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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.
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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
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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
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DISTRICT 8A
FOR NICOTINE PRODUCTS J AN .
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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,
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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
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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.
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“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.
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“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.”
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