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WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ DECEMBER 27, 2017 ❘ $1.00
December
WATCHING
school activities FOR WHALES
INSIDE — SCHOOL ZONE
127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 103
A LL
SPORTS — B
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
Ancient timber recovered
from the Siuslaw River
THE TRIMMINGS
Elks Lodge Christmas dinner offers traditional favorites
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
On Saturday, workers from Bartermover and Thomas Custom Docks reclaim pilings
from the original Ferry Street landing on the Siuslaw River.
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Members of Florence Elks Lodge No. 1858 pre-
pared and provided a free Christmas Dinner,
with all the trimmings, to friends and neighbors
on Monday.
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
lorence Elks Lodge No.
1858’s annual Free
Community Christmas
Dinner took place Christmas
Day at the lodge on 12th
Street, with some interesting
changes to both the menu and
the manner in which it was
served to hundreds of appre-
ciative residents.
Bob McDuffy and Larry
Osgood have been volunteer
cooks at the Elks Lodge for
the last few years, and the two
F
T HE
I S
shared some of the
techniques and back-
ground information
that make the free
dinner one of the
most popular com-
munity gatherings of the year.
“It takes about 80 of us to
prepare and serve this meal,”
McDuffy said. “To get the
food ready, there are usually
about eight of us and we start
a few days ahead of time, so
we can get every thing ready
in time for the meal. This
year we expect to serve more
than 700 people.”
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
The group provides 18 30-
pound turkeys and six 18- to
20-pound hams.
Volunteers use every bit of
the turkeys for everything
from carved white and dark
meet to gallons of stock for
making gravy.
See
DINNER 7A
Some long-lost pieces of
Florence history were recov-
ered from an ancient, watery
grave this past weekend.
Owners Al Thomas, of
Thomas Custom Docks, and
Chet Wilson, of Bartermover,
spent much of the day
Saturday removing dangerous
and potentially destructive
logs from the Siuslaw River,
immediately west of the
bridge.
Thomas has been hired by a
local landowner to remove a
number of submerged logs and
trees from the river, and from
around their dock, to eliminate
any chance they will interfere
with ships in the waterway.
“What’s happening is the
pilings are breaking off and
they are trapping logs and
debris, which is a danger to
navigation,” Thomas said.
“So, these logs are coming out
and will be milled and turned
into usable lumber. They will
be valuable from a historical
perspective, as these logs are a
real piece of history.”
Wilson is a salvage expert
and colleague brought in by
Thomas to assist in removing
the logs from the river. He is
planning on recycling and
reusing the recovered wood
for new projects.
“These logs and that dock
were placed in the river in
1937. It was the landing for the
ferry that people used before
they opened the bridge in
1938,” Thomas said. “It took
us about six months to get
where we are now. We brought
in the Army Corps of
Engineers, state land officials
and an archeologist. In addi-
tion, every thing had to be doc-
umented and permitted before
we could get to work.
“We located and mapped
every post, its longitude and
latitude, and so we know
where everything is, every pil-
ing. We had to since it’s an his-
torical site.”
See
RECOVERY 7A
JUGGLING ACT OF JOBS
COASTAL LIVING IN JEOPARDY ?
P ART VI
Businesses large and small struggle with the boom and bust of a tourist economy
B Y J ARED A NDERSON
Siuslaw News
Blaise Khufu couldn’t find a job.
When he moved to the Siuslaw
region in 2003 with his wife and kids
from San Francisco, he had no idea the
difficulties he would face.
“I was trying, but there was no
employment,” he said. “I couldn’t
believe it. I’d never had problems
finding work before. I went from get-
ting a job anywhere and doing almost
everything to even not being able to
get a job at McDonald’s. And that feel-
ing of, ‘Oh my God. I have a baby. I
have to do something.’ It was really
NOTICE
EARLY NEW
YEAR DEADLINE
INSIDE
Siuslaw News is joining other
area businesses by being closed
New Year’s Day, Monday, Jan. 1.
