Local News – 126 Slide Cleared – Christmas Dinner – Clarence Oddbody III

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Local News

Crews Clear Highway Blockage

Traffic on Highway 126 finally reopened late Friday night after crews spent most of the day hauling away an estimated five-to-700 cubic yards of mud, rock, trees and other debris.  The slide began coming down Thursday morning around 9 AM, closing the highway.  Oregon Department of Transportation crews were unable to begin clearing the slide until first light Friday because it was too unstable.  Several trucks spent Friday hauling away the debris and finally were able to reopen traffic around ten pm.

Elks Serving Community Christmas Dinner

The Florence Elks Lodge will be hosting Christmas Dinner tomorrow from noon until three pm.  It’s a gift from the lodge, its members and officers.  The free dinner is open to anyone who would like to join them… there’s no cost.

Clarence Oddbody III

For the fifth year in a row, writer and Register Guard Columnist Bob Welch was distributing some Christmas cheer.

Bob Welch – “This person came to me five years ago and just said, you know, I’m doing ok and I like to see… I can write checks for this and that, but… I like to see money get down to the real street level, to real people.  So, I remember him saying go into a Walmart and when you see some moms buying toys for the kids, offer to pay for the toys.”

That first year it was a thousand dollars that was handed out.   This year, it was two-thousand.

Bob Welch – “Of the 2,000 about ten percent wound up in Florence.”

Welch was in town Wednesday promoting three of his latest books… “Resolve”, “Cascade Summer” and “Fifty Two Little Lessons from It’s a Wonderful Life”.  The last one is a collection of weekly observations about how even the smallest things can make an impact on people around us.

That impact in Florence included picking up everyone’s tab at the Dunes Café Wednesday morning; giving $20 each to a dishwasher and a woman mopping a floor… and $70 for the Helping Hands Coalition.