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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2020)
4A | SATURDAY EDITION | NOVEMBER 21, 2020 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR | 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM Opinion The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS# 497-660 Copyright 2020 © Siuslaw News Siuslaw News Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Cathy Dietz Ron Annis For Advertising: ext. 318 Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor For Classifieds: ext. 320 DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Dis- play classified ads, Friday at noon. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to pub- lication; Regular classified ads, Thursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $79; 6-month in-county, $56; 10-week subscription, $25; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $102; 6-month out- of-county, $69; 10-week subscription, $35; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $134; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com Siuslaw News Office: 148 Maple St./PO Box 10 Florence, OR 87439 LETTERS Donate what you can to our local restaurants I’m very proud to live here and to see how much we all love our community. Right now, there are many great restaurants and bars that we all go to regularly. Some are now doing take-out or pick-up service during the cur- rent two-week “freeze” through- out Oregon due to the rise in COVID-19 cases. That means they are all not do- ing so well financially. Their staffs have been cut back very severely. Well, here is my wish: Please donate what ever you can to your favorite restaurant and/or favor- ite bar to help them get through these tough times. Also, try to get the name of your favorite server, bartender or local musician(s) and give what you can. Many are my friends and are losing their cars, homes, apart- ments, etc., because of being out of work. Thank you all in advance for your kindness and concern. —Paul J. Biondi Florence-area musician Grateful for quick local, county response The back-to-back storms last weekend hit us hard. Following dinner on Saturday evening, we heard the raucous sound of a chain saw just outside our home. Since the wind was up, we thought a neighbor had a tree down. Looking out to the front of our driveway we saw lots of lights on our street. I went out to investigate in a gale force wind and driving rain. To my surprise, one of our large trees had fallen across the street and was being cut up by a work crew from the county. They pushed the debris to the side of the road and promised to return to remove the cuttings. In the light of following day, I went out to see the downed tree and found it was not one but three trees that fell side by side. It appears they were healthy, but the supporting ground cover of salal and huckleberry was not enough to withstand the soaking rain and strong winds. The crew returned to our home on Monday morning in anoth- er storm with a wood chipper. Within an hour they removed the wood from our downed trees, fill- ing their dump truck. Only two large pieces were left that didn’t fit in the chipper. Then off they went to remove several more trees along our road. To cap it all off, on Wednesday a county sweeper arrived to scoop up all the pine needles and debris along our road. Many, many thanks to the Lane County road crew from Florence headed by Adam Lane. They per- formed admirably during very adverse conditions to make our streets safe. We are very grateful for their quick response and hard work. —Mike and Pat Allen Florence Right of people to alter, abolish bad government Governments are created by the people. They derive their abil- ity to rule by the consent of the people. When a government tries to destroy our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. Governments should not be changed for frivolous reasons. The citizenry will suffer a lot of oppression before they abolish that to which they are accus- tomed. But when they are subjected to a long train of abuses that are designed to create absolute des- potism, it is their right — nay, it is their duty — to throw off such government and institute new guards for their future security. —James Sherwood Florence Finally, a mural that represents Florence I know many might be saying right now, “Not another letter about that mural on Highway 126.” However, I think it a very valid subject right now with a new city council and committees starting in 2021 and the fact that more murals will be on the agenda for our city. In January 2019, I had just moved back to Florence from Idaho and was reading articles and Letters to the Editor about the Quince Street mural that was being decided on — and ul- timately chosen and painted — Office Hours: Monday to Thursday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday: 8 a.m. to noon Letters to the Editor policy in the spring of that year on the Central Lincoln PUD building. Before I passed judgement, I decided to wait until the mural started to take shape. On three occasions, I drove down there and parked to watch it happen. I was appalled at what I saw devel- op with the weird colors and sub- ject matter that had nothing to do with the Oregon Coast and even less about Florence. Even the picture of the bridge is horrible. I now know who made this decision but will not list your names as you know who you are and should be ashamed. Why on earth would we pay someone to come from another city to paint this when we have so many great artists right here? Ev- ery time I go to Eugene now and come home and have to look at it — it irritates me. I have visited Silverton, Ore., many times over the past 15 years. It is a quaint old town where you will find many beautiful murals that reflect the history of the town. The artists did a great job. At least that city council and its art committee know their history and wanted to highlight it. I could not help but wonder what on Earth these select members of the Florence City Council and Pub- lic Art Committee were thinking when they made this decision — and then agreed to pay an exorbi- tant fee to someone from out of town, too. So when I read the story in the Siuslaw News on Aug. 12 about the new mural that the Clawsons wanted to put on their restaurant, I said “Hallelujah.” Finally, some- one had a vision of what type of mural should be painted in this fine city — and that it should be done by one of our great local art- ists, Michael Wood. I have always admired the mu- ral on the ICM Restaurant in Old Town that Mr. Wood recently re- furbished. I sure hope that in 2021 our city council and art committee will understand how important it is to showcase our city and the Oregon Coast, which have so much to of- fer with the sand dunes, wildlife, trees, rhododendrons, ocean, Florence Events Center — and then use the paint colors that go along with those themes. — Linda Payton Florence The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to in- clude full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publica- tion of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumen- tative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are un- sourced or documented will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside the Siu- slaw News readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) En- sure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hear- say; and 3) Explain the reasons to support candi- dates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhet- oric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and plat- forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid politi- cal advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to re- ject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Email letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com WHERE TO WRITE Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, Ore. 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line: 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 FAX: 202-228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@ oregonlegislature.gov State Rep. Caddy McKeown (Dist. 9) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown @oregonlegislature.gov West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@ co.lane.or.us
