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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 2016)
Preparing for pollinators, page 3A $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM Holy Week climate walk, page 9A WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889 VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 39 City moving to new website BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel photo by Jon Stinnett City Manager Richard Meyers checks out features of the new city website, which is expected to go live in mid-April. This month brings a new digi- tal era of sorts for the City of Cottage Grove, which will transi- tion to a new webpage and email system. City Manager Richard Mey- ers recently announced that the City is “going to Google” for its new webpage, which is being designed by Lake Oswego-based Aha Consulting. Meyers said he expects the site to be ready to go live by the second week in April. The move will end the City’s relationship with locally based Oregon Internet Properties for these services, a move Meyers said it was necessary to make. “The whole world is chang- ing,” he said. “The challenge is that we’re public offi cials. A lot of our emails are public docu- ments, and they have to be saved. There’s been no way to central- ize that system, and it’s got to be done simply.” Cloud-based storage will aid the City’s storage woes, Mey- ers said, adding that the City has already been using Google for its calendars. He said that he is excited about the move himself because he has previously been responsible for coding the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for anything that appears on the site. Late last week, Meyers asked members of the City Council to come to Monday’s meeting pre- pared to have their pictures tak- en and with short biographical blurbs to update their page on the website. Middlefi eld Golf Course and the Cottage Grove Public Li- brary will also fi nd their informa- tion located on the same site. “It’s taken time, because there’s a lot of data to input,” he said. “But City staff are very ex- cited about it.” The City also continues to work to have online bill paying options available on the site for its water customers, Meyers said. The switch for email is ex- pected to cost between $6800 and $8000. The City’s internet technologies services will be handled through the Lane Coun- cil of Governments, which has facilitated the move to the new website. Lately, more and more Grovers are Despite concerns, City says Main Street bridge is safe p u g n i k c i P chicks Guide Dogs Falling in love with furry canine helpers, page 6A BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel S BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel D espite the concerns raised over an an- nouncement concerning a well-traveled bridge downtown, Cottage Grove City Manager Richard Meyers insisted early this week that the structure is indeed safe. At its Monday, March 14 meeting, Mey- ers told the City Council that the Main Street bridge, which spans the Coast Fork of the Willamette River, “could collapse any day,” prompting concerns and calls from many in the community to close the bridge or restrict access to it. A consultation with OBEC Engineers re- vealed that the land under the bridge abutment on its southern side had washed away signifi - cantly. “The river bank between the bridge abutment and the land on the other side of the street is eroding,” Meyers said. “It needs to be addressed right away.” On Monday, Meyers added that, despite the need to address the bridge, the “engineers have not told us that it is dangerous.” Nor have the engineers placed any kind of travel restriction on the bridge. “The urgency is that we’ve got to get moving on what to do about it, how to fi x it,” he said. In the City’s weekly “Friday Update” pub- lication, Meyers elaborated that the City had contracted with OBEC to examine seven bridg- es that it is the City’s responsibility to maintain. Their work uncovered 36 projects that “were mostly simple maintenance projects that can be addressed by City staff.” The Main Street bridge, however, is a bigger issue, and Meyers told the Council that fi xing it will likely require the use of funding that the City had earmarked for repairs of the extensive potholes on South Sixth St. “Eventually, the erosion of the bank under the approach to the bridge will be an issue and cause the approach to collapse,” Meyers wrote. On Monday, Meyers said that the City is tak- ing measurements at the bridge every three days to monitor the situation and see if the bridge has settled any further. “If we see any changes, we may make a deci- sion on placing some restrictions on travel,” he said. “But right now, it’s fi ne.” photo by Jon Stinnett Coast Fork Feed Store owner Emily Rinck examines a new arrival. She said her store is selling more chicks than ever. ome of Cottage Grove’s newest (and cutest) arrivals are turning heads at lo- cal farm and feed shops. For a few weeks now, owners at the Old Mill Farm Store and Coast Fork Feed Store have been working to supply the public’s need for baby chicks, a need they say has been fostered by the growing desire of many to take charge of their own food production, in addition to more lenient rules regarding the keeping of chickens (and other livestock) in town. Raising chickens to collect their eggs and harvest the birds themselves for meat has brought more fi rst-timers into her shop each spring of late, said Coast Fork owner Emily Rinck. “People are more and more interested in where their food comes from, and raising your own chickens allows for some control over the process,” Rinck said. “People also like the RKET A M N O K Police charge two with abusing kids in sepa- rate incidents, page 3A Society that returns war heirlooms subject of exhibit BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel A group that works to return items taken during wartime to their own- ers or their owners’ families will be the subject of an exhibit that will appear at the Cottage Grove Library beginning this weekend. According to its website, the Obon So- ciety “is a humanitarian movement that heals hearts and connects broken families. We accomplish this by returning personal family heirlooms to their relatives.” During World War II, Japanese soldiers carried fl ags into battle that were inscribed with calligraphy by their families. Ameri- can soldiers often brought these and other items home as war memorials, and the Obon Society works to return them to their families as a means of reconciliation. “Obon Society staff and members strive to heal the hearts and broken families that 1908 E. Whiteaker 4 bedroom, 1 bath log cabin on nearly on acre. Beautiful landscaping 1 of a kind. were a result of the war fought between America and Japan. Our goal is peace and reconciliation,” the site states. Community Services Director Pete Bar- rell, who wrote the grant that recently brought the Smithsonian Institute’s human origins exhibit to Cottage Grove, said grant funding also helped bring the upcoming Obon exhibit to town, funding from the Doyle and Donna Shepherd Foundation. Barrell said World War II veterans are ex- pected to attend the exhibit’s kickoff event this Saturday, April 2 at the Cottage Grove Library. The event begins at noon. “It’s going to be a nice way to honor ev- eryone,” Barrell said. “These are incredi- ble and very personal items, and when they are returned to the families, it’s almost as if grandpa’s coming home from war at last.” Barrell said the Obon Society’s execu- courtesy photo tive director will also be on hand for Satur- day’s ceremony. The exhibit will be at the Flags like the one above were carried by Japanese soldiers during World War II, and many Americans are CG Library until April 30. now attempting to return them. B AC RKET A M N O K WEATHER Broker Valerie Nash ....................521-1618 Licensed in the State of Oregon CONTENTS HIGH LOW 66 42 Sunny Teresa Abbott ..................221-1735 Frank Brazell....................953-2407 Lane Hillendahl ................942-6838 $99,900 CONTACT US Principal Brokers 122 N. M St. Studio house, 3 car garage and fenced yard. Just need the right buyer. Bring an offer! $175,000 www.cgsentinel.com On the Internet (541) 942-3325 By telephone (541) 942-3328 By fax cgnews@cgsentinel.com By e-mail P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 By mail Corner of Sixth and Whiteaker, Cottage Grove In person Assault arrests Please see CHICKS, Page 10A Rain Country Realty Inc. B AC Also inside: Calendar....................................... 11B Channel Guide ............................... 5B Classified ads................................. 7B Obituaries....................................... 2A Opinion .......................................... 4A Public Safety .................................. 5A Sports ............................................ 1B 1 Dollar