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128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 45
FLORENCE, OREGON
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
Police prepare New transmitter installed on Glenada Hill
Oregon Coast
for National Central
Amateur Radio Club
gets grants, support
Night Out
for new repeater
August event set to strengthen
relationship between Florence
Police Department, community
At Monday’s council meeting, Florence Police
Chief Tom Turner approached the Florence City
Council about gar-
By Chantelle Meyer
nering interest in the
Siuslaw News
National Night Out
held in August.
“National Night Out is an annual communi-
ty-building campaign that promotes police-com-
munity partnerships and neighborhood camara-
derie,” Turner said. “It is celebrated by more than
38 million neighbors across 16,000 communities
in all 50 states and we are very interested in par-
ticipating in it.”
This is the program’s 35th year, but the first for
Florence. The event is set for Tuesday, Aug. 7, at
Miller Park from 6 to 9 p.m.
Turner said that School Resource Officer Bran-
don Bailey and other officers in uniform will pro-
vide community interaction, a free barbecue and
games. Attendees of all ages will be welcome.
According to the National Association of Town
Watch, “National Night Out enhances the rela-
tionship between neighbors and law enforcement
while bringing back a true sense of community.
Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to
bring police and neighbors together under posi-
tive circumstances.”
There will be displays from Florence Police De-
partment and Florence Public Works, as well as
other community groups who decide to join.
See NATIONAL NIGHT page 7A
Workshop discusses
‘End of Life’ issues
INSIDE
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act, enact-
ed in 1997, has proven to be a model for other
states seeking a way
By Mark Brennan
to address the is-
Siuslaw News
sues that arise in any
discussions centered
around end of life decision making.
There are aspects of the original law, however,
that have come to the attention of those working
in the field, or with those attempting to utilize the
law, that has raised concerns.
The requirements of the act are very specific
and, under the law, a competent adult Oregon
resident who has been diagnosed, by a physician,
with a terminal illness that will kill the patient
within six months may request in writing, from
his or her physician, a prescription for a lethal
dose of medication for the purpose of ending the
patient's life. Additionally, the patient must be
determined to be free of a mental condition im-
pairing judgment.
Then, if the request is authorized, the patient
must wait at least 15 days and make a second oral
request before the prescription may be written.
See WORKSHOP page 7A
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Kid Scoop . . . . . . School Zone
Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A5
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
C
ommunication is central to hu-
man success on Planet Earth.
The ability to share information
from one individual to another, and
between groups of people in differ-
ent places, has elevated our species
to a position of dominance and
control around the world.
Electronic and digital technolog-
ical advances are an important part
of this equation and Florence has
recently added another level of so-
phistication to its worldwide digital
communication footprint.
The Central Oregon Coast Am-
ateur Radio Club, (COCARC) has
added an additional repeater to the
local antenna array that translates
and rebroadcasts radio signals. CO-
CARC supports an Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES) and Ra-
dio Amateur Civil Emergency Ser-
vice (RACES).
Bob Pine, the emergency co-
ordinator for West Lane ARES/
RACES, believes this additional
piece of equipment will allow for
significantly better communication
in the region during an emergency
situation.
“Florence’s new amateur radio
digital repeater on Glenada Hill
will extend existing emergency ra-
The antenna on Glenada Hill, pictured across Siuslaw River from
Historic Old Town Florence, now features a new repeater.
dio communications coverage to
Mapleton, Dunes City and west
Lane County,” Pine said. “The new
repeater also helps facilitate com-
munications with the Lane County
Emergency Manager’s office in Eu-
gene.”
He said the repeater uses Yaesu’s
“Digital Fusion Technology.”
“This is equally exciting for local
ham radio operators as the Wires-X
system allows any amateur radio
operator to enjoy world-wide com-
munications using only a 5-watt
digital handheld transceiver from
anywhere within the west Lane
community,” Pines said.
ABOVE PHOTO BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
There are non-emergency uses
for the newly installed equipment,
which can be utilized at events or
training exercises that might bene-
fit from continual communications.
“The new capability was put to
good use during the recent Dunes
City Triathlon/Duathlon, when
COCARC used the repeater to
provide complete communications
coverage of both the entire bicycle
and running courses,” Pine said.
“Twenty members of the club were
positioned throughout the course
to provide instant status and emer-
gency reports on the racers.”
See RADIO page 7A
COURTESY PHOTO
Residents could put STAR Voting on November ballot
Proponents say it is ‘A step toward freeing people to vote for their favorite candidates’
By Jared Andersen
Siuslaw News
H
allie Roberts believes that
STAR (Score Then Auto-
matic Runoff) Voting will revo-
lutionize the way people vote in
Lane County, and throughout the
entire country.
“People are aware of the prob-
lems with our voting methods,”
Roberts said. “We end up with
results that are not really what
the people wanted. If we can im-
plement a system that will lead us
to more broadly favored candi-
dates winning, I think our polit-
ical process will be reinvigorated
and people will be inspired to be
a part of the process once they see
it’s working more smoothly.”
Roberts is the campaign man-
ager for STAR Voting, which was
created by political scientist Alan
Zundel and Mark Frohnmayer, a
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
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THIS WEEK ’ S
Eugene entrepreneur and creator
of the organization Equal Vote
Coalition.
The three are looking for signa-
tures for an initiative that would
both change how county officer
elections are held, and how Lane
County residents would vote for
those candidates.
Roberts said the system has
the potential to save candidates
money while campaigning, great-
ly reduce voters and candidates
gaming the political system and,
eventually, doing away with the
need for partisan politics all to-
gether.
It’s a tall order, particularly
when looking back at the difficul-
ties that have faced the American
electorate in the preceding de-
cades that have created labels like
“spoiler candidates” and “strategic
voting” that many believe point to
fundamental flaws in how Ameri-
cans choose their elected officials.
But is STAR really the right
choice to fix these electoral ills? Is
it a fool proof system, or are there
lingering issues about the process
that still need to be resolved? To
find that answer, it’s best to look at
what the STAR system is and how
it relates to the electoral problems
of the past.
The System
Roberts will tell anyone about
STAR. In an attempt to gather sig-
natures for the group’s initiative
in hopes of getting STAR into the
November election in Lane Coun-
ty, she has been using every trick
in the book to get the word out,
from online videos to newspaper
interviews.
“I’ll even go to your house to
help explain it to you,” she said.
The initiative she is advocating
for is broken into two parts, the
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first of which is to do away with
May primaries for the non-parti-
san Lane County races for com-
missioners, sheriffs, assessor and
district attorneys.
Instead, the votes would take
place during the main November
election.
Currently, these races are most-
ly decided in May. If a candidate
wins the race with a plurality of
votes, that person becomes the
winner.
In the example of the May West
Lane County Commissioner race
between Jay Bozievich, Nora Kent
and Beverly Hills, Bozievich re-
ceived 55.75 percent of the vote,
compared to Kent’s 38.61 percent
and Hills’ 5.39 percent. Bozievich
received over 50 percent, so he
will move alone to the November
general election ballot in Novem-
ber, clinching the win.
See STAR page 8A
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