8 October 2015
Society not doing enough to prevent school shootings
Society is failing to protect the victims of mass shootings according to a long-time TV journalist. Rick Dancer covered the 1998 Thurston High School shootings. He said the similarities between that and other mass shootings around the country; including last week’s tragedy at Umpqua Community College in which ten people died; are very real.
Rick Dancer – “We as a culture have a problem here. And they’re young men who are disenfranchised, unlinked to other people who have a certain form of mental illness or distractions; and we are not attacking the problem.”
The problems, Dancer says, cannot be fixed by gun control legislation or more government assistance for mental health. It must go deeper than that. The real solution, he says, is for society as a whole to step up and take action.
Dancer was on this month’s edition of Coast Radio’s Our Town. The program will re-air Sunday morning from ten AM to Noon on KCFM. He anchored KEZI 9 News in Eugene for several years before stepping down in 2008.
Home Sales perking up
More homes in the Florence area were sold in the third quarter of this year than in any third quarter in more than a decade. July, August and September have long been the strongest months for residential real estate in the Florence area. 152 home sales were closed this year in that period. That compares with the 133 last year, matching a ten year high set in 2005.
While the number of home sales has increased; the value continues to lag. The third quarter tally this year was just under $31-million for all home sales. That’s the second highest amount in ten years. However, the median sale price was $186-thousand; the highest median since 2009. But, it was still below pre-recession amounts where the median was consistently over $200-thousand.
Tawfik Ahdab, a real estate market analyst with the Pacific Valuation Group called the last three months “spectacular”. He also said it should not be considered an anomaly as the number of pending sales on the final day of the quarter was at 95.
The area is on track to deliver 475 residential sales for the calendar year; a 16-percent increase from 2014; but with the strong carry over, Ahdab says he would not be surprised to see a higher number than that by year’s end.
Stay off the rocks and out of the surf zone
Forecasters are warning of hazardous beach conditions this weekend. Hurricane Oho continues to move north over the mid-Pacific and will remain well offshore as it degrades today and through the weekend.
The storm is expected to generate a “large southwest swell” bringing heavy surf as early as late tonight or early Friday.
That swell could reach 14-feet tomorrow, creating a threat of breaking waves over jetties and generating “significant surf”.
In a statement released early this morning, the National Weather Service said a large swell of this direction is somewhat uncommon. Visitors to the beaches and jetties should stay out of the surf zone and off jetties.
SOS to pay off mortgage
Siuslaw Outreach Services is marking an important milestone this month. Executive Director David Wiegan said the group was able to raise more than $26-thousand Sunday afternoon during an event at Homegrown Public House. The theme was “Help Us Burn the Mortgage” and that’s just what donors did… at least figuratively.
Wiegan says the literal mortgage burning will be at the next board of directors meeting. He said SOS was “very fortunate to have some very generous donations come in”. Wiegan added that it was “a critically important principal” for non-profit organizations to be debt free.
CPR Heroes to be honored
Two recent heart attack victims in Florence are still with us, primarily because of emergency CPR. Bystanders, a volunteer firefighter and police officers who intervened with emergency Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation on two occasions last month at the Port of Siuslaw Marina will be recognized at the scene of their heroism this morning.
Western Lane Ambulance Spokesman Al Kreitz said the first incident was the afternoon of September 8th; the second was ten days later at nine in the morning. In both instances, the victims had recently come ashore after fishing… in both cases bystanders immediately took life-saving actions.
Kreitz, who did not identify the victims, said both men walked out of the hospital within days of their trauma.
One of the patients will be on hand at ten this morning, along with EMTs. They’ll recognize those who performed the life-saving CPR.
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