SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2017
Forum
from 6A
to go to school. It’s not just state
or local law.”
She said the district only
requires proof of age of the child
— “either through a birth certifi-
cate or affidavit process” —
before the student can be placed
in a classroom.
In closing, Chapman said,
“We need to listen and be open to
new voices and new ideas.”
Mann-Heintz said, “The reali-
ty is, schools have to be strong in
order for a community to be
strong. We’ve lost professionals
and businesses in this communi-
ty because we didn’t make that
bridge between us retirees and
the foundational educational
schools that we’re offering.”
W ESTERN L ANE A MBULANCE
D ISTRICT
Shortly after 5 p.m., Sneddon
brought in the Western Lane
Ambulance District candidates.
Current board president Mike
Webb, Director Position 5, and
Invest in Florence by banking locally!
member
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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
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have some concerns about the
IGA.”
“Without a doubt,” Stonelake
answered. “As this has gone on,
I’m not against the IGA. To cut
to the chase, I’m not sure I like
the people who are managing it. I
don’t think we have the right
players. I have stated in every
board meeting that we need to
stand alone, get our own manag-
er, and get our office back in
place and get it running well.”
Farnsworth, however, fully
supports the process.
“I do support the IGA that was
implemented by both boards and
which is working very, very well.
I look forward to describing how
it is working for the taxpayers
today,” he said.
He brought in a chart to
demonstrate the order of admin-
istrative succession and said that,
under the IGA, four and a half
full-time employees now fill the
roles of six full-time employees.
Ultimately, he said, it is fiscal-
ly responsible and saves the tax-
payers money.
The real confusion, however,
is that no one seemed able to
quantify how much.
During the discussion, several
numbers were claimed, but nei-
ther Webb, Stonelake nor
Farnsworth
had
matching
answers.
Stonelake said she has been
asking for itemized statements
and an easy-to-read format since
Western Lane began exploring
the possibility of the IGA after
the district completed its strate-
gic plan.
“I want it so that I can under-
stand it, and I can take it to one
of the people in the audience and
hand it to them — if they’re not a
banker or a head of a hospital or
wherever — just us plain work-
ing folk,” she said.
Farnsworth said that much of
the data is available to the public
on the organizations’ websites.
“Keep in mind the IGA was
not Jim Langborg’s idea,” he
added. “He was tasked with
implementing it.”
Sneddon summarized the dis-
cussion.
“Larry, your point is that it has
been an open, transparent
process. What I think Anne is
saying is that she has specific
questions and she doesn’t feel
like they’ve been answered well
enough … The key defining
issue here is trust and trust in the
fire chief and administrative
team that the ambulance district
is contracting with,” he said.
He then encouraged listeners
to look into the information that
n
A
Thank you.
recently appointed Director
Position 3, Rick Yecny, are run-
ning unopposed. Webb is vice
president and commercial rela-
tionship manager at Oregon
Pacific Bank. Yecny is the chief
executive officer (CEO) of
PeaceHealth Peace Harbor
Medical Center.
“Here’s where the disclosure
comes. It’s a position I held for
the last 20 years,” Sneddon said
of Yecny’s position. “I resigned
from the board earlier this year
because I was seeing increasing
conflicts in both what I was
doing professionally at the time
and with covering the news. I
had already chosen not to seek
reelection and stepped down in
February.”
For Director Position 4, 20-
year board member Anne
Stonelake is running against
Larry Farnsworth.
Stonelake said she and
Sneddon began serving on the
board at the same time in the
1990s and that she was asked by
the then-administration to run.
“Proudly I have done it. I have
enjoyed every year of it. It’s been
a pleasure and it’s been a well-
run district,” she said. “I believe
I have been a good steward of
your tax dollars.”
Stonelake is retired from vari-
ous organizations in the Florence
area.
Farnsworth was appointed to
be the citizen taxpayer advocate
on a board managing the
Intergovernmental Agreement
(IGA) for shared administration
between Western Lane and
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue.
His background is in Homeland
Security, finance, business own-
ership and working with United
Airlines.
