Siuslaw News Letters to the Editor

(Editor’s Note: Submissions are always welcome as part of our goal to encourage community

discussion and exchange of perspectives.)

Thank you, Lane County

In the storm after Christmas, the top half of a large pine tree in front of our house snapped off.

The resulting mess completely blocked Oceana Drive; no vehicles could get through.

Within a few hours,early on Dec. 27, a crew from Lane County Public Works cut the fallen tree and moved it to our drainage ditch. A couple of weeks later, they returned to haul away the debris.

We are doubly grateful for this effort because Oceana Drive is not a county road; it was annexed

by the City of Florence last year (The developer needed our street to show a connection, however flimsy, between his property and the city boundary at Rhododendron Drive.)

The City of Florence now collects taxes on that developer’s parcels but does nothing to maintain Oceana Drive. For two years, Idylewood residents unanimously opposed the annexation,

while the city promised great benefits. For whom, I wonder?

Ethically and logically, Lane County Public Works should not have had to clear a big tree

out of the roadway — a roadway that isn’t theirs.

Legally, however, there’s no way for the county to force the city to take responsibility for roads it annexes. 

We really appreciate the quick service from

Lane County Public Works. It appears they care and perform, when local agencies do not.

—Bruce Hadley,

Idylewood (Florence)

Martin hit the nail on the head

Kudos to Martin Cable’s letter in the Jan. 18 edition. He hit the nail on the head with a few words regarding our country’s current status.

—Tony Cavarno,

Florence

Monster of illegality 

“Americans should be aware that their justice system is regarded in other advanced countries

as a monster of illegality that threatens America’s status as a society of laws, and this bunk is

evidence of it.” 

• Conrad Black writing on the Biden ‘classified documents’ tempest...

— Ian Eales

Florence

(Editor’s note: Eales letter was submitted before former Vice President Mike Pence’s attorneys disclosed that about a dozen classified documents were found at Pence’s Indiana home.)