Siuslaw Vision Receives Grant
Siuslaw Vision 2025 has received a 280 thousand dollar grant to support implementation of the Siuslaw Vision for 2018-2020. Susy Lacer says some of the things that Siuslaw Vision is working to do is to assist the community in creating living wage jobs in the region, an upriver health clinic in Mapleton and transportation assistance.
“Transportation both within the region, like getting from Deadwood to Florence is an insurmountable hurdle for most folks and likewise transportation from the Florence area to Eugene is another big need.”
Lacer also says that Siuslaw Vision is a people centric organization and they have worked tirelessly to identify the needs for our community. One effort was to bring together a community calendar that had usable access to all so that people could go to one place to see everything that is happening around the community. That came together at rivercal dot org.
Al Stewart To Headline Music Festival
The Winter Music festival is gearing up to bring Florence another edition of varietal music. Co organizer, Howie Cusack says this year’s event is bigger and better.
“it’s gonna be a great event. It’s gonna be the biggest music event that Florence has ever seen. It’s a 3 day festival with 4 different shows and it covers the gamut of international and Americana music.”
This year’s event will be headlined by 70’s pop music icon Al Stewart. Along with some annual favorites that will once again be appearing. Kirk Mlinek says they have added some bluegrass to the annual event for the Friday evening show.
“Jeff Scroggins is 2 time national banjo champion our of Winfield Kansas there, and he is a fiery banjo player. And it is traditional bluegrass with a modern twist.”
The Festival will take place January 12th , 13th, and 14th, at the Florence Event Center. Tickets are available for individual shows or for the full event by contacting the FEC or go online to eventcenter.org.
Fuel Prices Continue to Inch Down
With Christmas looming around the corner the numbers for traveling climbing the weeks fuel report is showing only modest decreases for the state of Oregon. While nationally prices dropped 4 cents in the week leading into Christmas, Oregon prices have only decreased by a penny. It currently sits at an average of $2.79 a gallon and locally in Florence at $2.61 a gallon for regular. Gasoline prices are averaging between .15 and .40 cents a gallon more than last Christmas. Demand is currently down and inventories are up, but with over 1.7 million Oregonians expected to hit the road this holiday and 101 million nationwide, demand is expected to increase and possibly surpass last years levels. Marie Dodds with AAA Oregon says that even with the increased travel expected, prices are poised to continue a downward trend due to the significant amount of reserves.