Body of Missing Florence Man Found
The body of missing Florence man Patrick Stapp has been found. Stapp’s body was located Sunday in Mercer lake. The 58 year old Stapp had been missing since December 3rd. Stapp’s vehicle had rolled over on Sutton Lake road and lane county sheriff’s noticed a man and a dog near the vehicle but lost sight of them as they approached. They believed that Stapp had taken off down an embankment but could not locate him. Stapp’s dog had found his way home the next day.
2018 year in review…
It was quite a year in the news for the country and locally here we felt some of the political upheaval that has been festering in the nation. The City of Florence council election was one of the stories that made the news. The field of candidates went from 5 to 3 with Woody Woodbury, Geraldine Lucio, and Maureen Miltenberger vying for 2 seats when controversy hit over one candidates experience. It marked heated debates and even filtered over into the council meetings where jeers yelled out over council members trying to explain their positions. Geraldine Lucio was singled out for what some in the community and 2 council members saw as a lack of public service experience, but in the end the voters spoke and gave their nod to Lucio as well as interim council member Woody Woodbury.
The city managed to overcome several hurdles to implement the Revision Florence Program. After an initial bid that came in too high for the project the city regrouped and worked with ODOT to combine some of the work projects and move some of the overnight work to daylight hours. Restrictions to federal highways were some of the reason for cost overruns as times when roadways can be shut down are limited by federal regulations. A subsequent bid was prepared and accepted and now work is slated to begin early in 2019.
Another big story for 2018 was the resignation of Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue Chief Jim Langborg. Langborg announced his resignation on August 16th. The resignation coincided with another big story on the district’s finances where some accounting discrepancies made it appear that there was a shortfall in the budget but in the end it was just an accounting error. SVFR board president Ron Green:
201: “We’ve gone through quite a process to audit the books and the fund balance. We didn’t have the information and so honestly the budget was represented based on erroneous data and it’s been clarified and it is nice to see the fund balance is actually greater than we originally thought.”
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue and Western Lane Ambulance are now poised to hire a new Chief of Operations.
We also learned more about the missing Dallas woman fro 2017. After going missing in the summer of 2017 Heather Mounce was Charged with identity theft, first degree theft, aggravated theft, and criminal mistreatment. According to records the investigation into Mounce’s activities began about a year before her disappearance. Mounce’s trial is set for September 2019.
A Quake in January of 2018 caused quite a shakeup in Florence as reports of a 7.9 Alaskan earthquake had some Florence residents wondering why several areas in the northwest received notifications and we did not. As it turned out is was a strike slip earthquake and not a subduction quake. Florence officials were aware of the difference early enough to know that no danger existed for the Florence coast.
