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SATURDAY EDITION
VIKS CORNER
CUBS IN OT
‘Wee’ bit of
holiday spirit
INSIDE — A6
SPORTS — B
127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 98
❘ DECEMBER 9, 2017 ❘ $1.00
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
Firefighters
return to
assist with
California
wildfires
‘I T
FLORENCE, OREGON
Cold weather
shelter prepares
for winter
ALL ADDS UP ’
Beachcomber scholarship raises more
than $30,000 for students, one dollar at a time
SVFR deploys 2 teams to
assist a total of 15 strike
teams from Oregon
With temperatures
dipping to 32 degrees,
volunteers gear up to
warm those in need
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
Once again, firefighters from
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue
(SVFR) have left the district to assist
in the most recent wildfire emergency
in California. SVFR Chief Director Jim
Langborg released a statement updating
the community on the rapidly changing
situation that currently has multiple fire
fronts and has consumed over 200,000
acres.
“Initially, the California OEM
requested 10 Strike Teams from
Oregon to respond to the fires in
Ventura County. Lane County put
together a Strike Team of Brush
Engines and departed from Cottage
Grove Wednesday night,” Langborg
said.
SVFR sent a total of seven firefight-
ers, including volunteers Kyle Orozco,
Jeff Larson and Colton Griswald in a
Type-5 brush-fire vehicle, along with
Shannon Curry, Levi Green and full-
time firefighters Captain Andy Gray
and P.J. Crescioni in a Type-1 engine to
assist with structural protection.
“I have been informed they are cur-
rently south of Sacramento,” Langborg
said. “We typically do not send two
resources to an out-of-area fire, but
currently our fire conditions are mini-
mal and this is an opportunity for some
of our firefighters to get experience
they may never get again. We still have
good staffing and response capabilities
within our district.”
SVFR sent crews and equipment to
California earlier this year.
At this point in the fire season, local
conditions allow SVFR firefighters to
assist in an emergency situation and
learn at the same time.
See
B Y J ARED A NDERSON
Scott Waiss, owner of the Beachcomber Pub, is hoping to raise another $10,000 this December
for Siuslaw and Mapleton students and adults who are returning to school.
Beachcomber Pub in Historic Old
Town Florence, has taken a differ-
ent path to generate support for a
cause that he deeply believes in:
education.
With
the
Beachcomber
Community Scholarship Fund,
Waiss has raised tens of thousands
of dollars to support the educa-
tional aspirations of local students
by raffling off a bicycle.
“In the first six years of the
fund, we have awarded 19 schol-
arships valued at $28,000. These
have all gone to Siuslaw and
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
undraising
events
in
Florence come in many
forms and are held for many
reasons. There are art and craft
silent auctions, concerts, dances,
bake sales and even lavish parties
held to raise money. All these
activities are geared to generate
interest in a particular cause or sit-
uation that needs the collective
attention of the community.
Scott Waiss, owner of the
F
Mapleton seniors to help them
continue their education and to go
to college,” Waiss said.
Waiss has funded these
scholarships through the Western
Lane Community Foundation
(WLCF), utilizing the founda-
tion’s application procedures to
award the students.
Siuslaw
School
District
Superintendent
Andy
Grzeskowiak believes the schol-
arship is an
See
SCHOLARSHIP 10A
Festival to ‘brighten the days of January’
Winter Music Festival brings back favorites, debuts gospel day
dark days of January. We’ve got
a three-day celebration of inter-
nationally known music and
world-class artisans. No one else
in our region has that.”
The festival, presented by
Friends of the FEC and Sea Lion
Caves, has a whole slew of
Florence-area and Oregon-based
sponsors.
Cusack and his two team-
mates, Friends of the FEC
President Kirk Mlinek and Kids
Concert
Producer
Rachel
B Y C HANTELLE M EYER
Siuslaw News
FIREFIGHTERS 11A
Florence Events Center (FEC)
will showcase national, regional
and local talent Jan. 12 to 14 dur-
ing the 16th annual Winter Music
Festival.
“The overall idea is to bring
business into Florence at a time
of year when the local establish-
ments need it the most,” said fes-
tival producer Howie Cusack.
“We’re trying to brighten the
Pearson, create what he called “a
triangle of energy” for the 2018
show.
“In 2016, we felt we wanted to
move away from the traditional
Bleeker Street folk type of sound
and bring in something that
might bring in a little bit of a
younger demographic. So, we
paired Jonathon Edwards and the
Shook Twins. That breathed
some life into it,” Cusack said.
