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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2018)
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018 — S TATE OF THE C ITY 2017 — Top Hydraulics, 3235 Pacific View Drive within the Pacific View Business Park in Florence, held its official ribbon cutting on Friday in celebration of the completion of its new state of the art production facility, which had its last inspec- tion earlier that day. A crowd of community members, representa- tives from local and regional gov- ernments, nonprofit organizations and construction businesses attended the event for the company, which creates replaceable car parts for convertibles. Klaus Witte, who owns the company with his wife, Maria, thanked people for their continued sup- port of the project, recounting the efforts put forth by the community to get the facility from concept to build in just a matter of months. It was a herculean effort, according to Witte, with careful coordination between City of Florence officials and contractors playing a key role in the company’s creation. The result, Klaus said, was a company that can provide living wage jobs to the community. “As we all know, living wage and stable jobs are important for Florence,” he said. “It’s important to give kids at school a perspective that they can have a place to come back to. Which brings me to our staff, which is why we’re doing this. A company’s staff is its most important asset, and by that measure, Top Hydraulics is rich.” Address from 1A Top Hydraulics held a ribbon cutting on Feb. 2 to celebrate passing its final inspection on the building where it manufac- tures parts for convertible vehi- Backstreet Gallery - The Place to Shop! Unique Gifts for Every Occasion! 1421 Bay Street, Old Town, Florence Exceptional, one of a kind gifts, handmade by local artists! Cards, prints, and original art, photography, pottery, fused glass, night lights, scarves, felting, ^VVK[\YUPUNHUKJHY]PUNQL^LSY`°IVVRZ 541-997-8980 www.backstreetgallery.org cles. In addition, Siuslaw Broadband, doing business as Hyak, is using the business park as the hub for its fiber-optic high-speed internet pilot proj- ect. “In the next months, you’ll see some very exciting things happen in the City of Florence that will support all of the three legs of economic development, which are workforce, jobs and housing,” Henry said. “We went for a number of years without working on any of those in our community, so it’s really difficult to work on all three of those at the same time. You want to create jobs, but you have no workers or housing for them. I think we’re making progress on all three fronts.” Goal No. 4, Communication and Trust, showed that the city is becoming more accessible and user-friendly with a new full-time IT manager, a new city website at ci.florence.or.us and increased social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Vimeo. In addition, the city has a monthly newslet- ter to show current projects. “We’ve made great strides in 9 A PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON/ SIUSLAW NEWS (Above photo) After the State of the City Feb. 5, Florence City Council met to swear in new councilor Woody Woodbury (front, center). He joins (back row) councilors Ron Preisler, Mayor Joe Henry, Joshua Greene and Susy Lacer and will work with City of Florence staff. Afterwards, the city honored Florence Police Department’s Commander John Pitcher for his 30 years of service to the Florence com- munity. improving that communication and level of trust where people in our community feel they can go to the city. The city can’t always give us everything we want as citizens, it simply can’t do it, but people can come away thinking, ‘At least they tried to help me accomplish my goal,’” Henry said. He also said that success in communication is due to the city’s media partners — Coast Radio, KXCR and Siuslaw News locally, as well as with TV stations in Eugene and Portland — and renewed rela- tionships with regional part- ners. Financial and Organizational Stability is Goal No. 5. Along with continuing its sustainable long-term financial position, the city also adopted a biennial budget and new work plan, hired several new posi- tions and looked into system development charges and utility rates to decrease barriers to development. “We’ve made great progress there,” Henry said. “We’ve accomplished an awful lot with- out having to go to the ballot for any new taxes. This has been County from 1A “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,” Bozievich said. Lane County began the 2018 strategic planning process on Jan. 3 with a work done through good financial management and working as a team with the council and staff.” Henry thanked both the members of the city council and staff for working together in 2017, and said 2018 will see more work on each of the five goals as well as other topics of interest to residents. “We have a housing issue in our community,” Henry said. “I don’t like to refer to it as a ‘cri- sis,’ but it is an issue, especially in the range of affordable hous- ing. You will find as we go through the next few months that we are working hard to address that on several fronts.” Henry also said that the rea- son the city didn’t hold a larger State of the City Address this year is because the Jan. 3 recep- tion for the Small Business Revolution team was so suc- cessful. “I was so proud that nearly 700 people turned up to show what our city is all about,” Henry said. “These people were excited and supportive of our community — and what could be a better example of the state of our city?” For people hoping to pro- mote Florence’s bid to become the next featured city on “Small Business Revolution — Main Street,” a webseries on Hulu, keep an eye on the city’s Facebook page and other social media. The final five are set to be announced Feb. 13. At that point, the winner of “Main Street” season three and the recipient of $500,000 for its small businesses will be deter- mined by a popular vote. If Florence makes it into the top five towns, people will be asked to vote online for their favorite town. “The success we have experi- enced has only been achieved by working with our local, county, regional and state part- ners,” Henry said. “You will see our dream is no longer a dream, but is instead a daily reality that has turned into action and results. Today I am pleased to tell you that we can truly say that we are ‘A City in Motion.’” To watch Henry’s State of the City Address, as well as the city’s other videos, visit ci.florence.or.us. Videos nor- mally get posted within one week. session. It also held focus groups with the community and with staff to gather input about the strengths and weak- nesses of the current strategic plan, as well as opportunities and threats out on the horizon. On Feb. 27, the Lane County Board of Commissioners will have a presentation of the Draft 2018-2021 Strategic Plan with the hope of a final adopted plan in early March. “Our vision is that Lane County is the best county to live, work and play,” Bozievich said. “Achieving that vision requires all of us, from the coast to the Cascades, to help set the pri- orities for our future and work together to make it a reality.” For more information, visit www.lanecounty.org. theshedd.org/JazzKings Free Jazz Tickets for Students program The Emerald City Jazz Kings A Pocketful of Dreams! Bing Crosby & The Classic Songbook Sunday, February 11, 2 pm matinee Florence Events Center 541.997.1994 www.TheSiuslawNews.com
