Florence Police reach outside city to quell drug trade; Reedsport teens engage in Thanksgiving spree; Boys and Girls Club offers more after school.

Florence Police reach outside city to quell drug trade…

Florence Police officers, along with the Lane County SWAT Team served two search warrants yesterday morning, one on Clear Lake Road, the other near Friendly Acres Road on Highway 101.
200 - "They hit the first place out in Dunes City a little after seven. And the place on North Highway 101 just outside of town a little bit after ten this morning. The Lane County SWAT team provided entry on both warrants."

That's because, said Florence Police Chief Maury Sanders, they had credible intelligence that individuals at both locations were possibly armed. In both instances, police officers were able to make ‘controlled buys’ of drugs from the subjects prior to the raids. Both actions resulted in the confiscation of methamphetamine and guns. The first one, at 84387 Clear Lake Road also netted two bags of Psilocybin mushrooms and resulted in the arrest of 44-year old Troy Adam Lewis and 35-year old Shawna Lea Lewis. The second raid, at 81445 Highway 101 North yielded more meth and firearms. Cited and released were 31-year old Kasey Ann Rook and Douglas Linn Bechtold, 48-years old. Police say the two locations were not connected, but all four were charged with possession and distribution ofa a controlled substance. Troy Lewis is facing an additional charge of being a Felon in possession of a firearm and is being held at the Lane County Jail; Rook and Bechtold were cited for Child Neglect because a young child was present.

The Florence City Council has set a policy that Florence Police Officers will not respond to calls for service outside the city limits. But yesterday’s drug raids, one in Dunes City, the other a mile north of Florence, were not in conflict with that policy says Police Chief Maury Sanders.
201 -- "This is different, this is where you're having methamphetamine being sold, you're tracking the people that are doing the sales to locations wherever they are at. And, my attitude is the Florence Police Department will go after people that present a danger to our community and especially our children by selling drugs. We will not stop at the city limits, we will go get them and remove the threat."

Sanders said both actions, which resulted in charges against four people and the confiscation of a moderate amount of drugs and guns, were based on actions that either took place inside city limits, or directly impacted residents of Florence.

A pair of Reedsport teens were remanded to the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center in Reedsport last week following a series of crimes that began with an arson fire Wednesday night on a houseboat and concluded with a series of burglaries Thanksgiving morning. Anthony Charles Wilkins, 16; and Dillon Patrick Swartz, 17… both of Reedsport… face 13 charges each that range from Arson to varying degrees of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

There’s not much going on at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center on 15th Street these days. That’s because, other than sports programs, most of the club’s activities take place directly in the schools. For several years they’ve offered an after school program for primary and elementary students. This year it’s been expanded to include the upper grades.
203 – “We go over Monday through Thursday and we provide activities for the Middle School and High School Students, so we do anything from kind of sports and recreation to some team building activities.”

Teen Director Juline Walker oversees the program. She says she was inspired by recently retired middle school teacher Ty Perry who had developed an extensive curriculum for the district’s Outdoor School Program that helped kids of that age learn something just a little extra.
204 – “A lot of cool activities that are experiential learning and that allow kids to learn about team building, problem solving and a lot of other life skills in a fun way.”

Walker says they’ll be adding personal finance programs and career development after the first of the year. The Boys and Girls Club is holding a major fund raiser this evening at the Florence Events Center… the second annual Civil War Tailgate party from six to eight pm.

Taking a look at Coast Radio Sports…

College Football:
It’s Civil War Week and that means just about every thing that anyone connected to either team may say gets a lot of attention. Injured Oregon State Quarterback Lyle Moevao is no exception. Just before his Twitter account disappeared he tweeted about “payback” in this year’s game. Moevao was silenced, and the rest of the Beavers certainly weren’t providing further bulletin board material. But there was a generally accepted feeling that the Number 13 Beavers would like nothing better than to beat the Number 7 Ducks in their own house and win a trip to the Rose Bowl in the process. That’s because last year the Ducks were the spoilers. Oregon State would have headed to Pasadena on New Year’s Day with a win, instead Oregon came out on top 65 – 38 and USC went to the Rose Bowl again.