SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2017
Highway 101, where ODOT and
Rescue
Family
from 1A
“It had been a long week.
Heather had been out there since
Saturday,” said Les. “Friends from
Idaho and California had come to
support us, so we got together this
morning and we prayed and
prayed, because we weren’t sure
what the outcome was going to
be.”
Port
from 1A
manager too quickly.
“What I worry about is, we’ve
had a little bit of trouble the last
four or five months. An outside
individual may not be sure whether
the problem was with the board or
with someone else,” he said.
“If Dina can agree to work in
her position for a while, I would
like the opportunity for the port to
show the world that we've got our
stuff together.”
Commissioner Terry Duman
agreed.
“I think we need to rest on our
laurels a bit and let things get even
OCHS
and Western Lane Ambulance
were waiting. An ambulance then
transported
Davison
to
PeaceHealth
Peace
Harbor
Medical Center in Florence.
ODOT Public Information
Officer Angela Beers Seydel said,
“We worked closely with the state
police, who requested that we close
the road to create a landing zone
for the helicopter and so the ambu-
lance could be ready.”
ODOT maintains a Florence
crew “that responds to all kinds of
calls as quickly as possible,” Beers
Seydel said. She said Highway 101
was closed for up to 20 minutes, as
a minor fender bender required
some additional work to clear the
roadway.
After the rescue, the Dolphin
helicopter flew to Florence
Municipal Airport to refuel. While
there, the four crew members told
airport
representatives
Lou
Morales, Tom Ball and Sam Spayd
about the conditions of the rescue
while they enjoyed the airport’s
complimentary coffee. As the story
goes, the crew was in the first hour
of a 24-hour shift, and had already
completed a water rescue before
coming to Davison’s aid.
“The pilot had to work really
hard to position the helicopter in
all that wind,” Ball said. “It was 36
miles per hour, and the one who
got lowered to the woman said it
was incredibly loud.”
Ball also said that noise may
have been a factor in the delay of
Davison’s rescue; efforts to find
her centered near where she had
parked her car near milepost 180
on Highway 101. Davison was
found on a cliff in the vicinity, off
milepost 181.
Florence Police Commander
John Pitcher said, “Those who
watched the rescue kept saying
how amazing the pilot had to be
with all that wind blowing. They
did an outstanding job.”
Dickinson agreed.
“I have utmost respect for Lt.
Webber and Lt. Bunch for flying
the helicopter as they did,” he said.
“The high winds were still consid-
ered a flyable condition, but it took
courage and honor for all four to
perform their duty.”
During the rescue, Siuslaw
Valley Chief Director Jim
Langborg was incident command
and Western Lane Operations
Chief Matt House was EMS com-
mand, forming a unified command.
Dickinson said, “This was not
possible without the coordinated
effort of all on the scene. We assist-
ed each other with our assets and
were able to save (Davison’s) life.”
Appropriately, the City of
Florence was honoring the U.S.
Coast Guard and its local station,
Station Siuslaw River earlier that
day as Florence became an official
Coast Guard City.
The group, although somewhat
discouraged, decided they would
continue searching, believing God
would intervene on their behalf.
Denton Davison, Heather’s new
husband of little more than a week,
took up the narrative at this point
in the discussion.
“I was looking down the side of
the cliff and I heard a voice,” he
said. “At first I thought it was the
family behind me. Or a seagull.
The wind was whipping pretty
good and it was hard to hear ... and
I turned around and looked behind,
so I could tell no one was actually
talking to me. I kept looking up
and I saw her hand and arm come
up. That was all I could see, so I
just started waving back and
yelling her name. I could barely
even see her.
“It really was a miracle that we
found her.”
Denton then called 911.
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue
coordinated the rescue effort, uti-
lizing a U.S. Coast Guard helicop-
ter from North Bend. The family
was on the ground watching the
rescue and were awed by the effort
that saved their daughter and wife.
“The Coast Guard was there in
five minutes and those guys were
amazing,” Les said. “They were so
professional and they got there so
fast — it was a miracle.”
Cindy was close to tears about
her daughter’s rescue.
“It’s a joy and a miracle, and we
are all so happy and relieved that
we found her and she is alive and
she will be OK,” Cindy said. “We
just want to thank everyone that
helped, especially the Coast Guard.
It really is a miracle, and we thank
the Lord for returning our daughter
to us.”
Denton said Friday that Davison
was doing well. She had sustained
minor injuries from her fall and
was having some memory issues
related to the accident, but her
prognosis was good.
“We are just happy to have her
back,” Denton said. “We want to
make sure she is healthy and we
are waiting for some test results,
and we will go from there.
“We are just so thankful and
appreciate the efforts and good
wishes of everyone that helped.”
keeled.”
Commissioner Mike Buckwald
stated he wasn’t interested in hir-
ing an interim manager, with
Duman adding, “We already have
a great interim manager.”
The commission agreed to give
McClure latitude to hire extra help
through the busy season, with the
caveat that she remains as interim
manager.
Duman then requested McClure
begin looking into options to push
the development of the 40-acre
industrial park the port owns,
located at the end of the cul-de-sac
in the Pacific View Industrial Park
off Kingwood Street in Florence.
The park, which had been in
development for over a decade,
has remained largely vacant since
its inception.
“Right now we’ve been sitting
on this property for way too long
and it’s just costing us money,”
Duman said. “Our role as a port is
not to just own this property. Let
people develop it and bring com-
merce to the area.”
