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Siuslaw News
Siuslaw News
NEWS &
VIEWS THAT
DEFINE OUR
COMMUNITY
VOL. 131, NO. 4
F LORENCE , O REGON
WEATHER
Partly cloudy with a
high of 54 and a low
of 44.
Full forecast on A3
COMMUNITY
Florence selects Margaret Wisniewski for open council seat
3-1 vote secures city council appointment, scheduled for Jan. 25
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
T
he vacant seat on the Florence
City Council was filled in less
than 20 minutes on Monday, Jan. 11,
in a 3-1 vote during a special meet-
ing held virtually. During the meet-
ing, which was scheduled specifical-
ly to address the vacancy, Margaret
Wisniewski was selected to fill the
seat left open by the resignation of
former councilor Geraldine Prociw
last October.
Six individuals applied for the
opening to join re-elected Mayor Joe
Henry, along with Councilor Woody
Woodbury and newly elected coun-
cilors Sally Wantz and Bill Meyer. Six
candidates for the council seat were
interviewed by the council prior to
Monday’s meeting before selecting
Wisniewski, who had been a write-
in candidate for a council seat last
November but had finished last with
just 11 percent of the vote.
The meeting began with a pre-
liminary “paper” ballot done via
messaging, with Henry and Wood-
bury voting in favor of Wisniewski,
while Wantz voted for the sec-
ond-place finisher in the Florence
mayoral race, Jo Beaudreau, and
Meyer choosing Joel Marks to fill the
council vacancy.
See COUNCIL page 5A
‘The only way to get through this is by
Scholarships
participating in the effort that we know works’ help businesses
Florence’s COVID-19
cases soar to 119 as
Lane County Public
Health confirms area’s
first two fatalities
prepare
for pandemic
Florence, LCC
partner on course for
hospitality/tourism
By Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
CROW adds board
members
INSIDE — A3
LIFESTYLE
Take a hike on
South Slough Trail
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RECORDS
Obituaries &
response logs
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TV GUIDE
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“We’ve got to make it so that
people understand that, at the very
base of what you’re doing — when
you’re choosing not to mask, when
you’re choosing to have gather-
ings, when you’re choosing to not
distance yourself — you’re taking
someone else’s life in your hands,”
stated Lane County Public Health
(LCPH) Public Information Offi-
cer Jason Davis.
LCPH has been monitoring
COVID-19 cases since the out-
break reached Oregon in Febru-
ary 2020. For a majority of that
time, the Florence 97439 zip code
reported few cases until a recent
surge brought the number of peo-
ple infected with the novel corona-
virus up to 119, as reported Tues-
day. Thirty-six of those cases were
from the past two weeks.
In addition, Florence has had
its first deaths connected to
COVID-19.
“We are very concerned about
Florence,” Davis said. “The Flor-
ence area has been in some ways
fortunate, in that you’re behind the
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
COURTESY PHOTO
Lane County Public Health is located inside the Lane County
Health & Human Services Building at 151 W 7th Ave. in Eugene,
Ore.
curve and haven’t had to battle a in November and continues, with
large-scale outbreak up until very more than 250 cases reported in
recently. But now — it’s starting to the county over the weekend.
That led to Lane County enter-
creep up there.”
He compared the coast’s num- ing “surge protocol,” according to
bers to where the rest of the coun- Davis. Under that, LCPH scaled
ty was this past May, where so- back on the amount of questions
cial connections began to make asked of people who have contract-
COVID cases rise. At that time, ed the virus, which has made con-
LCPH had enough staff to trace tact tracing even more difficult.
“That makes it tough for com-
people’s activities and present fur-
munities like Florence that are just
ther spread.
“Unfortunately, we aren’t able to now seeing that influx of cases,”
really drill down on the case level Davis said. “You have the ability to
that we were able to back in April potentially stifle it or to slow it if
and May,” Davis said.
you get the right information in the
Part of this is because of a larger hands of the people who are maybe
outbreak in the Eugene/Springfield inadvertently spreading the virus.”
metropolitan area, which began
See LCPH page 6A
KIDS CORNER
Activities for kids
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CLASSIFIEDS
Listings & notices
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COURTESY PHOTO
Margaret Wisniewski
KXCR purchases building, takes over FCC licensing
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS | 16 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2021
KXCR, Florence’s nonprofit
community radio station at 90.7
FM, has continued to inform, ed-
ucate and even grow during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The station, which received the
approval to broadcast on the public
airwaves from the FCC in 2014, op-
erates on a shoe-string budget with
volunteers filling positions that, at
traditional radio stations, would be
compensated employment.
KXCR broadcasts 24 hours a day,
seven days a week and recently be-
came the holder of the FCC license
for the station, which had officially
been the responsibility of West-
ern Lane Translator (WLT). It also
streams online at kxcr.net.
KXCR’s Board President Gigi
Lassan said she is optimistic about
the future of the station and the
ways in which it may interact with
the community moving forward.
“The license transfer from WLT
has just been finalized and ap-
proved by the FCC. KXCR is also in
the midst of purchasing the KXCR
building on Ninth Street from one
of the KXCR’s founders, Bill Durst,
who has always been an incredible
support to KXCR. We are closing
escrow next week.” Lassan said.
KXCR provides daily coastal tide
reports, regional weather updates
and links to local news outlets in
addition to its program schedule. It
offers a wide variety of musical and
informational programming, some
locally produced.
“We are also starting a few new
programs as well, like Medical Mon-
days and a couple of meditation
programs as well,” Lassan added.
Michael J. Kello, vice president
of KXCR’s board, admits challeng-
es presented by the pandemic have
been numerous and have led the
station to explore other ways to
complete their mission to “Edu-
cate, Inform and Entertain.”
One of the main reasons KXCR
has been able to survive the
COVID lockdowns is the fact that
it has a small group of people who
are able to work in group spaces
when others are not present at the
station. Coupled with the measures
instituted to align KXCR with Or-
egon Health Authority (OHA)
COVID-19 guidelines, KXCR has
so far been successful.
See RADIO page 5A
Lane Community College (LCC)
and the City of Florence have
teamed up to offer courses to help
local private businesses learn the in-
tricacies of cleaning in the pandemic
age. The city is providing scholar-
ships for two LCC courses, one of
which is called the Tourism/Hospi-
tality Quick-Course program, a six-
hour course that focuses specifically
on the customer service aspects of
controlling the virus through clean-
ing — though the reasons to take the
course go well beyond COVID-19.
“I think there will be a new
normal,” said Russ Pierson, Dean of
Lane Community College Florence
Center. “I think folks will be much
more sensitive to the possibility of
infection. Businesses will want this
understanding for years.”
Back in April, LCC created the
Environmental Service Aide certi-
fication course, an 18-hour online
class which provides students with
entry level knowledge on reducing
the spread of germs and diseases in
healthcare facilities.
“It really is oriented toward folks
who want a career in healthcare,”
Pierson said. “It would enable some-
one to get the training they need to
get a job at a long-term care facility
or a hospital, which are in need of
environmental service aides. They
kind of look like custodians, but
they have additional training with
bloodborne pathogens and viruses,
such as COVID.”
Soon after offering the course,
LCC began receiving requests for a
shortened version of the course.
“Something oriented toward our
restaurants or small businesses that
would train people how to do ev-
erything right,” said Pierson. “That’s
when we developed this quick
course that takes out a lot of the
medical terminology, while adding
in information that applies specifi-
cally to the hospitality sector, retail
and small businesses.”
See PROGRAM page 5A
C elebrating Over 30 Years
in Real Estate
JIM HOBERG
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