronk heads off to his new position. ELECTIONS redesign over the past couple years, chances are you have seen Cronk’s work as editor. Although quiet outside the office, Cronk has been a positive influence for the Siuslaw News editorial staff. Since joining the newspaper in 2008, he has been a reporter covering news in Florence, Dunes City and Mapleton, a fea- tures editor — creating many of the Siuslaw News’ special publications — and editor, designing the front cover, formatting the Opinion page and approving and providing other editorial content. Cronk’s page one designs won third place at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association B Y C HANTELLE M EYER 2016 Better Siuslaw News Newspaper Contest in July. Now, after being editor since January 2015, Cronk has been promoted to the position of group editor for multiple newspapers in California, including Paso Robles Press and Atascadero News, all owned by News Media Corporation, the parent company of Siuslaw News. See EDITOR 6A Dunes City considers safe drinking water options 2016 R ODS ‘ N ’ R HODIES Florence, Dunes City positions run unopposed Councilors discuss next steps in providing water No challengers face mayors and councilors B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News Florence and Dunes City voters will not have many choices on the Nov. 8 General Election ballot for city council and mayoral candidates. Of the seven openings on the Florence and Dunes City councils, five are running unop- posed and two have no one running. Both Florence Mayor Joe Henry and Dunes City Mayor Rebecca Ruede are running for reelection unopposed. Two Florence City Council mem- bers, Joshua Greene and Ron Preisler, are running unopposed for another four-year term. Of the three open Dunes City four- year council positions, only Tom Mallen is running unopposed for reelection for a second term. Ed Scarberry and Maurice Sanders are not running for another term and no one has filed for either vacancy. Ruede said, “If, after the election, there are two vacancies, the newly seated council would appoint interest- ed citizens that would serve until the next election.” Interested candidates can still run a write-in campaign. PHOTOS BY CHANTELLE MEYER/ SIUSLAW NEWS atriot Day and the ninth annual Rods ’n’ Rhodies brought hundreds of visitors to Old Town Florence this week- end. View more photos on Page 1B. P Siuslaw Valley responds to Florence-area fires B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News Firefighters battle two Tuesday blazes INSIDE Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue crews responded to a structure fire off Spruce Street at 17th Street around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after responding earlier in the day to a brush fire off Highway 101. Neighbors took photos as a tower of black smoke stretched into the sky from a house at 2160 17th St. “It’s been a busy day and our crews are tired,” Fire Marshal Sean Barrett said from the scene around 3 p.m. Crews worked for several more hours to extinguish the fire. Four fire engines and 20 vol- unteers responded to the fire. Reedsport also provided mutual aid with two engines and six Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Coast Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A2 more volunteers. Earlier on Tuesday, Siuslaw Valley responded to a brush fire north of town off Highway 101. “It must have been around 10:30 a.m.,” Barrett said. “Oregon Department of Forestry is still working on it.” As of press time at 5 p.m., Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4 Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A3 PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS both fires were still under investigation. “The weather is not helping right now. It’s windy and dry, with very little humidity. The weather is making the fires bigger,” Barrett said. THIS WEEK ’ S See TODAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 63 46 66 49 69 50 67 51 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 During the Sept. 8 Dunes City meet- ing, city councilors weighed the pros and cons of creating a Local Improvement District (LID) to B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News provide water to almost a third of its residents currently served by South Coast Water District (SCWD), a sub- sidiary of Oregon Water Services. The 80 residential homes currently served by Oregon Water Services had interrupted water service for several days in July because of low water lev- els in Siltcoos Lake and a fractured water line. This prompted Dunes City Administrator Jamie Mills to set up a meeting with representatives from Gov. Kate Brown’s Regional Solutions team on Aug. 18 to discuss ways to prevent the problem from recurring. “The recommendation out of the meeting is that the city should consider creating a LID that would purchase the water systems from Oregon Water Services but still continue to contract with them,” Mills said. She explained that the city could apply for state grant money to upgrade the outdated system. “There is no money available to pri- vate commercial entities, only to gov- ernmental entities,” she said. According to Mills, the Regional Solutions team suggested creating a LID because it would receive revenues only from residents using the water service, as opposed to a citywide tax. “The team is waiting on the decision of the council to see if they are interest- ed in creating a LID for purposes of acquiring the Oregon Water Services water system. We would then apply for grant money and other necessary fund- ing to make improvements and look at future expansion to include everybody who takes water out of Siltcoos Lake,” Mills said. Part of the water shortage issue is the shallow depth of Siltcoos Lake and the amount of algae that grows during the warm summer months. The algae and silt clogs the filtration system that must be backwashed to clear the filters. This reduces the amount of water being fed into the storage tank, sometimes not keeping up with summer water usage demands. A solution would be to pipe water out of nearby Woahink Lake, which is deeper than Siltcoos Lake and less sub- ject to summer algae blooms. S IUSLAW N EWS 3 S ECTIONS ❘ 26 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2016 WATER 6A CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Hickson becomes Siuslaw News editor
