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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 2018)
SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2018 | 7A SURVEY from page 1A To that end, he sponsored and helped pass a bill that authorizes an additional $15 million, above what has been approved by the federal administration, for Ore- gon ports. $837,000 of this new- ly authorized money will make its way to the Florence area to dredge the route from the port to the open ocean. DeFazio is an active advocate for the numerous small towns, like Florence, that count on the revenue from fisherman and tourists to sustain and grow their economy. “Our ports along the Oregon coast are the lifeblood of coast- al communities, and our coastal infrastructure supports commu- nities all throughout the state,” DeFazio said. “These critical in- vestments will boost safety for our recreational and commercial fishing fleet, as well as create and sustain thousands of jobs tied to cargo, recreation and industrial and other activities at Oregon’s ports.” Port of Siuslaw Manager Dave Huntington was pleased to re- ceive the news regarding the unexpected monies obtained by DeFazio, as the federal ad- ministration had designated no funding for water-related main- tenance in Florence during this fiscal cycle. Huntington discussed the work now underway at the port and the upcoming work at the North Jetty. “We are in the process of doing a bathymetric survey where we plan to do some dredging, when DUNES CITY from page 1A “I do think something is nec- essary because it concerns me that, without anything in place, there could be a serious prob- lem,” City Council President Robert Orr said. But the agreement with the county has many drawbacks, according to council members, including price, regulatory over- sight and the ability to pay for the program. A final decision on the IGA was tabled until further consid- eration could be taken. The discussion began with Councilor Duke Wells asking how many complaints come into city staff regarding animal con- trol issues. “It varies, and it runs in spurts,” our water works window opens, which is from October to Febru- ary,” Huntington said. This survey analyzes the depth of the river bottom and helps form a topographical map. “We get approximately 5,000 cubic yards of sediment that col- lects in the port area on a yearly basis,” Huntington said. “I believe it’s been nine years since this ma- rina has been dredged, so it is long overdue.” Huntington went on to point out that the accumulation of de- bris is not only a hazard to safe navigation, but it is also a limit- ing factor in generating revenue for the port. “There are certain sections of the dock where we can’t rent out slips at this time because it’s too shallow due to built-up sedi- ment,” he said. The solution to this problem begins with the work Huntington is doing, using a simple technique to map the dock area of the port. His decision to utilize equipment aboard his own boat will signifi- cantly simplify the overall pro- cess. “We are using fish finders on my boat to map the bottom of the river throughout the marina,” he said. “We are marking GPS points and then taking a reading. Then we take the information from the bathymetric survey, which tells us after we dredge, how much material has been taken from the river.” Huntington believes the need for dredging at small ports may have been missed in the federal budget, but not by DeFazio. “Siuslaw, Gold Beach and Ban- said Dunes City Administrator Jamie Mills. “When we get one complaint, we start getting sever- al. They start rolling in, and then they stop for a while. We might get one call a year, we might get a bunch of calls. You never what’s going to happen.” Because of the sporadic nature of the issues, the IGA calls for billing the city on an “as needed” basis, instead of an annual fee that would provide services year- round. However, the price for per-ba- sis enforcement was consid- ered too large by many council members. The hourly rate for enforcement services comes in at $133.18 per officer, per hour. That rate is calculated from the time the Lane County Animal Services Welfare Officer is dis- don were cut out of the of the budget this year, they actually had zero funding in Trump’s budget,” he said. “Peter Defazio is one of those guys that works very hard for small coastal ports like ours. He shows strong leadership on issues for our region, and this is a good example of that commit- ment. I think he understands how important dredging is to smaller ports that really depend on it, like the Port of Siuslaw.” In April, De Fazio and U.S. sen- ators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merk- ley wrote a letter to Army for Civ- il Works Assistant Secretary R.D. James, urging the administration to fund critical navigation needs of Oregon’s small coastal ports. The additional $5.6 million was authorized as a direct result of the Oregon delegation’s efforts. These additional funds will all go to Oregon’s coastal ports. “I’m pleased that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included $837,000 for critical navigation needs to ensure the safety and navigability of the Siuslaw River, including dredging, jetty moni- toring and infrastructure man- agement,” DeFazio said. “These investments will ensure that the local recreational and commer- cial fishing fleet continues to have safe passage to fishing and crabbing grounds, and it will sus- tain jobs directly tied to econom- ic activity at the Port of Siuslaw. “This is exactly the type of in- frastructure investment we need more of across the country and I will continue to fight for these smart investments on the Trans- portation and Infrastructure Committee.” patched. Dunes City Mayor Robert For- sythe questioned what would oc- cur if an officer was on the other side of the county at the time of a call. It’s possible the control officer would require a three-hour com- mute just to get the city, let alone take care of the problem. The cost for one officer per incident could potentially cost city tax- payers more than $1,000. The council was also hesitant to move forward with a decision because Lane County would re- quire the city to follow the coun- ty’s own codes. “We have to adopt everything the county does, even just for those special circumstances,” Councilor Susan Snow pointed out. Saturday, September 8, 2018 At Florence Golf Links Florence, Oregon FUUF to learn ‘key to thriving’ On Sunday, Aug. 12, from 10 until 11 a.m., at the Florence Unitarian Univer- salist Fellowship, Dr. Ruth Miller will lead the worship service. Her message is titled: “Resilience: The Key to Thriving.” Before becoming a min- ister, Miller studied and practiced the systems sci- ences, within which a basic principle, called resilience, explains when and how a system thrives. She also studied ecology, and it turns out there is a similar theory in that