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INSIDE
❘ MARCH 3, 2018 ❘ $1.00
Community Job
Fair comes to
Three Rivers
INSIDE — A3
128TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 18
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
FLORENCE, OREGON
FRAUD ALERT
Rent fraud
scams couple
out of $2,500
Rental agencies, Florence
police warn of fraudulent
online postings
B Y D AMIEN S HERWOOD
Siuslaw News
When Dora Milner wired her final down
payment for a rental in Florentine Estates,
she was ecstatic to be moving into a beau-
tiful home in a gated community. Days
later, she found herself stranded indefinite-
ly in a hotel and $2,500 poorer.
The rental, it turned out, was not for
rent.
Rental scams are reportedly uncommon
in the Florence area and victims rarely
make face-to-face contact with the perpe-
trators. Though Milner never met the pur-
ported owner of the Florentine Estate
house, this alleged scam was given a
human face — a supposed real estate
agent, who was “a short woman with
short, black hair,” according to Milner,
was deployed for a meeting.
“They even had us go out and look at
[the house], but not on the inside,” said
Milner.
When Milner and her friends arrived to
view the house, the agent had no business
card, gave no name and claimed the house
keys were with a lawyer.
Nonetheless, Milner was allowed to tour
the house from the outside and peer
through windows to confirm the amenities
were all there.
Despite not going inside, the house
seemed a remarkably better option than
others Milner had seen.
“It was a really nice place,” said Milner.
“Real nice.”
Milner and her husband, who requested
to not be identified for this article, had
moved to Florence from Craig, Alaska, in
2012 for job opportunities. They felt the
apartment they settled in left something to
be desired as rent began increasing.
“Half the time you can’t even use the
bathroom because it’s all plugged up,” said
Milner. “We didn’t want to spend our
money there. They wanted $900 for a
junky apartment.”
Two weeks ago, Milner began using
local real estate agencies to search for
other housing options, but it was on
Craigslist that a home for rent in
Florentine Estates caught her eye. For
$625 a month, including all utilities, the
three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in a
gated community seemed a stroke of good
fortune.
See
I T ’ S
RENTAL 12A
Siuslaw Valley
responds to
large blaze on
Highway 101
PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON AND NED HICKSON/SIUSLAW NEWS
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue requested mutual aid to assist in
battling the structure fire at 1073 Highway 101 on March 1. Crews
remained on scene to conduct an investigation through Friday.
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Siuslaw News
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue
(SVFR)
responded
Thursday
evening, at approximately 6 p.m., to
a building fire at 1073 Highway
101. Upon arrival, fire crews found
heavy smoke coming from the unoc-
cupied business, most recently
known as La Bu La Restaurant, and
the building soon became complete-
ly engulfed.
INSIDE
The term “pest” is frequently
applied unknowingly to a group of
insects that are underappreciated and
extremely critical to human existence
— pollinators. Pollinators move
pollen from the male part of a flower,
the anther, to the female part of the
flower, the stigma.
This process, known as cross-polli-
nation, results in the fertilization of
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FIRE 9A
‘The Grange is a channel of giving back to our communities’
Ada Grange #570 is celebrating its 100th
anniversary this month, with a gala being held
today at the Ada Grange Hall.
The hall, which is
B Y J ARED A NDERSON nestled by the Siltcoos
Siuslaw News
Lake where Fiddle
Creek ties into the
lake, has been the home of various traditions
for the Ada area, which has included dances,
pie socials and theatrical productions over the
years. The hall has also played a vital role as a
place for Grange members to bring much
needed changes to the Ada area over the
decades.
“It’s just been such a big part of my life,”
Grange member Linda Pugh said about the
Wasps, flies, butterflies and, surprisingly,
bats are essential to the process
Siuslaw News
The fire at the structure was deter-
mined to be a potential safety hazard
due to a large HVAC unit on the roof
of the building and the nature of the
blaze. It was determined that, due to
the uncertain nature of the structural
integrity of the building, a defensive
posture would be the most effective
and safest approach to containing
the blaze which quickly spread
throughout the building.
Ada Grange #570 celebrates 100 years today
NOT JUST THE BEES :
B Y M ARK B RENNAN
Thursday night fire in vacant
restaurant now under
investigation by the
State Fire Marshal
the flower, allowing the plant to grow
and produce food.
Bees, wasps, ants, flies, mosqui-
toes, butterflies, moths and beetles are
the most common pollinators and
their efforts make possible the growth
of approximately 70 percent of the
fruits and vegetables that humans eat,
according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA).
The need for cross-pollination con-
tinues to grow as agricultural
demands increase, partially as a result
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organization. “It holds a special place in my
heart. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because
my folks have been members, or I’ve been a
member for so long. The Grange is a channel
of giving back to our communities.”
The Grange organization, officially known as
the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of
Husbandry, is a community organization with
its roots in agriculture. Last December, the
organization celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Ada Grange #570 was first organized in
March 1919 as part of the national Grange,
with the Grange hall being erected in August
of the same year.
See
P LIGHT
OF THE
of the desire for year-round availabil-
ity of crops that were once only avail-
able seasonally.
Perhaps most damaging is the
widespread use of pesticides to con-
trol wildflowers and weed growth in
agricultural areas. This has the dual
impact of poisoning the insects and
destroying the uncultivated grasses,
shrubs, and trees where the insects
live.
One of the major challenges facing
the agricultural sector is the decrease
of available pollinators, which are
essential to the process, mostly due to
parasite infestation and pesticide
THIS WEEK ’ S
ADA GRANGE 9A
P OLLINATORS P ART II
application.
The USDA reports that there has
been a decline from around 6 million
beehives, just after World War II, to
approximately 2.5 million hives in
2010.
This decrease has led to the mass
movement of hundreds of thousand of
hives each year, often over long dis-
tances, to meet the demand for sea-
sonally critical pollination.
The reduction in the number of
beehives is not the only challenge to
farmers, as there are numerous other
dangers to pollinators.
Many of these challenges are the
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JARED ANDERSON/SIUSLAW NEWS
result of over use of pesticides and the
destruction of pollinator habitats.
Andony
Melathopoulos,
an
Assistant Professor at Oregon State
University (OSU), works in the
Department of Horticulture and con-
ducts research on Pollinator Health.
He believes honeybee and other
pollinator populations are in less dan-
ger here in Oregon than in other geo-
graphical regions of the country due
to the longer growing season and the
wide variety of crops grown in the
state.
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POLLINATOR 8A