SN TH THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM SATURDAY EDITION | NOVEMBER 2, 2019 | $1.00 T HEATER R EVIEW OF LRP’ S “M AMMA M IA !” Postal Customer Florence, Ore. 97439 I NSIDE — A10 Siuslaw News VOL. 129, NO. 88 NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER Sunny with a high of 63 and a low tonight of 40. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY PeaceHealth ‘streamlines’ Medicare partners Trillium Medicare Advantage and Health Net no longer included in insurance coverage By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News P eaceHealth hospitals, in- cluding Peace Harbor Med- ical Center, will no longer be accepting Health Net and Tril- lium Medicare Advantage plans starting Jan. 1, 2020. The insur- ance plans will still be accepted throughout 2019, but if patients do not move to a different plan during the annual Medicare Open Enrollment period, which ends Dec. 7, insurance coverage Community invited to “clean up” today Collection items include computers, appliances & more Heceta Head Lightstation now has new nonprofit INSIDE — A3 SPORTS Siuslaw XC teams win district races INSIDE — SPORTS RECORDS Obituaries & emergency response logs Inside — A2 SIDE SHOW Activities and comics every Saturday Inside — B4 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices Inside — B5 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : /S IUSLAW N EWS @S IUSLAW N EWS T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 18 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2019 This Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the City of Florence and the Environmental Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) will be holding the first “Fall Commu- nity Clean Up” at the Siuslaw High School parking lot. This event will offer free collection of a number of items that are not normally picked up by local waste haulers. Florence Public Information Officer Megan Messmer is encour- aging residents to take advantage of the opportunity to properly dispose of items that can be dif- ficult to dispose of under normal circumstances. “The City of Florence and EMAC are rebranding and ex- panding the previous recycling event known as the Black and White event,” Messmer said. “The community event has expanded the list of dispose/donate items. More items will be accepted for collection, with local non-profit reuse and recycle businesses on site to create a one-stop drop for community members.” This collection allows for drop-off of items like appliances, computers, electronics, furniture and usable building materials. It is also an opportunity to jettison old paint and up to five automobile tires. However, there are some limita- tions to what can be discarded. Hazardous waste, batteries, garbage, chemicals, prescription drugs, fluorescent lightbulbs, car parts and large oversized items like hot tubs, boats and tractor tires cannot be collected. During the cleanup, represen- tatives from Florence Master Recy- clers and other related non-profit organizations on location to assist with the separation and proper preparation of discarded materials and items. For more information on the spe- cifics of the Fall Community Clean Up, go to www.ci.florence.or.us. will be cut off. “As part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our Medicare part- ners and provide high quality, affordable care to our communi- ties, PeaceHealth is not renewing its contract with Centene’s Health Net and Trillium Medicare Ad- vantage plans in 2020,” Peace- Health representatives said in a statement provided to the Siuslaw News. They stressed that PeaceHealth is not pulling out of Medicare Ad- vantage plans altogether. Instead, PeaceHealth will be accepting plans from Moda Health, Pacific- Source, Providence, Regence and United. “Our patients remain our top priority, and we are committed to supporting them during this transition,” a PeaceHealth repre- sentative said. Open enrollment for new in- surance lasts from now until Dec. 7, where patients with Trillium and Health Net can switch to one of the approved providers. To help with the transition, Peace Harbor has informational booths in the main hospital lobby Mon- day through Friday, now through Dec. 6. Agents will be on hand to an- swer questions and help patients enroll during the remainder of the open enrollment period. PeaceHealth will also have a Medicare Insurance Help- line available at 866-391-7750 throughout open enrollment to help patients. See INSURANCE page 7A Trick or sweet H alloween continued the sweetest tra- dition in Historic Old Town Florence Thursday as area merchants gave out candy to countless trick-or-treaters and their families. Not only were the usual witches, dinosaurs and superheroes present, but so were a sea anemone, a Japanese temple and a dozen dogs in costume. Even adults dressed up this year, with several Old Town merchants getting into the spooky holiday spirit. Other heroes also attended, some in their actual uni- forms, like Florence Police officers and Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue firefighters, and some, like U.S. Coast Guard Station Siuslaw River members, in various pop culture costumes. People from all around the community attend- ed before heading to neighborhoods, Trunk- or-Treats, Halloween parties and the last night of this year’s Scare-CROW Haunted Maze. PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN & CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS Lane County holds flooding forum at FEC New code may change regulations By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News Staff from the Lane County De- partment of Public Works Land Management Division held an in- formational meeting Monday eve- ning at The Florence Events Center. The public meeting was held to elicit public input on proposed changes to a number of county codes. The forum presented area resi- dents a series of proposed changes to the codes and regulations that clas- sify flood related incidents in Lane County. This meeting was the result of the passage of Ordinance 18-08 by Lane County Commissioners in January 2019, which directed staff to initiate a series of public meeting to solic- it citizen feedback on the county’s floodplain regulations and proposed updates to related county codes. Monday’s meeting was the second of three planned informational pre- sentations to be held as adjustments to the county planning codes con- tinuing into 2020. The hope of the commissioners is to mitigate or reduce the destruction caused by future flooding events. One of the major reasons the county is updating its maps is due to Lane County’s membership in the Nation- al Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The county’s participation in the NFIP goes back to the 1970s and theoretically allows residents in a designated floodplain to purchase property insurance at a more afford- able rate, or when insurance is un- available through a retail insurance agency. Floods in this region are often part of the annual weather cycle for those that live on, or close to, the 110-mile-long Siuslaw River. 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