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SATURDAY EDITION | OCTOBER 13, 2018 | $1.00
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INSIDE — A8
SENIOR
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& A9
128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 82
Nov. 6 General Election
Voter registration
deadline is Tuesday
People who are not registered to vote in any
Oregon county may register online at oregon-
votes.gov no later than 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, Oct.
16. The online option is available only to those
with a valid Oregon driver’s license, DMV-issued
identification card or learner’s permit. The next
election is upcoming on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Other registration options:
• Submit a voter registration form to the Elec-
tions Office by 5 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16.
• Mail a voter registration card to the Elections
Office with a postmark no later than Tuesday,
Oct. 16.
New voters who will turn 18 on or before the
Nov. 6 Election Day can register by the Oct. 16
deadline and receive a ballot, even if they are still
17 on the deadline date.
See VOTER INFO page 10A
Siuslaw School Bond
would finance
upgrades at all three
district facilities
One of the local measures on the November
ballot asks Florence residents to invest heavily in
By Mark Brennan the educational future of
area students. Measure
Siuslaw News
20-291 requests invest-
ment from taxpayers
in the amount of $108,700,000, with the length
of the bond issue being 31 years. The requested
amount will finance major structural upgrades at
the Siuslaw elementary and middle schools and a
complete replacement of the high school.
Measure 20-291: Bonds to Construct and Up-
grade School Facilities, Improve Safety
Shall Siuslaw School District issue
$108,700,000 in general obligation bonds to
construct, expand and remodel facilities, im-
prove safety, and enhance curriculum? If the
bonds are approved, they will be payable from
taxes on property or property ownership that
are not subject to the limits of sections 11 and 11
b, Article XI of the Oregon Constitution.
If passed, the cost to voters will be $2.72 per
$1000 of the assessed value of property owned.
A property valued at $300,000 would have a
monthly tax responsibility of $68 and a total cost
for the year of $816.
The $108 million requested in Measure 20-
291 would be divided between the district’s three
schools. The elementary school is slated to re-
ceive $18,925,269, the middle school improve-
ments are estimated to cost $1,333,329 and the
majority of funds, $88,359,075, would be allocat-
ed for a complete replacement of the high school.
According to Siuslaw School District admin-
istrators and independent consultants hired to
assess and analyze the structures and surround-
ing areas owned and operated by the district, the
need for significant improvements at all schools
SPORTS — B
Worth his salt?
“T
o make sure everybody is on the same
page that we are on our timeline, we so-
licited designs for our new logo from the stu-
dents, community, staff — anybody could turn
By Jared Anderson in a logo,” Mapleton
School District Super-
Siuslaw News
intendent Jodi O’Mara
said. She was speaking
at the Mapleton School Board meeting this past
Wednesday, where the future of the Salty the
Sailor logo, which has adorned the center of the
high school gym floor since the late 1970s, was
expected to be decided.
She had prepared a presentation going over
seven logos that the student body had chosen
the day earlier out of the 12 that had been sub-
mitted to the school. Three logos had renditions
of Salty, one had an anchor, another a battleship.
Two logos focused on the letter “M.”
The students had the opportunity to vote
for the original Salty design, with his bell bot-
tom pants and determined grin, but they voted
against it.
After presenting the designs, O’Mara turned
the discussion over to the board of directors.
“So, it’s up to us to decide our favorite, us four
here?” board member Michelle Holman asked.
“Yes, as we are the representatives of the com-
munity,” Board President Mizu Burruss said.
“It’s not just the students here now that this is
a decision for. It’s for all the past, as well as the
future students.”
The four board members (new member Mary
Ellen Mansfield was absent) heard a slew of
comments regarding the possibility of changing
Salty over the past week.
“I’m so sick of this stupidity! Leave it alone!”
read one comment on the Facebook page “You
know you’re from Mapleton, Oregon when…”
There were 87 comments in total, many of
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/SIUSLAW NEWS
Salty the Sailor was painted on in the 1970s
on Mapleton High School's gym floor.
which simply stated, “Keep Salty.”
Burruss had received 20 comments from
community members on this issue.
“Every single email I received wanted some
version of Salty kept,” she said. “Some of them
were, ‘Well sure, but add a female version as
well.’ Every single one did want a Salty, an actual
person character as a mascot.”
But the conversations that followed covered
the difficulties in keeping the mascot. Much
of the public discussion had been focused on
gender, but there were other considerations in-
cluding race, disability and America’s changing
culture.
INSIDE
Mapleton contemplates
Salty the Sailor’s fate
Even religion played into the discussion when
it was mentioned by an audience member that
the school’s often-used anchor symbol could be
considered a Christian symbol, which the board
hadn’t been aware of.
By the end of the meeting, a decision had not
been reached.
A special session on the topic is now sched-
uled for Tuesday, Oct. 30, as it was clear that the
board needed more input from the community.
While it was difficult to say where the board
members were swaying on the issue, Holman
said, “I don’t see the human floor in the center
of the gym anymore. I just think it’s a different
time. I respect where people are coming from,
and their attachments to the past. But, a lot of
schools are going to letter logos for very reason-
able reasons.
“I can’t tell what’s going to happen over the
next week, but just to be inclusive I don’t see
how Salty could represent everybody. It’s just
not possible.”
The discussion will be open for the next few
weeks, and it is not expected to be an easy one.
The goal is to create an environment that fosters
an inclusive atmosphere for everyone. But in the
process, it’s possible that many may feel the ex-
act opposite, whatever the outcome may be.
“I think that the discussion is actually divisive
and difficult,” Burruss told the Siuslaw news a
day after the meeting. “I don’t know if people
will feel closer together after this, which I regret.
But I also don’t feel like we can shy away from
these kinds of discussions and decisions, and I
do think that there are real things that prompted
us to have this discussion. You have to have the
hard discussions, too. We wouldn’t be doing our
job if we didn’t think about it and talk about it.”
Mapleton needs to talk about Salty.
See SAILORS page 7A
Western Lane Chief named EMS Administrator of the Year
Chief of Operations Matt House receives statewide recognition for leadership
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
Western Lane Ambulance District
(WLAD) Chief of Operations Matt
House received recognition this month
for his leadership as the recipient of the
2018 Emergency Systems Administra-
tor of the Year Award from the Oregon
Health Authority.
The award is given each year to the
individual that has distinguished them-
See SCHOOL BOND page 11A
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5
Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
People in Business. . . . . . . A8-9
FLORENCE, OREGON
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B4
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
This Week on the Coast. . . . . A6
COURTESY PHOTO
THIS WEEK ’ S
Western Lane Ambulance District
Chief of Operations Matt House
(center, with certificate) was
named the 2018 Emergency
Systems Administrator of the Year.
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
73 44
72 47
73 47
72 47
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
selves in the management of an Emer-
gency Services Organization during the
previous year.
House was nominated by staff and he
believes the award speaks primarily to
the high quality of his team, rather than
his individual contributions.
“To me this is not an individual
award. It’s more that it symbolizes that
we as an organization are going in the
right direction as a district,” House said.
“And even though I am singled out as
Administrator of the Year, I don’t inter-
pret it that way; I interpret it as a district
award. I believe in the old saying that
great leaders have great teams and I am
just a small part of that equation.”
See AWARD page 10A
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