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THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM | WEDNESDAY EDITION | DECEMBER 15, 2021 | $1.00
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Siuslaw News
Community Voices
Siuslaw News
Winter storms
close highways
Inside — A9 to A11
NEWS &
VIEWS THAT
DEFINE OUR
COMMUNITY
VOL. 131, NO. 100
D EC . 15, 2021
F LORENCE , O REGON
WEATHER
Rain and wind with a
high of 49 and a low
of 44.
Full forecast on A3
COMMUNITY
COURTESY IMAGES
(Left) Highway 126 experienced rain, slow and slush on Monday and Tuesday as
winter weather caused closures between Noti and Mapleton. Oregon Department
of Transportation’s RoadCams tracks the temperature and other conditions that
people can check via TripCheck.com. (Above) Traffic halted on Highway 101 north
of Florence on Saturday as a landslide covered 40 yards of roadway for six hours.
Heavy rain and snow cause landslide on
Highway 101, accidents on Highway 126
Ensemble plays
seasonal show
INSIDE — A3
SPORTS
By Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
T
he weather has truly
turned frightful this De-
cember, especially the early
part of this week.
On Saturday, Dec. 11, Highway
101 was closed for six hours due to
a landslide.
The Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT) closed a
section of the highway approxi-
mately 10 miles north of Florence.
The debris from the hillside on the
east side of Highway 101 deposit-
ed dirt and undergrowth along 40
yards of roadway and blocked traf-
fic in both directions until ODOT
was able to clear the blockage.
As the storms continued, haz-
ardous travel conditions arose
Monday and Tuesday as snow fell
Soroptimists to feed families
Community Christmas Basket Project continues on Dec. 18
Middle schools play
each other
INSIDE — B
RECORDS
Obituaries &
response logs
Inside — A2
TV GUIDE
Inside — B3-B4
KIDS CORNER
Activities for kids
Inside — B5
CLASSIFIEDS
Listings & notices
Inside — B6
By Ferris Haukom
Siuslaw News Intern
On Saturday, Dec. 18, Sorop-
timist International of Florence
will be hosting its annual Com-
munity Christmas Basket Proj-
ect to provide food to area fam-
ilies this winter. The event will
be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at
Siuslaw Middle School, 2525 Oak
St. Florence. Cars will line up on
27th Street between Kingwood
and Oak streets to receive baskets
of food for a holiday dinner.
“The inspiration is to help
those in need,” said Soroptimist
of Florence President Carol Ben-
nett.
Soroptimist International, cele-
brating its 100th anniversary this
year, is an organization founded
in Oakland, Calif., in 1921 to pro-
vide women with the option of
joining a service organization. It
has maintained and evolved this
mission with the times, serving
as a community and source of
advocacy for women through the
generations.
Currently, Soroptimist Interna-
tional has approximately 30,000
members and clubs in over 120
countries, improving the lives of
women on a global scale.
The local Community Christ-
mas Basket Project began 40
years ago when a member began
using her hair salon to store and
charitably distribute food. Even-
tually, the salon was upgraded to
a station wagon, which has since
been upgraded to Siuslaw Middle
School, the current large-scale
distribution location.
The Christmas Basket Project
ordinarily raises $25,000 in mon-
etary donations, which Soropti-
mist of Florence uses to buy food
for approximately 400 families or
2,000 people.
“Food is more expensive this
year and more difficult to get,”
Bennett said.
She emphasized the perti-
nence of the project in the wake of
See BASKETS page 5A
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LATEST NEWS :
/S IUSLAW N EWS
‘Providing a warm, safe place for those who need one’
@S IUSLAW N EWS
Emergency Cold Weather Shelter provides care this week
T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM
S IUSLAW N EWS
2 S ECTIONS | 20 P AGES
C OPYRIGHT 2021
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
Due to this week’s inclement
weather, the Florence Emergency
Cold Weather Shelter (FECWS)
opened for the first time this sea-
son on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The shelter opens when tempera-
tures drop below 40 degrees and
winter weather makes living out-
side extremely difficult.
safe place to spend the
A number of upgrades
night while maintain-
have been added to the
ing social distancing and
FECWS’ current loca-
sanitation required under
tion 3996 Highway 101,
COVID-19.
across from Sand Ranch,
The FECWS has been
since the facility initial-
successful in acquiring
ly opened early this year. The site, the necessary donations and fund-
which uses Pallet shelters provided ing to bring electricity to the 20-
by Lane County, allows individual unit facility.
people to have a warm, dry and
See SHELTER page 6A
on the pass at Badger Mountain.
Highway 126 between Noti and
Walton experienced multiple vehi-
cle crashes throughout both days
while temperatures remained be-
low 35 degrees.
See WEATHER page 6A
Siuslaw School
Board swears in
new directors
Florence presents
on MUPTE
By Zac Burtt
Siuslaw News
The Siuslaw School District
Board of Directors held its
monthly meeting in the Siuslaw
Middle School commons on Dec.
8.
District staff and Chair Bob
Sneddon, along with directors
Maureen Miltenberger, Kady
Sneddon, John Barnett, Brian
Lacouture and Frank Armendariz,
were all present in person, while
Dianna Pimlott attended via
Zoom. The meeting was lives-
treamed on YouTube for those
who did not attend the meeting.
Wednesday’s meeting opened
with the Pledge of Allegiance,
which was led by Siuslaw High
School junior Julian Loftis who
was honored by SHS Construction
(CTE) teacher Rafael Garcia.
“Julian is one of the football
youngsters who won the champi-
onship and is also a hard worker
and a great young man,” Garcia
said.
See SIUSLAW page 5A
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