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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2020)
E BR AT I N G 1 3 Humane Society makes changes to operations, leadership YOUR #1 LOCAL YARD, GARDEN, AND LANDSCAPE EXPERTS! WE’RE GLAD TO GET YOU GROWING! 31 st Anniversary RS 2020 WEDNESDAY EDITION | APRIL 15, 2020 | $1.00 EA CEL SN S SIU THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM W 1890 AW NE L S 0 Y 88493 Hwy. 101 Florence Open 7 days a week Senior Discount Every Tuesday Home Services Guide 997-5973 I NSIDE — A6 Drive-by Birthday Parade WEATHER Story & Photos By Ned Hickson Siuslaw News By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News Partly sunny with a high of 55 and a low tonight of 46. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY F amily and community cel- ebrated long-time resident and retired SVFR volunteer firefighter captain Blair Sneddon’s 85th birthday on Saturday after- noon with a mini parade, coordi- nated by family and friends, that drove by Sneddon’s house in a joy- ful procession. Plans for celebrating Sneddon’s birthday had been put on hold last month due to the COVID-19 social distancing requirements — so, the Sneddon family came up with this unique alternative. Dozens of friends, family and community members drove past Sneddon’s home waving, singing and offering birthday greetings from their cars. The parade also See SNEDDON page 7A The ReVision Florence Streets- caping Project is nearing comple- tion as the primary construction for the intersections of Highways 101 and 126 is finished, as is the majority of the work around Flor- ence City Hall and the Siuslaw Riv- er Bridge. ReVision Florence is a joint effort by the City of Florence, the Ore- gon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Florence Urban Renewal Agency (FURA), with a Story & Photos total investment by stakeholders of By Mark Brennan approximately $8.5 million. Origi- Siuslaw News nally slated to be finished in 2019, the construction stage of the ReVi- sion project has taken months lon- ger than originally projected, as has Construction on Highway 101 is nearing completion as part of the the overall effort. See REVISION page 8A ReVision Florence Streetscaping Project. egon coast, talked about the many challenges facing the industry, as well as how the shutdowns due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 may actually save movie theaters as a whole. When City Lights first closed down, the theater began receiv- ing multiple donations, as well as membership purchases. But on April 3, Falter posted the follow- ing on the theater’s website: “A few of you (106, to be exact) received a notice from your Pay- Pal account saying that your City Lights autopay was cancelled. Yep, that was us. I know many of you want to support us and keep us around, which we greatly appre- ciate. However, I don’t want folks receiving a surprise autopay for a membership that they can’t use Apex Helicopter donates to SHS INSIDE — A3 SPORTS Heceta Lighthouse celebrates birthday INSIDE — SPORTS RECORDS Obituaries & response logs Inside — A2 NEW: TV GUIDE Inside — B3-B4 Movie theaters adapt to life under COVID-19 right now — same goes for new memberships or gift cards. For now, these options are disabled.” Instead, Falter directed people to local organizations. “I did that because I would rath- er see people donating to food share or Siuslaw Outreach Ser- vices or any of the other groups providing services in Florence,” Falter said. “That’s the critical thing right now — supporting each other and supporting emer- gency services. We’ll be around when the time comes.” To help support City Lights, Falter instead encouraged people to buy a “virtual ticket” to City Lights’ films. “One of the things that we’ve done, and a lot of independent theaters across the country, is to start offering a way people can support their local theater by watching films online,” Falter said. Instead of movie studios releas- ing a film on a large platform like Netflix, they instead stream the films from their own sites, or oth- er sources such as Vimeo. To get the word out about the streaming films, distributors are partnering with movie theaters, and splitting the profits of any movie sold. This way, movie patrons can say, “‘Okay, I can spend money on this ticket and I know that 50 percent of it is going to support my favor- ite arthouse,” Falter said. “That’s a win-win. You get a piece of unique film that’s not on Netflix and share that revenue with a movie theater.” See CINEMA page 5A KIDS CORNER Activities for kids Inside — B5 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and notices Inside — B6 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 | 16 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2020 “So, City Lights closed on March 17, along with a lot of other busi- nesses in the following two-week timeframe,” said Michael Falter, co-owner of City Lights Cinemas in Florence. “We were certainly not the first theaters to close, but one of the first in the state, and be- fore they were mandated to close.” Since then, the lights of City Lights have been shuttered, staff has filed for unemployment and new business models are being looked at as theaters across the globe wonder about the future of cinemas. Falter, who is dedicated to re- opening the independent movie theater that serves the central Or- included emergency vehicles from Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue and the Western Lane Ambulance Dis- trict. SVFR Capt. Liz Iabichello took a moment to leave her fire apparatus to salute Sneddon, who shared the same helmet number 5. ReVision Florence enters final stage City Lights offers film streaming By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY VOL. 130, NO. 30 F LORENCE , O REGON OCHS announces new shelter manager, executive director The Oregon Coast Humane Society (OCHS) is known locally for accepting stray dogs and cats, taking care of them, nursing them back to health and finding them a home. That task has been dramati- cally impacted, as have the normal operations of the shelter, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been other challenges to the successful management of the OCHS during the past three years, which led to the hiring — and recent resignation of — the organization’s first executive director and a shelter manager. OCHS is in the process of replac- ing executive director Mark Curran, who resigned in January, and a number of board members who also resigned. New Shelter Operational Manager Pam Bailey recently provided an update on the plan to weather the COVID-19 dilemma while taking care of the animals that are aban- doned or lost during the pandemic. OCHS is also busy adopting out animals during the pandemic and seven animals found new homes this past Saturday. “Taking care of the animals is our number one priority, as well as continuing to help our community where we can. We are currently open for adoptions and other business by appointment only,” Bailey said in an email response to the Siuslaw News. “At this time, it is not required that masks and protective gear be worn by visitors; however, we appreciate that visitors to the facility wear a mask for their protections as well as for the protection of our staff. See OCHS page 8A Siuslaw News CONTEST CUTEST PET PHOTO thesiuslawnews.secondstreetapp.com/Pet Vo No te Ap w 15 ril -30 th
