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WEDNESDAY EDITION
Winter Music
Festival
VIKS LEAD
BATTLE
SPORTS — B
127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 5
❘ JANUARY 18, 2017 ❘ $1.00
INSIDE — A8
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
2016 F LORENCE A REA C HAMBER
OF
FLORENCE, OREGON
C OMMERCE S IUSLAW A WARDS
Nominees announced for First Citizen, Future First Citizen Awards
F UTURE F IRST C ITIZEN
F IRST C ITIZEN
NOMINEES
NOMINEES
COURTESY PHOTOS
Future First Citizen nominees are (from left): Benjamin Cahoon, Celie Mans, Elyssa Rose,
Destinie Tatum and Claire Waggoner
ReVision
Florence
moves
forward
FURA finalizing
$6 million project
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Florence Urban Renewal Agency
(FURA) is moving forward with its
ReVision Florence initiative, a $6 million
multi-year beautification project for the
Old Town district.
ReVision Florence is a streetscape
improvement and repaving project that
runs along Highway 101 from the
Siuslaw River Bridge, north to the inter-
section of highways 101 and 126 and east
along Highway 126 to Spruce Street.
Oregon Department of Transportation
(ODOT) is responsible for repaving
Highway 101.
FURA Chairman Joshua Greene said
the basic goal of ReVision Florence is to
turn Highway 101 into a bike and pedes-
trian friendly boulevard.
“We want cars to slow down and peo-
ple to say, ‘Hey, look at this wonderful
little town.’ We also want to re-angle
some of the streets that have been cut by
Highway 101 to make them safer,”
Greene said.
The project is scheduled to be finished
in 2018.
FURA was created when voters
approved the Florence Downtown
Preservation and Renewal Plan in 2007.
According to the City of Florence,
FURA uses property taxes to finance
projects within the district, which
extends from the Siuslaw Bridge north
along Highway 101 to 12th Street, east to
Highway 126 and Vine Street and west to
Kingwood.
City Project Manager Megan Messmer
said, “We turned our design acceptance
package (DAP) in to ODOT on Nov. 30.
DAP requires that 30 percent of the proj-
ect be designed and submitted to ODOT
before the next phase.”
INSIDE
See
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kidscoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . .
Hi g h T e c h
in o l d t o w n
New Florence Tech Solutions ‘Cyber Lounge’ offers wide variety of tech support services
ccording to Florence Area
Chamber of Commerce,
tourism-related businesses
in town have seen a welcome
increase in
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
customers
Siuslaw News
at
their
s h o p s ,
restaurants and hotels in the last six
months. There has also been a
noticeable increase in new business-
es opening their doors during that
time.
One of these new enterprises is
Florence Tech Solutions (FTS).
Located in Historic Old Town
Florence, FTS is offering a unique
menu of technology related services.
Owner Jolene Mederios believes
these services will appeal to resi-
dents of Florence and its many visi-
tors. Mederios has recently opened
what might best be referred to as a
cyber lounge.
She said she hopes that the merg-
ing of an inviting place to hang out,
a tech-savvy service menu and
workstations for both PC and Mac
will fill what she perceived as a gap
A
Siuslaw News
FURA 11A
B6
A3
B5
A5
COURTESY PHOTOS
Florence First Citizen nominees are (from left): Ron Caputo, Bou Kilgore,
Sam Spayd and Gary Vawter
in the tech support options available
to the community.
Mederios received her initial tech
training while serving in the Air
Force from 2008 to 2016. During
that time, she attained two associate
degrees and a bachelor’s degree in
computer science.
After leaving the service,
Mederios was visiting her parents
who had recently retired here. The
area’s beauty and the friendly people
of Florence captivated her.
“I fell in love with Florence and I
moved here in April of last year,”
Mederios said.
She was looking for work in her
field at the time, but was looking in
larger populations centers.
“I was looking for IT support jobs
in Portland and Eugene, but I really
loved Florence and I wanted to be
close to my family,” Mederios said.
“So my mom had the idea of open-
ing a business here and that was the
spark that got us going.
“My mom always tells everybody
what I do for a living, which is IT
support, and I was getting a lot of
MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Jolene Mederios of Florence Tech Solutions will host classes and
trouble-shooting workshops at her Old Town Florence location.
questions. So I started helping peo-
ple and I was getting pretty busy.
And the feedback from my clients
was very positive. That was when I
decided to start a business and it just
took off from there.”
FTS provides repair service and
instruction at its Old Town location.
FTS will also come to people to
install, troubleshoot and instruct.
Mederios started out by doing
mostly onsite mobile service and
support calls and found the need for
her services grew quite quickly.
See
TECH 8A
‘When we march together we show that we stand together’
Women’s Solidarity March Saturday to meet at Class Act Theatre
n Jan. 21, a Women’s
Solidarity March will be
held in Florence in support
of the Women’s March in Wash-
ington.
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Partici-
Siuslaw News
pants will
gather
at
10:30 a.m. at Class Act Theatre,
509 Kingwood St., in preparation
for the march along Highway 101.
Nin Bebeau, the local organizer
O
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
THIS WEEK ’ S
for the march, says that the event is
an important opportunity for
women to stand together to make
their voices heard.
“Women often think, ‘What can
I do to make a difference?’”
Bebeau said. “When we march
together we show that we stand
together, and we show that we
stand up for what we believe in,
which is the education and empow-
erment of women.”
Bebeau is quick to point out that
this is not an anti-Trump march,
“He is there to give us a wake up
call, but this is not about Trump.
This is about women. This is the
time for us to make our voices
heard and for us to be responsible
for our own ideas and goals,”
Bebeau said, “And what we think is
best for the country. We are not
against Donald Trump, we are for
women’s empowerment.”
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
The march will begin at 11 a.m.
and there will be a rally and social
justice discussion at noon, follow-
ing the march, at Class Act Theatre.
Featured speakers at the rally
will be Interim Director of Siuslaw
Outreach Services Bob Teeter and
activist April Dumas.
All ages and genders are invited
to participate in the event.
Planners estimate the event will
end around 2 p.m.
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS ❘ 20 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2017
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
The upcoming Florence Area Chamber of Commerce Siuslaw Awards on Wednesday, Feb. 8, will be a night to celebrate
members of the Florence community. In addition to the Business Awards, the chamber will also recognize the Future First
Citizen and First Citizen Award recipients. For the 2016 year, there are five nominees for the Future First Citizen —
Benjamin Cahoon, Celie Mans, Elyssa Rose, Destinie Tatum and Claire Waggoner — and four nominees for the First
Citizen Award — Ron Caputo, Bou Kilgore, Sam Spayd and Gary Vawter. For nominee bios, see SIUSLAW AWARDS 11A.