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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
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LATEST NEWS :
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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.
See FLOODPLAIN page 8A
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