Future First Citizen Announced
The Florence Area Chamber of Commerce named the recipient of the Future First Citizen of Florence award at a virtual ceremony held on Friday. Congratulations to winner Jessica South. Siuslaw High School Counselor Steve Moser, says:
“She’s one of those that really lets her actions speak for themselves, kind of that actions are louder than words and just a really really great student.”
South plans to attend Corban University to study secondary education. This year, six seniors were nominated for Future First Citizen: in addition to South they are Brea Blankenship, Elijah Blankenship, Jacob Foskett, Maxwell Klump, and Andrea Osbon. The Future First Citizen award is given annually by the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce and recognizes a student based on their academic leadership and success as well as civic involvement and contributions to the community.
False Positive on Water Treatment Issue
The City of Florence Public Works Department has determined that the unknown chemical that was introduced to the wastewater treatement plant was not enterococcus bacteria. Test samples taken by the plant were split between the DEQ and the Florence Wastewater Treatment Plant Lab and both tests came to the same conclusion. It was determined that the plant did meet the guidelines for discharges and is not in violation of its permit and not fines will be assessed. Test results of river water one either side of the plant were also consistent with normal bacteria found and toxins were not elevated. The city did post signage alerting the public of the possibility of a contamination out of an abundance of caution. Public Works Director Mike Miller says the city continues to work on response time when events like this happen. He says they will also be updating testing procedures for future events when necessary.
COVID-19 Update
No new cases of COVID-19 have been reported for the Florence Area as of Sunday evening. There were 60 new cases reported over the weekend for Lane County and only 11 of those were from yesterday’s report. The county is still slow in responding to vaccinations necessary to move permanently to a low risk level and there have been no new numbers reported for the OHA’s new vaccination goal website since Friday morning at 12:01 am. Lane County is sill at 62.3%. the overall state numbers are at 64.9 but both state and county numbers are expected to increase after the long holiday weekend.
