Siuslaw Awards
The Florence Area Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for the annual Siuslaw Awards. Each year businesses are awarded in several categories including Excellence in Customer Service, Innovation is Everything, Heart on their Sleeve, Profound Business Award, Bold New Business, Aurora Borealis, and the Stu Johnston Business of the Year Award. Nominations for these are going on now and can be submitted at the chamber’s website at florencechamber.com. it is also time to nominate the Florence First Citizen. The award is to recognize the lifetime achievements of an individual in the Florence community who has used their time, talents and resources to serve and improve the Florence area. The nomination time window is short and must be submitted by June 18th. The Award Ceremony will be on July 21st.
LCC to Reopen Full Time
After the COVID 19 pandemic and an additional remodel that lasted into 2023 Lane Community College is gearing up to welcome back students full-time on the Florence Campus. Russ Pierson, who now oversees the Florence campus as well as the Cottage Grove Campus as Dean says it has been a long time since students have had full access to the campus. And while the footprint did not change, Pierson says the upgrades have created more room.
“and that means we will have some more flexibility in some of those classrooms to do more things. We’ve got more tech, and it’s updated so it is faster and better than ever, of course.”
The campus on Oak Street will have a ribbon cutting and an open house on Tuesday of next week beginning at 5 pm.
City of Florence – Miller Park Playground
Summertime is a time for projects around the City of Florence due to the more favorable weather conditions and public works is gearing up for some road repairs among other things. Public Works Director Mike Miller says one of the “other things” is the new playground configuration that will get underway in about 10 days.
“The dismantling of Fort Miller, the existing play structure, that’s to take place on June 19th, then the following week, on the 26th is when the contractor, the installer, will be here in Florence to begin the process of assembling and installing the new playground equipment.”
Miller says the process will be completed in its entirety by mid July with a ribbon cutting that will take place at the National Night Out celebration on August first.
Gas Prices
National news is announcing the decrease of gas prices, however the state of Oregon has not yet followed suit following the Memorial Day weekend. Marie Dodds with AAA Oregon says prices continue to remain higher than the national average with another 3 cent increase this week. Locally in Florence there has been an average increase of 10 cents a gallon with regular prices at $3.86 a gallon. Dodds says the trend is showing that moderate crude prices should eventually bring down the price in Oregon, but that would be dependent on steady production of gas barring any unexpected interruptions.
