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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2020)
2020 PLAY TO 20 LY 31, 20 LY 1 -JU TS • JU RECEIP YO • UR PLAY • TO WIN SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS • JULY 1 -JULY 31, 2020 VE SA WIN B G B I I N N G O lton’s C a f é Wa a f w y e Bar H a l and Coffe • DINNER AST • LUNCH BREAKF Walton’s Halfway C afé and Coffee Bar BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER Y’S rs at: h Liquo North Liquors at: Nort Florence nce #1266 Flore STORE E • L AKES E S TORE T WIN L AKE T WIN S S TOR RAND KET MAR RIVERVIEW RANDY’S RIVERVIEW MARKET M 9PM Florence Area FOODIES BINGO RS Did you miss your BINGO card? lton’s C a f é Wa a f w y e Bar H a l and Coffe • DINNER E AT I N G 1 30 Y It’s Here! S • FOODIE e Area Area • re Florence FOODIES • c n lo • F O EA SIU S CEL SN BR FRIDAY EDITION | JULY 3, 2020 | $1.00 THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM W 1890 AW NE L S AST • LUNCH BREAKF Walton’s . afé H a l f w a y C C K ON BA PLAY will receive and Coffee Bar BREAKFAST • LUNCH • DINNER ipts ers. OW TO & rece partn ON H the ir Bingo rticipating ONS pa INSTRUCTIONS ON TO PLAY ON BACK. n in o a tur HOW of the ed int RUCTI ople to in their enter will m one The rst 25 people Bingo ll be & receipts IN fi ST sh. receive 25 pe to turn fro te ca rst t wi an the rtifi ca from rti cip of The fi a $25 gift gif certifi one participating partners. n $100 t ce cate 5 GO pa awing to wi a $2 Each BINGO ch BIN participant Ea ize dr will be entered into a and Pr Grand drawing to win $100 cash. Gr Prize Stop by the Siuslaw News at 148 Maple St. to get one! PLAY TO WIN • SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS • JULY 1 -JULY 31, 2020 T OMORROW FURA meets on audit, ReVision and Quince Street development The Florence Urban Renewal Agen- cy (FURA) held its monthly meet- ing on June 30. The agenda for the Wednesday By Mark Brennan evening Siuslaw News meeting was cen- tered around an update of COVID-19 procedures and reports from Admin- istrative Services Director Anne Bak- er and Acting City Manager Megan Messmer regarding the results of an agency audit and an update on the ReVision Florence Streetscaping project. The COVID-19 discussion was the first item considered by the directors and was led by City Recorder Kelly Weese. Weese addressed in detail the pub- lic comments requirements for hold- ing municipal meetings, as there has been some concern expressed by res- idents over their ability to participate in public policy development since the closure of public meetings. See FURA page 5A Celebrating Independence Day 2020 Siuslaw News NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY VOL. 130, NO. 53 F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS Businesses across town were some of the first to show their patriotic spirit and put up decorations for Florence Habitat for Humanity’s first annual Fourth of July Porch Parade. T Habitat creates 4th of July Porch Parade as an alternative to cancelled events By Lena Felt Siuslaw News his Fourth of July will look different for many people across the country. Due to social distancing regulations most large-scale Independence Day events are canceled. Locally, this includes the Florence Area Cham- ber of Commerce annual fireworks show over the Siuslaw River and the pie and watermelon eating con- test hosted by Florence Habitat for Humanity and the City of Flor- ence. “We were really disappointed be- cause we had taken the pie and wa- termelon eating contest and were expanding it this year,” said Janell Morgan, the executive director of Florence Habitat for Humanity. “We were going to do a kid’s bike parade and have live music. We had all sorts of things planned. So, we were really disappointed when it all got cancelled.” After hearing about the cancella- tions, Morgan, along with the rest of Habitat’s Fourth of July Celebra- tion Committee, began brainstorm- ing other possible ways to honor the See 4th of July page 6A Partly sunny with a high of 63 and a low tonight of 50. