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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2020)
SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020 | 5A Opinion Continued from A4 Thank you, Mr. Tomeny, for your ‘Investigative Series’ rebuttal (Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub- missions on this and other topics are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community discussion and exchange of perspectives.) It is Sunday afternoon and I just purchased the Saturday edition (Oct. 24) of the Siuslaw News to get the lo- cal news and, of course, read the Let- ters to the Editor. What a wonderful and truthful Guest Viewpoint by Mr. Tomeny, who said so many of the things that I have been feeling since reading the 14 installments of the “Investigative Series.” After reading that series, it was very very evident to me that there was someone out to “get” May- or Henry for sure. My husband and I retired to Flor- ence in 2000 from Grass Valley, Ca- lif., and were excited to return to the coast after spending most of our lives in Santa Cruz, Calif. We had fallen in love with Florence after vacationing here for many years. We immediate- ly subscribed to the Siuslaw News so we could be informed about the hap- penings in our city. It did not take long, however, to see how left-leaning the paper was and, as conservatives, were very dis- appointed. We were hoping for a more fair and balanced paper. We were in hopes that they did not follow all of the big syndicated papers. One thing that we really noticed was how many “Letters to the Editor” were written every week, and how most of them were written by liberals. We were appalled, so we decided to write a letter in rebuttal to one that we had written. A week went by and it was not published. An- other week went by and it still was not published. It was well-known to us that the editor at that time (cannot remember his name) was blatantly liberal. Another week went by and our re- buttal still was not published. By this time I was furious, so I went down to the office and asked to speak to then-publisher John Bartlett, who I had met at functions in town. I liked him and felt that he would be fair. He said that he would take care of it and the next week both of my let- ters ran. I will give Ned Hickson credit for trying to be more fair and balanced with the Letters to the Editor section. Thank You. But yes, Mr. Tomeny, you are soooo right about the liberal block that had control of the city council for years and years. When they lost it in 2018, they could not stand it. Kind’a like Hillary will never accept the fact that she lost the 2016 elec- tion. And true to the liberal left, they will never go down without a fight — whether warranted or not, like coun- cilors Joshua Greene and Ron Preis- ler. When I read about those two in the Investigative Series I was livid. Guest Viewpoint By Linda Payton Florence Resident In 2010, my husband and I got the “wanderlust bug” and moved to Ida- ho, mainly because it is a Red State, but made a decision to move back to Oregon in 2015 to care for a critically ill sister that desperately needed our help. Because of her care, we did not have much time to pay attention to Florence politics until after her pass- ing in November 2018. Fast forward to 2020 and election time again. We decided to meet the candidates whenever we could so we could ask questions about their “plans” for the state and city. I was very impressed at what Mayor Hen- ry, along with many others, were able to accomplish for this city in the six years that he has been in office. Sorry Mr. Preisler, but after read- ing your Letter to the Editor in Satur- day’s paper too, I could not help but take all of what you said with a grain of salt. Now, it is time to complete our Ballots. One thing that disturbed me about mayoral candidate Jo Beau- dreau is that, when she was recently interviewed on a local radio station and was asked what she would do about funding as Mayor, her reply was “oh, I don’t know much about funding.” This city has a $6 million bud- get, so in my mind the mayor had best know something about finance and funding. The mayor is part of the process as to where this money will be spent. Ms. Beaudreau may be a nice lady and should be given credit for her volunteer work, but is she real- ly qualified? Joe Henry does have a financial background and in my experience is a very fair and honest person. As far as the other city council openings, I am wary about vot- ing for Maggie Bagon because, in her opening remarks at the recent meet-the-candidates event at the FEC, she stated that she would like to see if the city could use some of the property it owns north of town and turn it into a homeless camp. No way. Can you imagine all the problems that would arise over that idea? After hearing from and talking with write-in council candidate Mar- garet Wisniewski, I was impressed with all that she had to say. She is new to Florence and I feel could come with an open mind and be a good team player on the council. She also has a financial background. To round out this Guest View- point, I must reference Frank Smith’s “Who to Believe” Letter to the Editor in that OCT. 24 edition as well. As I mentioned, I was at that meet-and-greet the candidates as he, and no one was allowed into the FEC without a mask. In addition, the san- itation process went on all the time. In his letter, Mr. Smith stated that Dick Anderson did not show leader- ship during the Lincoln City fire. Not true. He was all over that city every day helping out wherever he was needed. And I do not blame Boomer Wright for not answering his questions about climate change referencing the fires in California/Oregon/Washington. Those fires had absolutely nothing to do with Climate Change but had a lot to do with poor forest management. I know a lot about Paradise, Calif., after going there for many years to visit friends. That forest, which sur- rounded the whole city, has been a tinder box for many years because of poor forest management. Jo Beaudreau brings the qualities, decency we need in our mayor Jo Beaudreau was one of the original members of the Public Art Committee (PAC). We created a robust plan with the vision of hav- ing diverse artworks that are on a world-class level. We saw how over the last 30 years many small towns did his- torical themes specific to their lo- cal history. Since that had become common place, we wanted to do something new and yet exciting. Jo learned a great lesson in her experience serving and helping create this complex City program with multiple legs. She truly com- prehends city policy and how the “sausage is made.” She continues to serve on PAC and understands that appointing volunteers must be based on their skills that best serve the commit- tee’s vision and goals. The process can be exciting and rewarding when guided by the right leader. She also has witnessed the demise of unity and the man- ner in which the Mayor and two councilors decided to decimate the infrastructure and block all funding of PAC by deprioritizing the program in a goal-setting ses- sion — not as an agenda item in a public meeting. Six members of the committee left mostly due to the mayor’s bullying and the hostility which was becoming apparent to all. Sometimes you have to suffer a loss to appreciate the wins. That experience would make most folks bail. Instead, Jo doubled down and decided to change the leadership by running for Mayor. That is a sign of strength and de- cency. Guest Viewpoint By Joshua Greene Florence City Councilor A program I have been inspired by is the “Amazing Women Proj- ect” whose goals are to inspire, ed- ucate, enlighten, create role mod- els and open doorways for young women in all nations. They are dedicated to strengthening and up- lifting the status of women around the world and creating a balance of power between men and women as a pathway to greater peace and prosperity for all. These women, with the emer- gence of their new ideas and styles of leadership, guided by their hearts, will transform the base of power while acting in service to our community. These initiatives are worthy of our con- sideration as we look ahead. Jo Beaudreau is part of the next wave of volunteers to our commu- nity. She is a collaborator, a listener, which is what we need now at the leadership level. We have mostly women as department heads at the City. Erin Reynolds is an excellent Sära J. Nice We are open and ready to assist you! Green Tara Massages CEO and she has the support of a team made up primarily of wom- en running the show. I think hav- ing Jo Beaudreau, Sally Wantz and Maggie Bagon would calm things down and get back to the align- ment that is needed to get things done and bring some joy back to the job of running the city. She wants to get all of Florence online with high speed fiber. It is a challenging goal and COVID-19 may aid us in that accomplish- ment. We realize how important fast connectivity is for education, emergency services, healthcare and access to the world for jobs. Vote nonpartisan, decency, col- laboration and honesty in our lead- ers. JUST ENOUGH, INC. 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