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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2019)
4A | SATURDAY EDITION | FEBRUARY 23, 2019 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR | 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM Opinion The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2019 © Siuslaw News Siuslaw News Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Pub- lishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541- 997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Jenna Bartlet Ned Hickson Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publica- tion; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Thursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-week subscrip- tion, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10- week subscription, $29; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com Letters to the Editor policy LETTERS Clarification on new City Hall, Public Works costs There have been a number of confused letters and verbal com- ments on the cost of the new City Hall and Public Works buildings. Hopefuly this will clarify what was proposed and budgeted for. Our architect first came back with an estimate of between $6.5 to 7 million for the Public Works buildings. City staff and council worked with him repeatedly to bring the cost down to the budgeted amount $3.5 million. The architect for the City Hall building proposed $6 million for new construction or $1.9 million for remodeling. We selected and budgeted $1.9 million for the re- modeling. Later on in the process, the archi- tect came back with a $3.1 million cost — over a 50 percent increase. We had the architect back in anoth- er work session or council meeting (not sure which) and we were look- ing for ways to decrease the cost. That process was cut short, un- fortunately, and we had to add that cost to another bond issue — hav- ing to pay a higher bond rate as well. Yes, we have a great number of people who love the “look.” We also have a large number of people who think it was too expensive. Regardless, the layout will pro- vide a safer environment and in- creased productivity as well as pro- viding much needed upgrades for our IT department and staff. —Ron Preisler Florence City Councilor Can’t house our workforce I am responding to an article that appeared in the Saturday, Feb. 16, edition of the Siuslaw News (“Flor- ence Food Share names Monks In- terim Director”). The article introduces Ed Monks as the new interim director. First, I’d like to welcome him to the wonder- ful community of Florence. I would also like to disa-buse Mr. Monks of his impression “that a greater per- centage of the low-income popula- tion in Florence is at least housed.” Eugene has a population of over 160,000, which I believe does not include University of Oregon en- rollment (somewhere around 30,000.) Florence’s population is around 9,000. That would indicate that Eu- gene has more than 20 times the population of Florence. Mr. Monks needs to understand that the Flor- ence area is suffering a housing cri- sis. I suspect percentage-wise that Florence’s “unhoused” is much higher than Eugene’s. Our crisis is not one of just the typical “home- less” folks that he might see at Food Share; we cannot house our work- force. Couples, retirees, single-parent families that are working and don’t qualify for food assistance or are too proud to accept it. Given the average hourly wage in Florence, rental rates are beyond the reach of workers. Remember: Florence is a tour- ist town. That means that workers whose jobs cater to the tourist trade are lucky to work nine months a year. Too many workers and retir- ees are living in their cars, vans, campers and old motorhomes. I don’t mean to contradict Mr. Monks, only to inform him. —Eric D. Hauptman Heart of the Coast Housing Alliance Florence Governor should let Oregon be Oregon Governor Brown should imme- diately cease and desist from the lawsuit joined by 15 other states concerning the emergency measure taken by our Chief Executive. The emergency is the porous nature of our southern border. As a sanctuary state, Oregonians are keenly aware that we need more protection from undocumented workers or illegal migrants — not less. I take umbrage that I am coerced to pay taxes for a lawsuit concern- ing federal jurisdiction of the ex- ecutive and legislative branches. Could not Oregonians benefit by money being spent in Oregon in- stead of for attorneys? Our national sovereignty is very important, but lets let Washington handle that re- sponsibility, not Oregon. The U.S. Constitution calls for immigration issues to be autho- rized by articles one and two, not the 10th Amendment. Governor Brown has taxing and spending challenges, particularly with PERS deficits to deal with lo- cally. Emergency monies have been called on from the executive branch 56 times since the 1974 statute, and since then we have never heard a whisper concerning lawsuits and unconstitutionality until now. Let’s let Oregon be Oregon and stay out of DC. Our financial house has many unfunded liabilities, not unlike Congress. However, lets take the beam out of our eye first before we put a lawyer in Washington’s eye. God bless America. —Joel Marks Florence “Work” is key word in helping end homelessness I’ve been following the Siuslaw News articles on homeless people. I see them on our street corners with signs all the time. I noticed in a re- cent article a line that caught my eye: “One of the major problems fac- ing those who work to alleviate the issue of homelessness is finding ex- act numbers.” That is the key word: “Work.” If you spend the taxpayers’ money to do these surveys, why don’t they find and put to work these people who have no homes? I worked hard all my life, often at jobs I didn’t like — but I liked getting a paycheck. It is so nice of our communuty to have churches that feed the home- less and give them rides to warm places during cold weather. But why don’t they put them to work cleaning the church and church grounds, or doing dishes for the food they eat? I truly feel for all these people, but America is a great country with all kinds of opportunities to get someplace in life. My dad was a coal miner and I was a coal min- er’s daughter who grew up in a coal-mining town. I believe I know what hard work was for my family and none of us grew up to be home- less. It’s a thing called “pride.” — Bea Vanderpool Florence City Hall something we can all take pride in Forget about past complaints of cost and design. The grand reopen- ing of City Hall on Feb. 19 was ab- solutely fantastic. I wasn’t expecting it, but I sensed an excited and prideful posture in all of the staff members as they ea- gerly showed off their new modern surroundings, computers and of- fice equipment to the public. This has to be a huge morale and efficiency boost for them, from which we will also benefit from and can take pride in. Congratulations Florence and all its city staff. — Bill Craig Florence The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the edi- tor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are sub- ject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of let- ters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumen- tative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or documented will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside the Siuslaw News readership area will only be pub- lished at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) En- sure any information about a candidate is accu- rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) Explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and cam- paign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publish- er, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Emal letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line: 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 FAX: 202-228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@ oregonlegislature.gov State Rep. Caddy McKeown (Dist. 9) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown @oregonlegislature.gov West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@ co.lane.or.us
