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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2020)
RS 2020 E EA CEL SN BR SATURDAY EDITION | FEBRUARY 15, 2020 | $1.00 S SIU THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM W 1890 AW NE L S AT I N G 1 30 Y M ONDAY , F EB . 17, 2020 12th annual Florence Area Chamber of Commerce Siuslaw News SIUSLAW AWARDS By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News O n Feb. 12, Florence Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated the 2019 Siuslaw Awards with community members at the Florence Events Center. At- tendees indulged in gourmet hors d’oeurves catered by event center staff, sipped wine with their table- mates and recognized two dozen businesses and nine area residents who were nominated for the cham- ber’s 12th annual business awards. “We live in a most amazing com- munity — a community where most people care about one anoth- er and where philanthropy is really a part of the DNA of who we are,” said Pastor Dale Edwards of Cross Road Assembly of God. VOL. 130, NO. 13 F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER PHOTOS BY LAURA WILSON Florence Area Chamber of Commerce 2019 Future First Citizen Nominees and Distinguished Service Award — Dan Lofy 2019 winner Tiffany Hine (left) NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY 2019 Stu Johnston Business of the Year Award — Hyak, with Chamber Director Bettina Hannigan and Matt Templeman In his convocation at the opening of the awards, he talked about giv- ing honor where honor is due. “In this room tonight, there are many people who do a wonderful job of taking care of people,” Ed- wards continued. “Honor can be given to anyone in this room. Each one of you is worthy of honor, and for that we are grateful.” Chamber Executive Director Bettina Hannigan led the evening’s program, which included a State of the Chamber Address with Cham- ber Board President Neil Ecker and the presentation of the Siuslaw Awards. “I want to take a moment to talk about our business community and our entrepreneurs,” Hannigan said. Rain with a high of 50 and a low tonight of 40. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY See AWARDS page 6A Iwo Jima Exhibit at OCMM INSIDE — A3 SPORTS The 2019 Community Care Award was a tie between The Archives (left) and Three Rivers Casino Resort. Non-Profit Achievement Award First Citizen Award — Brian — Siuslaw Watershed Council Holmes, accepted by Justin Linton Addressing learning needs Siuslaw School District seeks com- munity input on Student Success Act — Part II By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News “There’s a lot of unanswered questions that this will bring up, and that’s what we’re tasked with,” said Siuslaw School District’s Spe- cial Programs Director Lisa Utz. “Digging down deeper into the data, what can we do with some of this money? It’s all about connec- tions and making those partner- ships.” Utz was speaking at a communi- ty forum for how the district will spend $1.14 million dollars that will be given to the district through the Student Success Act (SSA). The meetings are a requirement for the funds, meant to get community in- put in how schools are ultimately shaped. The first two meetings in Janu- ary were sparsely attended, though the district hopes that an upcoming meeting on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 6 p.m., held at the Florence Events Center, will bring in more people. Over the past few months, the Siuslaw News spoke with multi- ple district officials, administra- tors, board members, teachers and the public regarding the funding. While Siuslaw School District does have higher than state average graduation and completion rates, as described in Wednesday’s edi- tion, there are still multiple chal- lenges that the district faces, from mandatory testing, cultural and economic differences, scheduling conflicts, problems with chronic absenteeism and getting students interested in classes. The challenges are as disparate as the solutions that could help to fix them. Part of the money from SSA is focused toward underserved pop- ulations. District Superintendent Andy Grzeskowiak said, “Statewide, you have ethnic students and students See LEARNING page 8A New suicide prevention training takes different tact By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News fact reported by the advocacy group Suicide Awareness Voices of Educa- tion (SAVE) is for every suicide, 25 others have tried and been unsuc- cessful. That equates to 1 million attempts at — or death by — suicide any given year in the U.S. Unfortunately, this trou- bling trend is not unique to the U.S. See PREVENTION page 7A Live OUT Loud Through Better Hearing Ready to reclaim your life? 7KHƓUVWVWHSVWDUWVZLWK\RX By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News The Florence Planning Com- mission met Tuesday evening with a short list of action items on the evening’s agenda for commissioners to consider. In 2019, the changes to the Florence Residential Building Code took the better part of a year to modify, update and eventually adopt, and the commission worked for many hours to craft a new code that would be less difficult to ma- neuver for developers and property owners. The members of the commission can now turn their attention to oth- er areas of importance in the areas of planning and development. One of the ongoing projects City Planner Wendy FarleyCampbell has been working on, in addition to the extensive residential code modifica- tions, is an update to the flood plain map for Florence. The expected changes to the actual map of Florence may impact a number See FLOODPLAIN page 7A Mapleton goes into overtime 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 S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 18 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2020 Lane County Suicide Prevention Council seeks to ‘Question, Persuade, Refer’ Suicide has become a focus of in- creased national attention in the last few years as the number of Ameri- cans taking their own lives approach- es 50,000 annually. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., with an American choosing suicide by death about ev- ery 12 minutes. Another unsettling suicide-related Florence Planning Commission approves floodplain amendments Call today to schedule your complimentary hearing screening. HEARING ASSOCIATES of Florence 541.991.4475 1901 Hwy 101, Ste A | Florence HearingAssociatesOfFlorence.com Florence’s ONLY Doctors of Audiology