“I feel like I have some unique
qualifications,” he said. “Aside
from being an airline captain, I
used to have a previous career in
hospital administration. I was a
senior financial analyst for a
major healthcare company and
also was director of patient-busi-
ness affairs for two different
large hospitals.”
Webb described the process of
the IGA that was implemented
July 2016.
“The community wanted the
ambulance and fire districts to
work and play better together.
We opened the door again to
finding a way to create an agree-
ment where management could
be provided by one,” he said.
Stonelake was the only dis-
senting vote on both districts’
boards for the IGA.
Sneddon said, “Anne, you
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S IUSLAW VA LLEY F IRE AND
R ESCUE
The next board makes up the
second half of the IGA, Siuslaw
Valley Fire and Rescue.
Running for Director Position
1 are former volunteer firefight-
ers Crystal Farnsworth and Ned
Hickson. Running for Director
Position 2 are former Siuslaw
Valley Operations Chief Marvin
Tipler and President and CEO of
Oregon Pacific Bank Ron Green.
“This is a good one to come
right after the Western Lane
Ambulance District because
we’ve heard about the IGA that
was enacted within the last year,
and I think it has become a bit of
an issue as well,” Sneddon said.
He asked the candidates to
explain why they are running.
Hickson said, “The reason I
decided to run for the fire board
is that I was with the fire depart-
ment for about 5 years ... and I
realized that I was really missing
a lot of my kids’ stuff.” “In three
more years, they’re all going to
be gone. I thought of how I can’t
get that time back. I decided that
what I could do to be part of
something that means a lot to me
is to get onto the board. I could
contribute based on my experi-
ences as a volunteer firefighter,
my business experience as a cor-
porate chef and my many years
in the community. I thought it
might bring something to the
board that would be unique.”
Hickson is currently the editor
at Siuslaw News.
Farnsworth has been a volun-
teer with the fire department for
six years. She and her husband
Larry own Heceta Self Storage.
She also retired from teaching
middle and high school.
She said, “I decided to run for
the board with the intent and goal
of perpetuating and encouraging
the increased and more rigorous
training that has been taking
place at the fire department over
the last three years. I want our
firefighters, both the paid
employees and the volunteers, to
be really well trained, so when
they show up at your house for
your emergency, … they know
exactly what they’re doing.
“I also think it’s important as a
board to hold the chief account-
able for the things that have
come out of the strategic plan. …
There are goals, initiatives and
objectives within that document
that we need to be aware of and
stay on.”
Green is the CEO of Oregon
Pacific Bank and has financed
municipalities like the fire dis-
trict and other districts through-
out his career.
“I should say, first of all, that
all three of these candidates are
(firefighters), and I appreciate
their service. I’m not a firefight-
er. I’m a 28-year banker,” he
said. “As I look at why I ran,
there are two very important
members of this board who are
stepping down. John Scott and
Lori Gates both have quite a bit
of experience in management
and finance. I see a hole of
knowledge that is on the board,
and I think my skill set as a com-
munity leader and finance expert
... could lend a tremendous
amount of financial input and an
even perspective.”
The final Siuslaw Valley can-
didate is Tipler, who retired in
November after 35 years with the
fire department. In his career, he
also worked as an EMT with
Western Lane.
“It’s in my blood,” he said. “I
started with the fire department
when I was 17 years old.”
Tipler added that he began
attending board meetings early in
his career.
“I learned what a good board
member is, what bad board mem-
bers are and which ones just
showed up. ... I decided probably
25 to 30 years ago that when I
retired, I would be a board mem-
ber someday. I always respected
the board members who gave up
their time, just like the volunteer
firefighters, to be on the board,”
he said.
Sneddon said, “It’s good that
there are a lot of people involved.
... But it brings up some issues
that are uncomfortable to talk
about. It brings up some dis-
agreements.”
He directed the conversation
toward the IGA and the role of
the fire chief. Then he gave some
background on the current
board’s decision to terminate
Chief Jim Langborg in July 2015
and a public forum held soon
See
FORUM 8A
7 A
Siuslaw
News
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