He suggested putting a call out
to multiple realty brokers to come
up with solutions on how to pres-
ent the park to potential buyers,
including ideas for redesignating
the property as commercial or res-
idential.
The commission then tackled
issues surrounding moorage cus-
tomers’ complaints, specifically
the requirement for vessels to have
insurance.
Leskin, who first implemented
insurance requirements the previ-
ous year, faced criticism toward
his tactics to ensure compliance,
including soliciting lawyers for
collections.
Leskin felt this was vital to
restore order and consistency with
moorage customers.
John Murphy, co-owner and
agent from Coast Insurance
Services Inc., researched what
similar ports along the coast
require and presented his findings
to the board. In Murphy’s opinion,
a minimum policy of $500,000
was needed for commercial ves-
sels, and $100,000 for recreational.
Leskin set the amounts at $1
million and $300,000, respective-
ly.
Murphy said he believed that
the lower insurance would “make a
better economic relationship with
the tenants because we would be
easier to deal with.”
For uninsured or underinsured
vessels staying 10 days or less, a
waiver would have to be signed
waving the port’s liability in case
of an accident, requiring the ves-
sels “repair, at their own expense,
or to reimburse the Port of Siuslaw
for all losses, breakage, or damage
that occur during their stay.”
To further protect long-term
port tenants, uninsured vessels
would need to moore outside the
main dock areas, staying in the
transient dock on the west end of
the port or one of the outside slips
away from the main docks.
Lastly, new roles were
assigned to commissioners:
Nancy Rickard nominated Duman
as chair; Buckwald nominated
Huntington as first vice-presi-
dent; Duman nominated Rickard
as second vice president; Duman
nominated Buckwald to secre-
tary; Rickard nominated Meyer
for Treasurer.
All positions were approved
unanimously.
Dickson arrived late to the meet-
ing, which seemed to further agi-
tate the crowd.
The financial report was deliv-
ered by Bare, due to the lack of
Treasurer Deborah LaMonica in
attendance.
Bare made his comments with
the disclaimer that he did not know
many of the details regarding the
report, which indicated the OCHS
coffers currently hold approximate-
ly $700,000 in assets, which
appeared to surprise many audi-
ence members.
The first confrontation of the
evening between the board mem-
bers and the audience came after
Bare announced that the Animal
Welfare Committee and Long
Range Planning reports would not
be given at the meeting. This
caused another strong reaction in
the crowd, including utterances
from the crowd that were out of
order. It was at this juncture that
Bare called for a short recess, skip-
ping the remaining agenda items
without explanation.
Garrett and Dickson left the
meeting at this point, even though
individuals in attendance would
later have questions for them dur-
ing public comment.
Lisa Pappas, an outspoken for-
mer volunteer at OCHS spoke pas-
sionately about her experiences at
OCHS, going well beyond the
three minutes allotted for each
speaker.
This prompted Bare to challenge
Pappas.
“We are a private organization,
and we are a nonprofit,” said Bare.
“So when you get up and accuse
people and threaten their liveli-
hood, you have to be careful what
you say — you can be sued for
libel or slander.”
Former OCHS board member
Scott Bailey was the next to speak,
insisting that the current board was
illegitimately seated and suggest-
ing a meeting of the membership to
elect a new board in order to
restore membership confidence in
OCHS leadership.
Bailey accused Gervais and
Bare of acting contrary to the intent
and letter of the bylaws and
should allow a vote for a new
board.
Bailey’s comments were met
with loud approval and another
round of shouted concerns and
questions that went unanswered by
the two board members.
Bare thanked Bailey for his
input and did not respond further to
the suggestion.
At that point, individuals started
talking over one another, some
calling for Gervais to resign and
others asking why Garrett was not
there to answer questions about
operational concerns at OCHS.
Bare threatened to adjourn the
meeting if audience members did
not control their outbursts.
The audience continued to shout
questions at Bare and Gervais, who
seemed unable to respond to meet
the crowd’s satisfaction with a
number of the questions thrown
their way.
Bare followed through with his
threat and quickly adjourned the
meeting after a few brief comments
from those still wishing to speak.
from 1A EMT crews from Siuslaw Valley
down by cable to hoist Davison up.
Flight mechanic AET2 Cassandra
Hunter operated the hoist and the
helicopter’s radio.
U.S. Coast Guard Sector North
Bend’s Facebook page has a video
of part of the rescue, showing
Stacey’s 250-300-foot drop to the
brush-covered cliff where Davison
had been since Saturday.
Once Stacey retrieved Davison,
the pilots landed the helicopter on
from 1A
Tanya Garrett, Shelter Manager,
began the discussion of agenda
items with the Shelter Report,
detailing the number of adoptions,
transfers and intakes made during
the month.
Garrett’s report, though present-
ed in a fact-based manner, was
heavily criticized later that evening
for failing to address the audience’s
concerns about the welfare of and
socialization plans for the animals.
OCHS
Development
and
Marketing staff member Danielle
How To Participate
The fee to participate is $20. An ad for the Community Wide Garage Sale with a map of all par-
ticipation sales will be published in the Siuslaw News on September 6th and 9th. Because of
print deadlines, the registration deadline is 5pm Thursday August 31 2017.
You will also receive two offi cial Community Wide Garage Sale signs as well as a tip sheet on
how to have a great sale. Please post signs only on private property with the owner’s consent.
Posting signs on City utility poles, street or signal light poles, and median strips is against the
municipal code. Maps will be available at the Florence Visitors Center.
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