Rhody Virtual Days
The City of Florence is not giving up on the Rhododendron festival. City Manager Erin Reynolds says the streak of consecutive parades will not be stopped by the coronavirus. It will just be done through short snippets of videos submitted by parade regulars and citizens wishing to take part in creating a once in a lifetime event. One that got a jumpstart over the weekend.
“This weekend we were able to get some of our regular scenes, in a very small style, filmed down on Bay Street and around that area.”
The Rhody Cruisers cruised the streets for about a half an hour with some motorcycle onlookers cheering them on. Reynolds says there were also some floats on Saturday that they filmed. She says it was done with a watchful eye concerning social distancing. The complete video will air on social media including a Facebook live event as well as the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce’s site at noon on Sunday.
COVID-19 Numbers
The COVID-19 death toll continues to rise among the elderly and at risk population in Oregon. Three more deaths were reported yesterday all with pre-existing or underlying medical conditions. A 91 year old Polk County resident that was diagnosed on May 2nd died on Sunday. A 64 year old Umatilla County man died on Saturday and a 77 year old Washington County woman also died on Saturday. Here in Lane County the numbers remain the same from yesterday with their website reporting two different numbers. One lists the number of positive cases as 59, but their “current status” post exhibits 60 as the total. The County is nearing 6,000 total test administered which is less than 2% of the county’s population.
Word Coming on Reopening
It could be as early as this evening for the Governor to start advising county officials if their county will be included in phase one of the reopening of Oregon. Lane county is hoping to be included in that group. 20 counties have submitted requests to reopen. That could mean that some businesses will be allowed to reopen their doors including restaurants as long as social distancing rules can be upheld. There is some concern that even though a complete opening does not happen that people will travel to the coast in large numbers. Over the weekend Florence saw an uptick in travelers even though businesses were still shuttered.
