Dunes City setting goals for 2016

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Special session for elected officials set Wednesday

Officials in Dunes City have set aside 2 ½ hours tomorrow afternoon to talk about their previous goals and refine them for the coming year.

Previous goals were divided into four categories: financial stability; good governance; water quality and resource protection; and emergency preparation.

With the assistance of City Administrator Jaime Mills, the councilors will review progress made towards completion of those goals. They will also review the results of a survey sent to residents seeking input on goals for the coming year.

They will then take that information and use it to help set goals for 2016 and 2017.

The Dunes City Council will meet at Dunes City Hall on Pacific Avenue in Westlake beginning at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Verbal Escape

An effort help teens “find their voice” is coming from an unlikely source in the Florence area. Two young men currently in custody of the Oregon Youth Authority at Camp Florence are using a curriculum called “verbal escape” to spread the word about Spoken Word Poetry. Noah Schultz and Stephen (STEFF-un) Fowler came from different neighborhoods in Portland, but have spent the last seven years together in lockup facilities. About five years they each found a turning point in their lives and struggled to make their lives different when they get out.

Both credit the thought-provoking dramatic style of Spoken Word… here’s Schultz with a portion of his presentation called “Gavel”, a narrative of his court appearance before a judge when he was 17 years old.

Noah Schultz: —“Mr. Schultz. You’ve made a terrible mistake. You will now face the consequences with 90 months in prison. The gavel drops. My teenage body is sent into a shock. The room is quiet enough to hear my mother’s tears hit the floorboards. The game of life had rendered me a loser.”

Schultz and Fowler, along with Bettie Egerton and Karen Brown with the Florence Regional Arts Alliance will talk about their efforts to reach area high school students during tomorrow’s Our Town on KCST. The program airs from four to six pm.  The show will re-air Thursday morning from ten until noon on KCFM

Eugene-Florence Highway adds a name

New signs will go up on Highway 126 at each end of the corridor between Eugene and Florence proclaiming it to be the “William ‘Bill’ Tebeau Memorial Highway”. Tebeau was an engineer who spent 36 years with the Oregon Department of Transportation between 1948 and 1984. ODOT director Matt Garrett said Tebeau “left a legacy” at the department, adding that his “fingerprints are on the construction, design, and the mapping discipline that we use today.”.

Some of his earlier work included analyzing the drainage through the area along 126 near Veneta during the construction of the Fern Ridge Reservoir. He also performed hydraulic analysis on the Siuslaw River.

Family and friends of Tebeau gathered last week for a ceremony marking the naming in his honor in Veneta.

Florence man found unharmed

The man who walked away from a care center in Florence early yesterday was found about ten hours after he broke a screen and crawled out a window.

85-year old Don Schug was ok according to medics who checked him out before returning him to family members.   Schug, who was described as being “medically fragile” and suffering from mild dementia, was last seen around 1 AM at Regency Florence Rehabilitation Center on 21st Street.

Care givers began the initial search; they were joined by police who combed the immediate area.

By early morning Lane County Search and Rescue had arrived and began organizing a more formal search that included assistance from firefighters and medics. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was also called to assist, but Schug was found before it could arrive on scene.

He was spotted near Maple and 7th street shortly after 11 yesterday morning by a resident who recognized him from his description.

Class Act to feature Putnam County

Another venue for performing arts will be opening in Florence early in the spring. David Lauria, along with his wife Rose Mary, has been renovating and expanding the former Christian Science Reading Room at the corner of Rhododendron Drive and Kingwood Street.

David Lauria – “We saw the need for a small, intimate space, where people could enjoy live theater in a little more intimate environment.”

It’s called the “Class Act Theater”. But don’t let the name fool you…

David Lauria – “This is going to be a mixed-use space, so it’s not just going to be our productions in there. The space is going to be available for a number of uses eventually. If somebody wanted to have a wedding or a celebration of life, it can be used for that as well.”

Lauria said other theater groups will be able to use the facility and there may be writing and acting classes.

They’ll open with a reprise performance of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” March 26.