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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
8A | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS DUNES CITY from page 1A velopment’s plat, stating that the stormwater man- Final approval on the proj- agement plan the planning ect was postponed until the commission worked off of commission could make looked “like it would work,” some specific recommen- but had concerns that the dations, and concerned submitted plat for the proj- residents took the interim ect did not reflect the envi- period to express further ronmental regulations. concerns with the project to “The plat map doesn’t the council. have anything like that,” “The first thing I was he said. “It actually has a concerned about is that, stormwater gully that runs in the event that sediment from the cul-de-sac straight is directly deposited in a down and connects up into wetland, stream or lake, the the lake. There is no effort, developer shall contact the at least in the plat map, to city engineer and coordi- collect and seep that water.” nate actions with the city,” Mills later told the Siu- resident Margie Kelly said. slaw News that while the “This concerns me largely plat map may not include because it seems we’re put- all needed changes, the ting the fox in charge of court order that forces the the hen house. How would developer to adhere to en- we know or expect them vironmental regulations su- to actually come forward? persede the plat. It seems that perhaps we “It’s not on the plat be- could use an independent cause it’s on the court order, inspector for oversight and we’re not going to sign rather than relying on the off on the map until we’re developer to just ‘do the satisfied that everything has right thing.’” been met. It doesn’t need The council asked if to be on the plat map. The Dunes City could test Little court order is referenced on Woahink for quality; how- the plat map, that they have ever, it is a privately-owned to do it in compliance,” Mills said. reservoir. Finally, there were con- “We would have to get permission from the owner, cerns about the traffic that and that’s the person who is additional homes could building the subdivision,” bring to the area. “We had a traffic study Dunes City Administrator/ Recorder Jamie Mills said. that said there will be no Mills did not rule out the significant impact other possibility of working with than what would normally the developer to test water occur with the growth of quality, but also pointed out the community,” Mills told that the health of the lake the Siuslaw News. The Planning Commis- should be the responsibility of all those concerned with sion will again take up the issue during a meeting to- the health of the lake. “The fact of the matter morrow night (Aug. 22) at is, if someone sees direct 5 p.m. at Dunes City Hall. Water issues again took pollution, there’s a million different avenues to report center stage later in the that, including the Attorney meeting when discussions General’s Office,” Mills told on how water quality for the Siuslaw News. “They’ve Big Woahink and Siltcoos got to remember that the Lakes are tested. Traditionally, water qual- developer has to comply with state and federal law. ity testing had been done by If they’re concerned that one group, but divisions in the drainage storm system the group has led to a sug- will dump into a spring, gestion that two separate they need to realize the fed- testing groups be created eral government requires — one for Woahink and an- that sort of thing to go into other for Siltcoos. The dif- the water system. That’s a ferences in testing the two requirement they have to lakes vary, including who meet. Anybody who drives actually does the testing. “What we discovered is down Canary Road and sees silt coming into the that the people who live lake can report it and bring around Siltcoos are young it to somebody’s attention. families with children who Everybody’s eyes are on work and aren’t available to do testing in the middle of this.” Dunes City resident Aar- the week when it’s usually on Bowen, who has been done, unlike Woahink resi- vocal about the city’s need dents, who are mostly retir- to regulate the water quality ees,” Mills said. “So, they’re of the project, also brought finding that Siltcoos testing up concerns about the de- should take place on the weekend.” Equipment is also an is- sue, as the reading instru- ments have to be thorough- ly cleaned in between lake tests to ensure that data is not cross-contaminated. The process can be time consuming. Finally, there are differ- ences in how thoroughly the lakes are tested. “Historically, we’ve tested Woahink in about six dif- ferent places every month, and there’s only one place in Siltcoos that was tested,” Council President Sheldon Meyer said. “And I think that there’s probably been some inaccuracy, because where we’ve been testing on Siltcoos is right where the water from Woahink runs into Siltcoos. So, all we’re doing is retesting Woahink water. And Woahink being a much deeper lake with more input, maybe doesn’t need to be as thoroughly tested as Siltcoos, which is much shallower.” Mills believes the city could acquire unused equipment from the Siuslaw Watershed Council, which would allow both Siltcoos and Woahink testers to cre- ate their own schedules. “This might actually get more volunteers to come forth because they’re actu- ally going to live on Siltcoos Lake and want to make sure that everything’s up to date and tested in multiple plac- es,” Councilor Duke Wells said. Water quality issues dovetailed into the city’s push to prevent residents from feeding local deer. “I received a call about a dead deer in Woahink Lake at the end of Woodland Lane. I have no way to get a deer out of the water,” said Mills. She had contacted state officials, who stated that animals dying in bodies of water was natural, and there was no need to remove the deer, even though Woahink is a drinking source. How- ever, Woahink is not the only place that local deer have died recently. “There have been several deer deaths in the area that cannot be attributed to mo- tor vehicles or predators,” reported Mills. “It’s import- ant for residents to hear that feeding deer carbohy- drates such as corn or bread can cause acidosis, which is painful and deadly to deer. We suspect that’s why the one the deer in the water died — because someone fed it food that, quite frank- ly, deer are not supposed to eat.” The city had recently been given a photo of a man feeding deer with a small group of children. Soon af- ter that incident, one of the deer head-butted a vehicle that was driving slowly in an attempt to avoid hitting the dear. Mills stressed that Dunes City did pass an ordinance declaring feeding deer and other wild animals to be a misdemeanor. “I want to get the word out,” she said. “People may think they’re helping and being nice, but you’re likely to cause them death.” In other news from the meeting, street mainte- nance equipment issues were at the heart of a pos- sible intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that the city could enter into with Lane County. “We all know we have a wonderful public works supervisor that does the best he can,” Mills said. “The equipment he has was down and he was waiting for parts. A lot of things all of a sudden came up at once. That’s how it works; when the machine isn’t working, you’re going to need it. I had to do some- thing, so I called the City of Florence to come out and take care of a particular is- sue. For future issues, I talk- ed to the county and they have a regular IGA with a lot of different cities in the county. It doesn’t mean that they will do it, or that it will be my first place to go. It just means that if there’s an emergency, it’s there.” The IGA would be on a per-need basis and would not cost the city an annu- al fee. However, the rates for help were not listed in the IGA, and the council postponed a decision until actual fees could be deter- mined. Let me Showcase your property. Amy Johnson Broker, CSA 541 999-7875 Mercer Lake Road #3103 & #1400 – Beautiful, buildable, Mercer Lakefront land! Two lots sold to- gether totaling 1.67 acres. Deeded dock access, septic approved, surveyed, partially cleared and ready for your dream home plans. 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