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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2018)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM | SIUSLAWNEWS | SATURDAY EDITION | JUNE 16, 2018 | $1.00 @ SIUSLAWNEWS Schultz & Associates Law Center, P.C. Invites you to a FREE Estate Planning Workshop on Wills, Trusts & Nursing Home Asset Protection Learn How to Protect Your Assets and Provide For Your Loved Ones Tuesday, June 19 1:30-3:30 PM or 6:00-8:00 PM FLORENCE EVENTS CENTER 715 Quince Street • Light Refreshments Provided Seating is Limited! Registration required. www.schultz-law.com or (541) 485-5515 969 Willagillespie Road Eugene, OR 97401 17 e n u J , y a d n u S 128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 48 FLORENCE, OREGON SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 ‘To safeguard and secure Florence’ Former Fire Chief Skip Passenger, who served for 30 years, passes By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News F ormer Florence Fire Chief Skip Passenger passed away June 3 in Eugene. Passenger had been a first-re- sponder for Florence fire departments, in differing capacities, for some 30 years before his retirement in 2002. Passenger moved to Florence with his family as a child in 1952 and lived PHOTO BY MICK SNEDDON Chief Verne Passenger Sr. (left), and Assistant Chief Verne “Skip” Passenger Jr. (right) stand next to Rescue 16 during the Florence Rhododendron Parade around 1982. here until 2002 when he moved to Eugene. He was a well-known and respected member of the community, serving at various times on the Siuslaw School Board and the Port of Siuslaw Board of Commission, in addition to his duties at what was then Florence’s City Fire Department. Skip’s brother, Brad, served along- side him for 10 years and is still struck by the determination Skip had as a youth, which carried through his adult years as well. Brad remembers spending a great deal of time as a family beachcomb- ing and speaks fondly of a particularly successful day on the sand. “One time I went out with my dad and Skip, and we found and collected more than 400 glass floats off of the beach. There were a lot more fisher- man then, and a lot more floats were being used. We didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it seems incred- ible that we would have found that many in one night, but we did,” Brad said. Skip joined the fire service in 1972, serving under his father, Verne, who was fire chief at the time. Skip fol- lowed in his father’s footsteps, taking over as fire chief after his father retired in 1996. See PASSENGER page 6A Dunes City could place a minor levy on property owners in November vote By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News An upcoming vote at Florentine Estates regarding the future of rental properties has created some friction among its resi- dents. The measure, wherein ballots are due on June 22, asks if the estate of 449 lots should continue to allow certain rental properties in the estate. The measure doesn’t ban all future rental properties and allows current properties to exist. However, it does seek to curtail the number of rentals allowed in the future, as well as the circumstances that allow them. Chuck Waide, a director who sits on the Florentine Estates Homeowner Association (HOA) Board, said, “There are very strong feelings on this, obviously both ways.” “It’s all-out war,” one opponent to the measure said. Several Florentine resi- dents, who asked not to be identified, are opposed to the measure and contacted the Siuslaw News about the voting process, stating there was possible corruption in how the vote is being handled. Accusations of voter intimidation, using HOA funds for propaganda and corporate takeovers of the small retirement commu- nity have been bandied about. But finding evidence of these claims has been difficult. Waide and Florentine’s general manager, John Nelson, hadn’t heard these claims before the Siuslaw News contacted them. But they also stated that there has been some misinformation in the minds of proponents who are for the measure. Both sat down to talk about the story of the “rental ban” vote, which is an interesting study in the pitfalls of civic engagement. See FLORENTINE page 7A On June 13, Dunes City Council approved a pair of ballot measures to be placed on the city’s November general election ballot, the biggest being a new option levy that serves as a property tax for Dunes City residents. While most residents cringe at the idea — the city does not have an established proper- ty tax —the levy would be one of the smallest property taxes in the nation. The levy is not meant to give the city any meaningful amount of funding. In fact, Dunes City only expects to receive around $1,200 annually in total from the levy, which consists of a $0.005 tax rate per $1,000 of as- sessed property value. Instead, the purpose of the levy is to con- tinue to receive thousands of dollars from Lane County. The reason behind the levy goes back to 2007, according to Dunes City Administra- tor Jamie Mills. Before that, Lane County allowed all cities to collect shared tax reve- nue from cigarette, liquor and gas and other taxes, with no strings attached. The amount of money coming in wasn’t small change. Anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 was given to Dunes City on any given year, which helped the city keep afloat. But around that time, the rules changed, Mills said. Only cities that had property taxes could collect the shared funds. Since Dunes City never had any property taxes, it should have been cut off from the funding. Except it wasn’t. At the time of the change, there was what some describe as pandemonium in the city. “There were differences of opinion on the future direction of the city,” Mills said dis- creetly. See LEVY page 9A INSIDE Florentine Estates deals with complex ballot issue Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Father’s Day Letters . . . . . . . . C Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4 MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS F lorence’s new Goodwill, 1310 Highway 101, restores a long-vacant building in the Florence Urban Renewal District. Several hundred area business members, representatives and shoppers attended the new thrift store’s grand opening on June 14. The new location also offers a Goodwill Job Connections Center to help educate and equip job seekers in the Siuslaw Region. For more information, see story on page A3. Summer meals for students begin Monday Locations include Siuslaw schools & Siuslaw Public Library By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News There are some issues that all Americans agree upon. One of these is the belief that children should not be hungry. The United States is the world’s second most productive agricultural economy, behind only China. We produce enough food domestically that there is no logi- cal reason for any child in America Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B This Week on the Coast. . . . . A6 THIS WEEK ’ S to go to bed hungry. However, No Kid Hungry, a national children’s advocacy group, has determined through accumulated research that 22 million students rely on free or reduced-cost lunches and 12 mil- lion rely on free breakfasts, most provided by public schools. In addition, three out of four public school teachers say they have students that regularly come to school hungry. Siuslaw School District Super- intendent Andy Grzeskowiak sees this need on a daily basis. “With the level of poverty in our community, there is a great amount of food insecurity for many chil- dren. Over 60 percent of our stu- dents qualify for free and reduced lunch during the school year — and that need does not go away during the summer,” he said. See MEALS page 9A TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 63 53 71 54 66 54 69 55 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 S IUSLAW N EWS 3 S ECTIONS | 24 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