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iuslawL
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I NSIDE — A7
Siuslaw News
NEWS &
VIEWS THAT
DEFINE OUR
COMMUNITY
VOL. 130, NO. 35
F LORENCE , O REGON
WEATHER
Caravan of care
Rain all day with a
high of 55 and a low
tonight of 44.
Full forecast on A3
M
COMMUNITY
apleton School District
Superintendent Jodi O’Mara.
Stories & Photos
held a “We Miss You
Cars with phrases such as “Hang
By Jared Anderson
Caravan” Thursday after-
in
there” and “We honor the class
Siuslaw News
noon, as teachers, administrators
of 2020” followed the bus as it
and staff decorated a school bus
wound its way through the upriv-
with pom poms and well wishes.
er communities, passing through
“The caravan gave us a way to say ‘hi’ to our Swisshome, Deadwood and Brickerville.
families and our students and let them know we
“We had such a great time getting out into the
missed them. Although I’m not sure if the stu- community, saying hi to our families, and letting
dents enjoyed it more or the staff,” said Mapleton them know we are still here,” O’Mara said.
‘The coast has been relatively unscathed…’
County, Peace Harbor look at current state of COVID-19 and the Siuslaw Region
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
On April 28 on his public Face-
book page, Western Lane County
Commissioner Jay Bozievich post-
ed, “25 of 36 counties have had zero
deaths. The two deaths and 48 of 50
cases in Lane County were in the
Eugene-Springfield metro area. Just
two cases were located outside in the
rest of Lane County and therefore
the chances are that zero cases were
‘confirmed’ in coastal Lane County
but testing is so limited that there
are probably unconfirmed cases
all over. It does seem that the coast
has been relatively unscathed and
that reopening should begin as the
damage to people from the closure is
now starting to outweigh the dam-
age from the virus.”
Oregon has lost 360,000 jobs
due to the pandemic, equaling 18
percent of all jobs in the state. The
state predicts massive losses in tax
revenue that will affect the state
long-term, while nationally there
are signs the U.S. has already en-
tered into a recession. Locally, the
shutdown has already cut deep as
businesses have shuttered and major
local economic events, such as the
113th Rhododendron Festival, have
been cancelled.
However, the commissioner did
not recommend reopening without
restrictions.
“It should be done thoughtfully,
like allowing campgrounds to host
fully contained RV campers but not
tent and car campers that need to
share bathroom facilities,” Boziev-
ich wrote. “Maybe allowing a rural
single-chair hair salon to re-open
with precautions like both staff and
customers wearing masks and san-
itizing the station, equipment and
hands between customers.”
Finally, he stressed that local input
on reopening is crucial.
“I think maximizing local con-
trol of the reopening is important
as each locality understands their
community’s risks better than high-
er levels of government,” the post
said. “I also believe business owners
and their customers can be the best
judges of personal risk.”
The importance of getting the
community behind reopening is
crucial to the health of businesses
that take the financial risk of reopen-
ing; they could face the possibility of
reclosing if clientele do not feel safe
enough despite easing restrictions.
Port tears down
blue barns
INSIDE — A3
LIFESTYLE
Farmers Market
prepares to reopen
INSIDE — B
See COAST page 6A
RECORDS
Utility outage,
United Way of Lane County’s COVID fund benefits
repair info remains
community organizations, four local groups
By Mark Brennan
The organization, in addition to ing those most financially at-risk
unconfirmed by
Siuslaw News
the hundreds of thousands of dol- due to the pandemic.
lars already distributed this year,
United Way of Lane County an-
CenturyLink
The widespread nature of the has recognized the unprecedented nounced at the end of April it had
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
level of need at this time and estab-
lished the United Way COVID- 19
Community Response Fund.
Noreen Dunnells, president and
CEO of United Way of Lane Coun-
ty, said that the scale and scope of
the pandemic required quick ac-
tion.
“Several weeks ago, as the pan-
demic expanded to our area, Unit-
ed Way of Lane County developed
a survey for nonprofit health and
human service agencies in the
county to hear about their imme-
diate needs and concern,” Dunnells
wrote in an email to Siuslaw News.
“Simultaneously, we established
the COVID-19 response fund and
hosted weekly virtual meetings
for continuous communication to
learn about emerging needs.”
The fund was established with
the specific goal of directly assist-
distributed almost $100,000 from
the newly established fund, with
four Siuslaw area organizations
chosen among those to receive
these grants.
“What we know is that basic
needs of food, general rental assis-
tance, technology equipment for
communication, and general fi-
nancial assistance are the most per-
vasive needs here in Lane County,
as they are in other parts of the
U.S.,” Dunnells said. “We also know
that this pandemic has dispropor-
tionately impacted people in pov-
erty or those previously struggling
to make ends meet, including im-
migrant families and our unhoused
communities.”
Siuslaw
Outreach
Services
(SOS), a primary emergency sup-
port agency in the Florence area,
See FUND page 5A
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
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S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS | 16 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2020
Many Florence CenturyLink cus-
tomers are experiencing an ongoing
lack of services related to a major re-
pair project on Maple Street. The out-
age was first reported to the Siuslaw
News on April 23, by a CenturyLink
customer who continues to be im-
pacted by the extended outage. Since
then, several others have reached out
looking for answers.
“Mine has been out since Wednes-
day (April 22). When I called in by
cell to report the outage, and after
going through voicemail hell to reach
a real person, I was informed a repair
guy would come by Thursday and
would call my cell before arriving,”
said Florence resident Larry Bacon.
“No call, no repair guy.”
See UTILITY page 5A
novel coronavirus COVID-10
has closed businesses of all types
across America, throwing the lives
of families from every walk of life
into turmoil. More Americans are
out of work now than at any time
since the Great Depression of the
1930s, when 25 percent of the
work force was idle. As a result,
the inability to provide for basic
necessities has had repercussions
for not only families and individ-
uals, but for organizations depen-
dent on the financial support of
the community to provide needed
services.
Fortunately for many of these
groups, which are often organized
as nonprofits, there is monetary
support available from one of the
region’s most effective philanthrop-
ic organizations, the United Way of
Lane County.
Obituaries &
emergency
response logs
Inside — A2
Celebrating 30 Years
in Real Estate
SIUSLAW NEWS READERS CHOICE WINNER
Voted Best Realtor for 5 Years!
JIM HOBERG
Broker/Owner
1870 Hwy. 126, Suite A • PO Box 3040, Florence, OR
