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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2018)
4 A ❘ SATURDAY EDITION ❘ FEBRUARY 3, 2018 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Oregon Group Publisher 541-265 8571 Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Consulting Editor 831-761-7353 Email: echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager James Rand Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classifiedad,sThursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-weeks subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription,$99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-weeks subscription, $29; Out of State — 1- year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com L ETTERS LETTERS L OVE THE PEOPLE IN OUR TOWN Florence is the best place on Earth to live and is the 11th city that I’ve lived in. Last Monday, I had loaded brush and trash weeds with heavy dirt in my long- bed truck from a big pile at the Methodist Church. I was at the county landfill unloading with still 2/3 of the load left when two men came out of nowhere and said they were there to help me. They then took out the rest of the heavy material. One man, Don, told me his name. He and his friend are affiliated with the Christian Church and I feel blessed to have been rescued by them. They had been working on a roof and still had time and energy to help me. Thank you, thank you. I love this town and the people who live here! —Nancy Rickard Florence E DITOR ’ S MESSAGE AT ODDS WITH POLITICAL CARTOONS In his Jan. 31 editorial “Finding com- mon ground...,” Siuslaw News editor Ned Hickson bemoans the ascendance of political affiliation over national. On the same page there was a most distasteful political cartoon which only advances the trend bemoaned in his edi- torial. A responsible media would be dig- ging into the “secret society” rather than a ludicrous “dossier” funded by the DNC. The FBI has always been a political organization ready to advance its agen- da. Hoover kept files on everyone and planted salacious rumors to advance personal, FBI or party agendas. Thankfully, a somewhat more responsible media with longer lead times more often than not gave them the exposure they deserved: The spike! —Ian Eales Florence Y OUR INPUT IS NEEDED As an elected representative and advocate for West Lane County, it is important to me that coastal residents’ priorities for the future of our commu- nity are included in Lane County’s effort to update its three-year strategic plan. A strategic plan will set the priorities for Lane County’s work during the next three years. The previous plan set out a Safe and Healthy County, Vibrant Communities and Infrastructure as the most critical areas on which to focus. That focus led to improved financial stability, economic development efforts focused on rural communities, expan- sion of our Community Health Centers and so much more. I urge all Lane County residents to make their voices heard by participating in an online survey at bit.ly/Lane CoSurvey before Feb. 9. The results from the survey, along with those from a survey of employees — and feedback gained during focus groups — will inform a draft 2018–2021 strategic plan that will be presented during the Feb. 27 Board of Commissioners meeting and refined for eventual adoption this spring. Our vision is that Lane County is the best county to live, work and play. Achieving that vision requires all of us, from the coast to the Cascades, to help set the priorities for our future and work together to make it a reality. —Jay Bozievich, Chair Lane County Board of Commissioners Y ES , OF COURSE IT ’ S POLITICAL County residents showed up at the Jan. 30 County Commissioner’s meet- ing to express their outrage at the lengthy wait for a work session they had requested, at the Jan. 9 meeting. The work session to discuss the com- missioners’ referral of the Freedom from Aerial Herbicide Spray Ban to the November ballot had been scheduled for May 23, after the May primary elec- tion — a four-month wait. Chairman Bozievich lost his compo- sure, saying he was likely to pull the work session altogether because, to him, the spray ban proponents were using the primary election as a political ploy. Of course it’s political. Don’t 15,000 citizens who signed the petition demonstrating that aerial spray- ing of toxic chemicals is an important issue to them have the right to know where the commissioners stand on this matter — before we vote in May? Commissioner Williams also stated that spray ban proponents were making the spray ban political. The spray ban is a health issue, but of course it’s politi- cal! Corporate timber interests have invaded our government structures and have legalized protections to the harm- ful practice of herbicide spraying in our forests, impacting the health, safety and welfare of area residents and the envi- ronment. Yes, of course it’s political. —Michelle Holman Deadwood C REATURE OF THE B ELTWAY Fact-checking Trump confirms, at the very least, that core entertainment val- ues are more important than reality for many of his supporters. For example, why was there no clap- ping when Trump failed to mention a word about his gutting of the two, key new Dodd-Frank post-crisis agencies charged with developing standards to reduce national financial risk and pro- viding more useful information, among existing entities, such as the the Federal Reserve system? Those agencies are the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) and the Office of Financial Research (OFR). Their staff budgets are not financed through taxes. Only major “too-big-to- fail” banks, with budgets in the billions, pay a levy toward financing these post- 2008 financial crisis agencies. The FSOC brings together heads of eight distinct federal financial regulato- ry agencies, the U.S. Treasury secretary and an independent member with insur- ance expertise, to analyze or reduce potential threats to financial stability. They are joined by various nonvoting members — including three represent- ing state financial regulators. The OFR, also created by the Dodd- Frank Act, was to serve as the FSOC’s data-driven research arm. It has author- ity to collect data from financial sector institutions. It was designed to perform long-term applied research on financial stability risks. It coordinates the distribution of this remarkable data to all involved. Major parts of the OFR and FSOC staffs were literally packing up as Trump applauded himself ... which, in a family setting and with national cover- age in an age of nondisclosure agree- ments, is all that we should expect. —Rand Dawson Siltcoos lake T RANSPORTATION ISSUES OVERLOOKED There was a great series of articles written by the Siuslaw News about the problems that we face on the Oregon Coast. But what I did not see in the nine- week series was anything about trans- portation. Florence is a prime example why we are unable to bring new business enter- prises or keep those young workers who have moved into our town; we do not have any transportation. There are no bus, train or airline serv- ices that provide any real transportation in and out of Florence. North Bend air- port will have some convoluted service to SFO and Denver in October. The Eugene Airport is about an hour-and-a- half drive from Florence, and most of the flights leave at 6 a.m. Once you have a flight, if you want to go anywhere, you must fly to Portland, Seattle or San Francisco to make con- nections to your destination. At times, I have even had to fly to Salt Lake or Denver. This past September I flew to Bozeman, Mont. I got a flight from Eugene to Portland, then Salt Lake City, and then Bozeman, which was fine. However, coming back I flew from Bozeman to Salt Lake to Seattle to Portland and then to Eugene. With the time I spent in the air and on the ground, I could have flown to Paris and would have had a few hours to spend on the ground. Transportation is a problem. —Win Jolley Florence TO THE P OLICY E DITOR The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters or poetry, or letters from outside our readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS : Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accu- rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and per- spective rather than partisanship and campaign- style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and plat- forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid polit- ical advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite- ria. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line: 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753/FAX: 202- 228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio ( 4 th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov State Sen. Arnie Roblan ( Dist. 5 ) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@ state.or.us State Rep. Caddy McKeown ( Dist. 9 ) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown @state.or.us West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@ co.lane.or.us
