Completion Date For City Hall Nears
The City of Florence is moving closer to occupying the newly remodeled City Hall. The final walk through with the contractors and the architect happened yesterday. Megan Messmer with the city says they are now working on the detailed punch list of things to ready the building for occupancy.
”Items like painting touch up, they still need to finish some of the signage, there’s a couple of components that were impacted by the hurricanes on the other side of the country that have been delayed in their deliveries.”
Messmer says they are still waiting on a large partition door for the council chambers. She says they hope to be completed by the end of January and moved in before the first of February.
Grants Offered For Revitalization
The State Historic Preservation Office has announced that they are offering grants for up to $200,000 in matching funds for downtown revitalization efforts in communities participating in the Oregon Main Street Network. The Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant funds may be used to acquire, rehabilitate, and construct buildings on properties in designated downtown areas statewide. Funded projects must facilitate community revitalization that will lead to private investment, job creation or retention, establishing or expanding viable businesses, or creating a stronger tax base. Projects may include façade improvement, accessibility enhancement, basic utilities, second floor renovations and more. Only organizations participating in the Oregon Main Street Network are eligible to apply. Projects must be within approved Main Street areas. Eligible organizations may collaborate with the local governments and private property owners to apply for projects that will have the biggest benefit to the downtown.
Closed For Holiday
City of Florence offices will be closed both Monday and Tuesday for the Christmas holiday with work resuming on Wednesday, December 26th. there was a Florence Urban Renewal Agency meeting scheduled for Wednesday but that has been cancelled.
No Impact From Storm
Wind and rain was minimal yesterday compared to Monday’s storm. Winds had subsided prior to the official National Weather Service High Wind Warning cut off of 1 pm yesterday. Central Lincoln PUD did report outages outside of the Florence area but none locally. Rain is in the forecast through Christmas day in Florence but there are no wind and flood watches for the weekend. For a brief period yesterday morning winds reached as high as 30 miles per hour but were not sustained.