8A | SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS
MAPS from page 1A
one of Florence’s main streets,
to go online and check the
county’s newly posted Flood
Plain Maps.
“Property owners along
Bay Street will want to have
a look, as they are impact-
ed most by this map update.
Please visit the (county link)
for the background on how
and why FEMA created new
flood maps for Florence and
Dunes City and Lane County.
At the bottom of the webpage
the proposed map panels
for Florence are available,”
she said. “The Lane County
Floodplain comparison map-
ping tool link is handy for
seeing the before and after,
1999 to 2018.”
Ratte reinforced FarleyC-
ampbell’s observations and
agreed with her suggestions
to residents.
“Some property owners will
find that the updated flood
hazard areas now include
their property. If they have
federally backed mortgag-
es, lenders may now require
that they carry flood insur-
ance. But even if properties
are not in the FEMA-mapped
high-risk flood zones, lenders
could require owners to pur-
chase flood insurance,” Ratte
said.
He added that some prop-
erties may have been shifted
SERIES from page 6A
As word got out that we
were interviewing people,
accusations came out of the
woodwork. In the space of
one week, dozens of tips
came in about problems with
both campaigns. People who
were for Miltenberger agreed
to talk to us, but with grave
reservations because we
“weren’t a ‘liberal’ newspa-
per.”
Lucio supporters talked to
us on a whole host of issues,
but often refused to be on
record, stating that we were
“too liberal,” or out to de-
stroy the conservative candi-
dacy. There were also veiled
threats to sue us from both
sides if we got information
incorrect — something made
difficult because, in many
cases, we couldn’t use their
comments on record.
Lawsuits were not the only
threats we received on “Cha-
os.” Before anything was
published, Hickson received
anonymous phone messages
and notes stating we better
be careful with our report-
ing, “or else.” Hickson said it
was one of the few times in
his career when he actually
felt concerned for himself or
his reporters’ safety.
News was evolving rap-
idly, even up to deadlines.
As one reporter was writing
Part I the night before dead-
line, another reporter was at
a public city council meet-
ing, where Lucio supporters
called for Lacer and Greene’s
resignation.
Just over half of Part II was
written in a three-hour peri-
od before deadline because
campaign volunteer Terry
Tomeny, who had initially
asked Lucio to run, talked to
us that morning, shedding
light on issues we had been
previously unable to verify.
He said he talked to us be-
cause he was afraid for Lu-
cio’s safety.
This one was a hard piece
for the news staff, who live,
work and play in the Flor-
ence area like many of you.
We like everyone who was
involved. We’ve dined at
their houses, hung out with
them at social events and,
for those of us with hair at
least, have gone to their bar-
ber shop. These were not
only our neighbors and lead-
ers, but in some cases our
friends. In all honesty, when
the facts first started coming
out, some of the reporters re-
fused to believe it.
We had long discussions
about every time we dined
with them, gave them a
friendly hug. Was that the
right thing to do? If all this
“chaos” was going on, why
out of the flood
hazard boundar-
ies. He suggested
that these property
owners still consid-
er carrying a flood
insurance policy —
“given that numer-
ous flood claims
apply to properties
FEMA has worked to update the
located outside of
area’s floodplain maps. They are
the FEMA-mapped
available to view at ci.florence.
high-risk
flood
or.us and msc.fema.gov.
zones.”
The use of en-
“Hopefully, this update pro-
hanced data gath-
ering software, primarily vides residents of Florence,
from satellites using Lidar, a Dunes City and coastal Lane
mix of light and radar, pro- County with more informa-
vides significant new infor- tion on flood risks so that
mation for not only home- they can make informed de-
owners but for FEMA and cisions on protecting their in-
private insurance companies. terests and collaborating with
These detailed, high-resolu- each other and local, state
tion images will be used to and federal entities to reduce
provide insurance companies potential damages from fu-
and property owners with the ture flooding events.”
The release of these new-
most up to date and techni-
cally advanced geographic ly created maps by FEMA is
information available on the the most recent step in a pro-
Lane County coastal flood- cess that was designed to not
only improve the mapping of
plain.
This process will result coastal areas, but to also clar-
in changes to what can be ify what actions will need to
built, insured and used com- be taken from an insurance
mercially or residentially, on perspective, due to changes
many pieces of property in in the flood designation of a
plot of land.
the coastal areas of Oregon.
According to FarleyCamp-
“Overall, the updates show
reduction in exposure of bell, if property owners have
properties to areas of high- questions or a dispute with
risk flooding,” Ratte said. the updated designations,
didn’t we see it?
Much like in the film “The
Post,” we asked ourselves
“Are we too close?”
Today, locked away in
the office is information we
didn’t include and a list of
questions that went unan-
swered regarding the events
surrounding our “Chaos”
series. Some of the ques-
tions we openly asked in the
series, others are based on
“off the record” comments
we couldn’t divulge. There’s
only one copy of the docu-
ment. All the reporters cov-
ering city events have read it
so that they can keep those
questions in mind moving
forward.
In the end, one question
we should keep in mind as a
community is this: To what
degree — if any — should
partisanship play a role in
our local elections? Is what
happened merely a symptom
of the current national po-
litical climate, or something
else entirely?
We learned an important
lesson with the “Chaos” se-
ries about political writing.
People will be okay with get-
ting hit, as long as you hit the
other side as well.
We want the community
to know our Chaos series
was never about “going af-
ter” someone or some group:
it was simply to say, “This
is what we currently know
about the election, and it is
a mess.”
