November 9, 2012
Property Tax Payments Due Thursday
Ok, you dropped your ballot off last week… now you have another envelope to get ready. Approximately 173-thousand property tax statements were mailed out to property owners a couple weeks ago. Lane County Assessor Anette Spickard says anyone who has not received their statement should check with her department… or you can obtain a copy of the statement online at www-dot-lanecounty-dot-org. The first payment… of up to three… is due November 15th and Spickard wants to make sure all property owners understand the discounts available for timely payments as well as the fees and interest that might be charged to delinquent accounts.
Drive up drop boxes will be available for deposit of tax payments in eight Lane County locations through Midnight next Thursday. In Florence the same box where you may have dropped your ballot is the spot where you would make your payment.
Spickard says if you choose to mail in your payment it must be postmarked no later than November 15th in order to avoid any penalties. She says MasterCard, Visa or e-check payments can also be made online.
BPA Asks for Increase
Bonneville Power wants to raise wholesale rates by nearly ten percent, but not all of that increase will be passed on to consumers. At least that’s according to BPA Spokesman Mike Hansen who says the requested increase will offset lower power sales due to competition from power plants that run on low cost natural gas.
The extra revenue from the rate hike would go towards maintenance and upgrades for the series of dams on the Columbia river and the single nuclear plant in Washington State that the agency operates. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has the final say on the request… if approved they would take effect October 1st of next year.
Time to Take Down the Signs
The votes are mostly counted, the commercials on TV and radio have come to a halt and the flyers have disappeared from the mailbox. But, there are still some signs of the November sixth general election… a few lingering campaign signs. Many came down Wednesday, more yesterday, but City of Florence Code Enforcement Officer Shari Fisher says the rest need to come down this weekend.
Shari Fisher – “Per our city code it’s five days after the election”
Granted, it’s not going to be a high enforcement priority… but still…
Shari Fisher – “If we have a complaint that there are still signs up I’ll just go in and contact and just remind them that the signs need to come down.”
Florence city code regulates the amount of time that campaign related signs are allowed on private property… that’s 90 days prior to the election and five days following. Code also specifies a limit on the size, but there are no limits on the number of signs, nor the content.
Food Share Volunteers Sought
Florence Food Share could use some help in the coming weeks… the emergency food bank serves around 600 area households each month. Between now and Christmas they’re asking for volunteers every Friday to hand out flyers at Safeway and accept donations. Tuesdays they receive a truckload of about five-thousand pounds of food that needs to be unloaded and stored in the warehouse. Then, next Saturday, the 17th, the agency needs a little extra help to unload, weigh, and store donations that will be accepted during the annual Pounding drive. Prospective volunteers can call Food Share at 997-9110.
