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SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2017
District
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Haberman was one of eight
members of the LifeMed com-
mittee.
In the March 8 letter,
Langborg stated, “It was report-
ed that during the March 8
LifeMed meeting, you made
statements about SVFR not car-
ing enough about their volun-
teers to pay for the LifeMed
membership. You were also
reported to have stated that your
supervisor, Julie Brown, had
made a final decision that
WLAD board members would
not receive free LifeMed mem-
bership. Both statements are sig-
nificant because they shine a
very negative light on our organ-
izations and our employees and
are not founded on facts.”
Both Haberman and WLAD
Director Anne Stonelake, who
also is a LifeMed committee
member, said she did not make
the statements.
Stonelake said, “I am the only
one, except for Suzanne Curtis,
who was at the (March 8)
LifeMed meeting. Cindy did
nothing wrong. Cindy didn’t say
these things. I was there.”
In addition to the LifeMed
issue, Langborg said, “In
Transit
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In preparation for the July
launch, LTD has ordered a 25-
foot Ford E450 Eldorado
Aerotech with a 1,000-pound
Braun lift to comply with the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
The vehicle would also have one
or more bicycle racks.
Ahlen said LTD has contacted
four prospective operators,
Rhody Express, Lincoln County
Transit, Pacific Crest Bus Lines
and
Caravan
Airport
Transportation for bids for the
one-year contract.
“We are going to be holding a
short
competitive
bidding
process,” Ahlen said. “If the pilot
project proves viable, then we
would go out for a larger compet-
itive bid.”
The Yachats terminal will be at
the intersection of Third Street
and Highway 101, the southern
most service point for Lincoln
County Transit.
Ahlen said, “People can get
right off the connecting bus in
Yachats and hopefully get right
on connecting service for
Florence.”
At this time, the Grocery
Outlet parking lot on 20th Street
and Highway 101 is the proposed
Florence termination point.
“We’ve had really strong feed-
back for Grocery Outlet being the
turnaround point. It is the more
appealing option because it is
between the northern and south-
ern loops of Rhody Express serv-
ice. That gives people the most
options to connect,” Ahlen said.
During the meeting, several
participants suggested the route
might include stops at Peace
Harbor Medical Center off Ninth
Street and the Fresenius Kidney
Care
dialysis
center
on
Kingwood Street.
Yachats does not have a hospi-
tal or dialysis center. The closest
facilities are in Newport.
According to Ahlen, adding
January. Ms. Haberman was rep-
rimanded because she had writ-
ten about $3,700 worth of
checks. She was not authorized
to do that. She raised the credit
limit by $6,000. In all honesty,
she had written them because
there was a situation at the time
where we had some personnel
that were at training and they did
need to have their lodging paid
for. We were never notified.”
Langborg also said that
Haberman was struggling with
software skills.
“We went to great lengths to
provide training to her (and) to
provide council to her,”
Langborg said.
Haberman’s supervisor Brown
and WLAD Operations Manager
Matt House both spoke to diffi-
culties in working with
Haberman.
Regarding the check writing
issue, Haberman said, “Actually,
I was authorized to do those
transactions. They came out of
the debit Visa account. I was still
authorized to transact and do
those transactions. Those checks
were used to secure the reserva-
tion only. I did not write them. I
provided those check numbers to
secure the reservations only.”
Langborg replied, “The issue
with that was not so much that
you did it, but that you didn’t let
anyone know.”
Haberman then read a state-
ment regarding the March 8
LifeMed committee meeting.
“Chief Langborg stated that I
had verbatim made the comment,
‘He did not care enough about
SVFR volunteers for the district
to have paid for their 2016/17
LifeMed membership program.’
At this point, I was suspended
from work. Up until now, I have
no documentation from Chief
Langborg or his staff as to the
truth or merits.”
She told the board about a
meeting with Chief Langborg,
SVFR Operations Manager Jim
Dickerson and herself on March
13.
“I was taken into the new
computer room and questioned
about the statements that I
allegedly talked about at the
LifeMed
meeting.
Chief
Langborg was clearly very mad,
red faced, accusing me of state-
ments that I never made,”
Haberman said.
“I had no representation from
my employer, WLAD, in this
verbally abusive reprimand,” she
added.
Langborg said the intent of the
meeting was to get her side of the
story.
Additional grievances and
counter-grievances were made
by both sides during the hour
and-a-half session, including
charges that Haberman sent
more than 200 personal emails
during work hours from June to
March.
