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WEDNESDAY EDITION
SETTING PACE
FOR DISTRICT
❘ APRIL 26, 2017 ❘ $1.00
May 16 Special Election
Voter’s Guide
INSIDE
SPORTS — B
127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 33
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
NW naturalist
feels good about
environment
L EWIS & C LARK
E XPEDITION
RETURNS
New field guide suggests
people can help climate change
by simply going for a walk
F
JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Dressed as U.S. President Thomas
Jefferson, one of Gina Halpin’s fourth-
grade students explains the Lewis and
Clark Expedition to second-graders.
WLCF Grant helps Siuslaw
class expand on Lewis & Clark
project of 2 years ago
ina Halpin's Siuslaw elementary fourth-
grade class again took on the four-month in-
depth project of studying Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark’s famous expedition.
Halpin first launched
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the study program two
Siuslaw News
years ago.
This year, with the
help of a grant from Western Lane Community
Foundation, the class was able to gain further
insight into the scientific, topographical and nav-
igational challenges facing the expedition over
the more than two-year overland journey to the
Pacific Ocean.
“The kids were able to take their compasses
and protractors and get some type of reference
point as to how angles worked, how directions
work and how Lewis made the more than 140
maps to take back to U.S. President Thomas
Jefferson,” Halpin said. “This year’s extension
focused on the global aspect of the journey,
including the compass rose and all the mathe-
matical tools that we use today that Lewis had
when he traveled west.”
In addition to compasses, protractors, rulers
and yardsticks, the grant paid for world globes so
students could visualize the magnitude of the
journey.
Halpin said, “I think it is more powerful for
the students to be able to hold the globe, look at
the longitude and latitude and all the topography
they had to go over, especially the Rocky
Mountains.”
To further emphasize the challenge of crossing
the Rocky Mountains, Halpin showed the class
YouTube videos of mountain climbers scaling
the Rockies.
Each student was tasked with creating a tri-
fold display featuring one aspect or person
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STUDY 7A
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
R HODODENDRON
ROYALTY
Early Rhody Show selects this year’s winners
his weekend’s Early Rhody
Show filled Florence Events
Center with the fresh spring-
time aroma of rhododendrons and
azaleas. (Above) Chris Trautmann
received the coveted title of Best in
Show for the cutting of his rhody,
Red Rubicon. (Right) Mike Bones,
spokesperson for the Siuslaw
Chapter
of
the
American
Rhododendron Society, received
the Grand Sweepstakes Award for
his submission. Community and
Rhododendron Society members
exhibited 450 entries during the
competition and flower sale.
T
lorence is situated in the middle of one of the
most verdant and diverse ecosystems in the
world. The variety of flora, fauna and water
species in this corner of
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the U.S. is extensive
Siuslaw News
and, in many cases,
unique.
Naturalist Robert Steelquist, based in
Washington State, has recently published a new
field guide for this area entitled “The Northwest
Coastal Explorer.” Steelquist hopes his offering
will provide not only up-to-date scientific and
photographic information on the area, but will
also inspire people to go out and explore the nat-
ural abundance that surrounds the community.
Steelquist spoke in support of the book last
week to a group of 50 people at Siuslaw Public
Library. He shared with attendees many of the
observations in his book, which are derived
from more than 20 years of work in the field.
“I really tried to choose common organisms,
plants, animals and places that are familiar to us
and to tell engaging stories about those,” he
said.
During his years of study, Steelquist has seen
significant degradation in habitat and water
quality. He said he feels that the scale of the
problems we face in this area can be somewhat
daunting.
“I’ve given this a lot of thought over the last
30 years as some of the threats that we face in
the environment have become more complex
and more serious. As the news has not been
good in some areas, I think its really a danger
we run into when we gather a roomful of people
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NATURALIST 7A
Coast Radio’s Thompson named Broadcaster of the Year
Florence station’s unique market allows for focus on local issues, news and events
on Thompson, general manager of local radio
stations Coast Radio — KCST and KCFM,
has been named the Oregon Association of
Broadcasters (OAB) “Broadcaster of the Year.”
OAB gives the
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award
each year to an
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individual who has not
only been a good exec-
utive and manager, but who has also contributed
in a larger way to the listening area that he or she
serves.
OAB President Keith Shipman said
Thompson had been nominated before, but this
year the vote was overwhelmingly in his favor.
“I think that’s largely due to the fact that his
peers recognized the great work he’s done in
Florence for the past 30 years,” Shipman said.
“He’s been a great broadcaster who runs great
radio stations, but he’s also been intimately
J
involved in the community.”
Thompson is an unpretentious man and redi-
rected the positive attention he is currently
receiving to his staff.
“I had no idea we had been nominated for the
award,” he said. “I say ‘we’ because this award
is a reflection of what this station and its out-
standing staff have done over the past three
decades. We’ve taken great pride in being a true
community radio station, and I think one of the
See
BROADCASTER 7A
Broadcaster of the Year Jon Thompson
says the community focus of his stations,
Coast Radio — KCST and KCFM, is one
of the primary reasons he received the
prestigious designation from the Oregon
Association of Broadcasters.
MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Woman reports teen son’s near-death alcohol incident at Miller Park
Florence Police Department, local initiatives look to reduce teen alcohol abuse at popular city park
W
INSIDE
hat started out as a fun, fami-
ly day at Miller Park ended in
near-death at the Peace Harbor
Medical Center’s Intensive Care
Unit for a local 14-year-old student.
According to the report, the teen
had a potentially fatal blood alcohol
level of .354 — more than four
times the Oregon legal limit of .08
for adults.
Blood alcohol limits of between
.32 and .4 are considered potentially
lethal for a 140-pound individual.
Brenna Castle chose to share her
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son’s story in hopes of helping
others avoid a similar fate.
“My son was at Miller Park
when he received a text message
from another underage student.
They met up in another park the kids
call ‘Magical Logs,’ at the end of
18th Street. The other minor
brought two fifths of Black Velvet,”
she said.
According to Castle, her son
admitted consuming one fifth of
whisky over a short period of time
and fortunately avoided peer pres-
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Siuslaw News
sure to consume more. He then
returned to Miller Park, where he
passed out.
A passerby saw him unresponsive
in the bushes and contacted Castle,
who was attending a sporting event
in a different part of the park.
“He was totally unresponsive,”
Castle said. “He was foaming at the
mouth. We took him to the emer-
THIS WEEK ’ S
gency department. It was a horri-
ble scene for a parent to see their
child in that state. If he had not
been found, he would have aspi-
rated on his own vomit.”
Florence police are aware of the
alcohol and drug concerns surround-
ing Miller Park, even though this
time the acquisition and consump-
tion of alcohol did not occur at the
park.
Florence Police Chief Tom Turner
said, “For many years we have had
complaints on Miller Park. One of
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the difficulties is that Miller Park has
multiple entrances and exits which
makes it very difficult to police.
“Another regular pattern is people
just don’t call, or they call once they
get home, an hour after the event.
Our time delay is already there, even
if you call when it is happening. An
officer has to be dispatched and get
to the location. That is anywhere
from three to five minutes, on a good
day,” Turner added.
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C OPYRIGHT 2017
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MILLER PARK 7A