Emergency Fuel Station in the Works
It is still a ways off, but the City of Florence is looking at constructing an emergency fuel facility through monies from HB 5202 which passed in the special session of the Oregon Legislature. The recent bill included $250,000 for the facility which Public works Director Mike Miller says would eventually provide services to the many entities of the City of Florence and Lane County including police, sheriff office, Lane County Public Works and Lane County Parks. Others included are Siuslaw Valley fire and Rescue, Western Lane Ambulance, Oregon State police, Oregon State Parks, ODOT and Mapleton Fire. The site would be operational during what Miller called blue sky days, but more importantly would provide a major fuel supply in the event of a disaster. The fuel station would have back up power. He says it will likely be 18 to 24 month before such a facility could be operational. The planned location is on Kingwood Street just south of the Public Works Operations Center.
Commissioner Claims Candidate Lied
County Commissioner Jay Bozievich is claiming that candidate for West Lane County Commissioner lied when she told a reporter that she never voted to support a salary Increase for the County Commissioners. Bozievich brought his claim before the board and offered to play the audio tape to the Commissioners. Bozievich was asking that candidate Dawn Lesley not be given the opportunity to serve on the Budget Committee for another term because she lacked integrity. While there was eventually a vote on a COLA for the commissioners the audio from the meeting shows that there was not full support of an overall increase. After the committee separated the commissioners out from the 4 other entities who’s COLA was approved, there was a call for a recommendation on the Commissioners increase.
“So moving forward on the question of the commissioners compensation is there a motion that anyone would like to make?”
The question was followed by dead silence as none of the committee members were willing to make a motion on the increase. whereas a discussion began as to whether or not they could move forward without approving a recommendation, Commissioner Pat Farr brought up the option to do a less substantial increase.
“There is a two percent or a three percent option for the budget committee to consider as a recommendation so I’m not sure if everybody knew that so an motion for two or three percent could be moved.”
After hearing from members of the committee they moved to leave it in the hands of the commissioners to decide on a 2% COLA increase, however the vote failed to pass leaving no recommendations for the County Commissioners. Full Budget Committee Meeting
COVID-19 Update
Concerns about the coronavirus are still out there but the Florence area is seeing minimal increases. There was another daily report from Lane County Public Health that showed no increases for the third straight day (1501). While Lane County reported 30 new cases. The Oregon Health Authority reported 355 new cases along with a slight uptick in hospitalizations. 18 more people were admitted to Oregon Hospitals yesterday bringing the total to 242. In the same reporte the OHA said there were significant declines in cases and hospitalizations in the latest weekly totals. Cases were down 43% and hospitalizations declined by 21%. There were 35 new deaths reported.
