Septic Ordinance May or May Not Have a Future in Dunes City
Dunes City Councilors will have their first official chance this evening to discuss the results of an Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals decision that invalidated something they did late last year.
In November a majority of the council voted to scrap a five-year old ordinance that required every home owner provide verification of regular septic tank inspections. In its place, they approved an ordinance requiring Dunes City provide an educational program for homeowners on the proper care and maintenance of the systems.
LUBA determined because the Dunes City did not have the education component ready to go in November, the entire decision was invalid and ordered them to start over. They’ll begin that process this evening, but Mayor Rebecca Ruede is making no assumptions as to what course elected officials will take.
Rebecca Ruede – “I don’t really… I don’t really um… I can’t really say exactly what’s going to take place, but what I can say is that we are going to talk about it in an open forum. And that, you know, that I welcome everyone to come and during citizen input time to give their point of view. You will be heard and we’ll just have to see what the future brings.”
She said there’s a citizen initiative process ongoing right now that seeks to refer the entire issue to voters. Councilors may wait for that process to be completed before taking any other action.
Dog Park Approval Sought
The Florence Planning Commission will hold a rare special meeting this evening at City Hall to hear a conditional use permit and design review application. The applicant is the city itself and the facility in question would be a new dog park intended for the northeast corner of Airport Road and Kingwood Street.
There have been increasing calls for creation of an ‘off-leash’ park and an ultimate location for that was identified in the recently updated Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Funding to make it happen was not anticipated however until the LDS Church stepped forward. Members said they could provide several hundred volunteers to clear the parcel and build the park in one day. Before that can happen, though, the regulatory process must be followed.
By the time volunteers are done July 21st there will be a 44-thousand square foot fenced enclosure, concrete sidewalks around the street perimeter and an improved parking area. Existing nature trails in Singing Pines Park will be relocated and improved. The Planning Commission will conduct a hearing on the proposal this evening beginning at seven.
OC Jam 2012
A new event at Miller Park last weekend drew an estimated crowd of about 500 people to enjoy the sunshine and lots of music. The OC Jam 2012 was organized by Victor Tezanos (teh-ZONN-ose), but he’s quick to point out he had an awful lot of help with the 12-hour music and arts festival. He said they’re still calculating how much money it raised for the Boys and Girls Club and Florence Food Share. He also says he’s thinking about OC-Jam 2013.
Victor Tejanos – “It’s definitely in the thought process. I put it on my bucket list seeing as I had to mark this one off. But, at this point I’m going to take a little break and focus on my business and then, uh, we’ll definitely be talking with the bands.”
On of the highlights of this year’s jam for Tejanos was watching so many families with children enjoy themselves.
Flag Day Ceremony
Today is Flag Day… the American Legion will be holding a flag retirement ceremony from four to seven PM on Bay Street just west of the bridge. U.S. Flags that are no longer in a condition to be displayed will be retired following provisions in the flag code. More than 300 flags have been retired each year over the past half-decade.