Advertisements, news items and
display advertising, as well as line
classifieds and legal notices,
should all be submitted by 10 a.m.
Friday, Dec. 29, to accommodate
deadlines.
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4
Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Kid Scoop . . . . . School Zone
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5
tough.”
Since then he’s been everything
from a weed puller to a bartender. His
most recent role is that of entrepre-
neur, owning the Siuslaw Riverside
Eats & Drinks, located in Historic Old
Town Florence. It’s the role he’s most
proud of.
“I run a little sandwich shop,” he
said. “We specialize in fresh made
soups and sandwiches. Our specialties
are sandwiches of the world:
American, Vietnamese, Italian. We
want to throw something new into the
mix of Bay Street and Florence. That’s
pretty much our mission.”
But it’s a hard mission to accom-
plish.
Khufu, along with other businesses
in the region like Fred Meyer, Breen
Marine and Top Hydraulics, have seen
some tough trends in the community
to overcome when it comes to jobs.
But there’s also optimism in the
business community.
“This place has great possibilities
and it just wants to burst into the
future,” Khufu said.
“Sink or swim”
Teri Easton has lived her whole life
in Florence.
“In the golden years in Florence, we
had the lumber mills,” she said. “We
had fishing. Tourism was not even
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
really thought of back then. There
were various mills up and down
Highway 126 which kept this commu-
nity going. When we lost that, it was
huge. At that time, my dad was super-
intendent for one of the mills in town,
and he was making far more than I
would even think about making now.
Slowly, little pieces of the pie are
going away. We just don’t have the
draw.”
When Easton was growing up, she
did various service jobs throughout
town until, in 2000, she was hired as a
part-time employee at Fred Meyer,
which is now one of the largest
employers in Florence. Now, she’s the
human resource manager and holds a
unique insight into the “boom and
bust” nature of the region’s job mar-
ket. She also knows why the work-
force decides to move to the area.
“If you’re from Alabama, why do
you end up in Florence?” she finds
herself asking new applicants. “What
did you do, pick up a map and pick a
place?”
She finds two groups of employees
come to work for her. The first is
retirees.
“We hire quite a few retired people
part-time who are looking to supple-
ment to their income,” Easton said.
Supplementing retirement income
is key to a city like Florence.
THIS WEEK ’ S
According to num-
bers provided by
Lane
County
Regional Economist
Brian Rooney, 75.6
percent of American
household income
comes from earning,
i.e. bringing in
money from a job. In the City of
Florence, it’s only 49.6 percent.
The largest economic driver in
Florence comes from Social Security,
which makes up 58.7 percent of a
household’s income, compared to 29.8
percent in the U.S. Retirement
incomes makes up 35.1 percent, such
as pensions or 401ks, compared to
only 18.1 percent nationwide.
But, as the pension system disap-
pears and retirement savings accounts
waiver in bull and bear markets,
“retirees” find themselves working
later in life.
A 2015 study by the Pew Research
Center found that 44.6 percent of
Baby Boomers continue to work. In
the Silent Generation, those 72 and
above, 3.7 percent work.
However, most older people are
generally not looking for full time
work, from what Easton sees at Fred
Meyer. The part-time work they look
for is just to supplement their income,
or to provide a social outlet. The
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
51 41
52 48
54 44
50 41
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
majority of the workforce at Fred
Meyer comes from younger genera-
tions. Some of those younger workers
have opted to remain in Florence after
graduating high school instead of
going to college.
“Not every kid is cut out to go to
college,” Easton said. “There are the
Fred Meyers and the casinos of the
world that can offer a career to those
kids. I was one of those kids. It’s not
that I wasn’t smart enough to go to
college, I just met my boyfriend and I
wanted to stay here. This is where my
family was.”
As for the others who come in?
They’re moving in with their parents.
In a 2016 study by the Pew
Research Center, 32.1 percent of peo-
ple age 19 to 34 years, known as mil-
lennials, were living with their par-
ents.
And it’s not just millennials.
S IUSLAW N EWS
3 S ECTIONS ❘ 20 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2017
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WORKFORCE 6A