Record Day For COVID-19; PPP Loan Forgiveness Forum; City Lights Cinemas Opening; Air Academy

Record Day For COVID-19

As many states across the nation are experiencing huge rises in positive coronavirus cases, the state of Oregon is also seeing numbers rise as the largest single day total on record is reported on Thursday.  389 new cases were reported yesterday which sets Oregon over the 11 thousand mark with 11,188 total cases.  This includes 18 new cases in Lane County.  Much of the increase can be attributed to workplace outbreaks and community spread according to the Oregon Health Authority.  The new total for Lane County is now 271 with 79 infectious cases.  Almost 28 thousand tests have been administered in the county.  Increased testing can be attributed to some of the rise as Lane County Public Health is now conducting rural testing, but the majority of new cases in Lane are still generated in the Eugene/Springfield area.  In addition, the largest number of cases to date are in the 21-30 year old range with the second highest group in the under 20 range.  120 cases out of the 271 are from those two groups combined.  Luckily for Lane County there is only one current hospitalization associated with coronavirus.  6 new deaths were also reported in the state.  One was a 63 year old Crook County woman who apparently had no previously known health issues.

PPP Loan Forgiveness Forum

A software program maintained by the Environmental Systems Research Institute has been tracking the money distributed by the Payroll Protection Plan.  The software breaks down the amount of loans that have been made to businesses around the country.  It breaks it down by zip code.  For the 97439 area in and around Florence and Mapleton the site says that there were a total of 240 PPP loans made to businesses.  The majority of those loans were under 150 thousand dollar and 18 of the 240 were over 150 thousand.  The Florence Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bettina Hannigan says that the PPP regulations have been changing since the loans were first instituted, and they are offering a special workshop to those businesses who received PPP loans to learn how to fill out the forgiveness forms provided by the government.

“We are presenting a forgiveness workshop next Wednesday at 10 am via zoom.  Its free and open to all 240 businesses.”

Hannigan says the form is complicated and the education workshop will help businesses to decipher the form so that businesses can receive forgiveness for the loans.  You can contact the Chamber for more information if you have received a PPP loan for your business.

City Lights Cinemas Opening

City Lights Cinemas goes bright today.  Program Director Michael Falter and a group of volunteers are putting the final touches on their remodel.  The Theaters will be presenting three films to kick off the reopening including the second movie in the first Star Wars Trilogy: The Empire Strikes Back.  Showtimes and additional presentations are available on the theaters website.  City Lights Cinemas is also offering theater rentals.  With a 10 day notice a theater can be reserved for a non-commercial viewing.  The viewing will cost $175 and $150 for members.  Falter says that there are some restrictions depending on the movie and the producing studio, but information is available from staff at the cinemas.  He also says that rentals cannot be publicly advertised due to restrictions.

Air Academy

The Boys and Girls Club of Western Lane county have announced that they are having their 4th annual Florence Air Academy for young people 12-18.  Registration is happening now through July 24th.  Students will receive a two week course on aviation that includes remote control airplanes and actual airtime in a plane with an instructor pilot.