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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2019)
SN SATURDAY EDITION | JANUARY 5, 2019 | $1.00 THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM TH Siuslaw News Delbert L. "Del" Phelps Real Estate BROKER “I love to help people buy and sell property” Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate 1875 Hwy 101, P.O. Box 276, Florence, OR. 97439 Cell - 541-991-7787 dphelps@bhhsnw.com • oregoncoastallistings.com W EEKLY C ALENDAR I NSIDE A member of the franchise system of BHHS affi liates, LLC Keeping the doors open VOL. 129, NO. 2 SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 F LORENCE , O REGON Volunteers staff Cape Perpetua during multi-week government shutdown By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News WEATHER Evening rain with a high of 52 and a low tonight of 42. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS Lila Chambers and Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessy are two of the many volun- teers who help keep Cape Perpetua open and running all year. The partial shutdown of the U.S. Federal Government is entering its third week and the effects of the shutdown on consumers and trav- elers will become more widespread as the funding impasse continues. The U.S. Department of Agricul- ture (USDA), is one of the depart- ments affected by the shutdown and many national parks are either not operating or limiting services and park access. This is not the case at one of Or- egon’s most visited tourist destina- tions, The Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve. The reserve and surround- ing forest remain open primarily because of the dedicated volunteers that staff the busy visitors center at the site. The popular location in- cludes a marine reserve, two Marine Protected Areas, a Seabird Protec- tion Area, a campground and an ex- tensive hiking trail system. The Cape Perpetua Marine Re- serve is overseen by the State of Oregon, but the adjoining for- est and campground is staffed by employees of the USDA, which has not received funding as of Friday at press time. The site en- compasses 2,700 acres of coastal habitat and the location was iden- tified by early explorer Captain See PERPETUA page 5A FEMA Coastal Flood Map ready for public feedback By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News In September, the Feder- al Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and a varied assortment of civic entities, coordinated a well-attended public forum at the Florence Events Center on the area’s flood risk. The purpose of this interactive and informational meeting was to gather profes- sionals from city, county, state and the federal government together to assist residents with understanding, and act- ing upon, the many different Three Rivers Casino Resort features live music in January INSIDE — A3 SPORTS aspects of living in a coastal floodplain. A main thrust of the open house was the presentation and explanation to the public of new digital techniques for mapping Lane County’s coast- al flood plain, along with pro- viding updated information for community emergency response and risk mitigation strategies. These more accurate maps will be used to determine new insurance coverage areas and the rates to be assessed in those areas. The 90-day Comment and Appeal periods started for unincorporated areas of Lane County and Florence on Dec. 18 and is expected to start for Dunes City on Jan.16. David Ratte is the Regional Engineer for FEMA Region X and he was the main presenter at the September forum. He wants the public to be aware of the need for the changes to the last Flood Plain Map and is hopeful that res- idents will benefit from new information regarding mitiga- tion opportunities and chang- es in the physical areas updat- ed by FEMA. “FEMA’s goals include de- veloping credible flood haz- ard risk data based on the best available data and using sophisticated modeling tools to share with community offi- cials and the public so that in- formed decisions can be made relative to addressing the flood risk,” Ratte said in an email. “Hopefully, those decisions can lead to greater prepara- tions and mitigation efforts in advance of the next flood event in coastal Lane County.” The improved mapping aspect of the process will un- doubtedly have a major im- pact on individual homes and businesses in the coastal plain areas, including areas in and around Florence. The City of Florence was well represented at the open house, with employees from the Planning Department and City Hall on hand to answer questions from residents. Florence City Planner Wendy FarleyCampbell over- sees much of the staff work done for the city in this area, and she recommends resi- dents, particularly those that have property interests on See MAPS page 8A Jeopardy, guns and chaos Viks open Basketball season this week INSIDE — SPORTS Behind the scenes of Siuslaw News’ biggest series of 2018 