11 September 2015
Incident was over almost as soon as it began
A report of an unknown person carrying what appeared to be a handgun on the sidewalk near Siuslaw Middle School yesterday morning triggered an immediate lockdown of schools.
It also brought a very quick response from Florence Police who located a young man carrying an airsoft hand gun along Oak Street.
Siuslaw Superintendent of Schools Ethel Angal said the entire situation was concluded so quickly, her staff didn’t even have time to implement a notification system designed to let parents and the community know what is going on.
Police did not identify the young man they said was carrying the pellet gun, but did advise him not to carry it near schools in the future.
Angal said the entire lockdown lasted about five minutes and effected the Elementary, Middle and High Schools.
Bridge work to cause congestion in Old Town
Work on a 3 ½ year long project to rehab the Siuslaw River Bridge will have the biggest impact in Old Town Florence between now and next spring. Project manager Steve Templin says it’s already underway.
Steve Templin – “The very north side of the bridge near Bay Street and downtown. So you’re apt to see quite a bit of construction equipment moving in and they’ll be building some containments around the bridge on the north side and they’ll be starting to work on them.”
Crews will build an external structure around the portion of the bridge that is over land on the north end. It will restrict, but not completely block, traffic under the bridge on Bay Street. It won’t impact the city parking lot on the north side of Bay Street next to the bridge, but it will completely block a popular parking lot directly beneath the bridge.
Steve Templin – “It will be used temporarily for the construction and the staging but it will be available as soon as we get out of the way.”
The goal is to have the ‘landward’ portion of the project completed by next spring. Possibly as early as the Rhododendron Festival.
Habitat Beachwalk
Hundreds of people… many of them with their dogs… will be walking the sand between the North Jetty of the Siuslaw River and Heceta Beach tomorrow between 9 AM and one PM.
It’s the single largest annual fund raising event for Habitat for Humanity in Florence.
They hope to raise $50-thousand tomorrow.
Habitat director Kate McBroom-Redwine says the money will help pay the costs associated with building a future home in the area for a low-income family.
Tomorrow’s Beachwalk will feature special activities for leashed dogs, but it’s not solely for the canine crowd. There will be refreshments and entertainment just for humans at Driftwood Shores… the turnaround point… along with a sand sculpture contest.
Habitat is in the process of building home number 27 in the community. Number 28 will begin soon.
Rods and Rhodies in Old Town
The invitations have been extended… and more than 100 have been accepted… meaning Bay Street between the Bridge and Nopal Street this weekend will be transformed into a three-block long show of “high-end” hot rods.
Traffic on Bay Street, along with portions of Laurel, Maple and Nopal, will be closed between seven AM tomorrow and 4 PM to allow for casual observations of the cars and trucks that have traveled from across the western United States to get here.
The cars will displace pedestrians between four and 5:30 tomorrow evening for a cruise up and down Bay Street.
Roles will reverse again Sunday morning at seven AM until noon.
Head for the beach and clean up
The annual fall SOLVE beach and riverside cleanup will be spread over three weekends this month. Some of the activities will take place tomorrow, but the bulk of the cleanup activities will be on the 19th.
That’s when volunteers will converge on beaches up and down the coast, including in the Florence and Reedsport areas, to pick up trash accumulated over the summer season.
There will be organized cleanups at Washburn State Park, Heceta Beach, the North Jetty, Siltcoos Outlet and on the Umpqua Dunes in Douglas County.
For a complete list of activities, as well as information on how to register, you can go to www.solveoregon.org
