City To Hear Testimony on Planned Unit Development
The 4 member Florence City Council will meet again on Monday evening. Their scheduled work session at 10:30 was cancelled but the virtual 5:30 meeting will go on as planned. The council will hear public testimony regarding a Planned Unit Development on Rhododendron Drive and 35th street. The issue has already been through the Planning Commission process and the commission recommended a conditional approval of the proposed plan after asking the applicants to do a second traffic study to confirm or adjust previous traffic study results. After the Planning commission process the city received three petitions to appeal the approval, the city will hear those petitions on Monday. The city council can then either affirm, reverse, or modify the planning commission’s decision. Several members of the community are concerned that the addition of the planned unit development will severely alter the traffic, safety, and outlook of the area. The new development will consist of 31 detached single-family residences, 49 single-family attached residences and 46 multi-family units. Monday evening the city will also consider accepting the proposal from Hyak to provide enterprise fiber internet services to the City of Florence’s water and waste water treatment plants in the amount $128,000. Access to the meeting can be found at the city’s website ci.florence.or.us.
Infectious Numbers Down
The number of infectious cases in Lane County continues to decrease. Over the past several days the number has reduced to 175 currently considered infectious. There does, however, continue to be a significant number of new cases across the board with 33 more being added yesterday bringing Lane County’s total to 1,959. There were no new cases reported for the Florence area. Across the state there were 374 new cases in the Oregon Health Authority’s report and 3 new deaths, the one death attributed to Lane County had been reported yesterday. There are 38,525 cases to date in Oregon.
Flu Shots
The OHA is recommending that people get their Flu shots this year, in fact they say, now more than ever it is an important step to take with the rise of coronavirus cases. The OHA does say that it is not clear how the pandemic will affect the flu season, but scientist are worried about a “twindemic” of two potentially deadly viruses circulating at one time. They recommend getting your shots early as it often takes up to 2 weeks for the vaccine to take effect. The flu season, while dangerous, is expected to be less prevalent if it follows the same course as the southern hemisphere. Countries like Australia have shown a massive decrease in flu cases this year, believed to be attributed to the increased uses of masks and social distancing brought on by the coronavirus.
