Election season underway
Lane County voters could begin seeing ballots in their mailboxes for the May 16th mail-in election as early as today. Absentee ballots for members of the military were sent out nearly two weeks ago, but the majority of them were delivered to the Post Office Thursday afternoon.
As of this week there are approximately 247-thousand registered voters in Lane County. It is expected that just under half of those will mark and return ballots by May 16th.
Voters in the Florence area will be deciding on who will be serving on several area boards and commissions. Seats are open on two area fire districts, two school districts, the Port of Siuslaw, the library and Western Lane Ambulance District.
Lane County also has a request on the ballot to extend a five-year, $75-million local option levy for the operation of the jail.
Most of the local candidates will be at a special live forum Wednesday afternoon from four to seven pm at the Florence Events Center. It will be broadcast live on Coast Radio’s Our Town as well.
Nurses to picket
A second meeting with area nurses, PeaceHealth officials, and a federal mediator failed to produce a contract settlement this week. That means nurses at Peace Harbor Medical Center will be picketing in Florence Monday.
75 nurses, represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, have been negotiating with management since last fall. Their contract expired in December and was extended into January. They’ve been working without a contract since January 31st.
Nurses and supporters will be demonstrating at the intersection of Highways 101 and 126 Monday from eight am to noon, then again from noon until two that afternoon. Sandy Fleetwood said local nurses are proud of where they work and the care they provide. That’s one reason, the surgical services nurse says, they’re calling on PeaceHealth to work with nurses to make sure they “can provide award-winning health care in Florence both now and in the future. Kevin Mealey, a spokesman for the nurses association says the primary concerns revolve around “on-call requirements”, below market wages, improving staff and patient safety, and increasing provider recruitment and retention.
PeaceHealth’s lead negotiator was not available for comment.
Emergency buildings to get seismic upgrades
Local emergency facilities will receive more than three-quarters of a million dollars to help them survive a large earthquake. Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue Chief Jim Langborg said the money will be used to make seismic upgrades to four fire stations along with the headquarters of Western Lane Ambulance District.
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Western Lane Ambulance applied for five separate grants from Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency. Langborg said all five have been approved.
The Business Oregon grants are part of the same program that awarded almost $3-million to the Mapleton School District and $4.2-million to the Reedsport School District.
Hinsdale Rhododendron Garden open this weekend
A once private garden with hundreds of different varieties of rhododendrons, some of them more than a century old, will be open for public viewing this weekend.
The O.H. Hinsdale Rhododendron Garden, east of Reedsport on Highway 38, is now owned by the Bureau of Land Management. A volunteer group maintains the garden and conducts the tours three times each spring when the Rhododendrons, azaleas and other plants are in full bloom.
Glen Harkleroad with the BLM says visitors need to check in at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area Saturday, April 29th between ten am and two pm. A shuttle will take you to the Rhododendron garden.
Harkleroad says if you miss this Saturday’s tours, they’ll do it again May 13th.
Sunshine and summertime are on the way.
That’s the promise from the many voices of the Community Chorus of Florence who will be singing songs of “sunshine and summertime” during two public concerts next week.
Trina Smith says the concerts should be a “welcome relief after our wet winter”. They will feature songs of the Beach Boys, the classic “Summertime” from the American Opera Porgy and Bess, as well as a medley from the summer of 1969. Despite the fact that it rained, Smith says “think Woodstock”.
Musical director Jennifer Weier (weer) will lead the chorus. The concerts… at seven pm Saturday May 6th, then again at two pm Sunday the seventh… are both free and are at the Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw.
