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SATURDAY EDITION
VIKS’ FINAL WEEK
AROUND DIAMONDS
DAR celebrates
9th birthday
SPORTS — B
INSIDE — A3
127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 36
LCC invites
public to ‘Faces
of Florence’
❘ MAY 6, 2017 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Special Election candidates
address ‘Our Town’ at forum
Event designed to allow
residents to meet students
from other countries
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
Lane Community College at Florence is
hosting a public event entitled “Faces of
Florence” on Tuesday, May 9, at 7 p.m. in
Room 103 on the campus, at 3149 Oak St. in
Florence.
“As our local college, we are pleased to
offer this educational gathering to our com-
munity, and to learn about the many faces of
Florence,” said Russ Pierson, Dean of the
LCC Florence Center. “Whatever our politi-
cal inclinations may be on issues around
immigration, we can all agree that Florence
and its environs is a region that welcomes
and supports people of many nationalities
and ethnicities who all contribute to building
a strong and vibrant community.”
The event is a response, in part, to the
recent activities in town that targeted and
arrested a number of undocumented immi-
grants.
Those arrests were conducted by members
of Homeland Security’s Immigration Control
and Enforcement (ICE) task force and their
actions have been the source of heated dis-
cussions at city council and school board
meetings since they occurred last month.
Pierson referenced the arrests as part of the
reason for the timing of the “Faces of
Florence” event.
“ Two of the people taken by ICE in
Florence a month or so back have been a part
See
FACES 8A
MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Former KCST News Director Bob Sneddon poses questions during Wednesday’s live broadcast of ‘Our Town,’ which focused on
candidates running for positions on the May 16 Special Election ballot. The broadcast was Sneddon’s last after 18 years.
The special live broadcast covered a myriad of discussion topics led by Bob Sneddon
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
City honors four
officers at annual
ceremony
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
VFW Post 3232 sponsors
Officer of the Year awards
During the May 3 city council meeting,
Florence Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)
Post 3232 again sponsored the Officer of the
Year awards given to four local police, fire
and ambulance personnel.
Recipients were: City of Florence Police
Commander John Pitcher, Oregon State
Police Trooper Darrell Sheets, Western Lane
Ambulance District CPR and first aid coordi-
nator George Lydick and Siuslaw Valley Fire
and Rescue volunteer firefighter Jerry Ward.
VFW Post 3232 Commander Paul Gargis
and member Gerald Hernandez introduced
the recipients and presenters.
Police Chief Tom Turner said, “We select-
ed John Pitcher for this award because he
epitomizes what the community, city and
police department want in a top police admin-
istrator. He provides the best possible police
service to this community with a personal
touch.”
While presenting the award to trooper
Sheets, OSP Sergeant Michael Berland said,
“He is our lighthouse in the Florence area.
For a trooper stationed on the outposts of the
INSIDE
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OFFICERS 11A
Business Beat . . . . . . . . . . A10
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B9
Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
F
ormer Coast Radio
News Director Bob
Sneddon ended his 18-
year career hosting the
monthly Our Town
broadcast Wednesday with a forum
for many of the Florence-area can-
didates in the May 16 Special
Election. The forum included can-
didates for the boards of directors
for Lane Community College,
Siuslaw Public Library, Siuslaw
School District, Western Lane
Ambulance District and Siuslaw
Valley Fire and Rescue and the
Port of Siuslaw Board of
Commissioners.
Sneddon held the 3-hour forum
at Florence Events Center and
broadcast live on Coast Radio. The
show also aired the next morning.
T EACHER
About 70 people made up the live
audience.
“If you want to boo me, then
boo me,” Sneddon told the audi-
ence before broadcasting began.
“But try not to direct anything at
the candidates. They’re sticking
their necks out and they’re the
ones on the ballot running for
something. If they’re elected,
they’re going to be serving us.
They’ll get plenty of ‘boos’ over
the next two to four years, trust
me.”
L ANE C OMMUNITY C OLLEGE
Sneddon began with the candi-
dates for Lane Community
College Director Zone 1. Although
three names appear on the ballots
that most residents have received
in the mail by now, Florence resi-
dent Sally Wantz has withdrawn
her candidacy.
The first candidate, Jeffrey
Gratreak, is the co-owner and gen-
eral manager of PizzAmoré in
Albany, though he does fit the res-
idency requirements for running
for a position in Lane County.
“I always wanted to run for pub-
lic office,” Gratreak said.
As a recent graduate who
attended two Oregon community
colleges and two Oregon universi-
ties, he expressed his familiarity
with the ways educational institu-
tions are run.
“Running a successful business
(had me) thinking of what I want
to do to give back to the communi-
ty,” he said. “I want to help right
things.”
The second candidate, Melanie
Muenzer, worked for 7 years with
the U.S. Department of Education
and served on President Obama’s
transition team in 2008. She cur-
rently is the associate vice presi-
dent for academic administration
and chief of staff to the provost at
University of Oregon. On April 12,
Lane Community College’s board
appointed Muenzer to fill the
vacant Director Zone 1 position.
“Besides my family, there’s
actually nothing I care about more
than ensuring that everybody,
regardless of their background, has
the same opportunity for quality,
affordable education,” Muenzer
said.
During
their
discussion,
Sneddon guided the candidates
onto the topics of the community
college’s $10 million budget short-
fall, student enrollment and the
role of the board, especially with
regard to the college’s new presi-
dent, Dr. Margaret A. Hamilton,
who begins in July.
Gratreak said, “It really should
be about the students. The prob-
lems that face the college can be
See
FORUM 6A
APPRECIATION WEEK SALUTES EDUCATORS
Letters, photos and tributes to teachers past and present to be highlighted
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
The
National
Education
Association and National Parent
Teacher Association (PTA) have
declared Tuesday, May 9, National
Teachers Day and the week from
May 7 through May 13, Teacher
Appreciation Week.
Since 1984, there has been an
official recognition of the work
teachers do and this year’s theme
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
THIS WEEK ’ S
CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
Florence Mayor Joe Henry honors the
Florence Community PTA on May 1.
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
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WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
is “Teachers Deliver.”
In a joint open let-
ter to their organiza-
tions, National PTA
President Laura Bay
and NEA President
Lily Eskelsen-Garcia
encouraged interested
citizens to contact
educators in their
community and share
their appreciation for
the work teachers do
on a daily basis.
Florence Community PTA
President Tiffany Holdahl echoes
these sentiments, “Teachers are the
foundation that our schools are
built on, and in celebration of
Teacher Appreciation Week we’d
like to shower them with tangible
thank you notes.”
One of the main points that the
national organizations and the
S IUSLAW N EWS
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C OPYRIGHT 2017
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TEACHERS 9A