Haberman closed by saying,
“Thank you all for hearing my
appeal. I hope the candidates (for
board directors) will investigate
and demand information about
the circumstances that have led
me here today.”
Several people gave state-
ments in support of Haberman,
including one from Stonelake.
Before voting, Stonelake said,
“If I was at the helm, I would
hire her back, but I think it would
be foolish for her to come back
here.”
Commissioners then voted
unanimously to uphold the ter-
mination.
Prior to the termination appeal
discussion, the board gave a
plaque of recognition to retiring
commissioner Bob Sneddon for
his more than 20 years of service
as WLAD commissioner.
Rick Yecny was then sworn in
to fill the vacant position until a
fulltime commissioner is voted
into office in the May 16 Special
Election.
the hospital to the stops would
add about a half hour to the
Florence end of the trip. He is
more in favor of persons wanting
to go to the hospital or dialysis
center get off at Grocery Outlet
and take the Rhody Express.
“We would have to make sure
there is not too long a wait to
catch the Rhody Express. If you
had to wait an hour, that would be
a rough wait,” he added.
The option of having the serv-
ice stop at popular tourist desti-
nations along the route — such as
Cape Perpetua Interpretive
Center, the Hobbit Trail and Sea
Lion Caves — was also dis-
cussed.
“Some things we are only
going to learn by actually rolling
out the pilot project itself,” Ahlen
said.
LTD has not yet determined
the fare for the one-way or
roundtrip service.
The next meeting is scheduled
for May 16 in Yachats.
For more information, contact
Ahlen at john.ahlen@ ltd.org.
History
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shapes and materials into its
construction. It was also paint-
ed a dark blue, almost black
color, which led to it’s nick-
name, the “Blackbird.” This
was done so the aircraft could
avoid detection while on
reconnaissance missions.
Murphy is an engaging and
dignified speaker. The retired
colonel’s
insights
and
experiences during the Cold
War are informative especially
now with the increase in bel-
ligerent rhetoric between the
leaders of North Korea and the
U.S.
The SR-71 was one of the
fastest planes on the planet.
This allowed pilots to fly over
enemy territory so rapidly that
missiles and gunfire were inef-
fective in deterring observa-
tion. The flip side of this
incredible speed was the need
for a very precise mix of jet
fuel, oxygen and air speed.
Once, on a classified spy
mission, Murphy was faced
with the prospect of crashing
into enemy territory.
His mission was to fly north
along the coast of Korea. He
was traveling at three times the
speed of sound, Mach 3, and
suddenly lost the power in one
of his engines.
In an attempt to restart the
engine, Myrphy initiated a
series of aerial maneuvers that
he hoped would restart the
engine. It didn’t work and he
found himself in a situation
that few have survived.
“Now I have no engine on
the right side and the airplane
is not responding. I have North
Korea over there and you’re
not supposed to go over North
Korea,” Murphy said. “So I
slammed in as much rudder as
I could and that started bring-
ing the nose over. Then I put in
as much stick as I could, and
that stopped the airplane from
going right. But then the left
engine flared out, and now I’m
at 74,000 feet with no
engines.”
There was an audible gasp
in the crowd at this point.
Murphy then related how he
attempted to restart his engines
as his plane plummeted to
earth. He went through a num-
ber of steps that were supposed
to restart the engines.
Ultimately, he was success-
ful.
“Fortunately, I was able to
get the airplane into a flyable
position at about 65,000
feet and I was able to start the
good engine again. Now we
were about 60 miles south of
Seoul and we were eventually
able to return to base safely,”
he said.
Murphy is currently a resi-
dent of Florence and he
answered questions and talked
warmly with the crowd after
speaking.
The OCMM is open
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is
located at 2145 Kingwood St.
Florence Food Share’s
Saturday Open Hours
Food Share will begin receiving an additional
shipment of food from Food for Lane County
on the second Friday of each month starting on
May 12th; therefore, our Saturday open hours are
changing. For the month of May 2017,
Food Share will be open May 13th and 20th.
Starting in June and for the foreseeable future,
we will be open on the
2nd and 4th S aturday of each month.
On Saturdays, we are open from 10am-1pm.
“Self-shopping” ends at 12:30
and the lobby closes at 1pm.
Thank you.
Siuslaw News & City Lights Cinemas
present
TOMORROW
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MAY 4TH • NOON & 6PM
AT CITY LIGHT CINEMAS
Free admission to the
Florence Green Fair May 6th at the
Florence Events Center with your ticket stub.
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