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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 2017)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS SATURDAY EDITION ❘ DECEMBER 30, 2017 ❘ $1.00 HAPPY NEW YEAR M ONDAY , J AN . 1, 2018 127TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 104 SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON Florence City Hall to begin remodel in January KXCR welcomes new board, station manager Updates include renovations to basement, ground floor and addition of council chamber B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News O n Dec. 18, Florence City Council approved a remodel to Florence City Hall, 250 Highway 101, totaling $2,992,900. Construction will begin in mid-January and take 11 months to complete. During construction, Florence Justice Center, 900 Greenwood St., will house 11 city employ- ees, including those working in the city manag- er’s office, human resources, information tech- nology and finance. The new Public Works Facility, 2675 Kingwood St., will house customer service and the planning, building and code enforcement departments, as well as the Public Works staff. Staff will transition into the new sites beginning Jan. 8. City council members awarded the project bid to Par-Tech Construction, out of Oregon City, Ore., which submitted the lowest bid. The project includes a ground floor renovation, a basement remodel, a new roof, improvements to the current east side of the building and the construction of a new council chamber to the west. The project will also help visitors navigate City Hall, with a clearly marked public entrance. City of Florence began exploring the necessity of a new city hall in 2015, when city staff worked with hsr/Waterleaf to conduct a needs assessment for both current needs and a 20-year projection. The current City Hall is 50 years old, and was completed in 1967. Over the years, it has housed city services and the Siuslaw Public Library. “In the time since, we’ve had very little mod- COURTESY IMAGES Above, HGE Inc. architects’ rendering of the remodeled Florence City Hall building, though not the final colors. Right, Florence City Hall circa 1967. ernization except the bare neces- sities,” said Florence Project Manager Megan Messmer. The assessment made clear that the existing floor plan is inefficient and needs be reconfigured to accommodate city staff. “Per that assessment, the recommendation was to remodel the current structure, rather than build new somewhere else,” Messmer said. “It was their conclusion that the current site of City Hall has sufficient size and could meet the estimated staffing and space requirements for a population increase of double or more our current size, if remodeled and with an addition added to the west.” According to the staff report, the cost per square foot for the remodel project is $260 for the remodel of 9,100 square feet of the existing building and a 2,400-square-foot expansion, totaling 11,500 square feet. The total project should cost less than half of what it would cost to build a new city hall, which would require additional staff time, site analysis, a possible bond measure and take up to 18 months to construct. KXCR, Florence’s nonprofit community radio station, is in the process of expanding the opportunities for area B Y M ARK B RENNAN residents to participate in Siuslaw News the programming and technical production at the station. The station is approaching its fourth anniversary and is reaching out to the community to help keep the station on the air and connected to the listeners it serves. Maggie Bagon has been involved at KXCR since its inception. She is currently a board member and host of a weekly Bluegrass show, “Montana Maggie.” Bagon is hopeful that recent additions to the board, and a more people-friendly attitude at the station, will translate into wider partic- ipation by local residents in the station’s day to day operations. “I am really excited that we have a new, more diverse board,” Bagon said. KXCR’s board of directors now has four women. “I think having a more inclusive board is a good thing. We’ve added new board members that are vibrant and have the time, the energy and the interest in growing community radio,” Bagon said. See RADIO 6A Western Lane board accepts See CITY HALL 8A resignation, Downtown Revitalization Team promotes Florence questions overtime Community invited to Small Business Revolution reception Jan. 3 at Florence Events Center B Y C HANTELLE M EYER Siuslaw News The City of Florence may be featured on season three of Small Business Revolution’s “Main Street” TV series. In order to increase Florence’s chances beyond the top 10, the Downtown Revitalization Team (DRT) held a showing Thursday night at City Lights Cinemas, where people were encouraged to ask questions. DRT Chairwoman Ellen Huntingdon introduced the series to the nearly full Theater Four at City Lights. “I was blown away by the ener- gy and enthusiasm that I saw,” Huntingdon said. “I did not expect a packed theater, and I am truly moved by the dedication of this O REGON community.” DRT invited the public to attend the informational meeting one week before Small Business Revolution conducts a site visit next week. City Lights played two episodes of the web series, which is available to stream on Hulu. “It was a very exciting event, and inspiring for me to see how far the word has spread and how energized our local community members and business owners are,” Huntingdon said. “Last night I saw a packed theatre filled with local leaders eager to take their business to the next level. That