Lesley Seeks Commissioner’s Seat
There are a couple of primary races that are coming in May, one that could determine who will be the next commissioner for west Lane County. On Saturday one of the candidates, Dawn Lesley of Eugene was in town knocking on doors introducing herself to Florence residents. Lesley stopped by Coast Radio to talk about her run for the office.
“I have been concerned for quite a while about county politics and about the need for the county to be focused on the future, to be working towards solutions to some of the challenges facing us.”
Lesley is an engineer by trade and has been working on waste water solutions. She ran against Jay Bozievich eight years ago narrowly losing. She would like to see more support for community policing for rural areas as well as increasing access to broadband for rural areas and how the climate is affecting our environment.
“Everybody’s deeply aware that we are in the 13th year of a drought in Oregon and that’s affecting our farms, agriculture, that’s affecting our forests, everybody cares who cares the forests, by the way is everybody in Oregon whether your right, left, urban, rural wherever you’re from everybody cares about our forests and our farms.
Four individuals are in the hunt for the Commissioner’s seat including Ryan Ceniga, Misty Fox and locally Port commissioner Terry Duman. May 17th is the date for the election.
COVID Numbers Continue Decline
There were no new reports on COVID-19 yesterday due to the President’s day Holiday. New numbers are due out today which will likely include yesterday’s numbers, but Lane County is still reporting decreasing numbers for cases across the board. The county had another 43% decrease from the previous week which also saw a 42% decrease. Another area that is significantly lower than previous years, with the exception of last season, is the flu virus. After a brief spike in early February the numbers dropped again and are mirroring the track from last year’s historically low reports. There have been a total of 20 reported cases and the majority of them were in southern Oregon.
Cold Weather Shelter Opens
The Florence Cold weather shelter responded quickly to last night’s cold temperatures deciding to open after initially planning on opening this evening and continuing until Friday. Volunteers responded to the call to get the shelter open in time to serve homeless in the community. The shelter provides meals and a warm place to sleep when temperatures are forecast to be at or below freezing. It also provides transportation for individuals from several places in the community including the Siuslaw Library, Safeway and Fred Meyer. The shelter will be open through Friday.