In the two months since
the November elections, we
have heard from councilors
that they will work to put
partisanship and the election
behind them. The city can’t
afford it. And at the Decem-
ber city council meeting, it
was as if the chaos surround-
ing the election was nothing
more than an interesting —
though disappointing — his-
torical footnote. The coun-
cilors got along, they worked
together, they joked around.
Perhaps the ugliness of the
election was just about that:
The election, and nothing
more.
We can only hope.
Future series
While the above articles
received the most pageviews
online, there were a num-
ber of 2018 series that we
were proud of. “In their own
words: Latinos in the Siu-
slaw” was a unique and inti-
mate look at a minority that
is often politicized, but sel-
dom understood.
“Plight of the Pollinators”
was a fun and popular two-
part series on how honey is
made and the ramifications
of a world without bees and
other pollinators, and “The
business of Marilyn” showed
a side of the art exhibition
world that never gets talked
about, even in the national
press.
“Intolerance” was an op-
portunity to explore an ex-
white supremacist and how
racism can be instilled into
youth through punk rock
music. We had actually
planned to turn that into a
longer series covering multi-
ple aspects of intolerance, but
two of the subjects we had
planned to cover dropped
due to possible controver-
sies. Just as we were about to
regroup, “Chaos” hit.
There were also series that
never materialized, such as
an ambitious, five-part series
on mental health in the Siu-
slaw region. We had a frank
and eye-opening discus-
sion with Peace Harbor staff
about difficulties in getting
treatment and had begun
work on studying the reasons
for — and effects of — sui-
cide in the region.
As we head into 2019,
we’ve begun to reevaluate the
place of special series writ-
ing. While they have certain-
ly made for some interesting
conversations, some readers
have voiced that they are too
long and unwieldy to digest.
Why the series are so
lengthy can be best de-
scribed by a conversation we
had with a reader, who said,
“God, they can be hard to get
through. But, by the end, I
feel I really understand the
subject.”
A series is our chance to
truly examine all of what we
know about a broader issue
and try to suss out what it all
means. And when we’re deal-
ing with complex issues that
can sometimes span years
of information and multiple
points of view, a 500-word
article isn’t going to cut it.
In fact, not including in-
formation can sometimes
make things worse.
We continue to value
your feedback as we begin
our 129th year of the Siu-
slaw News, and are grateful
for the readers who stuck
around for the series, as well
as the readers who let us
know they didn’t. Whether
long or short, multi-part or
300-word report, we con-
sider it an honor to write for
this community.
These series, among oth-
ers, can be viewed online at
TheSiuslawNews.com under
the Special Series Archive
page.
The town-hall debate on
guns can be viewed on our
Facebook page under the
video section.
that they submit to commu-
nity officials or directly to
FEMA.”
For more information on the
updated Flood Plain maps for
Lane County’s coastal region,
visit www.lanecounty.org/
femamapupdate.
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there are options to “ap-
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Ratte hopes the new in-
formation will make the de-
cision-making process for
homeowners clearer and ul-
timately provide information
to safeguard their property
and obtain the needed insur-
ance coverage in case of a ma-
jor natural disaster.
“Readers are encouraged to
share this information with
their neighbors, review the
available data as described
below, ask questions to com-
munity officials, and provide
comments during the com-
ment and appeal period,” he
said. “Additionally, if proper-
ty owners have data and anal-
ysis indicating that the results
published by FEMA are in-
accurate, then we encourage
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Florence Food Share provides food to
those who are hungry in our community.
If you have four hours a week available,
we are in need of volunteers to staff our
Front Desk and also act as Guides as cli-
ents walk through the pantry. Please call
our volunteer coordinator, Sarah Lovejoy,
@ 541-997-9110 (Monday – Friday, before
noon) to learn more about volunteering.
info@lorencefoodshare.org 2190 Spruce
Street.
Volunteer
Get
involved
Florence Habitat for Humanity ReStore is a place to put your talents to work.
From customer service to furniture repair, we offer volunteer opportunities
geared toward individual interests and skills.By giving your time, you help
Florence Habitat ReStore do more to support building projects that benefi t
families in our community.
2016 Hwy 101 or email volunteer@fl orencehabitat.org
Store hours 9am – 5pm Monday- Saturday 541-997-5834
www.facebook.com/restorefl orence
Donate
Do your part and
volunteer today
relies heavily
on volunteers.
Th ere are many opportunities to
volunteer and a variety of skills
and talents are always in need.
Volunteer interest forms may be
found online, at the shelter and
at our Th rift Shop on Bay Street.
www.oregoncoasthumanesociety.org/volunteer/
to help support
these local
non-proft
organizations in
our community!
Join the Peace Harbor Hospital
Volunteers.
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in a caring organization.
Peace Harbor
Volunteers
400 9th Street, Florence, OR 97439
541-997-8412 ext. 2218
Volunteer
Get
involved
Meals on Wheels are available to people
1570 Kingwood • PO Box 2313,
over the age of 60 who cannot get out much
Florence
due to illness or advanced age and who are
not eating properly, regardless of income.
Cafe 60 is available for those who prefer to
laneseniormeals.org
make new friends in a dining room setting. Operating Monday, Wednesday and Friday
541-997-5673
Donate
Do your part and
volunteer today
to help support
these local
non-proft
organizations in
our community!
To include your
organization
in this directory,
please call us
@ 541-997-3441