City Reports Telephone Issue; OCHS Christmas Store; Chanukah Celebration; Green Friday

City Reports Telephone Issue

Telephone issues interrupted communications for the city of Florence briefly yesterday. For about an hour and a half Wednesday morning the city’s phone system went off line for undetermined reasons.  Asst city manager Megan Messmer relayed the information to the public via radio and the city’s Facebook page.  Messmer said 911 was not affected by the outage and the phone lines were up and running again at about 10:05.  She said they were exploring the possibility of it being an issue with their Voice over Internet system.  An outage several weeks ago was caused by a tower issue that affected the entire Florence area and was an issue with Verizon that serves as the main cell distributor for all the carriers in the area.

OCHS Christmas Store

A lot of people use the extra time they hav3 during Thanksgiving weekend to get out their Christmas Decorations.  Elizabeth Thompson, the Executive Director of the Oregon Coast Humane Society says her group is ready to help!

“Christmas Store’s still plodding along.  We’re getting a lot of donations, which is nice, so we’re able to keep it stocked.”

Thompson says The Christmas Store, next to the Society’s thrift store on Bay Street actually works both ways this time of year.   

“A lot of people set up stuff around Thanksgiving and then we’ll expect a good influx of donations because of that, people that say ‘Ah, I don’t want to use this anymore’.”

The Christmas Store will be open through December 1st, then take a few days to process those donations before reopening by Thursday, December 7th.

Chanukah Celebration

The Florence Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will sponsor a Chanukah music and dance party for its monthly Cabaret showcase, co-sponsored by the Florence Jewish Havurah. The party, featuring live music provided by Coast Klezmer, and dances led by Paul Poresky, will take place on Sunday, December 3rd from 2 to 4 PM at the FUUF building, 87738 US-101 by Heceta Beach road in Florence. The suggested donation of 10 to 20 dollars, along with the money charged for food and beverages, will go directly to FUUF to cover the night’s expenses. All are welcome to attend and donate.

Green Friday

Instead of partaking of Black Friday tomorrow, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is inviting you to head outside.  They call it “Green Friday” and it has become a tradition for many families says Lisa Sumption, the director of OPRD.  She says once again State Parks that normally charge a day-use-fee will be waived until closing the day after Thanksgiving.   The only exception is at Shore Acres State Park when the “fee-free” parking ends at four PM.  That’s because the holiday lights event runs through New Year’s Eve.