Emergency Cold Weather Shelter to Open
Weather conditions over the next several nights will once again necessitate the need for opening the Florence cold weather shelter. Greg wood announced yesterday that the facility on highway 101 across from the Sand ranch will be open and taking in individuals beginning at 5 pm this evening and again at 5 pm tomorrow evening. Temperatures are expected to fall into the low and mid 30’s over the next two nights. The Rhody express will pick up individuals and drop them off at the Fred Meyer and then there is a short walk to the facility on the east side of 101. Wood says he is working on a more permanent solution for transportation, but this is the best that can be done for now. The emergency cold weather shelter will provide an evening meal and a morning meal before closing for the day.
City Lights Cinemas Opens Up
The doors opened up at City Lights Cinemas over the weekend to a good response from the community. Owner and programmer for the cinemas, Michael Falter had one week to line up movie for the opening and was able to grab three popular movies to draw people in. the Critically acclaimed Nomadland with Frances Mcdormand, Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, and the futuristic Chaos Walking with tom Holland and daisy Ridley. Several of the showings were sold out according to Falter. He says it was good to see the response from the community.
“It was the most positive experience we’ve had in a year, honestly it kind of illustrated that even with the more severe limitations with the audience size we had a lot of interest with people just wanting to come back, so that was great.”
Falter says it may be some time yet before the studios begin releasing the movies held over from last year, but hopefully when they do the audience size restrictions will be minimal if not non-existent. Patrons also reported having a great experience. Crystal and Larry Farnsworth said it was great to be out again.
“It was easy to social distance there are theater stanchions set up in the lobby to keep people at the appropriate distance.”
The theater also has a new website setup for online ticket sales and movie streaming.
More COVID Cases for Florence
Three more cases of the coronavirus have appeared in the Florence Area over the weekend. Florence’s total is now at 173 while the county’s numbers continue to be lower than at any time since early on in the pandemic. Lane County only counted 46 total cases over the past 3 days while the state added 664 for the same period. Some counties are still experiencing numbers that threaten risk status, but Governor Brown has issued a two week stay on increasing risk levels due to the overall decline in numbers across the state. It was good news for restaurants and hospitality providers. Here in Florence businesses have been bustling with the new risk level as they readjust to indoor seating again. The state has administered 1,142,035 first and second doses of the vaccine.
Peace Harbor Welcomes Back Visitors
Peace Harbor hospital has confirmed that beginning today they will be allowing visitors to the hospital. Each patient can have one visitor per day according to marketing strategist Anne Williams. She say except in the case of an individual having covid-19 symptoms. In that case the restrictions of no visitors would still be in place. Peace harbor will continue to monitor the situation and will be giving temperature checks for caregivers and visitors as they enter the facility.
