❘
/ SIUSLAWNEWS
❘
@ SIUSLAWNEWS
WEDNESDAY EDITION
RUNNERS SET
THE PACE
Poetry for Arts &
Humanities Month
COAST LIFE — B
SPORTS — C
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 81
❘ OCTOBER 12, 2016 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
C ELEBRATING 20
YEARS OF THE
FLORENCE, OREGON
F LORENCE E VENTS C ENTER
PHOTO BY FIRST LAST/SIUSLAW NEWS
Florence Events Center wraps up its months-long celebration of its 20th anniversary with the Dancing with Sea Lions Auction and a special ceremony to burn its mortgage.
Fanning the flames of the FEC
Florence Events Center burns its 20-year mortgage at conclusion of Dancing with Sea Lions
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
ancing with Sea Lions
came to a close on Sat-
urday, Oct. 8, as the
Florence Events Center auctioned
off the last of the 7-1/2-foot artist-
created sea lions and burned its
mortgage, all as part of its 20th
anniversary celebration. Two
Florence mayors and other digni-
taries spoke during the event.
D
“We’re celebrating 20 years because
we survived 20 years. We’re very
proud of that,” said Florence Events
Center (FEC) Director Kevin Rhodes.
“It’s a pleasure to be an employee of
the City of Florence and to work for
such a wonderful facility.”
The night gave Mayor Joe Henry the
honor of lighting the mortgage on fire.
“Tonight we would like to celebrate
paying off the debt with a ceremonial
burning of the mortgage. Fire away!”
Henry said. “This signifies 20 years of
debt payments that have finally come
to an end.”
A partnership with the Lane County
Board of Commissioners made it pos-
sible to fund the FEC with transient
room taxes in the early 1990s.
City Manager Erin Reynolds said,
“We’re very thankful for the partner-
ship with Lane County for making that
possible all these years.”
Henry said, “I can’t tell you how
proud I am of FEC. Not only Kevin
Rhodes and the staff for 20 years, but
also Jennifer Connor and the Dancing
with Sea Lions project. We’re here cel-
ebrating both of these events.”
Former Florence mayor Roger
McCorkle came forward to speak
about the history of the FEC.
“This facility really got started back
in the 1980s when the community was
starting to talk about needing a com-
munity center,” he said. “We finally
came back with an idea.”
A steering committee of seven mem-
bers — Wilbur Ternyik, Ray Mans,
Dick Gale, Richard Holcombe, Phyllis
Maxwell, William Porter and Glenn
Butler — with the help of Craig
Divers remove debris from Woahink
McMicken and Rob Ward as city man-
ager and mayor, formed to begin
exploring options more firmly in 1989.
According to McCorkle, they decid-
ed to include a 450-seat theater
because it seemed to be the perfect
size.
“I think 20 years has proved very
successfully that that was the right
number. And Kevin has been here all
the years making sure it worked
besides,” McCorkle said.
See
FEC 7A
Florence City
Council approves
2 land deals
Pacific View Business Park still
potential manufacturing site
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Divers with Eugene Dive Club clear Woahink Lake of a year’s worth of debris.
Eugene club’s annual dive yields interesting finds
M
INSIDE
embers of the Eugene Dive Club
recovered and removed more
than 3,100 pounds of debris from
the bottom of Lake Woahink on Saturday.
The effort is in support of Project Aware,
a joint effort of the U.S. Forest Service and
diving organizations across the state.
According to Michael Hollingshead,
owner of Eugene Skin Divers Supply, more
than 30 volunteer divers assisted in the day-
long event.
“We had a group of more experienced
divers come out in the morning to prepare
the area,” he said. “Other less experienced
divers came out later in the day to help float
and remove the debris.”
Troy Knabe, a certified dive instructor,
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C6
Coast Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
said the group has adopted Lake Woahink
as the beneficiary of his group’s clean up
efforts.
“It’s kind of like the adopt-a-highway
program, but for lakes and rivers. We all
love the area and wanted to give back to the
community,” he said.
The group also uses the clean up as a
teaching and certification exercise and
requires student divers to locate and map
the debris prior to the actual dive.
Knabe said, “We come out before the
clean up and map the area, with compass
coordinates and depth estimates, as part of
Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Scoreboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
THIS WEEK ’ S
our certification training for dive students.”
Student divers then submerge and attach
uninflated floats of different levels of buoy-
ancy to the debris and fill them with air
from their dive tanks.
“We fill the bags with air and, with some
help from the divers, the debris rises to the
See
DIVE 7A
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
63 56
61 56
60 56
60 55
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
On Oct. 10, Florence Mayor Joe Henry and City
Manager Erin Reynolds discussed how two real estate
transactions approved during the Oct. 3 city council
meeting would benefit the city.
According to Henry, the city held an economic sum-
mit in March 2015 to
B Y J ACK D AVIS
develop and expand eco-
Siuslaw News
nomic growth in
Florence. The summit
identified three essential areas critical to economic
development and growth; good paying jobs, skilled
workers and housing.
“Unfortunately, two years ago, we were very short
on any of those things,” Henry said. “It is a long
process. Many cities have one or two of them in place
and it is tough then. But it is really tough to work on
all three at the same time.”
The city began working with other job-focused ini-
tiatives like the Regional Accelerator and Innovation
Network (RAIN), South Coast Development Council,
Lane County Economic Development Department and
Business Oregon.
The city also revamped its own website and added a
link to a new state-of-the-art economic development
website, florencebusiness.org.
While the city continues to pursue businesses from
outside the area, one of its first potential successes is
closer to town.
“We have a gentleman that has a business north of
Florence. He has built it from working in his garage.
He makes hydraulic parts for expensive cars. He wants
to expand his business. We have entered into a letter
of discussion of intent to purchase one of the lots in
our Pacific View Business Park,” Henry said.
See
S IUSLAW N EWS
3 S ECTIONS ❘ 24 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2016
LAND 7A
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM