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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2018)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM | SIUSLAWNEWS | SATURDAY EDITION | JUNE 9, 2018 | $1.00 @ SIUSLAWNEWS F REE FAMILY FISHING Summer Home Improvement INSIDE SPORTS — B 128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 46 FLORENCE, OREGON SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 Code Enforcement delivers Old Town parking reminders A public work New Public Works Facility ‘A long time in the making’ Parking restrictions enforced all year, especially for RVs PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON/SIUSLAW NEWS H undreds of community members toured the new City of Florence Public Works Facility, 2675 Kingwood St., on Thursday, as city employees demonstrated the wide variety of services that go into making the city run. “I think it went extremely well,” Florence Public Works Director Mike Miller said. “This facility has been a long time in the making.” Along with tours of the new state-of-the- art and energy efficient building, multiple exhibits were set up on the 2.75 acre lot, demonstrating how the city accomplishes tasks such as stormwater management, street maintenance and sewer sanitation. The day began with an abbreviated open house for students from the elementary school. “They really enjoyed the lawn irrigation demonstration we set up, but I think what they enjoyed the most was climbing up, sitting in the equipment and pulling the chords for the airhorns on the rigs,” Miller said. With the start of tourist season, parking availability in Florence’s Historic Old Town area becomes a challenge By Ned Hickson for residents as well Siuslaw News as visitors, who often find themselves vying for the same spots to leave their vehicle while working, playing or simply residing there. To address some of the issues resulting from car owners leaving their vehicles parked in Old Town for extended periods, the city updated its parking restrictions in 2011 to include more stringent enforcement in an effort to rotate parking spaces on a regular basis throughout the day. Though these rules have been in effect for seven years, some recent activity on local social media this week made it clear that not everyone was aware of the restrictions, where those restrictions are enforced or what other parking options are available, particularly for those who live or work in the Old Town District. “I truly understand the plight of employees who work there,” said Florence Code Enforcement Of- ficer Dan Frazier. “If they get a $35 citation, that’s probably approaching half a day’s wages. I try to give verbal warnings as much as I can, but I have a job to do. I generally give a half-hour leeway to allow people extra time to move their car.” See PARKING page 9A Florence, NEDCO continue to Hundreds of new adventures await seek affordable housing funding Library endowment fund Proposed site could create 12 ‘cottage cluster’ homes provides 600 new books focuses on community eco- nomic development. It is based in Springfield and provides services in Lane, Marion and Clackamas Counties. It recently announced plans to merge with WNHS, a similar nonprofit that develops affordable renter- and owner-occupied housing in Benton, Linn and Lincoln Counties. Weese presented on the “Air- port Road Affordable Housing Development” proposal and talked about the history of the project. According to Weese, the city began working with NEDCO on a grant proposal that was due in January. While Florence did not win that grant funding, much of the work for the project will apply to a new Oregon Housing & Community Services Local Innovation Fast Track (LIFT) grant for affordable housing. “Never to be deterred, we are looking at partnering with NEDCO again for another po- tential grant alternative,” Weese said. The ability to transport ourselves to another time and another place is a dream that people have embraced for By Mark Brennan centuries. The most Siuslaw News common way that people accomplish this goal is by reading a book. Fortunately for Siuslaw region residents, the Siuslaw Public Library Summer Reading pro- gram has begun, and the first event on the dis- trict’s summer calendar was the presentation of nearly 600 new books for area readers to enjoy. The Pew Research Center has collated library data from across the country and reports that Americans still read printed paper books, al- though not in the numbers, or the frequency, they once did. Pew reports that in 2016, 48 percent of Americans visited a library in the previous year, with 64 percent of patrons borrowing a printed book. These research results are great news for Siu- slaw Public Library Adult Services Librarian Kevin Mittge. Mittge has the pleasure and pressure of buy- ing hundreds of books for the district’s perma- nent collection every year using money donat- ed by community members. Many of these volumes are purchased using funds generated from the district’s endowment fund, said Mittge, who has been overseeing the By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News INSIDE On June 4, Florence City Council approved a partnership with the Neighborhood Eco- nomic Development Corpora- tion (NEDCO) and the Willa- mette Neighborhood Housing Services (WNHS) to seek grant funding for an affordable hous- ing development in Florence. Part of the agreement involves a real property transfer of 1424 Airport Road from the city to NEDCO if the grant funding is approved within the designated timeframe. “I don’t have to tell the city council that affordable housing is a high priority item,” said City Recorder Kelli Weese. “There is vast community support in the need for housing solutions, and we feel this is an innovative solution with the potential to be replicable throughout Flor- ence.” NEDCO is a private non- profit that develops housing, helps with homeownership and Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 A3 A4 A2 Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Summer Home Improvement . A6 This Week on the Coast. . . . A10 NEDCO/WNHS will apply to the LIFT grant by the deadline of June 25. According to the staff report, LIFT grants are specific to pro- grams that develop affordable homeownership units for low- to mid-income families. Half of the allocated funding has a ‘soft’ set aside for rural communities under 15,000 population. Through LIFT, developers can apply for up to $75,000 per unit to pay for development costs associated with land ac- quisition, infrastructure devel- opment, system development charges, and other costs not associated with the housing units themselves. In return, the homes must be maintained as affordable for at least 40 years and sold and re-sold to home- owners below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). “During our earlier grant preparation, city staff and NED- CO representatives reviewed a lot of potential affordable housing locations,” Weese said. See HOUSING page 11A THIS WEEK ’ S TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 56 47 58 49 65 49 65 50 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 Jim Hoberg is a Florence native, and has been working in Real Estate since 1989. He has served as a Principal Broker for 29 years. He has obtained several designations that require continuing education, which keeps him on the cutting edge of the industry and he is constantly looking for ways to expand his areas of expertise. Jim enjoys helping people fi nd solutions to their real estate needs and discovering why Florence is such a great place to live. JIM HOBERG Broker/Owner MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS Librarian Kevin Mittge presented on the Siuslaw Public Library’s new endowment fund books at the start of summer reading. purchase of endowment books for the past 18 years. “The endowment was set up in 1994 and was started with a contribution from the Friends of the Library. Friends members have continued to make contributions every year, as have other organizations like Oregon Pacific Bank and the Florence Rotary Club, along with a lot of indi- viduals,” Mittge said. “That money goes into a fund at Western Lane Community Foundation, and every year we get a percentage of the inter- est. We spend two thirds of it on adult books and one third of it on children’s books.” See READING page 9A S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 22 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2018 • R ESIDENTIAL • L AND • C OMMERCIAL • P ROPERTY M ANAGEMENT 541-997-7653 • WWW . JIMHOBERG . COM 1870 H WY . 126, S UITE A • PO B OX 3040, F LORENCE , OR • F AX 541-997-7654