21 January 2015
Relay for Life will be slimmed down this year
This year’s American Cancer Society Relay for Life will still involve the same number of people and hopefully, say organizers, raise the same amount of money. But it will all take place in half the time as in previous years.
Organizers kicked off the 16th Florence Relay for Life Saturday with a Chili cook off… it was won by the Florence Elks Lodge.
During the event they also announced this year’s relay would be held Saturday, August 8th from noon until midnight.
Nancy Bosket – “Last year the turnout at night was down considerably. We attribute that to two things.”
Relay Co-Chair Nancy Bosket said the first was the weather… it was unseasonably cold. The second was due to security concerns in previous years. Although they didn’t have any problems in 2014, she said the committee opted to go with the shortened event. It will still start at noon that day with an opening ceremony and a cancer survivor walk. But the closing ceremony will be in conjunction with the luminaria lighting that evening. Bosket said they won’t take down the lights at midnight, but will instead leave them burning as long as they last overnight. Bosket and co-chair Nichole Hundley will be on tomorrow’s Our Town on KCST.
Dems pushing, GOP says slow down
Democrats in Salem are wasting no time before using their expanded majorities in the Oregon Legislature to push forward with several of their initiatives that stalled in recent years.
As lawmakers formally began the 2015 legislative session Monday, hearings were scheduled on three Democratic priorities: Expanding the low-carbon fuel standard, automatic voter registration and changes to the rules for class-action lawsuits.
In prior years, all three initiatives fell short of the 16 votes they needed in the Senate. That chamber now has two more Democratic seats and the House has one.
House and Senate Democrats say they’re taking care of “unfinished business”. Republicans say they’re rushing without allowing time for public input.
Dredging budget zeroed out by Pres
The President sent his proposed budget to lawmakers this week. A close examination of public works projects shows President Obama has not provided any money for the Army Corps of Engineers to maintain the Siuslaw River entrance and navigation channel.
Bob Forsythe – “It never does. And so what happens is, we’ll go back there and we’ll be stomping around.”
Port of Siuslaw Manager Bob Forsythe said he and other members of a delegation from small ports on the Oregon Coast will be in D.C. later this month to lobby lawmakers. The annual trips have paid off. In the current year’s budget, they wound up convincing congress to allocate nearly $900-thousand for local dredging.
Bob Forsythe – “This should get us somewhere around seven or eight days of dredging. So depending on how the weather has affected the bar, what has to be removed there, our hopes is that we’ll get them up the river further than what they did last year.”
Forsythe said he’s hoping for about seven days of dredging sometime this spring or summer.
Flu shots still helpful
Hospitalization of patient suffering from influenza in Oregon appears to be on the decline this week after reaching a season high two weeks ago.
According to the Oregon Department of Health there were an average of about 90 hospitalizations each week over the past four weeks due to the flu. Last week, the number of cases had plummeted to 40.
Health experts say it’s still not too late to get a flu shot if you have not done so. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, seven out of ten people over age 65 get the flu shots… they’re one population that is at high risk.
The lowest percentage comes between ages 18 and 30. Fewer than one-in-five people in that age range typically get flu shots.
Senior Center fundraiser featuring gourmet dinner
Purchasers of drawing tickets for a gourmet dinner for ten will have a one-in-300 chance of winning. That’s according to Florence Senior Center board president Beth Johnston who said they will only sell 300 tickets at ten-dollars each. It’s a fund raiser for the center so Johnston says anyone in the community can buy the tickets… and win.
The five-course meal will be prepared by Chef Larry Osgood. Tickets are available at the Senior Center on Kingwood Street in the business park.
The drawing will be held March 17th… St. Patrick’s Day.
Slight uptick in gas prices recorded
After steadily declining every week since Labor Day, the average cash price for a gallon of regular gas in Florence increased this week. It’s up a penny a gallon to $1.86. That’s 21-cents less than the national average as measured by Triple A. That’s up three cents in the last week to $2.07 a gallon.
Oregon’s statewide average according to Triple-A is $2.13… a penny less than last week.
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