Siuslaw Awards; Busy Travel Season; Art Exposed; OPB Celebrates 40 Years

Siuslaw Awards

Nominations are now open for the annual Siuslaw Awards and Florence First Citizen.  Annually businesses and two Florence citizens are recognized for their achievements.  Businesses are presented with awards that include Excellence in Customer Service, Curb Appeal, Non-profit Achievement, Community Caring, Innovation in Business, and the Stu Johnston Business of the Year Award.  Additionally two citizens are recognized at Florence First Citizen and Future First Citizen.  Florence First Citizen is recognized for community involvement, leadership and overall community impact while the Future First Citizen recognizes a student based on academic success, civic involvement and contributions to the community.  Nominations should be given to the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce by January 8th.  this year the awards ceremony will be on February 12th at the Florence Events Center emceed by KEZI’s Matt Templeman

Busy Travel Season

AAA Oregon says this holiday period will be the busiest travel season in history.  According to AAA’s numbers more than 115 million people will be traveling over the next 2 weeks.  1.4 million of those traveling will be from Oregon with an estimated 90,000 traveling by air and 1.3 million driving.  With gas prices dipping it will be a less expensive trip.  Marie Dodds with AAA says the busiest travel days are December 26th and 27th.  the top 5 destinations for Oregonians are San Diego, Las Vegas, Anaheim, Honolulu, and Maui.

Art Exposed

The City of Florence is looking for artists to participate in the Public Art Committee’s Art Exposed project.  Art Exposed is a rotating outdoor art gallery that is displayed around Florence for a 2 year period beginning in the spring of 2020.  Art submitted must be available for sale to the public and each artist chosen will be provided with a stipend of $1000.00 to cover costs of installation.  Bases for the artwork will be provided by the city.  Artwork must be original and appropriate for all ages.  Deadline for submissions is January 24th and there is a $25.00 fee for each artwork submitted.  The website for submissions is callforentry.org.

OPB Celebrates 40 Years

Tomorrow Oregon Pacific Bank will celebrate its 40 year in business with a business afterhours.  The event will be from 5:30 until 7:30 at OPB at 1355 Highway 101.  There will be light appetizers, refreshments, and cake.  A special performance of holiday music will be provided by the C.R.O.W. kids.  OPB opened its doors on December 17th, 1979.