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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 2017)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS SATURDAY EDITION Midcoast Wave Visitor’s Guide TAKE A HIKE SPECIAL PUBLICATION INSIDE SPORTS — B 126TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 40 SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON READY TO REIGN Queen Rhododendra Claire Waggoner fulfills her heritage; Benjamin Cahoon becomes third King of the Coast King of the Coast Ben Cahoon and Queen Rhododendra Claire Waggoner proudly took the stage at the end of the Rhododendron Court Coronation Thursday night at the Florence Events Center. More than 300 people attended the event, which featured a return to traditions of the past. Referencing 110 years of Florence’s festival history, Rhody Court Committee chairwomen Pat Sapp and Wendy Krause planned a Coronation night of talent, pageantry and poise. Krause emceed with plenty of poise herself, along with local humorist Ned Hickson, who showed off a few talents of his own. The five princesses of the Junior Court — first-grader Clover Holbrook, second-grader Chloe Clark, third-grader Madeline Jerabek, fourth-grader Arianna Williams and fifth-grad- er Ava Center — earned applause and cheers throughout the evening as they waved to the audience, answered impromptu questions from Hickson and stood beside their fathers. A panel of five judges evaluated the three Senior Court princes and five Senior Court Princesses on their talents, stage presence and ELECTION 2017 Local incumbents fare well in Special Election B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News formal wear. The final judging category was the students’ 2017 Rhododendron Festival pin sales. Cahoon showed a fast motion video of himself painting a watercolor of the Siuslaw River Bridge while singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and playing a ukulele. He later answered a question about what he would bring to a desert- ed island: three ‘Bs’ — the Bible, a blanket and “bow-’n’-arrows.” Cahoon is only the third King of the Coast in Rhody Fest history. Prince Kyle Doran CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS performed card tricks King of the Coast Ben Cahoon and Queen Rhododendra take with the help of judge the helms of rhododendron royalty Thursday night. Vanessa Buss, 1989’s Queen Rhododendra. During his interview, he a demonstrable talent, but his comedic rou- said the best compliment he ever received was tine brought plenty of laughs. He also showed “a $20 tip.” Prince Michael Larson claimed not to have See RHODY 6A Florence — city in perpetual motion Florence continues to pursue economic development with initiatives, teamwork B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News S ince the current Florence City Council started together in 2015, the council and city staff have made economic development a main focus for the city. With the addition in November 2016 of Economic Development Catalyst Jesse Dolin, Florence, “The City in Motion,” has started to see fruit from a long period of sowing into new and expanding businesses. From a second location for local coffee shop Ocean Grinds Coffee Co. to new businesses in Historic Old Town, Dolin and Florence city staff have worked together to make a culture where businesses ❘ MAY 20, 2017 ❘ $1.00 can grow and thrive. For Top Hydraulics owner Klaus Witte, Florence’s momen- tum was a huge draw for moving his business into city proper. “We get a good balance of qual- ity of life in Florence, with much thanks to the city for being so involved in advancing itself,” he said. His wife, Maria, said city staff, including City Manager Erin Reynolds, City Recorder Kelli Weese and Dolin, showed “a tremendous willingness to take part” in Top Hydraulic’s expan- sion. Top Hydraulic, 3235 Pacific View Drive, rebuilds hydraulic parts for more than 30 brands of modern convertible vehicles. It is a niche market located in Florence that ships all over the world. “We're a web-based business and most of our customers are everywhere else except here, where they can drive convert- ibles,” Maria said. According to Witte, he looked into purchasing property in September to expand his business. By October, he worked with the city to purchase an almost 2-acre plot at the Pacific View Business Park and moved into the nearly- completed facility at the end of March. Now, the business has room to expand and employ up to three times the size of the current staff, and all at a living wage. “Community, as corny as it sounds, is the main motivator that we did this,” Klaus said. “We could have done just fine by con- tinuing to work in our home, ... but we like it here and it's good for the community to have good jobs.” Maria agreed. “This business is going to pro- vide jobs for the community and provide more of a taxbase to improve the city,” she said. “We are moving forward in a way that is responsible to the community, the city and the land, and also to encourage growth here.” See Jail levy receives overwhelming renewal support With few exceptions, incumbents were reelect- ed to serve on boards throughout the Florence area during the May 16 Special