January 5, 2024 3:20 a.m. 

The State of the City 2024 address will be postponed while Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich recovers from a recent heart attack.

A City release said Rich, who was first elected in 1998, is recovering at home following heart surgery to install a stent in one artery, but will need open-heart surgery by mid-February to clear blockage in his heart’s main artery.

Rich traditionally gives the State of the City speech at the first city council meeting of the year, which falls on Monday,  January 8th, However Rich needs more time to heal so the address is tentatively scheduled for Monday January 22nd.

Rich and wife Alpha were at Lake Tahoe over the weekend, when he began not feeling well. On the morning of New Year’s Eve, they had planned to return to Roseburg, but Rich said he didn’t feel up to it.

After a visit to the emergency room in South Lake Tahoe, Rich was rushed by ambulance to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center. Doctors told him that he had had a heart attack three days earlier. Still in Roseburg then, Rich had planned to go for a walk but found he only wanted to walk for five minutes at a time. Rich said he didn’t feel chest pain or any other symptoms, but simply felt unmotivated.

Rich remained in the hospital until Tuesday morning. He turned 68-years old on Monday. The couple returned to Roseburg Wednesday after running into an ice and snow storm with a semi-trailer blocking a road near McCloud, California. When traffic stopped, their vehicle slid off the road and into a ditch. Alpha Rich shoveled their vehicle out of the snow, while Larry pitched in a bit to assist.

Mayor Rich will find a cardiologist and schedule open-heart surgery for the main artery that is 60 percent blocked.

Information about the City of Roseburg is linked at: www.cityofroseburg.org