03 July 2015
It should be a fine Florence Fourth…
If you’re bored tomorrow… it’s because you choose to be.
The Fourth of July in Florence is packed with activities.
At the airport, the Wings and Wheels gets underway at ten… it promises to be much more than just aircraft and cars. There will also be emergency vehicle displays, radio controlled aircraft and food. Next door is the Military Museum… with a celebration of its own, also beginning at ten.
There’ll be plenty of activities in Old Town. Through midday will be a “living history” display about the American Flag on the boardwalk. That’s in conjunction with an open-air market. At one is the traditional pie and watermelon eating contests in front of the Silver Sand Dollar; followed by the Great Kiwanis Duck Race at two.
Live music near the Bridgeport Market begins at six with a live fireworks display over the river at dusk.
Parking is always at a premium in Old Town on holiday weekends. The City of Florence took steps recently to alleviate that. A contract with the property owner of the vacant restaurant building at the west end of Bay Street has been signed, allowing the city to open it for public parking.
DA Stepping Aside
Alex Gardner says he is tired of laying off prosecutors and staff in the District Attorney’s office. The current Lane County District Attorney will be stepping down July 31st to take a job with the Oregon State Police.
Gardner told the Register Guard that painful and repeated budget cuts at his agency have “sapped morale”, factoring into his decision.
Gardner will taking a pay cut of about $18-thousand a year in his new job as director of the OSP Forensic Services Division. He’ll hold the rank of Captain.
Gardner recommended to Governor Kate Brown that she appoint the current Chief Deputy DA as his replacement. If Brown does so, Patty Perlow has said she will run for a full four year term at the post next May.
It’s been seven years in the making…
The Oregon Coast Military Museum will officially open the doors on the Fourth of July. An open house will run from ten to four the Fourth and the Fifth, with a special ceremony set for one PM Saturday. Outside is a special “flag garden” featuring national, state and POW-MIA flags, along with flags representing each branch of service. Inside, says Museum board President Tim Sapp, you’ll see representations of each branch once again.
Tim Sapp – “This big five sided display cabinet, it’s got each one of the services, you know, the displayed items in there. And then, you’re going to walk around that and you’re going to see World War I.”
There’s also a re-creation of a mid-century icon… the USO.
Tim Sapp – “You know, then you move down to World War II, and then Korea.”
The large displays also include the war in Viet Nam and plenty of memorabilia. Sapp says the museum will be open Thursday through Sunday every week.
Coast Radio will be on hand with a live remote from the military museum tomorrow from 11 to one.
Rough Rhody Roadway Repairs
The Florence City Council is expected to award a contract Monday night for rebuilding one of the city’s worst stretches of street.
Rhododendron Drive between Ninth Street and the Wildwinds Subdivision is roughly three-quarters of a mile of potholes, rutted pavement and deterioration. The project will involve complete reconstruction of part of the road, and installation of a “geo-textile” fabric beneath the entire two-inch pavement layer. That’s intended to help prevent future cracking.
According to a report to the City Council submitted by public works director Mike Miller, the engineer’s estimate was just under $300-thousand for the project. Bids ranged from a high of 2-99 to the bid submitted by Wildish Construction of $205-thousand.
Work could begin as early as August.
A separate project to expand the shoulders and create bike and walking lanes through that same area will likely begin next spring.
The City Council meets Monday evening, six o’clock.
Medics honing driving skills
What were all those orange cones and the ambulances doing at the vacant Rite-Aid building next to Abby’s Pizza earlier this week?
Western Lane Ambulance Safety Officer Dave Haberman says medics and fire department volunteers were honing their driving skills.
Dave Haberman – “We go down really narrow pathways and with overhanging limbs, all the things that can do serious damage to our rigs and paint jobs and things like that. We’re practicing these things to get our proficiency down to where we can get into even the tightest of corners.”
It’s especially important that drivers are able to navigate tight spaces with the large boxy ambulances. Especially right now because of construction at Peace Harbor Medical Center.
Dave Haberman – “It’ll be cumbersome for quite some time; several months that we’ll have different staging areas and ways that we have to back in and not use the normal accesses.”
Haberman said it’s all part of providing a faster and safer response to residents in need.
