21 July 2014
Oregon GOP backs away from Legislative Candidate
Republican leaders in Oregon have told a coastal legislative candidate he’s on his own.
Casey Runyan of Reedsport won the Republican Primary in May and is challenging House District 9 Democrat incumbent Caddy McKeon (muh-QUE-en) in the fall.
Recent revelations that Runyan served eight months in a Michigan Jail ten years ago prompted the move.
A sheriff’s department report from 2004 says Runyan drove to his mother’s house from a bar and initiated the attack on his mother’s boyfriend. When she tried to intervene, he then punched her in the face. He was arrested on drunken driving and assault charges and pleaded guilty.
Runyan says he has stopped drinking to excess and has had a clean record since then; including service in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.
Council to decide on gas tax referral
The Florence City Council will discuss the recruitment process for a new City Manager this evening during a special closed executive session at 5:30.
At seven the council will convene the public portion of their regular meeting and among the business to be discussed will be whether or not to refer a seasonal gas tax to Florence voters in the fall.
The tax would cost drivers who fuel up in Florence an extra nickel a gallon between March and October. It would be reduced to three cents a gallon between November and February.
The tax would produce an estimated $390-thousand each year that would be used to finance a 5-million-dollar street improvement and repair project.
Indian Ed/Summer Twilight Program Presents Art to Administrators
A special art project, completed earlier this month by students involved in summer school, was presented last week to the Siuslaw School Board.
Lynn Anderson, the director of Siuslaw’s Indian Education program said the art is traditional bead-work made using methods common to indigenous people in the North-East of the United States. The work involved a lot of teamwork according to Anderson.
Lynn Anderson – “28 students worked on it. The person who did the work with them came up with three different designs and then the kids voted on the one that they wanted to use.”
In addition to the intricate beadwork, the piece also required the use of several disciplines.
Lynn Anderson – “There’s math involved in that. There was some science involved in this also, and of course they had to do some writing about it which they weren’t as delighted about as the other part.”
The piece, depicting a Bald Eagle and a feather is mounted on a small bow and is on display at the District Office.