hope and desire is a very powerful thing, and this is what could boost us into the top five.” Early in the selection process, local businesses were encouraged to fill out a short survey about their business and Florence. Now, everyone in the community is invited to engage in a social media campaign to boost awareness of all that Florence has to offer. “Get on any social media account and share what you love about working, living or owning a business in Florence, with the hashtag #MyFlorence and tagging @smallbizrev,” Huntingdon said. “You just need to talk about the town you love.” During the site visit starting Jan. 3, representatives from the Deluxe Corporation and Small Business Revolution will tour Florence and interact with poten- tial businesses. Huntingdon said, “The main event to participate in will be the RAISES AGE TO 21 welcome reception for Deluxe next Wednesday. The goal of this reception is to gather the town together so they can get a feel for the community. Since they are only here for a very short time with a packed schedule, they’ve found that these town gatherings are the most helpful portion of their visits to show them who we are.” The reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Florence Events Center, 715 Quince St. All are welcome to attend. In addition, DRT is asking Florence business owners to be open and in their place of business during Deluxe’s tour of Florence on Thursday, Jan. 4. See Western Lane Ambulance District (WLAD), held its December board meeting at noon on Thursday at B Y M ARK B RENNAN Siuslaw Valley Fire and Siuslaw News Rescue (SVFR) Station No. 1. All currently seated directors and a small group of EMTs attended the meeting. There were no members of the public in attendance. The meeting began with Western Lane Administrative Assistant Karin Guy making a short statement sharing her appreciation for the work done by the district and the EMTs she works with at the office and in the field. Guy then unexpectedly tendered her resig- nation, providing no details as to the reason or motivation. Guy is the second administrative employee of the SVFR or WLAD to resign in the past two months. Reports from Chief Director Jim Langborg, who provides administrative oversight to both SVFR and WLAD, followed and MAIN STREET 6A See DISTRICT 8A FOR NICOTINE PRODUCTS J AN . 1 Local tobacco retailers have already seen the impact of the change, which took place in Lane County earlier this year B Y J ARED A NDERSON Siuslaw News INSIDE The legal age for tobacco prod- ucts and inhalant delivery systems will be raised in the State of Oregon from 18 to 21 on Jan. 1, becoming only the fifth state to do so, along with California, Hawaii, Maine and New Jersey. Tobacco is one of the biggest pub- lic health threats facing the world, according to the World Health Organization. It kills more than 7 million people per year, with 6 mil- lion of those deaths resulting in direct tobacco use. Each year, Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B7 A3 A4 A2 890,000 people die as a result of non-smokers being exposed to sec- ondhand smoke. By raising the age to 21, tobacco use as a whole is expected to decline by 12 percent in the U.S. and pre- vent 223,000 deaths, according to a report by the Institute of Medicine. The report stated that nearly 90 percent of smokers reported having tried a cigarette before the age of 19, and nearly all before the age of 26. While the public health benefits of raising the minimum age are well documented, many Oregon retailers are bracing for a possible economic downturn due to the new law, but Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B This Week on the Coast . . . . A6 Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Florence retailers aren’t worried. In fact, they’ve already been restricting tobacco use to 21 and over through- out the year. In April, Lane County raised the legal age to 21. “We haven’t had any negative things come out of it,” said Anthony Kimme, manager of the Mini-Pet Mart in Florence. “No fallout. I’m still ordering $30,000 worth of ciga- rettes once a week. It hasn’t affected my sales as much as people previ- ously thought prior to the law.” One of the reasons for the soft decline in sales is there aren’t too many people between the ages of 18 and 21 in Florence, Kimme noted. THIS WEEK ’ S “Obviously, there are younger people coming in here as well,” he said. “But not much is going to change, being a community with so many people that are over the age of 50.” Another reason that Kimme isn’t seeing a flood of complaints comes from national statistics. Teenage smoking has fallen drastically in the past few decades. In 1997, 25 per- cent of 12th graders smoked. In 2015, the rate dropped to six per- cent. And the rates continue to drop. If there are complaints that Kimme sees, it’s from the 20-year- old age group. TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 50 36 52 39 52 41 52 42 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 “I’ve had a few issues with people who say, ‘So, I’ve been buying ciga- rettes for two years, and now I can’t?’ Well, the law changed. You have to abide by the law, otherwise you lose your license to sell,” he said. If there is one nicotine product that has seen negative impacts from the law, it’s with electronic ciga- rettes, also called e-cigarettes. These are battery-operated devices that create a nicotine-infused vapor that is inhaled. The process is commonly referred to as “vaping.” S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS ❘ 20 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2017 See NICOTINE 8A
