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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2020)
E BR WEDNESDAY EDITION | SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 | $1.00 ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS 2020 Schedule Now: 541.640.7625 RS Brett O’Connor, NP-C 4480 Highway 101 N Suite G Florence, OR 97439 EA CEL SN S SIU THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM W 1890 AW NE L S AT I N G 1 30 Y SIUSLAW NEWS: A LOOK B ACK AT 130 Y EARS INSIDE — A7 Regional fire crews battle 500-acre fire near Mapleton Siuslaw News NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY VOL. 130, NO. 70 F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER Story & Photos By Ned Hickson Siuslaw News Sunny with a high of 74 and a low tonight of 53. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY Sweet Creek fire blazes on for fourth day; cause still under investigation T his past Sunday (Aug. 30) af- ternoon, Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) firefighters, along with Lane County Sher- iff ’s Office (LCSO), Western Lane Ambulance and firefighters from Mapleton, Swisshome/Deadwood and Siuslaw Valley Fire and Res- cue, responded to reports of mul- tiple wildfires along a three-mile stretch of Sweet Creek Road near LRAPA rates Florence’s air quality as ‘good’ County levels remain healthy despite Sweet Creek Fire By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News Level 3 (Go immediately) evacua- tion for residents of Hadsell Creek Road, and a Level 2 (Get Set – Be ready to leave) evacuation orders for other Sweet Creek Road resi- dents. By evening, several homes in the Hadsell Creek area had been evacuated, displacing a number of families. Temporary housing was made available by the Red Cross. By Monday evening, A Level 1 evacuation notice had also been issued for Bernhardt Creek Road and Duncan Island Road due to the fire danger. As of Tuesday morning, the fire remained 0 percent contained but fire crews providing structural protection to the 138 homes in the area had reported no losses. Weekend art show benefits First Step INSIDE — A3 LIFESTYLE See FIRE page 6A Boys & Girls Club seeks to help kids keep ‘PACE’ Club adds new all-day program to help with distance learning PACE,” Trent said “PACE is an all- day program that will allow our staff to help children with their distance The Boys and Girls clubs of West- learning activities in the morning ern Lane County (BGC) is stepping while engaging in traditional club up to fill part of the void left by activities in the afternoon.” shortened class hours and limited According to Trent, the club has class sizes at the a very limited Siuslaw School number of spaces District. “We strongly encourage families to contact both state available for inter- BGC Executive and federal elected officials to help garner support for re- ested families and Director Chuck encourages those lief funding. Your voice needs to be heard loud and strong.” wanting to enroll Trent said he and — Boys and Girls clubs of Western Lane County Executive their children to his staff want to Director Chuck Trent call and check support the dis- trict’s distance on availability as learning plan and soon as possible. are set to begin on-site learning that es a challenge for working families. “We will prioritize families that incorporates guidelines and cur- In collaboration with the distance need five days a week of care,” said riculum from the Siuslaw School learning plans that the Siuslaw Trent. “A family that may not need District. There are minimal fees re- School District is implementing, we all five days is welcome to sign up, quired for student attendance. have created the Prepare Kids for but the club will not discount the The first day of school is sched- Academic Success Through Col- weekly rate.” uled for Monday, Sept. 14, with the laboration and Enrichment — or See CLUB page 7A By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News week of Sept. 8 to 11 focusing on technology orientation, training and distribution for school district students and teachers. BGC’s pro- gram will begin that same day. “We know that schools starting the year with distance learning pos- Candidates file for November General Election By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News The deadline for filing to run in the Nov. 3, 2020, General Election or drop from the election officially ended Aug. 29. Lane County Elec- tions and the Oregon Secretary of State have begun listing candidates and measures that will be included in the election. As of Sept. 1, the individuals run- ning in the Nov. 3 Election in Flor- ence are as follows: • City of Florence Mayor: two- year term. — Joe Henry, incumbent — Jo Beaudreau • City of Florence Councilor: There are two open positions for four-year terms, with voters being asked to select two candidates for the positions. — Maggie Bagon — Bill Meyer — Sally Wantz * NOTE: Candidate Dan Lofy withdrew his candidacy as of Aug. 25. In addition, there is also cur- rently an opening on the Florence City Council following the Aug. 17 resignation of former Council- or Geraldine Prociw. The process for filling that open position will not be part of the Nov. 3 election. Instead, the Florence City Council and city staff are currently consid- ering how to fill the empty seat on the five-person council. • Dunes City Dunes City Council has several terms ending, including the mayor and three councilors. The Dunes See ELECTION page 6A 10th annual Siuslaw Open INSIDE — B RECORDS Obituaries & response logs Inside — A2 NEW: TV GUIDE Inside — B3-B4 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 Area residents left their homes Tuesday morning to the smell of smoke and hazy skies as smoke from the 500-acre Sweet Creek Fire near Mapleton traveled downriver to Florence. According to Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA), which monitors air quality across the coun- ty, Florence’s air quality remains in the “good” range. On Tuesday, LRAPA Public Af- fairs Manager Travis Knudsen said, “Right now, air quality across all of Lane County, and even out farther to the west getting into the Florence area, is still good. … It’s been there fairly consistently over the last cou- ple of days, which is fortunate con- sidering the proximity to the Sweet Creek Fire and some of the smoke that has kind of started to pick up in the air.” He said that although the smoke is smellable in the air, air quality has not degraded. LRAPA reports air quality through its Oregon 24-Hour Air Quality Index Map on www.lrapa. org. Current air quality is displayed See SMOKE page 6A Mapleton. As of today, fire crews remain engaged with what has been named the Sweet Creek Mile- post 2 Fire. Initially reported as a number of separate fires, the blaze merged into a single 500-acre wildfire near Hadsell Creek Road, prompting multiple levels of evacuation no- tices for area residents. Sunday evening, LCSO issued a C elebrating Over 30 Years in Real Estate JIM HOBERG Broker/Owner 9 201 VOTED F BEST O E SIUSLAW NEWS READERS CHOICE WINNER Voted Best Realtor for 6 Years! F LO E N C R 1870 Hwy. 126, Suite A • PO Box 3040, Florence, OR