COVID-19 Spikes for Rhododendron Days Today marks the first day of the Rhododendron Festival where there is expected to be tens of thousands of visitors to the coast.  The festival comes on the heels of a surge in pandemic cases with Lane County having significant numbers of new daily cases.  […]

Election Results As the dust settles on the May 17th primary election there are some close races for several of the positions available.  189 votes are all that separate west Lane County commissioners Dawn Lesley and Ryan Ceniga.  Despite a stout commercial campaign from Ceniga he only leads by 189 […]

Food Drive Numbers Low The Letter Carriers Food Drive on Saturday netted about 2500 pounds of food.  A much lower amount than in previous years.  According to Patrick Lewis with the USPS here in Florence it was less than they had hoped for.  He says there are still some last […]

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 […]