By Jared Anderson & Ned Hickson Siuslaw News RECORDS Obituaries & emergency response logs Inside — A2 W hen Siuslaw News was putting together its list of the top stories of the year, we grappled with how to incorporate the number of special series included in our coverage in 2018. Most of them, sans “Chaos in the Community,” weren’t “breaking news” stories and didn’t really fit within the “top stories” format of a tradition- al Year in Review. But a good deal of those stories were among the most read stories of the year. We decided to take a different ap- proach and, rather than an overview or wrap-up of those special series stories, we thought it would be inter- esting to provide a behind-the-scenes look at three of our top series this year, explaining why we covered them as part of a series, how they were writ- ten, their effect on us as journalists as well as some of our readers and, most importantly, what we learned from them. We’ll also talk about special series work in general, the series that didn’t get published, and the future of special series coverage at the Siuslaw News. So, sit back, relax and join us for an inside look at some of the special SIDE SHOW Activities and comics every Saturday Inside — B5 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices Inside — B6 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : /S IUSLAW N EWS @S IUSLAW N EWS T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM series coverage of 2018, why and how we wrote them — and the possible im- pact they each had on our small cor- ner of the Oregon coast. S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 16 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2019 “Is Coastal Living in Jeopardy?” (Nov. 14, 2017, through Jan. 17, 2018) When 2018 began, we were in the middle of the biggest series we had ever started, “Is Coastal Living in Jeopardy?” Like most of our series, “Jeopar- dy” wasn’t meant to be a multi-part article at first. We were speaking to a shop owner who had a customer that worked full time but was forced to sleep in her car due to troubles afford- ing rent. We knew there were housing prob- lems, having reported on it from time to time through our coverage of the City of Florence, but the full extent of the issue was unclear to us. Our plan was to do a small story on a few folks having troubles. So, on Halloween afternoon, just as the kids were setting out to trick- or-treat, we spoke with Bob Teter and Dianne Huenergardt of Siuslaw Outreach Services (SOS) about what they were seeing — and what they told us was devastating. They paint- ed a portrait of a community within our larger community that included people working 60 hours a week and yet were forced to live in their cars. Some residents hawked donations just to pay off rent, while others panhandled just to pay utility bills. They didn’t say this for shock value; the conversation was measured. Matter-of-fact. And a reality they had become accustomed to. We went to the city and spoke with Flor- ence Planning Director Wendy FarleyCampbell about what we were hearing. Some of her stories were even more disconcerting. The city viewed the housing crisis as intrinsically linked to employment and education in the region, and there were no easy fixes. It should also be noted that neither the city nor SOS referred to it as a “crisis,” but an rather an “issue” or sometimes a “crunch.” It became clear to us that just a few articles wouldn’t be able to cover the scope of the problem, so we got out a whiteboard to plan out the series, as- signing sections to different reporters. At first, we were thinking about a six- part series. By the time we published our first article, that jumped to eight. The series finally ended with nine parts and more than 70 pages of text. Despite our planning, the series was ever-evolving. We made an open call at first, hoping for stories from peo- ple who were directly affected. People didn’t want to talk. Many considered their circumstances too shameful to admit. The style of the series was also of point of debate in our newsroom. If we had started with SOS’s description of the issue, we were concerned it would appear like an intentional horror show aimed at polarizing people and even creating panic — the complete oppo- site of what we or the organizations we were talking with wanted. On the other hand, if we didn’t come out strong, we feared the issue could be ignored or not taken serious- ly. So, we opted to just lay out the truth right from the beginning so readers knew the honest scope of what we were hearing and the community was facing. See SERIES page 5A BOOK YOUR DREAM VACATION NOW – CALL FOR LIMITED TIME SAVINGS Grand Alaskan Cruise & Tour $ 12 days from 1,849 * $ 1,599 Departs June - September, 2019 * Enjoy a spectacular cruise & tour between Seattle and Alaska including 7 nights aboard Holland America Line’s ms Westerdam and 4 nights on land. 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