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969 Willagillespie Road
Eugene, OR 97401
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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
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