Businesses Give Staff a Break
What it comes down to is a shortage of people that are available to work. Staffing issues, overtime and overworking available staff are some of the reasons that your favorite restaurant may be closed. That and COVID-19 positive test results. Restaurants like the Beachcomber, Ixtapa, 1285 Restobar and others have opted to give employees a break from the steady throngs of customers that have been visiting the coast and it has had an effect on Florence residents that depend on businesses for a night out of the house. Kurt Hargins, owner of 1285 Restobar says rather than overworking an already limited staff, it made sense to close and give workers a couple of days off. Vidal Martinez, manager of Ixtapa Mexican Restaurant told customers in a post on social media that he closed to give his employees a much needed rest. Restaurants like the Beachcomber have opened for limited hours to deal with shortages. Some of the businesses have also had to close due to COVID-19 protocols and have been spending the time closed deep cleaning. Business should begin to ease up now that the major summer holidays have finished and visitors to the coast begin to wane.
Florence COVID-19 Numbers
577 is the all time number of positive COVID-19 cases for the Florence area. An increase of 20 as of Friday morning’s report from Lane County Public Health. The numbers continue to increase as businesses and even the school district deal with positive infections. Florence actually has a fairly good vaccination rate according to Jason Davis with Lane County Public health. But there are still holdouts. For now most of the COVID-19 infections are still in unvaccinated individuals according to LCPH, but there are cases of fully vaccinated individuals that are contracting the virus. Studies are showing that there are about 1-5 breakthrough case or about 20% on individuals infected according to the Oregon Health Authority.
School Board Resignation
The Siuslaw School Board will hold a board of directors meeting this Wednesday by virtual means. On the agenda the board will be accepting the resignation of Board Member Guy Rosinbaum who submitted his resignation on September 1st. board policy states the resignations becomes officially accepted by the board at its next regularly scheduled meeting. The Board will officially announce the vacancy Wednesday evening. The board will also hear a presentation from Amanda Sarles and Teri Straley on the summer school program.
COVID-19 Cases Show Slight Decline
At last report the Oregon Health Authority has said that cases and hospitalizations have been on the decline over the past week. Even with a report of 2,453 cases on Friday the OHA says the new modeling is optimistic, but it does say that they are still expecting new cases to rise to about 635 per 100,000 in the weeks following the opening of school. Vaccination rates have dipped slightly too with average daily totals of 7,549 shots administered, down from last week’s 8,600.
