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V OTING I NFORMATION
I NSIDE — A3
City of Florence celebrates 5 years of RAIN
Partnership emphasizes economic development and entrepreneurship
By Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
T
he nonprofit Oregon RAIN
(Regional Accelerator and In-
novation Network) held a virtual
commemoration of its five-year
partnership with the City of Flor-
ence on Oct. 21. Held over Zoom,
the meeting brought together some
of the people that have made the
partnership possible over the years,
including officials from RAIN and
the city and representatives from
the entrepreneurial ecosystem of
Florence.
As people logged into the chat,
one person said, “This feels like a
family call!”
“This is so fun,” Coastal Catalyst
Ariel Ruben agreed. “We’ve got to do
this more often.”
The group in attendance was
small, just under 30, with many peo-
ple announcing their connections
and RAIN Executive Director Car-
oline Cummings greeting most by
name.
She started the celebration by say-
ing, “Thank you so much for joining
us for the five-year anniversary of
RAIN being invited into the Flor-
ence community. I can’t believe it’s
been five years. … And even with
COVID and the fires slowing things
down, I still feel like time is flying.”
The partnership between the two
entities started in October 2015 with
a meetup at Homegrown Public
In this Siuslaw News photo from October 2015, City Lights Cinemas House, and a “Call of Interest” event
hosted the first large-scale event for Oregon RAIN and the City of at City Lights Cinemas on Oct. 28.
See PARTNERS page 6A
Florence, leading to a five-year and beyond partnership.
EcoGeneration takes out the recycling
Florence’s Sunday event accepts No. 1, 2, 4 & 5 plastics
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
The nonprofit EcoGeneration,
based in Cottage Grove, will be
hosting a Recycling Take Back
Event at the Florence Events Cen-
ter (FEC) parking lot, 715 Quince
St., on Sunday, Nov. 1. This will
be a free opportunity for Florence
area residents and businesses to
bring their clean, dry, label-free
recyclables for collection.
The event will take place be-
tween 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., with the
first hour specifically designated
for residents over 65 years of age.
Florence Master Recycler and
City of Florence Environmental
Management Advisory Commit-
tee member Britte Kirsch is help-
ing to coordinate the Take Back.
She emphasized the need for
properly prepared items, but also
wanted to remind people masks
must be worn.
“Masks are really important for
this event. The FEC is requesting
that we follow all state mandat-
ed safety protocols to ensure the
health and safety of staff and vol-
unteers. If you are not wearing a
mask, we will not be able to help
you,” Kirsch said.
The items that will be collected
include not only No. 1 bottles but
also 2, 4 and 5s. For the first time
in Florence, health and beauty
containers will be accepted.
This is a major addi-
tion to the recy-
clable take backs
and will allow
for more ma-
terials to be
reused.
“One of
the
cool
things about
the addition
of the health
and beauty items
is you don’t have
to remove the labels.
They are going into a complete-
ly different stream. They have to
be cleaned and dry, like all of the
items, but they don’t have to be la-
bel free,” Kirsch said.
EcoGeneration was formed two
years ago by Lane County Mas-
ter Recycler David Gardiepy with
the mission to safeguard and im-
prove ecosystems where humans
exist. An additional focus of the
volunteer group is the protection
of biodiversity in and around the
Northwest and the reduction of
waste materials entering the tradi-
tional trash stream.
“We are very excited to be
teaming up with the Florence
community to provide
recycling
events
through
2021
as we grow as
an organiza-
tion,” Gar-
diepy said.
“We also are
looking for
community
sponsors to
help build local
awareness about
ethical waste man-
agement and help pro-
tect the coastal environment.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has
interrupted many recycling op-
tions for the public, but there has
been some movement to expand
the items which can be accepted.
For example, EcoGeneration is
including No. 1 plastics for bot-
tles, jugs and tubs, though this ex-
cludes clamshell containers, cups
and to-go boxes.
See RECYCLE page 9A
WLFEA discusses COVID-19 and contracts
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
crease in the number of positive
patients, at least those who we are
aware of.”
Schick explained that a travel
policy for all employees and vol-
unteers is being developed and
that the agencies will be strongly
encouraging anyone who travels
to a high-risk area to self-quaran-
tine for 14 days upon their return.
“We have put into effect a policy
to restrict access to anyone out-
side our organizations from en-
tering any crew or staff areas,” said
Schick. “Vendors and visitors were
being allowed to enter areas which
should have restricted access,
which creates an unnecessary risk
of exposure for our personnel.”
There was also an important
update related to the currently
stalled WLAD labor negotiations.
See WLFEA page 8A
NEWS &
VIEWS THAT
DEFINE OUR
COMMUNITY
VOL. 130, NO. 86
F LORENCE , O REGON
WEATHER
Sunny with a high of
62 and a low tonight
of 44.
Full forecast on A3
COMMUNITY
Florence Public
Art Committee
finalizes goals for
next biennium
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
The City of Florence Public Art
Committee (PAC) met remotely
Oct. 26 with the task of working
towards finalizing the committee’s
suggested City Workplan. The end
result of this work will be presented
to the Florence City Council for
consideration at its Nov. 16 meet-
ing, when all the city boards and
commission will submit their
proposals for the 2021-23 bienni-
um.
PAC chairperson Harlen Springer
opened the meeting with a preview
of what the group would be work-
ing on to present to the council
and then turned the recap of the
reworking of PAC priorities over to
Sarah Moehrke, Economic Devel-
opment Catalyst.
Moehrke reviewed the progress
made on accomplishing goals set
out in the previous workplan, high-
lighting the Art Exposed Rotating
Gallery program, which is now
entering its second cycle of art, and
the completion of the mural on
Quince Street as examples of PAC’s
successes.
However, one of the challenges
faced by PAC has been a sense in
the community that the decisions
made the group — primarily in
regard to Art Exposed and the
Quince Street Mural — that there
has not been enough regard given
to the perspectives of residents
when selecting art to display under
the auspices of PAC.
PAC member Peggy Meyer has
been involved with the committee,
as both a critic and an advocate,
and offered a suggestion on improv-
ing that relationship.
“Maybe we should think about
where we could work more with the
community in the areas of private
murals or private sculptures put
up by businesses or people in the
community,” Meyer suggested. “So
that it wouldn’t be an adversarial
relationship, and people would see
See COMMITTEE page 8A
Community plans
safe Halloween
events
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C OPYRIGHT 2020
The regularly scheduled meet-
ing of the Western Lane Fire and
Emergency Authority (WLFEA)
took place as scheduled via tele-
conference on Thursday, Oct.
22. WLFEA is made up of board
members and first responders
from both the Siuslaw Fire and
Rescue (SVFR) and Western Lane
Ambulance District (WLAD),
and joint sessions of both boards
have been common over the past
year.
Fire/EMS Chief Michael Schick
led the meeting and first sought
approval for the agenda and con-
sent items, which he received and
then moved to staff reports.
The agenda for the meeting
included staff reports submitted
to the boards of directors, up-
dating them on issues related to
COVID-19 policies, finances, per-
sonnel and community support.
Schick updated the boards on
a Lane County COVID policy
change and included a warning to
both EMS and fire first respond-
ers.
“We anticipate that Lane Coun-
ty may be moving to an increased
monitoring level (very high) in
the near future, which would in-
dicate our healthcare facilities are
at — or near — full capacity. Pos-
itive patients at Peace Harbor will
be transferred to Eugene, which
increases our exposure. But our
crews are very diligent in wearing
the proper PPE and disinfecting
equipment following transports,”
Schick said. “Within our response
area, we continue to see a slow in-
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