Party Patrol Out For Prom
The Healthy Directions Coalition in partnership with the Lane County Sheriff’s Office and Florence Police Department are coordinating several specially grant funded Party Patrols this spring to deter underage drinking, binge drinking, and drinking and driving. Parties are one of the highest risk settings for underage drinking. Local law enforcement will patrol areas where underage drinking parties occur to enforce underage drinking laws. If a person under the legal drinking age of 21 is identified as drinking during Party Patrol, they will be written a minor in possession citation. Emily Bear with Healthy Directions coalition says the idea is not to just identify and punish youth who are ticketed but to provide an opportunity for counseling.
“We do want those youth to have opportunities to get resources and talk to a youth counselor.”
Bear says the primary goal of Party Patrol is to deter underage drinking in the first place. Any youth that is ticketed for an MIP will have the opportunity to have that expunged from their record. One of the first party patrols will be this Saturday during Siuslaw high schools prom.
Board Wants Transparency
Jack Hannigan, new elected board president for the Oregon Coast Humane Society says one of the most important things the new board wants to accomplish is transparency. Hannigan says that the organization as a whole seems to be working well. as an avid volunteer of the shelter he says he has had ample opportunity to view operations and he says the animals are very well taken care of, but that structurally and with the bi-laws of the OCHS some work needs to be done.
“The openness is going to be our key. We want the community to know we want to build our membership support. We want to build the confidence in the community. I want to assure everybody that it’s incredible, right now, how everything is operating.”
Hannigan says the goal of this board is to begin to put the structural organization of the board back together and they have a year to do it.
“Now we’re really in for a year. This term is for one year at which time we will update the Bi-laws and set out the terms of the future board.”
Hannigan says that during the past year they have lost a lot of volunteer support but that he believes they will be able to rebuild that quickly.
Airport Construction May Force Temporary Closure
The Airport Advisory Committee met yesterday and looked over plans to repave and relight the runway and taxiway at the airport. The project is funded by federal grants provided through the Federal Aviation Administration and when the plans are finalized the FAA will have to approve them before they go out to bid. One of the issues with the project is that the airport will have to be closed to air traffic for several weeks. Board member Sam Spayd says this poses some problems due to the fact that there are daily deliveries with UPS that could be compromised if the flights have to be redirected. Construction crews will have to build trenches in order to put in new state of the art lightning for the airport and that means planes could possibly be in danger when landing. During the planning stages public works director Mike Miller will be working with the engineering firm to work out some contingencies that might provide limited use during construction. The work could begins as early as September.