Council Accepts Resignation
City Council member Geraldine Prociw has announced her resignation from the city council. Prociw, formerly Geraldine Lucio, released a letter on Monday detailing her reasons for leaving effective August 17th. She states her recent marriage and subsequent relocation to an address outside of the city limits was the main purpose. However, in her resignation letter, she took time to outline her difficult run for the office including rehashing the interactions between then councilor Suzy Lacer and current councilor Joshua Greene, both whom openly tried to discourage her from running. She also used the letter to call out the Siuslaw news for bias. “Why do they need to be politically biased? How Discouraging, unprofessional, and hateful.” She also expressed being both publicly and privately harassed by “obviously intoxicated council members.” At last night’s virtual city council meeting councilman Woody Woodbury mad the motion to accept the resignation. Mayor Joe Henry:
“so the motion then is to accept this resignation and declare the position vacant.”
The motion passed unanimously. There was no immediate move to announce a replacement for Prociw. Mayor Henry said that discussion would likely begin in a future work session.
COVID-19 Update
The Oregon Health Authority released its latest COVID-19 numbers yesterday with an additional 192 new confirmed and presumptive cases for the state. Lane County added four new cases to their total. There were, however, no new deaths to report. The state’s number of total cases to date is 23,451 and Lane County’s is 630 with no new reports for the 97439 zip code. Today the state is expected to release a report on the status of Personal Protective Equipment in hospitals and medical facilities around the state. The report will then be included in every weekly update the state issues.
Thefts From Vehicles
The Florence Police Department has issued an alert on thefts that have been occurring in vehicles around the city. Commander John Pitcher released the information yesterday. Over the past 2 and a half weeks the Florence Police has responded to almost a dozen reports of vehicles being unlawfully entered and personal items stolen. Pitcher says it is important to store valuables out of site and even place items in your trunk before arriving at your destination. He says that these break-ins are occurring at all times of the day and night. Tomorrow there will be a special presentation on Coast Radio addressing these break-ins and what to do. It will air at 8:30 am on KCST and 9:40 on KCFM.
Threatening Handout
Last week in Dunes City some members of the community received threatening handouts calling for the abolishment of the federal banking system as well as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The notice went on to threaten to kill all facists and defund the police. Jamie Mills with Dunes City did not say how many letters were distributed, but called for residents to be watchful for any gatherings with people unknown to them. Mills said that her notice was just to keep people aware and that most likely nothing would come from the handout. The Lane County Sheriff’s office had been contacted and received the information.
School Receives Grant
The Siuslaw School District received a grant from the Creative Learnings Connections. The grant consists of 350 fully configured Chromebooks and 20 sets of LEGO Education learning solutions which teach students Science, Technology, engineering, arts and math concepts. The grant also includes a $4000 stipend to help subsidize internet costs for families.
