City Council
The Florence City Council will meet on this evening at City Hall at 5:30. Before their meeting they will meet in executive session to discuss the annual evaluation of Erin Reynolds, Florence City Manager. For their regular meeting the council will consider several agenda items. The city will move forward on the realignment project of Rhododendron drive along the riverfront. The council will consider accepting the bid from K&E Excavating which came in at 7,346,982.75. The city hopes to begin the project in 2024. The council will also consider awarding a water meter contract for the green trees subdivision to Ray Wells Incorporated. That project will cost about $207,412. Another item on the agenda is the annual evaluation of the City Manager which will include Employment Agreement amendments and a salary adjustment to begin in January.
Landslide
Over the weekend a landslide closed a portion of Highway 34 east of Waldport. The road was closed in both directions while ODOT crews worked to remove debris from the road. Trees, mud and rocks covered the roadway for much of the day yesterday. The road was reopened late evening. Heavy rains throughout the coastal area is a cause for concerns on the roadways and drivers should be aware of potential hazards.
Fish Bridge
An obsolete culvert under Oregon Highway 36 at Tide will allow endangered Coho Salmon access to nearly 2 ½ miles of high-quality spawning habitat. J-A-L Construction, working with the Siuslaw Watershed Council recently completed construction of a bridge over Cleveland Creek, six miles north of Mapleton. Oregon Department of Transportation fish biologist Allen Gillette says in this case, replacing a culvert with a bridge was less expensive in the long run.
“It’s a lot cheaper just to allow those fish access back into that habitat than to go buy or restore three or four miles of habitat somewhere.”
The partnership with the local watershed council along with ODOT and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is a huge positive.
“For us to have the ability not just to improve our infrastructure and extend the service life of our highways, but also provide for our ecological world while we’re doing it is just a win-win across the board.”
Physical work on the bridge is complete, but it will take up to a year for native plant species to fill in.