Fire board moves to terminate chief

Coast Radio News
Local News
16 July 2015

Agency needs to “head in different direction” says board president

A majority of the board of directors for Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue voted last night to put the Fire Chief on leave and terminate his employment by the end of this month.

John Carnahan, a long time volunteer, was elected to the board in May. Last night he was elected board president and immediately moved to fire Jim Langborg. That motion failed, but following a later executive session, a similar motion was approved on a 3-to-2 voted to fire Langborg with “no cause”, but with 15 day notice. Langborg was immediately placed on paid leave.

Carnahan, who never publicly raised any concerns about Langborg’s leadership, said it was difficult.

John Carnahan – “This is one of those things that… All I can tell you is that the board decided to go in a different direction.”

Just what that direction is was not specified last night and Carnahan was reluctant to discuss it this morning. He eventually did admit he felt the agency needed to be more “volunteer based”. John Scott, a long time board member said the move came as a complete surprise to him. He and Woody Woodbury voted against it. Former chief John Buchanan was hired to fill in on an interim basis.

Power of Florence nearing four dozen activites

Nearly half of the activities going on Saturday during the Power of Florence will revolve around making things look better. The other half are all about raising money and/or awareness.

Kaylee Graham, the Siuslaw High School student and organizer of the Fifth annual day of volunteering, said all of the 47 events registered “help to make our community a better place”. She added the “amazing feeling of doing something” to help is “multiplied” when you work with others.

The City of Florence is calling for volunteers to report to Miller Park at 10:00 and from there, they’ll be dispatched to one of nine different parks cleanups.

Crossroad Assembly of God church will be pulling weeds at the Post Office at 8:30 and the Friends of Honeyman State Park will be planting trees at East Woahink from nine-to-12.

More than two-dozen activities will be centered in the Grocery Outlet Center parking lot.

A complete list of activities can be found at the Power of FlOreNcE website.

Tastes like… bacon!

Scientists at Oregon State University have recently secured a patent on a new strain of seaweed. It grows quickly, is packed with protein, and has twice the nutritional value of kale.

It also has one other very important characteristic.

The scientist who developed it says it has a “strong bacon flavor when cooked”.

Dulse grows wild along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. It is commonly used as a nutritional supplement for humans and can bring as much as $90-per pound in the dried form.

Researcher Chris Langdon and his colleagues at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport have been working on a new and improved variety of dulse for about 15 years.   Their initial goal was to create a super food for commercially grown abalone.

Langdon said there has never been a lot of interest in using the red leafy seaweed in its fresh form. But, in the course of his studies, he made that amazing discovery that when strips of dulse are fried, they taste like bacon.

Right now, there are no commercial dulse growing operations, but there could be in the near future. Students in the OSU MBA program are working on a marketing plan for new lines of specialty foods; and exploring the potential for a new aquaculture industry.

Oregon’s timber harvest topped 4 billion board feet for the second consecutive year.

The state Department of Forestry said in its annual harvest report that the 4.13 billion board feet harvested in 2014 represents a 1.7 percent decline from the year before. That ends a stretch of annual increases that began after the state hit a recession low of 2.7 billion board feet in 2009.

Douglas County, with 633 million board feet, was the state’s top producer in volume, followed by neighboring Lane County. Klamath County harvested the most timber east of the Cascade Range, with 103 million board feet.

It takes 10,000 board feet to build a roughly 1,800-square-foot house.

Gas prices surge in Cali; steady in Oregon

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is at the lowest point for this time of year in five years. It did increase by two cents in the past week to $2.80. Oregon’s average price gained a penny to $3.15; and the local average cash price held steady at $2.97.

Things haven’t been so stable in California where the average price shot up by 37 cents in the past week to $3.72 a gallon.

Western states continue to be the highest in the nation with the top eight prices on average are found in order in California, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Utah. Of those states, only Utah’s average is below three dollars a gallon.

South Carolina and Mississippi are the states with the lowest average prices on average: $2.41 and $2.46.