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Midcoast Wave
Visitor’s Guide
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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
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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-
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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
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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.
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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
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UPGRADES 7A