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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2017)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS SATURDAY EDITION SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTSMANSHIP Man ‘drives thru’ Papa Murphy’s SPORTS — B INSIDE — A3 127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 68 SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON Friends of the FEC receives $30,800 grant Oregon Cultural Trust awards Cultural Development Capacity Grant for lighting, sound O regon Cultural Trust announced this week that Friends of the Florence Events Center (FEC) received a Cultural Development Capacity Grant totaling $30,800. “Generous spring B Y C HANTELLE M EYER donors lifted Oregon Siuslaw News Cultural Trust fundraising to a new high, resulting in a record $2.94 million in grants to 136 cultural nonprofits for fiscal year 2018,” the grant package stated. The grant will “support theater lighting and sound equipment upgrades to improve sustain- ability of the cultural events center operations.” The Friends of the FEC will provide match- ing funds for the project, with in-kind dona- tions and donated staff hours bringing the total project to $70,000. FEC Marketing Specialist Jennifer Connor, who worked with the Friends to write the grant, said, “This is something we’ve been hoping to do. It has been on the wish list since we started raising money (in 2016) with Dancing with Sea Lions. We saw there might be potential to do something big.” Connor and members of the Friends attend- ed several Oregon Cultural Trust “Conversations with Funders” to determine the type of grant they should seek. “When we talked to some of these organi- zations back in January, they said there weren’t a lot of people applying in this cate- gory. Everybody heard that, and about 70 grants were requested in the capacity catego- ry. There was really stiff competition this year,” Connor said. According to Oregon Cultural Trust, the Cultural Development Grants — which Local firefighters aid in the Chetco Bar conflagration Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue sends 3 members to assist in suppression efforts On Aug. 20, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared the Chetco Bar Fire a conflagration. This declaration B Y M ARK B RENNAN empowered the Oregon Siuslaw News State Fire Marshal to mobilize local munici- palities to assist in fighting the fire. In response, Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue Chief Director Jim Langborg has dis- patched three full-time firefighters to join in the effort to contain the Chetco fire. The Chetco Bar blaze, located approxi- mately five miles northeast of Brookings, was first reported on July 12, and apparently start- ed by a lightning strike. Originally, the fire was only a half-acre in size and grew slowly at first, due to high humidity and cool temperatures. Now, the fire has grown to approximately 100,000 acres with more than 1,000 personnel assigned to the suppression efforts. According to Langborg, the Siuslaw Valley firefighters are making meaningful contribu- tions to the Chetco effort. “The Taskforce our crew is assigned to is responsible for structural protection, which includes triaging, prepping and, when needed, protecting hose lines,” he said. “We continue to think our firefighters will remain at the fire for the rest of the week, because the fire has not been contained at this time, and it may be as long as two weeks.” Siuslaw Valley has a mutual assistance agreement with other fire districts in Lane County and sends firefighters when the situa- tion requires a larger response team than a small municipality can provide. INSIDE See FIREFIGHTERS 8A Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5 A3 A4 A2 ❘ AUGUST 26, 2017 ❘ $1.00 Are the kids still alright? Part II Local teens speak about the normalization of alcohol B Y J ARED A NDERSON AND H ANNA A NDERSON — INTERN Siuslaw News CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Florence Events Center, 715 Quince St., will get new LED stage lighting and an upgrad- ed sound system thanks to an Oregon Cultural Trust Cultural Development Capacity Grant obtained by the Friends of the FEC. Above, the Friends host a Florence Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Aug. 3 under the stage lights of the FEC. address access, capacity, creativity and preser- vation — included first-time awards to 37 organizations and an average grant award of $17,050. More than half of the grants went to organizations outside the Portland Metro area. FEC Director Kevin Rhodes said, “It’s nice that we got an award this size while being on the coast. Now we have some resources to work with.” The Friends wrote the grant with assistance from local grant writer Susy Lacer and includ- ed a video made by Margaret McDiarmid. “Margaret’s video showcased performances at the FEC,” Connor said. See GRANT 6A D UNES C ITY APPOINTS NEW MAYOR Councilor Bob Forsythe is appointed mayor on Aug. 25; citizens discuss cannabis grow facilities Forsythe moved to Dunes City in June 2015, where he and With a candle his wife Cindy have burning in memory of been building a new the late Mayor home near Darling’s Rebecca Ruede, the Resort. Dunes City Council In 2016, he ran for held a meeting that the Dunes City coun- led to the swearing in cil as a write-in can- of a new mayor and a didate. heated discussion on “A while back, growing marijuana in Rebecca asked me to Dunes City. sit on Dunes City The Aug. 25 spe- Council and I was cial session, which