Monies For Animal Crossings
Oregon state lawmakers have crossed the political divide, coming together to ask for funding of wildlife crossings from Congress’s infrastructure law. In the 2022 session, the Oregon Legislature approved seven-million dollars for structures that improve wildlife’s ability to make it across roads. State Representative Ken Helm, a Democrat from Beaverton, has sent a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission, requesting an additional ten million dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure package passed by Congress last year. The letter received signatures from half the state’s representatives and senators.
“It’s not a very partisan issue. It’s a problem that needs fixing, and the results are good for people and they’re good for animals.”
Highway 126 has been a problem area for vehicle collisions with animals. Oregon is far behind other states in terms of wildlife crossings. The state only has five, compared to states like Colorado, with 69, and California and Utah, with 50 each. Helm says Oregon is similar to those states, with wildlife moving in large herds across the landscape, and the crossings have proved to be successful elsewhere.
Siuslaw Schools Hire Finance Director
A Florence area woman has accepted a job offer to take over as finance director for the Siuslaw School District. Superintendent Andy Grzeskowiak says CeCe Howell started Monday, March 28th and will work closely with her predecessor over the next several weeks. Former director Kari Blake started at Siuslaw in 2012. She recently resigned in order to take a program financial analyst position with Eugene 4J schools. Blake will spend one day a week with Howell as they go through the ongoing budget process. The new finance director has a Bachelors and Masters in Accountancy from Grand Canyon University and has several years experience in the field. Grzeskowiak, in a letter to school district employees, said Howell’s most recent experience was as a tax specialist. For five years of her career she led a team conducting audits for national retail chains. He added there is currently a lot of work to be done as Howell is “jumping in mid-stream” of the budget process. She will officially be introduced to the community at the next School Board Meeting April 13th.
Flexible Money For Transportation Upgrades
The Oregon Transportation Commission yesterday directed flexible dollars from the Federal Infrastructure bill enacted last year. Oregon received 1.2 billion dollars for projects that will make Oregon’s roads, streets and walkways safer and easier to use. Florence has already seen the benefit of these dollars in the form of the Safe Routes to School upgrades and the curb replacements on Highway 101 to ADA specifications. $75 million dollars has been allocated for street repairs. The date has not been set, but ODOT has plans to repair and repave portions of the main thoroughfare through Florence.
OHA to Discontinue Daily Media Reports
Beginning Monday the Oregon Health Authority will discontinue its daily media updates on COVID-19 issues. The data is still being processed and will be available on OHA’s website, but its daily media release will become a thing of the past. The OHA’s press release yesterday is careful to say that the pandemic is far from over, but believes that individuals have the tools that they need to continue to fight the virus. The tracking of information on cases, deaths, hospitalizations, new cases and vaccinations will continue though. Florence has not seen a new case reported in almost two weeks and daily Lane County Cases are averaging 25 per day over the past 7 days. Hospitalizations around the state have decreased to 104.
