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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 2017)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS SATURDAY EDITION STEADY SWING SCHOOL ZONE 127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 16 COAST CENTRAL SCHOOL NEWS —INSIDE SPORTS — B ❘ FEBRUARY 25, 2017 ❘ $1.00 A&E — INSIDE SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON POLICE Bank threat turns out to be plea for help On Friday, a man entered the Oregon Pacific Bank (OPB) branch at 1335 Highway 101 at 10:19 a.m. and said he was going B Y J ACK D AVIS to rob the bank. Siuslaw News Florence Police Comm- ander John Pitcher said, “We have been dealing with this individual for the last few days. He is having some mental health issues. Today, he went into OPB and made a com- ment about robbing them. This obviously caused some concern inside the bank. He then stepped outside and waited for the police to arrive.” According to Pitcher, the individual told police officers that he wanted to go to jail. “We are going to do a mental health evaluation and put a peace officer hold on him. It sounded a lot more serious than it ended up being,” Pitcher said. OPB CEO Ron Green said, “Outside of the teller being upset it was pretty much a non-inci- dent. Our staff and teller performed wonderfully. They followed all procedures to protect our staff and customers.” Learn about the history of civil rights today Group to hold 15th annual celebration of civil, human and equal rights today The 15th annual commemoration of 300 years of progressive legislation to bring civil, human and equal rights to all people in the USA will be celebrated today, from 1 B Y J ACK D AVIS to 3 pm in the Bromley Siuslaw News Room of the Siuslaw Public Library. In conjunction with Black History Month, the meeting will feature speeches and writings from civil, human and equal rights advocates through- out the years. Event spokesperson Jenny Velinty said, “We decided that the great speeches were the ones that pushed legislation. Legislation either advances human rights, civil rights and equal rights, or it regresses them. We went back over 300 years to try and find the first known people whose speeches on civil rights became leg- endary.” According to Velinty, a professionally pro- duced video featuring speeches from Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Gandhi and James Baldwin will be shown, followed by a discussion period. See RIGHTS 7A Siuslaw News Pu t ti n g F lo r en c e un d e r th e pu m p JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS Florence Public Works Department set up a pump this week to drain a 7.5-acre flooded area east of Spruce Street. Saturated ground water table creates 2.5 million gallon “lake” near Willow Loop C ontinuing heavy rains have left Florence with one more “lake,” according to City of Florence Public Works Director Mike Miller. Miller said the more than 30 inches of rain that have fallen so far this year have created a 7.5 acre “lake” on the east side of Willow Loop. “That area, which has always been a wet- lands between the east end of 16th, 17th and 18th streets and Three Rivers Casino Resort, has now become more of a seasonal lake,” Miller said. “The same thing happened back in 1996, during that very wet season.” See FLOODING 7A Volunteers power Blue Water Task Force Siuslaw Watershed Council and Surfriders monitor pollution and bacteria levels B Y M ARK B RENNAN Siuslaw News lorence is a city sur- rounded by water. Even a cursory glance at a map of the area shows that we are nearly encircled by the Siuslaw River and it’s tributaries. And of course there is the Pacific Ocean to the west and many fresh water lakes scat- tered on the outskirts of town. Residents and visitors fish, swim and even drink from these waters. Insuring that the various bod- ies of water in the area are fit for these activities is ultimately the responsibility of state agen- cies. However, they are assisted in this challenging task by a small group of dedicated volun- teers that go by the name of the Blue Water Task Force, as part of the Siuslaw Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program. The Florence Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and The Siuslaw Watershed Council coordinate the effort. Linda Serbus, a retired sci- ence teacher, has participated in the monitoring program for the last five years. “We work in conjunction with the Siuslaw Watershed Council so that we can capture a snap shot in time of what’s going on in the watershed,” Serbus said. “Once a month, on Tuesdays, we do the upstream waterways and on Wednesdays we do F downstream. We test for E- coli upriver and entero- coccus down- s t r e a m because the salt water will kill the E- coli.” The raw data from the watershed has been collected and collated by members of these groups since 1999, provid- ing important insight into the chemical and bacterio- PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS logical make Members of the Blue Water up of local Task Force collect water sam- waterways. ples from the Siltcoos Wetland Task force Outlet. The group gathers volunteers once a month to test water in take monthly the Siuslaw Watershed for con- samples from taminants. 15 locations in the Siuslaw Watershed to deter- those higher lev- mine and record pollution and els in the fall, bacterial contamination levels. after the first big rains, when Fortunately, the test results everything kind of flushes into for the past year or more have the system, but they usually been good. drop quickly,” she said. Serbus remains optimistic on The members of Blue Water the continued viability of the have been trained to extract sam- watershed. ples and test them properly. The “We rarely have samples that samples are taken from both fresh are considered a high level of and salt-water locations to deter- pollution. Sometimes we do get mine contamination levels that may vary due to the differences in the sample locations. “Most of the sites that we take samples from are coastal river locations. But we have volunteers that gather samples at the North and South Jetty. Those are ocean See TESTING 11A N IKE AWARDS S CHOOL I NNOVATIVE F UND GRANT TO M APLETON S CHOOL D ISTRICT Mapleton’s partnership with AVID Training Program provides academic support for students and teachers he Nike School Innovative Fund (NSIF) has announced the 2017 recipients of its grants to support the use of the Advancement via Individual Determination B Y M ARK B RENNAN (AVID) in Oregon Siuslaw News schools. And for the third year in a row, the Mapleton School District has been selected to receive one of these grants. Mapleton School District Superintendent Jodi O’Mara said the AVID program is important for INSIDE T Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B9 A3 A4 A2 a number of reasons. “The AVID program allows us to send our staff for training on how to best prepare a stu- dent, not just for college but for life. It also helps students to decide what they really want to do after they graduate from high school,” she said. “The program is focused on students developing skills that can be used to improve their ability to determine what courses they need in order to be successful in whatever path they choose after graduation.” Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A12 Spring Home . . . . . . . . . . . A8 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2 THIS WEEK ’ S NSIF has partnered with AVID because of the strong results the program has shown over the past three years. Nike is an Oregon based company and it is interested in improving high school graduation rates across the state. “We believe all kids deserve the chance to graduate ready for their future, and that’s why we’re investing in Oregon schools through the Nike Education Fund,” said Vanessa Wilkins, North America Community Impact Director at TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 50 37 44 37 45 37 49 39 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 Nike. “Oregon is working hard to help more stu- dents graduate from high school and we’re excit- ed to be a part of the solution.” The AVID program has gained wide accept- ance across the country, especially in smaller communities that are less likely to have a strong college preparatory focus. AVID provides educators with curriculum, training and a support team to advise and support S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS ❘ 24 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2017 See MAPLETON 7A CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK Florence police to give suspect mental health evaluation after scene at OPB B Y J ACK D AVIS