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY OPB holds annual Ice Cream Social INSIDE — A3 LIFESTYLE Florence man DeFazio seeks to ‘Move Forward’ with $1.5 trillion sentenced to infrastructure act, now on its way to Senate life in prison By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News Kevin Lee Cooper was arrested in 2019 for murder of his mother Kevin Lee Cooper, 62 of Florence, was sentenced to life in prison yester- day after pleading guilty to killing his mother, Anola Beth, in her home on Munsel Creek Drive in 2019. Cooper pleaded guilty to sec- ond-degree murder in Lane County Circuit Court this past June, avoiding a trial scheduled for August. See SENTENCE page 6A The U.S. House of Representa- tives passed a massive infrastruc- ture package, H.R. 2, “The Moving Forward Act,” on July 1. The legis- lation was drafted by Transporta- tion and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio, U.S. Repre- sentative for Oregon’s 4th congres- sional district, who managed the many hours of debate surrounding the bill, which ultimately passed by a vote of 233-188. The Moving Forward Act is a $1.5 trillion plan to rebuild many facets of America’s physical infra- structure with the added goal of providing new opportunities for workers and small businesses deal- ing with a wildly shifting business environment. The act allocates monies for re- pair and upgrades to roads, bridg- es and transit systems but also to school districts, housing and ad- ditionally provides significant as- sistance to state and local govern- ments with specific projects that improve broadband availability and efficiency. The Moving Forward Act was actively managed on the house floor by DeFazio, who has been working on crafting the bill with an eye towards not only repairing disintegrating bridges and mass transit systems but also to focus hiring workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Passage of this bold, for- ward-thinking infrastructure bill is proof that, finally, there is a ma- jority of us in Congress who won’t accept the status quo and instead are willing to fight for a new vision that invests in our communities, addresses the climate crisis, and creates better opportunities for all,” DeFazio said after passage of the act. “We get there by putting millions of people to work in jobs See ACT page 5A In honor of the Novellis INSIDE — B RECORDS Obituaries & response logs Inside — A2 A LOOK BACK Inside — A10 SIDE SHOW Crisis Response answers increased calls for mental health help Activities and comics every Saturday Inside — B4 MCR calls for hope amid alerts for suicide, addiction, fear of pandemic CLASSIFIEDS By Jared Anderson Siuslaw News Editor’s note: To contact the Mobile Crisis Response team for help, call 541-997-3515, the non-emergency number of emer- gency dispatch. In case of emergen- cy, contact 911 and ask for MCR. businesses, which in turns affects jobs. “There’s no easy answer,” Sever- ance said about the pandemic. “As a town, if we enforce it and depo- liticize it and make it an issue of total safety and respect. It’s time to find a new normal. This is going to be with us for a while. It’s not go- ing to go away anytime soon. We can’t just hunker down at home and be fearful. We’ve got to find a new way to get out there that is safe for everybody.” Above all, Severance said people need hope. “The main thing is to give peo- ple hope and baby steps in the right direction,” she added. When Severance started with Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue three years ago, the department had a chaplain who would respond to sudden death situations, car ac- cidents and house fires. “When he retired, they replaced him with four people,” she said. “We renamed the program the Community Support Team (CST) because we wanted to broaden our clientele.” In November of last year, West- ern Lane Fire and EMS Authority signed a contract with Lane Coun- ty to provide 24/7 mental health crisis services in addition to the services local agencies were al- ready providing. This led to the creation of the MCR. See CRISIS page 7A Listings and 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 Since the pandemic and result- ing shutdown began, the Siuslaw region’s Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCR) has seen a rise in the number of calls of suicidal thoughts and attempts. One of the biggest increases has been seen in the younger population of the re- gion. “We’ve got a lot of people strug- gling right now,” said Lori Sever- ance, who works with the MCR program. “There are mental health issues such as depression, anxi- ety or issues with bipolar. A lot of times, it’s connected with being underemployed, unemployed — just not being able to get on their feet.” For the older population, Sever- ance stated that one of the biggest concerns she is seeing is fear of the pandemic. While the population has adapted well to many of the restrictions the shutdowns have brought, tourists and locals alike have flouted regulations regarding social distancing and mask wear- ing. This can keep residents at risk from the virus away from local 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