But, leave your personal fireworks at home
You can cap your long weekend with an Independence Day celebration today in Historic Old Town Florence.
But you’ll want to leave your personal fireworks at home.
Public officials are reminding visitors and residents alike that personal fireworks, even the legal ones, are prohibited in most areas of Old Town Florence. That includes Port of Siuslaw properties such as parking lots and the Boardwalk. It also includes sidewalks and street rights of way in Old Town.
Fire and personal danger, along with the mess are the reasons why the City and the Port banned them five years ago.
You can still get your fireworks fix however… the public display, sponsored by the Chamber, is set for ten pm. This year, once again, they’ll be fired from the east end of the Port of Siuslaw RV Park. Chamber events manager Nancy Pearson said they’ll be aimed over the Siuslaw River and will be visible from many places in Old Town.
Yachats river of pie
Have you ever wondered what it takes to put together a river of pie? The Yachats Ladies Club will show you this morning.
For the past 16 years the group has been baking fruit pies, cream pies, berry pies, and a few specialty items… things like raisin pie, pecan pie and even sugar free and gluten free options… and putting them up for sale by the slice on Independence Day.
Pie slicers have already begun their work and it is expected to take them three hours to slice and plate the pies, putting them on display.
They go on sale at 10:30. You can have your pie “straight up” or with ice cream and coffee.
This year, they’re doing the pie sale at their clubhouse on 3rd Street at Pontiac in Yachats. The proceeds go to the club; the longest running women’s service club in Lincoln County.
Another Highway 36 motorcycle fatality
A second motorcycle fatality in a week occurred at the same treacherous corner on Highway 36 near Deadwood.
Oregon State Police say 68-year old Richard F. Araujo (uh-RAW-ho), of Deadwood, died Thursday afternoon when the motorcycle he was driving failed to negotiate a corner, crossed the centerline, and sideswiped an oncoming pickup.
Araujo was westbound at the time and investigators said his speed is being investigated as a contributing factor in the crash.
The driver of the pickup, 63-year old Elaine R. Beers of Swisshome was not injured.
The fatality came just six days after 56-year old Swisshome resident Michael Lucier (LOO-see-eh) died at the same location after his motorcycle failed to negotiate the corner.
Rhododendron Drive paving to delay traffic
Motorists using streets in and around the intersection of Rhododendron Drive and 35th street can expect some delays tomorrow. Crews will be working on finishing up a “grind and inlay” of the road surface of Rhododendron Drive in that area. One lane of traffic will be maintained and the work is expected to be completed in one day.
America declares independence
240 years ago this week, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation…
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
We heard from Dorland Neale, a U.S. Army Veteran; Tom Benedict, retired Air Force; former U.S. Naval officer Phil Brubaker; and Wayne Sharpe, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
