10 June 2015
State Parks to hold second trails safety meeting
Results from an earlier meeting about a highway 101 trail crossing at Honeyman State Park will be presented next week in Florence.
Jaime English, a planner with Oregon Parks and Recreation, said feedback and comments received from trail users during a May 27th meeting will be presented next Thursday evening, June 18th, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue.
Planners will also share findings collected through a comment system posted on a special website created for the process.
A casual or ‘social trail’ that connected the east and west sides of Highway 101 just north of the park entrance was dropped from the park’s master plan in 2009. That was three years after an overpass, just south of the entrance was completed.
The trail remained in use until February when it was closed suddenly.
Local runners who use the trail and the crossing protested and were successful in getting the trail reopened, if only temporarily.
Park officials say the crossing is unsafe and want to redirect users to the overpass.
English says next week’s meeting will give users an additional chance to talk about their feelings and give suggestions.
Idaho fugitive arrested in Florence
Florence Police officers checking out the possibility of a second stolen vehicle in less than a week at a homeless camp near Munsel Lake Road arrested a man wanted by the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
53-year old John Leslie Green was taken into custody yesterday afternoon.
He had been released on parole in Idaho a year ago for Robbery and Possession of a Controlled Substance. He was listed as a fugitive in September. In December, Marshalls told local police they suspected Green was in the Florence area.
Officers had recovered a stolen vehicle from the Munsel Lake Road camp last week and were checking out the report of a second one yesterday when they encountered Green. He is charged with Identity Theft, Manufacture of a Controlled Substance, and Providing False Information to Police. Police did not say whether or not he was connected with the stolen vehicles.
School board members; district retirees to be honored
Three outgoing Siuslaw school board members and several district retirees will be recognized this evening during the regular Siuslaw School Board meeting.
Deena Mitchell, Chad Clement and Michelle Rose are stepping aside this month. Neither sought reelection last month.
Retiring employees will also be recognized. They include middle school teacher M.J. Church and High School Educational Assistant Wanda O’Malley. Suzanne Serra is a library aid at the middle school and Ginny Lane is a speech and language pathologist. Two secretaries are stepping down: Wendy Rohner and Cindy Allen; and two bus drivers are retiring as well: Linda Westlund and Sharon Waite.
Once the cake has been consumed, board members will get to work on the agenda. They’ll conduct a public hearing on the budget for the coming year. They’re expected to approve total appropriations of $19,717,000.
They are also expected to make a final decision on naming the basketball court at the high school in memory of Glenn Butler and the mall at the same school in memory of Dick Whitmore.
The meeting starts at 6:30 PM at the district office.
Local cost of driving diminishes
The average cash price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Florence fell two cents a gallon in the past week. Prices are still considerably higher than in February of this year, but are averaging about a dollar a gallon less than last year at this time.
Marie Dodds with Triple-A of Oregon said the average statewide price in Oregon also slipped two cents, but remains above the three-dollar mark at $3.02.
The national average price held steady at $2.75.
Oregon team wins national Ford/Triple-A Auto Skills
A two-person team of student auto technicians from Oregon are the best in the nation. The team of Jay Saunders and Morgan White from Vale High School won the 66th annual Ford-Triple-A Student Auto Skills competition last week in Michigan.
Teams from Vale have won the Oregon competition a whopping 27 times and this is the third time they’ve won the nationals. Marie Dodds with Oregon Triple-A said they previously won in 2011 and 2013.
The team from Siuslaw High School finished fourth in last month’s Oregon competition.
Recall effort targets Lane County lawmaker
Gun control opponents have filed a petition to recall the Democratic lawmaker behind the bill requiring background checks for most private gun sales.
The recall petition against Senator Floyd Prozanski (pro-ZAWN-skee) of Eugene joins three others targeting Democrats who sponsored the legislation.
Prozanski was the chief sponsor of the background checks bill signed by Governor Kate Brown in May.
The petition says Prozanski’s bill turns law-abiding citizens into criminals if they choose to store a friend’s firearm without doing a background check. It also says the measure infringes on Oregonians’ rights to bear arms.
The Associated Press reported Prozanski, who also serves as the municipal prosecutor in Florence, said the background checks bill was a – quote – “very good policy to pursue”. He says he is taking the recall seriously.
To force a vote on the recall, critics must gather 8,700 signatures from voters in his district.
