Beachcomber Closing for Rhody Days One of Florence’s popular destinations for the Rhododendron Festival weekend will be closed.  Due to a lack of available security options the Beachcomber will be closed on Friday and Saturday during the festival.  Owner Scott Weiss said it was not something that he wanted to […]

Beloved Chief of Florence Police Passes The Florence community suffered a great loss this week.  The City of Florence released the news of the passing of Florence Police Chief Tom Turner.  Turner was surrounded by family on Wednesday.  Turner had been the Chief of Police for 7 years.  He had […]

Fire Destroys 5th Wheel Siuslaw Valley fire and Rescue responded to a 991 call of a trailer on fire yesterday morning east of Florence on Highway 125.  A person on the scene made the call at approximately 9:17 and reported seeing smoke coming from a 5th wheel.  Crews arriving on […]

Pitcher Ready for New Role Interim Police Chief John Pitcher says he is honored to take the lead role of the Florence Police Department.  Pitcher was quick to give a lot of the credit to retired Chief Tom Turner. “He came with a great resume and I was able to […]

Chief Turner Retires The City of Florence has announced that effective this month Florence Police Chief Tom Turner will retire.  Chief Turner recently dealt with some health issues that played a role in his announcement according to Public Information Officer/Assistant City Manager Megan Messmer.  In a release published yesterday commander […]

Future First Citizens Announced Six Siuslaw High School Students have been named as nominees for Future First Citizen.  This announcement and selection usually is associated with the annual Siuslaw Awards but instead has been moved up to Rhododendron Festival Weekend.  The Siuslaw Awards will be in July of this year […]

Art Survey A focus on defining the economic impact of the arts in communities across the nation includes Florence.  Harlan Springer is on the Oregon Arts Commission.  He says the last time a study was done in Oregon it showed that nearly 700 million dollars was spent on the arts.  […]

Parking Enforcement With parking spaces soon to be at a premium in Old Town you may see the enforcement for overtime parking return.  Code Enforcement Officer Dan Frazier with the City of Florence says over the past 2 years there has been little focus on parking in old town due […]