honored to do so,” JARED ANDERSON/SIUSLAW NEWS played to an overflow Forsythe said. “I tend audience at Dunes Valerie Cain-Mathis defends her medical to get involved every- City Hall, started out marijuana facility to the Dunes City where I live, whether peacefully as the Council and local residents in a meeting it be a homeowner council paid tribute to Aug. 25. association or city, Ruede. mainly because I A call for nominations to replace Ruede as found that if other people decide what is good mayor was then made. Councilor Robert for me, I want to at least have a voice in it.” Forsythe was the only member to nominate He will fill out the remainder of Ruede’s himself for the position. term, ending on Jan. 8, 2019. He also asked current Council President Forsythe is taking the mayorship at a partic- Sheldon Meyer if he would be interested in tak- ularly contentious period in Dunes City, as evi- ing the position. denced in the remainder of the meeting. Meyer replied, “I’ve done this for a long At issue was a marijuana grow facility that time, and I think I’d be better as council presi- is finishing up construction within city limits. dent and fill in when I need to.” Oregon State Measure 91 allows posses- Forsythe’s nomination was approved unani- sion, manufacture and sale of marijuana in mously, and he took the oath of office to Oregon, with licenses being issued by the applause from the audience. state. Forsythe, a Vietnam veteran, spent 43 years According to Dunes City Administrator in manufacturing with a focus on Procurement Jamie Mills, “Neither the city council nor the and Equipment Management. voters of Dunes City placed a local ban on the He moved to Florence in 2009 after retiring November 2016 ballot. As a result, these mar- and served on several committees and organi- ijuana licenses are legal within the city.” zations, including being the chair of the The site’s owner, Valerie Cain-Mathis, Environmental Management Advisory came before the council in a public meeting Committee and the Florence Budget on April 13 attempting to assuage residents’ Committee. fears about her facility. He also served as Port of Siuslaw port man- ager from 2012 to 2015. See DUNES CITY 6A B Y J ARED A NDERSON Siuslaw News Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B This Week on the Coast . . . . A9 Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2 THIS WEEK ’ S TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY Full Forecast, A3 72 52 71 54 70 54 66 53 WEATHER (Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series examining teen alcohol use in Florence.) Youth drinking can often be met with a col- lective shrug. If a parent is caught giving a child a quick puff of the latest recreational marijuana hybrid, the police would be instantly called and the parent would be swiftly charged and socially ostracized. If a parent gives a child a glass of wine, it raises fewer eyebrows. In fact, in Oregon, it’s perfectly legal to do so. Earlier this week, regarding the first part of this series, Jamie Boyd Wallace commented on the Siuslaw News Facebook, “Probably should focus on teen pot smoking more it’s bad here in florence and schools don’t care! (sic).” Schools have been addressing the issue of marijuana use by teens, most recently when the Siuslaw School District worked on final- izing language for drug testing in sports. But, according to Florence Police Commander John Pitcher, alcohol is by far the number one drug issue facing Florence area teens. Local resident Nicole, as she prefers to be called, saw this dichotomy first hand. In her early 20s, she was married with a child and a full blown alcoholic. Her husband was a methamphetamine addict at the time who also had a penchant for marijuana. One afternoon, a sheriff came to their door to confirm an alibi of one of their acquain- tances. He smelled marijuana in the home, which the husband had smoked earlier, out of view of the child. “The fact that my son was in the house, and they could smell it, they tried to take my son away from me,” Nicole said. “The charge was neglect and endangering the welfare of a minor.” Her husband wasn’t allowed in the home and required to take narcotic anonymous classes. “I told them I didn’t use drugs, but I had to leave work and take drug tests two to three times a week,” Nicole recalled. “I had to see a caseworker. They would come into my home at any time and go through my kitchen to make sure I had food.” Nicole always came up negative on the tests, but the caseworkers never noticed, or inquired about, her heavy drinking. “At that time, I was drinking a lot,” she said. “I would come home from work and drink several glasses of wine. I didn’t want to have to deal with the reality of being a sin- gle parent. I just thought that would never be me.” For Nicole, drinking was more dangerous to her precarious home-life than anything else, but there were never any tangible, legal consequences for it. It was a crutch for her to lean on, so she kept drinking. Those lack of legal consequences, Nicole believed, is what kept her drinking for so long. All of her family members had, at one time or another, been arrested for violations ranging from drug use to disorderly conduct, but never her. The legal issues her family had run into involved, for the most part, illicit drugs. Alcohol was the acceptable family way to deal with turbulent times. And it’s a lesson Nicole learned from an early age. S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS ❘ 18 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2017 See DRINKING 7A
