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THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM
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SATURDAY EDITION | SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 | $1.00
I NSIDE !
Siuslaw News
VOL. 129, NO. 76
NEWS &
VIEWS THAT
DEFINE OUR
COMMUNITY
F LORENCE , O REGON
Postal Customer
Florence, Ore. 97439
PAYING RESPECTS
WEATHER
Lane Community
College visits
Florence Center
Negotiations now
open for sale of
Florence land parcel
By Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
political persuasions.
“There will be 10 volunteers
participating at the library on
Tuesday and it is a completely
non-partisan event,” Radtke said.
“Volunteers at the information
table will be a mixed group, some
registered as Democrats and some
Republicans, and maybe also oth-
er parties.”
Florence Mayor Joe Henry also
believes the best way to have a
positive impact on the community
we live in is to exercise our right
to vote.
The Lane Community College
(LCC) Board of Education met
at the LCC Florence Center on
Wednesday for the first board
meeting of the 2019-20 school
year. The board meets in Flor-
ence once a year, with most of its
public meetings held the second
Thursday of each month in the
boardroom of the college’s main
campus in Eugene, 4000 East
30th Ave.
LCC President Margaret Ham-
ilton opened the meeting with
her President’s Report.
“I want to welcome everybody
to the Florence campus. I actu-
ally can’t think of a better way
to start the year than coming
to visit beautiful Florence, and
you even have sun for us. Thank
you,” she said.
LCC Florence Center Dean
Russ Pierson then thanked the
seven-member board of educa-
tion, staff and community mem-
bers for making the 1.5-hour
drive between the main campus
and the Florence campus.
“This highlights how import-
ant the Florence Center is for
all of us who live, work and play
here in the Siuslaw region,” he
said. “We appreciate all the ways
you support our rural students.
One of the taglines I hear about
LCC is ‘the community’s college,’
and here in Florence we describe
the work we do at our extension
center is that we endeavor to be
this community’s college, too.”
According to Pierson, of the
region’s population of 9,000,
more than 150 students are in-
volved in credit courses through
LCC Florence Center, including
online classes. He also detailed
ways that LCC staff has worked
to engage area students, includ-
ing Hamilton’s participation
in the Oregon Coastal Caucus
Economic Summit in August.
“She spoke eloquently about
the need to support students
in our rural communities, and
likewise spoke about Lane’s con-
tinued commitment to Career
Technical Education (CTE),”
Pierson said. “We’re working
hard on things … in regard to
CTE, which is always difficult in
a smaller community.”
Later in Hamilton’s report, she
talked about a $140,000 grant
LCC received from the Expand-
ing Community College Appren-
ticeships initiative of the Amer-
ican Association of Community
Colleges. The goal of the grant
is to increase the number of ap-
prentice programs and services
throughout the country, and
Lane’s project will be conducted
over three years.
See VOTE page 8A
See LCC FLORENCE page 7A
Cloudy with a
high of 70 and a
low tonight of 57.
Full forecast on A3
COMMUNITY
National POW/MIA
Recognition Day
O
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
n Friday, local veterans from the American
Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and
Disabled American Veterans coordinated the
Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Day ceremony in
Florence, which was held at Veteran’s Memorial Park
on Bay Street in Historic Old Town. The number of
Americans who remain missing from World War II,
the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the
Gulf War and other conflicts is more than 80,000.
POW and MIA Recognition Day was established in
1979 and is now held on the third Friday of
September each year. This national recognition day
is the time when Americans are asked to pause and
reflect on the sacrifices made by the military men
and women who are imprisoned or unaccounted for
as a result of their military service.
OPB features FRAA
artist in September
INSIDE — A3
SPORTS
Port of Siuslaw continues seasonal upgrades
Pier improvements, long-awaited dredging to start soon
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
Mapleton, Siuslaw
continue Volleyball
INSIDE — SPORTS
RECORDS
Obituaries &
emergency
response logs
Inside — A2
SIDE SHOW
Activities and
comics every
Saturday
Inside — B4
The Port of Siuslaw has had a busy
summer —installing new camping
sites, reinforcing a large segment of
the grounds that meets the northern
bank of the Siuslaw river, unexpect-
edly hosting the city’s annual July
fireworks presentation and prep-
ping for a $150,000 upgrade to the
walkway behind the Mo’s and ICM
restaurants. These projects have all
been handled while maintaining
and running a mostly full camp-
ground and marina.
As the off-season approaches,
the list of things to do during the
lull remains lengthy.
“We’ve had an excellent sum-
mer,” said Port Manager Dave
Huntington. “Fishing and weather
has been very good, for the most
part, and we’ve had a better than
expected season. We have a lot
of big projects going on this year
which will start to get a lot more
of our attention now that our busy
season is finally winding down.”
Huntington said his staff has
been busy, but they have accom-
plished everything asked of them
and more.
“Everyone here has worked very
hard this year and taken on a lot
of additional responsibilities with
the number of projects we’re trying
to complete. We have a very small
staff, but they all care about what
we’re trying to accomplish,” he said.
“I can’t say enough about how ded-
icated the staff are to this port and
how much pride they take in their
accomplishments and I feel very
fortunate to have them.”
The most noticeable of the con-
tinuing efforts to improve the Port
of Siuslaw property will be the up-
grade and reinforcement of the pier
and walkway that separates Mo’s
and ICM from the river.
Oregon Marine Construction
has been awarded the contract for
the repair and upgrade and project
manager Brien Mill says the on-site
work is about to begin.
See PORT page 8A
CLASSIFIEDS
Listings and public
notices
Inside — B5
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Voters can register, confirm registration Tuesday
National Voter Registration Day event held at library on Sept. 24
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS | 20 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2019
Perhaps the single most recog-
nized and agreed upon right of
an American citizen is the right
to vote. This important link in the
chain of democracy has been at the
root of both triumph and tragedy
since America’s inception in 1776.
Originally, those who were
awarded the honor to vote were
limited. The inability of Americans
that were not property owners and
that were women or people of color
to vote was eventually recognized
as unjust and these inequities were
changed. Those changes took de-
cades, and many suffered to move
the nation to enact those socially
important changes.
The idea that everyone is entitled
to vote — and should be allowed to
do so — is behind this Tuesday’s
National Voter Registration Day.
Locally, there will be a non-par-
tisan group assembled at Siuslaw
Public Library, 1460 Ninth St. in
Florence, to inform and register in-
terested residents from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m.
Karin Radtke, one of the volun-
teers for the event, said the goal of
the day is to register voters of all