May 5th Edition of KCST's Our Town...

The May issue of KCST's Our Town covered a variety of topics ranging from a soldier's story of his time in Viet Nam; A teen event aimed at raising awareness of teen violence; and then the four candidates for the West Lane seat on the Lane County Board of Commissioners.

The first segment was an interview of Tim Sapp who grew up in Albany, Oregon, graduating from High School at the age of 17. He spent the summer and fall of 1967 working on construction, building houses and working in the rain. Shortly before he turned 18, he received his draft notice, so promptly went to the local recruiting office and enlisted in the army. Sapp talked about his experiences in Viet Nam, including the how the death of one of his best friends in April 1969 likely saved his life when he was seriously wounded a month later. The segment is approximately 25 minutes long.


Sapp has been a Florence resident since 1986 and currently is the principal broker for TR Hunter Real Estate. He is also the Vice President of the Central Oregon Coast Military Heritage Museum in Florence which has organized an Armed Forces Day observance May 15th in Florence.

Next up, host Bob Sneddon spoke with Aurora Drysdale, a domestic violence and teen advocate with Siuslaw Outreach Services. She's organized a day-long event for Saturday, May 8th at the Florence Events Center called "Got Respect? Give Some Away. Her segment is not available online at this time.

From there, Sneddon moved to the May 18th Primary election where four candidates are seeking the West Lane seat on the Lane County Board of Commissioners. Current board chair Bill Fleenor is not seeking re-election, throwing the race wide open. If one candidate earns more than 50% of the vote in the primary, his name will be alone on the November ballot. If no candidate reaches a clear majority then the top two will run off in the fall.

The first candidate interviewed was 18-year old Fred Starr, a volunteer firefighter from Mapleton. He moved to Mapleton with his mother five years ago from Kentucky. He has no political experience and points to his mother and his home schooling for inspiration in running. The segment is just under 15 minutes long.


Next up on the program was Jerry Rust, a 67-year old Mapleton area resident who served on the board from 1977 to 1997, ending his 5 term run to mount an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate. Since his time in office, Rust has alternately split his time between Lane County, Portland and China where he taught English. The Rust interview is just over 14 minutes.


From there, the conversation shifted to D.W. Northey, a former utility contractor who lives in the Walton area. Northey was originally from California. He and his wife moved to Oregon a few years ago to help with aging parents. He has limited political experience and currently sits on the board of directors for the Fern Ridge Library District. Northey and Sneddon spoke for about 14 minutes.


The final candidate is Jay Bozievich, a civil engineer with the Eugene Water and Electric Board. A Maryland native, he and his wife sought out an area where they could raise a family and moved to the Eugene area in 1993. They own a needlepoint magazine based out of Elmira and Bozievich was previously on the Lane Community College Board, serving one year as chair. The Bozievich segment is approximately 14 minutes in length.


Ballots are already in the hands of voters and are due back no later than May 18th.