County Program Teaches Youth Alcohol Awareness
The Lane County Health Department’s Healthy Directions Coalition is expanding its services to include Western Lane County. For months now Emily Bear has been working locally to bring much needed services to the area especially in the area of underage drinking education. A recent grant has enabled the expansion of services and they are bringing much needed awareness and education to Florence. One way is by a retailers responsible beverage training seminar that will be held at 1:30 Today at Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue station on Highway 101.
“We would like to encourage anybody who is a reatailer or a server or anyone who is going to be volunteering for Rhody Days to come to our retail beverage training.”
In addition to this training there will also be a class for minors who are ticketed for an MIP (minor in possession) charge. Char Reavis is assisting with Healthy Directions Coalition
“in August we will be having an MIP class here in Florence which is a big deal because so far youth that get MIP’s have to go to Eugene.”
Their research has showed that minors were less likely to get ticketed for an MIP because the classes were in Eugene and usually mid-week and late in the evening. Bear says the emphasis is on educating the youth and giving them the opportunity to clear their record.
“They walk the youth through how to expunge the Minor In Possession from their record which is really an important piece because nobody is trying to ruin a child’s life because they are out drinking.
Bear says it is important to recognize the importance of the message that we deliver youth and begin modeling the behavior that we want to see in them. The responsible beverage training is today at 1:30 at Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue.
Resident Deputy Program Reinstituted
Western Lane County and more specific the Florence/Mapleton area has a new resident Deputy. For the last couple of years the program by the Lane County Sheriff’s Department had to be discontinued due to budget cuts but funding changes have been able to bring back the program. Deputy Colt Parker has been working the area for several weeks now and is filling a very important gap in law enforcement.
“It just gives me a chance to kind of focus on these areas and take investigations a bit further than maybe what main office might get to just because of my availability.”
Sgt. Carrie Carver is the Communications liason for the Sheriff’s office and she says this program, which was once much larger, is a benefit to community policing.
“Our deputy’s can get to know community members and what their individual needs are, their individual issues going on in their community, they’re more apt to be able to close those cases.
Carver says both, Chief Tom Turner and current Land County Sheriff, Byron Trapp, were part of the Resident Deputy program.
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Logging Truck Rollover Slows Traffic on 101
Early yesterday traffic came to a standstill on highway 101 near Cape Perpetua after a Logging truck rolled over in a curve. Yachats Fire and Medics responded to the call. According to “News Lincoln County” the driver was uninjured in the wreck. They also report that Residents have complained about the confusing nature of the speed limit signs in that area. There is currently a warning speed posted of 35 MPH due to the winding nature of the road. Travel was eventually restored to the area after a several hour clean up.
Cemetery Clean-Up Day
Cemeteries all over the state will be joining a Cemetery Clean Up day on May 12th. This notice comes from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Florence was not specifically mentioned in the release. In order to receive assistance for the cleanup and volunteer support there is a phone number and an email address that will connect you to persons in charge of the statewide effort. Cleanup will include removing invasive weeds, debris removal and the cleaning of headstones. The goal is to have cemeteries cleaned up by Memorial Day