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WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ NOVEMBER 23, 2016 ❘ $1.00
Thanksgiving
Greetings
WINTER
MIGRATION
SPORTS — B
SPECIAL FEATURE — C
126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 93
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Chamber, area businesses
join national movement to
#shopsmall this holiday
F
irst there was Black Friday, a huge shop-
ping day the day after Thanksgiving, then
there was Cyber Monday, when online
retailers offer specials
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
on electronics and
Siuslaw News
online purchases, and
now there is Small
Business Saturday, coming this weekend to
Florence area businesses.
Although initially started by American Express,
businesses supporting Small Business Saturday do
not have to accept the credit card service to use
“Small Business Saturday,” #shoplocal or #shops-
mall — searchable tags for online and social
media postings — to support their business this
weekend.
“Every business in our town is a small busi-
ness,” said Florence Area Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Bettina Hannigan. “Bi-Mart
and Fred Meyer are small businesses in our com-
munity. They’re big to us, but they’re still local.
Their dollars stay here.”
Many businesses and restaurants in Old Town,
Florence Antiques District and up the Highway
101 corridor have official Small Business
Saturday banners, posters and other merchandise
on display.
“Everywhere I go, I see signs in the doors. It’s
all over the Internet and Facebook, and we’ve
promoted it from here at the chamber,” Hannigan
said. “We’re trying to push that, especially with
holiday shopping, people should not just be in
Old Town, but be around town.”
Local small business owner Jo Beaudreau,
from BeauArts Fine Art Materials, is also work-
ing to support Florence’s businesses.
“Give a boost to your local economy and help
out your friends, family and neighbors that have
small businesses,” she said.
Beaudreau advised checking local stores for
sought-after items, and shopping for homemade
crafts, handmade items and custom art.
“Last year I got everything from a local or
small business as gifts for the holidays,” she said.
“It wasn’t hard and it was fun to do.”
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Florence Food Share volunteers prepare supplies for 100 to 200
boxes of complete Thanksgiving dinners for area families.
Talking turkey
Florence Food Share hands out nearly 200
community-sponsored Thanksgiving meals
N
early 100 individuals were in line outside
Florence Food Share early Tuesday morning, in
chilly weather, in the hopes of receiving one of a
limited number of boxes containing a complete
turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.
Food Share Executive Director Norma Barton said the
clients her organization serves often face challenges during
the holiday season.
“We serve an average of 1800 individuals a month, and we
are distributing these turkey
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
boxes so they don’t have to
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choose between paying an elec-
tric bill and eating,” she said.
Barton also wanted to emphasize that this effort is made
possible entirely by individuals who took it upon themselves
to make a positive difference for someone else this
Thanksgiving. Most importantly, she wanted to thank the
community for making the distribution possible.
“We, Food Share, are not giving the turkey boxes away.
The community purchased turkey box vouchers at Safeway,
so it is the community members that are giving these boxes
of food to their neighbors, and that is just fantastic,” Barton
said.
She also pointed out that Food Share is primarily staffed
by volunteers and during the holidays their staffing needs
increase.
“We always need volunteers,” she said. “We need regular
volunteers, evening and weekend volunteers, people to help
stock the shelves, greet clients and walk with them through
the shelves and to work in the garden and the warehouse.”
Food Share hopes to distribute close to 200 Thanksgiving
boxes this year and, judging by the line outside Food Share
on Tuesday, they will have no problem meeting that goal.
For more information, to donate or to volunteer, call
541-997-9110.
See
Verizon to build
new cell tower
Lane County approves
140-foot tower north of town
Peace Harbor clinic offers free HIV testing
HIV Alliance and PeaceHealth join to check Florence-area HIV outbreak
n response to a recent significant increase
in HIV positive test results in Florence, the
HIV Alliance and PeaceHealth Peace
Harbor Medical Center have initiated free HIV
and hepatitis C testing at the walk in clinic at
310 Ninth St., every Friday from noon to 6
p.m.
“We are ramping up our prevention services
in the region and encouraging people to get
INSIDE
I
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . B10
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Police . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
B Y J ACK D AVIS
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tested. Everyone in Florence should know their
status and with our rapid tests we can have
your result ready in just 20 minutes,” said HIV
Alliance Executive Director, Renee Yandel.
In addition to testing, counseling and refer-
ral services are also being offered.
Scoreboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . B3
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Thanksgiving Greetings . . . . . C
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
BUSINESS 7A
THIS WEEK ’ S
Florence has seen an alarming increase in
the numbers of HIV positive test results over
the last two years.
According to the HIV Alliance in the last
few months, Florence has seen 6 new HIV
infections, a 300 percent increase from 2015,
and 600 percent from 2014.
See
TESTING 7A
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
51 47
52 47
50 46
51 47
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
In October, Verizon Wireless received approval
from Lane County to build a 140-foot tall telecom-
munications tower
B Y J ACK D AVIS
near
Spindrift
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Way, two miles
north of Florence.
According to the approval notification, dated
Oct.14, the anticipated benefits from the proposed
tower are improved 911 emergency calls, support
for emergency services, a backup system to land-
line telephone service in the event of power outage
and improved mobile service coverage.
Rebecca Fain owns the site, located between
Mercer and Sutton lakes.
A building permit, including a site plan, must
still be submitted to the county for approval.
According to the approval document, the tower
will be designed to accommodate at least three
transmission users.
In addition, the tower is required to be painted a
non-reflective color to match the surrounding sky
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C OPYRIGHT 2016
See
TOWER 7A
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
Shop for gifts
‘around town’
this Saturday