See
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
The lack of medical or mental
healthcare contributes to many of the
problems the Upriver area has, includ-
ing behavioral health issues, poverty,
geographic isolation and a lack of pre-
ventative care. These issues were dis-
cussed at the Swisshome Church this
week, as Mapleton School District
Superintendent Jodi O’Mara held a
town hall discussing the Western Lane
Behavioral Health Network.
However, for every problem that
was listed, a hopeful solution was
offered.
The meeting’s purpose was to get
feedback on the problems facing the
community, via the lens of healthcare,
in hopes to build a blueprint on how to
improve the lives of Upriver resi-
dents.
The genesis for the network came
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from a Health Resources and Services
Administration grant that PeaceHealth
Peace Harbor was interested in, with
the goal being how to improve access
in Western Lane County. That process
looked at a wide swath of issues that
face the Upriver community and
Florence, until it was decided that the
mental health of children “womb to
18” would be the main focus.
Partners in the project include
Oregon Family Support Network,
Mapleton School District, Siuslaw
School District, Trillium, Lane
County Mental Health, the Child
Center out of Eugene, Options
Counseling and Peace Harbor.
The plan is to have behavior health
counselors available to both Mapleton
and Siuslaw school districts twice a
week, with offices on school property.
For Mapleton, O’Mara is picturing
turning the old Mapleton Middle
School building into a small facility
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This Week on the Coast . . . . A9
where a counselor could work with
students in a more private setting.
But the grant only covers behav-
ioral health to children two days a
week, leaving the facility empty the
other five days.
O’Mara and her partners envision a
future where medical professionals of
all disciplines could fill the space on
those extra days, from general practi-
tioners to dentists, eye doctors to
pediatricians. And the services would
be available for all Upriver residents.
This is why, for the past two weeks,
O’Mara has been holding meetings in
Swisshome, Mapleton and Deadwood
to get feedback on what issues the
community is facing regarding health-
care, and what services could be
added to the facility to help.
The Swisshome meeting began
with a question from O’Mara:
“What’s going good with healthcare?”
“I don’t think there is (anything
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SHELTER 9A
Behavioral health for kids could
turn into a medical revolution
good),” Pastor Bryan Moore said.
Currently, the only medical help
that is immediately available in the
area is the Swisshome-Deadwood
Rural Fire Protection District. Dave
Green, who volunteers for the district,
talked about some of its strengths and
weaknesses at the meeting.
“What I’ve been seeing is, we get
these call outs for general illness,”
Green said. “They stay at home two or
three days and then call the ambu-
lance to come up there.”
The district’s responders, as well as
medics from Florence, do treat the
patients.
“Our people are there within 15
minutes,” he explained. “It takes 30
minutes for the ambulance to get
there. By that time, our people have
been there, they’ve got them all
assessed. The medics arrive and treat
them. If they need something, they’ll
take care of it.”
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
Florence’s Emergency Cold Weather
Shelter is ready for business as cold
weather begins to descend on the coast.
“We are now prepared to open,” Pastor
Greg Wood, president of the program,
said.
While the temperature has not dropped
to levels that require the shelter to open
this winter, it’s been dangerously close.
“The weather prediction for a night this
week was 34 and then 35,” he said. “It
was bouncing all over the place. If it had
called for rain, we probably would have
opened.”
The shelter is opened when the temper-
ature reaches 32 degrees or less. The rea-
son for the cutoff, Wood explained, was
due to advice from medical professionals.
“Originally the Emergency Cold
Weather Shelter Board consulted with
emergency room doctors at our hospital
and they said 32 degrees, when it’s freez-
ing, is the most dangerous time for people
out on the streets,” he said. “That was
chosen as the cutoff point.”
But 32 degrees is flexible when rain is
factored in.
“If it’s 35 degrees and pouring rain,
folks may not have the capability to dry
out,” Wood said.
When the temperature will lower to 32
degrees this winter is still anybody’s
guess, according to Wood. The first two
years it was open, it was only needed
three nights. Last year, it was open 22
nights.
FESTIVAL 10A
Upriver community plans future of healthcare
B Y J ARED A NDERSON
Siuslaw News
MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
The reasons why the community
relies on emergency services for even
the simplest medical care are varied.
“People can’t afford to drive to
Florence,” Moore said.
A one-way drive to Florence from
Upriver can take up to an hour.
Because of time, difficulty and cost
involved with the trip, some Upriver
residents simply wait until the illness
becomes too extreme, in which time
they call emergency responders.
Costs of the actual medical care can
also be a barrier. Getting insurance
can be difficult for those without
knowledge of the system, or even
access to it. Internet access is sparse
in the region in even the best of cir-
cumstances, with cell phone service
spotty at best. Because of this, pro-
grams like the Affordable Healthcare
Act are difficult to apply for.
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UPRIVER 8A