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