1 April 2015
The Lane County Board of Commissioners may or may not stick with Lane County Sheriff Tom Turner’s succession plan. Turner has reached a conditional agreement with the City of Florence to take the Police Chief’s job. That’s expected to be finalized by May 1st. If it is, that would obviously create a vacancy for the Sheriff’s spot.
There is already a “Chief Deputy”, ready to step into the top job. But the Board of Commissioners opted yesterday to open the job search and take applications from interested parties over the next two weeks.
Commissioners have several options: One is to do nothing and the Chief Deputy, Byron Trapp, would automatically assume the role. Two: formally appoint Trapp or someone else without conducting a search. Or three: solicit applications and make an appointment.
No matter which way they go, the voters ultimately have the final say. State and county laws require a special election to fill the spot within one year. The winner of that would serve until the end of Turner’s current term… which is through January 2017.
Medics stumped by missing addresses
Medics with Western Lane Ambulance District say they have had some difficulty locating a few residences in the past weeks.
Even with GPS assisted computer tracking systems, some home addresses can be difficult to find. Paramedic Al Kreitz says many homes in rural areas may have long driveways, or view of the homes may be obstructed by brush or trees. Neither the home, nor the driveway has clear address markings.
That can lead to lost time searching for the correct address.
Kreitz says medics take time to familiarize themselves with all the many streets and rural roads, but Western Lane Ambulance District spans more than one-thousand square miles.
He and paramedics are asking residents to make sure their homes are clearly marked.
Unseasonal slide in gas prices
The average cash price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Florence dropped by another eleven cents in the past week.
$2.63 a gallon in Florence is 23-cents below the highest price recorded this year; recorded two weeks ago.
It’s also 11-cents a gallon less than the statewide average price of $2.74 as measured yesterday by Triple-A of Oregon.
The national average price is $2.41 a gallon.
Prices in Florence bottomed out in February with a six-year low average price of $1.86 before rapidly climbing to $2.86 by early March.
Limited time to download braille app
A big change is in store today for Coast Radio’s news and information website.
In a move to accommodate web browsers who may be vision impaired, kcst.com has switched to Braille content this morning.
The website will still look the same to regular users; but a new downloadable app will allow the vision impaired to actually touch the screen of their PC or mobile device and read the text in Braille. Just click on the link and download the app.
