Vehicle Break-Ins
A series of brazen “smash and grab” auto break ins Sunday morning kept police busy, according to Florence Police Chief John Pitcher.
“We had three car clouts. Our officers were able to get a vehicle description and then found the vehicle and made the arrest of three suspects and were able to get quite a bit of the property back.”
The chief confirmed one of the break ins occurred in the parking lot of Rite Aid, two more outside New Life Lutheran Church on Spruce Street. He said police were aware of a fourth break in that occurred outside city limits. He added some of the property recovered in the arrest likely came from that theft. Pitcher said all of the suspects were from the Eugene area.
Miller Park Playground
The City of Florence is looking for feedback on its plan to reconstruct the playground at Miller Park. A survey has been posted and can be accessed via the city’s website at ci.florence.or.us. city Manager Erin Reynolds..
“We are going to be putting in a modern more accessible ADA compliant type of playground equipment and then there’s a lot of options for twirlies, bouncies, rockers and climbers.”
The project is expected to cost about 230,000 dollars with a large portion of the money to come from grants by different entities including Lane County Parks and Recreation. Reynolds says the survey will help the city to know what added items the citizens would like to see at the park including whether or not the area will remain fenced.
“We encourage to take that. You can access that most easily either from our website or from our facebook page.”
Public Works director Mike Miller says the project is expected to begin construction in 2023.
Inclement Weather/Slide
The wind and rain reminds us of how dangerous it can be living on the Oregon Coast. Yesterday the Oregon Department of Transportation had to close a section of highway 101 south near Port Orford due to a land slide that ate away a large portion of the roadway. About a 200 yard segment of the highway dropped as much as 12 feet in some spots. There is no detour around the slide. ODOT says crews have been monitoring cracks in the roadway since January 2nd while patching them, but on Friday noticed a sunken hole. Most of the damage came at about 3 am yesterday. Slides are a fairly common occurrence and drivers should be alert and aware of the dangers.
