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PHILLIP
MARGOLIN
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 ❘ $1.00
VIKINGS WIN AT HOME
SPORTS — B
Keynote Speaker
Florence
Festival of Books
Phillip Margolin
19 Novels,
All Bestsellers
“Oregon’s John Grisham”
at the Florence Events Center
Friday, September 23 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $8 in advance
or $10 at the door
www.FlorenceFestivalofBooks.org
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 75
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Clear Lake home
destroyed in fire
Ms. Nicani
returns to sea
after running
aground
Siuslaw Valley firefighters
respond to fourth area fire
in one week
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Florence-based tuna boat
re-floated after 2 days
aground on North Jetty Beach
PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Ms. Nicani, a 50-foot commercial fishing vessel based out of Florence and Newport, ran aground on Heceta Beach, near
the Siuslaw River North Jetty, early Saturday morning. Tow lines were laid out on the beach before the successful refloating
on Monday afternoon.
he sight of a large fishing
boat grounded on the beach
drew spectators to Heceta
Beach near the Siuslaw River
North Jetty over the weekend.
T
The 50-foot commercial fishing vessel
Ms. Nicani ran aground early Saturday
morning at Heceta Beach between the North
Jetty and Driftwood Shores Resort, while
returning to Florence after tuna fishing.
The vessel, owned by Florence resident
Terry Duman, ran aground just after 2 a.m.,
Sept. 17.
According to Duman, the vessel departed
Newport on Monday, Sept. 12, and fished
for tuna approximately 25 miles off shore
from Sept. 13 through Sept 16.
The two crewmembers, Capt. Nick Wells
and deckhand William Gates from Florence
were uninjured.
U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Bend
received the initial report about 2:15 a.m.
Coast Guard personnel from Station Siuslaw
River responded with a shore party to assess
to situation.
U.S. Coast Guard Sr. Chief Boatswains
Mate Tim Tregoning said, “The Coast Guard
assisted the crew in setting a stern anchor to
make sure the boat would not be pushed far-
ther up onto the beach.”
The Coast guard reported no visible signs
of pollution when they did an aerial recon-
naissance with an MH-65 Dolphin helicop-
ter from Coast Guard Air Station North
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
PHOTOS BY ROBYN BARRETT
Bend on Saturday.
Later Saturday, the vessel’s diesel fuel
and tuna were successfully offloaded at low
tide.
“On Sunday, they tried to back the vessel
out themselves,” Tregoning said. “We stood
by with boats off shore. They were not able
to back out so we called it a day,”
Duman contacted Northwest Marine
Services in Coos Bay who used an ocean
going tugboat to re-float the Ms. Nicani dur-
ing Monday afternoon’s 7.3 foot high tide.
After being re-floated, the Ms. Nicani was
towed to Winchester Bay where it is under-
going repairs.
Duman said he expects repairs to be com-
pleted and the boat back in service within a
week.
“The cause of the grounding is currently
under investigation,” Tregoning said. “Coast
Guard Station Siuslaw River does search
and rescue and law enforcement. We don’t
do commercial vessel inspections or investi-
gations. Experts from outside the area will
conduct the investigation.”
According to Duman, the Ms. Nicani fish-
es tuna out of Florence and Dungeness crab
out of Newport.
‘T h e b o o k w a s b et t e r ’
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
“The whole point of Florence
Festival of Books is to celebrate
the written word,” said event
organizer Judy Fleegle.
That especially means printed
books — hundreds of them — that
will be on display for purchase
and signing at the sixth annual
Festival of Books this Friday and
Saturday at Florence Events
Center, 715 Quince St.
Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kids Scoop . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . .
A2
B6
B5
A5
On Saturday, Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue
responded to last week’s fourth large-scale fire in
the area, this time on Clear Lake Road.
Fire Marshal Sean Barrett said the fire began
Sept. 17 in the garage at 83990 Clear Lake Road.
Owner Mike DeRego was home at the time and
reported it to dispatch at 4:42 p.m.
Siuslaw Valley brought 18 firefighters, four
engines, three water tenders and three support vehi-
cles to the blaze.
“It took us about one hour to control the fire and
4-1/2 hours to extinguish it completely,” Barrett
said.
The firefighters remained at the site until 10:11
p.m.
“The fire was detected in its later stages, not
allowing us to save it,” Barrett said. “The structure
and contents were a total loss, estimated at
$250,000.”
No injuries were reported and the property was
insured.
Barrett said the probable cause was electrical.
Three other fires took place earlier in the week
on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
At that time, Barrett said fire danger will con-
tinue until there is a larger change in the weather.
“Absolutely be on alert. The danger will not pass
until we have two weeks of rain to soak the ground
and raise the moisture level. Things are still really
dry,” he said.
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
THIS WEEK ’ S
Friday, Sept. 23, holds two
events. The first, an Author’s
Panel from 3 to 4:30 p.m., will
allow Northwest writers to talk
about “The Path: Idea to Book.”
This will include e-book author
Janet Wellington, who will pro-
vide information on self-publish-
ing online.
“The e-book author will con-
tribute a lot, because she’s
successful at what she’s
doing and other people may con-
sider doing their books digit-
Lovers of written word head to sixth
annual Florence Festival of Books
ally,” Fleegle said.
Friday’s second event is the
Keynote Presentation by author
Phillip Margolin at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available for the
presentation, $8 in advance or $10
at the door. All the other weekend
activities are free to attend.
The book festival committee
has been trying to get Margolin
for two years.
“Phillip is just a down-home,
nice guy,” Fleegle said. “I was
very impressed with him, and I’ve
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
61 52
61 51
61 54
68 53
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
A home at 83990 Clear Lake Road was com-
pletely destroyed by fire on Saturday.
Community members should be alert for fire
danger until the weather changes.
read his books, so I suggested
him. It took a couple years of
planning to make sure we got him.
Now, it’s going to be hard to top
that for next year.”
Florence Festival of Books’
main day is Saturday, Sept. 24,
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Seventy
authors and 10 publishers from
Oregon,
Montana,
Idaho,
California and Washington will
have tables full of their books.
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