Friday, September 28, 2012
Display your PRIDE…
Businesses in Florence will have the next two weeks to hone their Siuslaw Pride. They’re being urged to decorate with blue and gold, wear the school colors and even offer an incentive for employees and customers wear their best Siuslaw Viking apparel, especially on Fridays.
It’s all part of a program aimed at exhibiting the intentions behind the PRIDE program at Siuslaw. Teacher Kim Pickell (pih-KELL) says that an acronym for Participation, Respect, Inspiration, Dedication and Excellence.
In an effort to forge an even stronger bond between students and the community, a special contest will seek out the business that best displays Siuslaw Pride between now and October 15th; that’s the start of homecoming week by the way. The winning business will get a trophy, special prizes and a pair of tickets to the Siuslaw-Brookings Homecoming football game October 19th.
Plastic Posing Problems
They’ve been showing up on Oregon beaches for the past few years… high concentrations of tiny bits of plastic; flakes of plastic bottles and bits of pellets. Scientists say they’re fragments of garbage that has been spinning in any of the several large fields of debris circulating in the north Pacific. Winds and currents push them out of the “North Pacific Gyre” and drive them to landfall. Marc Ward is a lifetime Seaside resident who has been combing the entire length of the Oregon Coast over the past three years. He’s found the plastic bits consistently occupy about a 15-foot wide band near the high tide line all the way from the Columbia River to Cape Blanco. Ward says 90-percent of the plastic is mixed into the sand and poses many risks. It can be toxic to wildlife that eat it, and it can also pose a hazard to humans that may build a bonfire on the sand… and inadvertently burn the plastic.
Federal Lands Day
Day use fees at most U.S. Forest Service recreation sites will be waived tomorrow during the 19th annual National Public Lands Day. Sites operated by the Forest Service itself will offer free access to help facilitate volunteer efforts to improve trails and day-use areas. Concessionaires operating some day-use areas have the option of participating, but may not waive the one-day fees.
Canary Road Congestion
If you’re driving on Canary Road tomorrow morning and through mid-afternoon, you’ll want to use a little extra caution near the Woahink Day Use Area. More than 30 middle school and high school cross country teams will be converging on the parking lot at East Woahink for the Woahink Invitational Cross Country meet. Middle school races begin at ten A.M. with varsity races running at 12:30 and 1:15. Awards will be handed out at 2:30 in the afternoon… until then, there’ll be hundreds of runners and a high volume of meet related traffic along that stretch of Canary Road.