Election. Two board position B Y J ACK D AVIS races were tight, but cur- Siuslaw News rently do not qualify for an automatic recount. The closest race was between Bill Meyer and Bill Fleenor for Port of Siuslaw Position 5. Meyer beat out Fleenor by a scant 26 votes out of a total of 3,634 votes cast for the two candidates. A third candidate, David Swinney, received 887 votes. The three candidates were running to replace retiring Port Commissioner Ron Caputo. Mike Buckwald and Terry Duman successfully held off opponents to return to the port board for four more years. In the Western Lane Ambulance District (WLAD) Director Position 4 race, challenger Larry Farnsworth narrowly defeated incumbent Laura Anne Stonelake by 65 votes out of a total of 4,467 cast for the two candidates. Stonelake, who has served on the WLAD board for more than 18 years, was one of the few incumbents to be defeated in the May 16 election. In order to qualify for an automatic recount, the vote count difference must be less than .002 percent. Neither of the two close races qualifies. Lane County Clerk Cheryl Betschart said, “Nothing is final until we certify the results on June 5. People can still resolve unsigned ballots. We are also receiving ballots that are coming from other counties.” According to Betschart, Oregon ballots may be dropped off at any ballot drop off location in the state and then forwarded on to the voter’s county of residence. Both Mike Webb and Rick Yecny ran unop- posed and were reelected to the WLAD board. All four incumbents running for the Siuslaw School District board of directors were reelected to serve four more years. Incumbent Paul Burns ran against Elizabeth Miller and received almost 60 percent of votes cast. Suzanne Mann-Heintz received 59 percent of votes, compared to her opponent Jesse Chapman, who received approximately 41 per- cent. John Barnett and Bill McDougle, who ran unopposed, were also reelected to the school board. BUSINESS 7A See ELECTION 7A Mapleton School District to receive $2.9 million to improve structural integrity B Y M ARK B RENNAN Siuslaw News INSIDE Mapleton School District announced that it has received two significant grants from the Oregon Seismic Rehabilitation Program. The grants, totaling $2.9 million, will be used for major structural upgrades to the Mapleton elementary and high schools. The realization that Oregon is at risk of a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake drove the state’s effort to invest now to protect critical community structures from catastrophic damage. When announcing the recipients of this year’s seis- Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Coastal Events . . . . . . . . . . . Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B9 A8 A3 A4 mic grants on April 17, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown emphasized the need to proactively retrofit rural community centers like the Mapleton schools. “Ensuring every communi- ty in the state, particularly in rural regions, has safe com- munity gathering places and emergency response infra- structure will be key to Oregon’s recovery from a significant seismic event,” Brown said. “While this may seem to be a daunting task, we’re making steady progress, through a concerted and coordinated effort by communities, individuals, businesses and, as a state, toward building a more Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Side Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . B8 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Rhody Days Events . . . . . . . A6 MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS The Mapleton School District track is one of the first and easiest of the upgrades that will be undertaken in the ongoing effort to upgrade facilities and seismically retro- fit buildings on campus. THIS WEEK ’ S TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 67 49 68 53 74 55 72 52 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 resilient Oregon.” The grant awards come at an interesting time for the dis- trict as it arrives on the heels of recently approved bond measures designated for upgrading many aspects of the Mapleton campus. Mapleton Superintendent Jodi O’Mara is pleased that the district will now be able to initiate much needed infra- structure refurbishment to insure that students are attending classes in safe structures. “The seismic grants that we were just awarded were for $1.4 million for the ele- mentary school and $1.5 mil- lion for the high school, and that money is to be used specifically for seismic upgrades,” she said. “For instance, that is replacing sid- ing with sheer walls and for structural reinforcements where we need to use bolts to anchor the walls to the founda- tion, as well as ensuring the roofing is seismically secure.” The combination of the new awards and the funds provided by the bond measure will allow for a number of signifi- cant upgrades to the campus that were hoped for but not guaranteed. O’Mara is looking forward to the improvements that were already scheduled — such as the striping of the track — and S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS ❘ 22 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2017 See UPGRADES 7A