field. Miller will share the the- ories and how they apply to our world — and actions —today. The fellowship is located at 87738 Highway 101 at Heceta Beach Road and is wheelchair accessible. Each service concludes with refreshments and a dialogue circle to explore the ques-tions that come up during each worship service. For more information, visit www.florenceuuf.org. Spirituali-Tea to explore topic of wealth On Monday, Aug. 13, be- ginning at 6:30 p.m., all are invited to join a group of people who enjoy finding the common grounds in di- verse spiritual thoughts and paths. The meeting is at 875 Seventh St. in Florence. The topic is “Wealth.” “As an individual fortu- nate enough to have been raised with both the mate- rial comforts of the United States as well as the spiri- tual teachings of the Baha’i Faith, I often think about the rela-tionship between wealth, poverty, and spiri- tuality,” said James Heintz, who hosts the Spirit-ua- li-Tea gatherings with his wife, Suzanne Mann- Heintz. He continued, “A num- ber of questions naturally arise when considering this: Are wealth and material development important, or Those regulations are found in Chapter 7 of Lane County Code, which specifically deals with animal control. The 14- page document has regulations on issues such as animal neglect, abandonment, biting and other dangerous behaviors. The code also has dog licens- ing requirements, which Dunes City currently does not require. The council has displayed aversion to such requirements in the past. In 2005, the city passed spe- cific code regulating animal con- trol issues, but it was repealed in 2017 due to it being “intrusive, unnecessary and expensive to enforce,” per the appeal. “We don’t have any staff to take care of the problem,” For- sythe said. “What if something happened to staff on the job, or tore up city property or severely injured staff? We’re not insured for that.” As of now, the only real en- forcement of animal issues rests in the hands of the Lane County Sheriff ’s Office. In case of a life-threatening emergency, Forsythe explained that the department would send an officer to determine what ac- tion should be taken. But if it’s a situation that does not need the endangerment threshold, city staff would be forced to intervene. However, without an official written code, simply a distraction from spiritual development? Is it wrong for one to enjoy physical comfort and mate- rial prosperity? Is choosing to renounce the material advancement of the West, for example, by moving to a less developed part of the world a noble sacrifice or an unnecessary infliction of physical suffering upon oneself?” Throughout the history of religion, wealth and spir- ituality have often appeared to be in conflict with one another. One of the most well- known Christian verses supporting this notion is Je- sus Christ’s ap horism that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24, King James Bible). This sentiment is simi- city staff are helpless in issuing citations. Even if the city were to draft code, its ability to impose it would be limited. “If we wrote a citation, they may or may not pay it because we don’t have a way to enforce,” Forsythe said. This is because the city cur- rently does not have a proper ju- dicial system to enforce citations. In November, Dunes City has a ballot proposal that would help alleviate this problem, entering into an agreement with a munic- ipal judge that would hear cases brought by the city. While that would give city of- ficials more leverage in enforcing citations, it’s possible that the city could lose funding for staffing to enforce those citations in the first place. Due to a combination of a de- cade-old oversight and changing state regulations, Dunes City could stand to lose anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 an- nually. That money, which is di- vided out to cities by the state, is derived from a variety of shared tax revenue sources including cigarette, liquor and gas tax. The catch is, only cities with a property tax can receive those funds. Currently, the city does not have any sort of property tax. To help alleviate this problem, a second measure will be on the larly echoed by Baha’u’llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith, in his collec- tion of short spiritual max- ims and statements known as the Hidden Words. Baha’u’llah declares, un- ambiguously: “O ye that pride yourselves on mortal riches! Know ye in truth that wealth is a mighty bar- rier between the seeker and his desire, the lover and his be-loved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no wise attain the court of His presence nor enter the city of content and resignation.” Bring thoughts on the subject for open discussion. The gathering will end at 8 p.m. with prayers for the requests left in the Prayer Pole in the gar-den of the Florence Playhouse and those shared by the group. For more information, contact Suzanne at 541- 590-0616. November ballot. That measure would request a small levy of $0.005 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which would cost property owners anywhere from $1 to $10 annually, de- pending on property value. While the city does not expect a financial windfall from the residents themselves through the levy, the mere existence of a “tax” would allow the city to re- tain the state funds. “Those two measures are crit- ical to the existence of the city,” Forsythe said. “If we have no teeth in our codes, and no tax money so we can get people to do those things, then why are we here?” If the two measures don’t pass, Forsythe and Wells believed the future for animal control in the city could be grim. If the levy doesn’t pass, there would be no funds to pay for the IGA. If the municipal judge isn’t brought in, no animal code enforcement would exist. They also said that if neither measure passes, it’s possible the entire city could be dissolved. “We’ve been a bedroom com- munity for a long time, but the growing pains are getting ev- ident,” Wells said. “I don’t like larger government, but at the same time you have to have liva- bility. There are more and more people living in Dunes City. It’s not the same place that it was.” FREE ADMISSION Sponsored by August 18 & 19, 2018 Florence Events Center 715 Quince Street, Florence, OR Saturday, 10-5 • Sunday 10-3:30 A Charity Golf Tournament To Benefit SIUSLAW OUTREACH SERVICES FUNDS RAISED WILL GO TO HELP NEEDY INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES EXPERIENCING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, HOMELESSNESS AND OTHER FORMS OF CRISIS. Entry Fee: $99/ Player OR $396 Team of 4 Early Bird Discount if paid by 8/10/18: $89 per player OR $350 per team Register at Florence Golf Links or SOS. For more info call 541-997-2816 Florence Coin Show COINS, STAMPS AND CURRENCY Free Appraisals For more information contact: DENNIS HANKINS 541-401-0949 OR TERRY WOODWARD 541-997-2682 BUY - SELL TRADE