July 13, 2021 3:50 a.m.

The Roseburg City Council held its first in-person meeting in over a year, on Monday night.

Information from staff said the last in-person meeting was a work study session held on June 29th of 2020. Councilors have been meeting on Zoom, ever since. A lifting of  state COVID-19 restrictions, led to being able to go back to meeting in the Council Chambers.

The shift back to in-person meetings provided some interesting dynamics. Three councilors – Patrice Sipos, Sheri Moothart and Shelley Briggs Loosley, have joined the council in the past year, and had never been in the Council Chambers for a meeting. Andrea Zeilinski was the first councilor to arrive and said the shift back to gathering in- person was exciting.  Mayor Larry Rich started the meeting by giving technical instructions regarding the use of the microphones. The sound system had some initial issues, creating a noisy hum, which was fixed after several minutes of effort.

The mood among councilors seemed much like the first day of a new school year.