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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2017)
City Beat pg.5 Fire dept. clarifi cation pg. 6 Record number of eagles in CG pg. 10 $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017 SOUTH LANE AND NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889 Local non-profi t sues former employee VOLUME 126 • NUMBER 50 CGHS plans auction More than $20,000 missing BY CAITLYN MAY cmay@cgsentinel.com Former administrative co- ordinator, Dante Layton is be- ing sued by local non-profi t Aprovecho after the organiza- tion found more than $20,000 missing and electronic fi nancial records deleted. Layton is accused of not pay- ing rent during his time on the Aprovecho property, withhold- ing tuition funds and making unauthorized money orders to- taling $33,565. The lawsuit fi led in Lane County Circuit Court alleges that Layton, along with his friend Samuel Williams, lived on the 40-acre Aprovecho cam- pus between 2013 and 2015. During that time, Layton al- legedly rented a house without paying rent, and misused funds. The suit alledges that Williams had knowledge of Layton’s ac- tions and may have benefi ted from them. Layton resigned in July of 2015. “For us it’s just really unfor- tunate that we were taken ad- vantage of in this way,” director of the natural building depart- ment for Aprovecho, Chris For- aker said. Previous reports from lo- cal media outlets noted that Aprovecho spent $10,000 on a forensic computer analyst to recover the fi les. However, ac- cording to Foraker, that amount also includes the cost to recon- struct the deleted fi les. Further, reports that the Cot- tage Grove Police Department had no open investigation into the incident were accurate; Aprovecho is outside of the Cottage Grove jurisdiction and a complaint has been fi led with the Lane County Sheriff’s Of- fi ce. “We just want to emphasize that this unfortunate incident hit during a time of growth for the non-profi t,” Foraker said. He said the organization has taken steps to safeguard their book- keeping practices in the future and that the goal of the lawsuit was to prohibit Layton from acting in the same manner at an- other organization. “We’re doing great as an ed- ucation and research center and we’ll be able to ride this out,” he said. Executive Director Steven Braun said, "Unfortunately, we're in the same boat as a lot of non-profi ts. It leaves oppor- tunity for people to take advan- tage of the belief that we're all here for a good reason. There's an assumption in a non-profi t that everyone is invested in the mission and sometimes, unfortunately, that's not always the case. City Hall shut down Electrical issues forced staff and inmates from the building Some offi ce re-arranging and a tripped breaker saved the city a potentially expensive repair after an employee tasked with fi xing the breaker, discovered a more serious issue. On Jan. 12, city employees and inmates being housed in the building were forced out into the street due to what city man- ager Richard Meyers described as a problem with the main elec- trical line into the building. “A bolt had come loose,” Meyers said. He went on to ex- plain that the bolt was located on part of the mechanism that also allowed the building’s gen- erator to take over in case of a power failure. At the time of the incident, employees had been moving furniture in one of the offi ces which caused a breaker to trip. The unrelated power bump sent an employee down to where the electrical line was located where the smell of burning elec- trical and metal alerted staff to the larger problem. “The bolt had gotten to 300 degrees. When the electrician came he thought there was a light on in the back of the box but it was actually the bolt glowing,” Meyers said. The electrician cleared the building to address the repair and city hall was closed early. Normally, city hall has a gen- erator that could keep the build- ing running in the event of an electrical outage. However, the bolt was located in an area that was related to the generator, prohibiting the back-up system from taking over and powering the building. Further, on the electrician's advice, staff was cleared from the building and all electronics were turned off. Had the problem gone unat- tended, the city’s computers and overall building structure could have been affected. The surprise incident appar- ently has no other cause than a loose bolt and is not cause for alarm in the community. “It’s something that can hap- pen. When it was installed, the bolt wasn’t tightened enough and when it gets hot it expands and contracts which loosens it as well,” Meyers said. Meyers said the city would be making a note to have the bolt be serviced and tightened on a regular basis from now on to avoid any further incidents of the same nature. CONTACT US City manager Richard Meyers holds the bolt that melted and shut down city hall on Jan. 12. it will improve the ability of the State Aviation Department to develop and improve the airport increasing economic develop- ment opportunities. Pak Tech will begin opera- tions this spring. They are con- tinuing to make improvements to the property at 230 Davidson. It will be exciting to see them begin and we are very excited to welcome them to our com- munity. Hayden Homes has broken ground on the development of their 32 units adjacent to Riv- erwalk. The new rentals are desperately needed in the com- munity. The innovative cottages will be an example of what can be done to address the needed housing in the community. Online bill paying was made available for city utility ac- counts in 2016 and we already have over 15% of the accounts using the system to pay their water/sewer bills. Great exhibits at the li- brary-Human Origins Exhibits from the Smithsonian WEATHER 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 Cottage Grove High School’s goal is reasonable for the size of the town. The auction will consist of a live auction and a silent auction, along with a raffl e drawing ev- ery 15-20 minutes. The raffl e tickets come as part of the $35 ticket to attend, which includes dinner and a non-alcoholic bev- erage. The auction items will include things such as guided hunting and fi shing trips, cabin trips in McKenzie and Sun River and outdoor equipment including rifl e accessories and perhaps a rifl e itself. Jim’s Tire Point Ser- vices has also donated a $1,000 gift card for tire services at their shop. Roberts says there will be around 30 items to be auctioned, though items are still being add- ed to the list. Roberts reports that around 100 people have confi rmed at- tendance to the auction, but the athletic department is still trying to spread the word and get as many people into the 225-per- son seating they will have set up. “About 225 tickets sold would put us at about a quarter of the way to our goal, which would be fantastic,” he said. Tickets can be purchased at Cottage Grove High School or at the following local busi- nesses: Valley Coffee, Buster’s Main Street Café, and Jim’s Point S. Tire Service. BY SAM WRIGHT swright@cgsentinel.com On Jan. 9 Mayor Jeff Gowing gave his state of the city address. Here, the Sentinel provides the speech in its entirety. put his heart and soul into the success of Cottage Grove. We’ve had several accom- plishments in the past year, yet we still face many challenges. Our most notable accomplish- ments include: Two annexations- one that in- cluded properties on west main and brought the rest of Pam’s Sunnyside into the city lim- its. The other was the Cottage Grove Airport. The City and State Aviation Department have been working on that annex- ation for a while and hope that The Cottage Grove High School Athletic Department hosting a fundraising event to help bring more money to athletic programs at the high school. Thedepartment is host- ing a dinner and auction on Feb. 18 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The idea came to Athletic Director Gary Roberts when he spoke with other athletic direc- tors. “I was at an ‘athletic directors golf tournament’ and some of the other athletic directors were talking about how they were doing it and how well it helped their programs,” Roberts said. Roberts says that there are a lot of things each athletic pro- gram needs such as new softball dugouts or renovations of the baseball fi eld. He has already bought new soccer goal nets from the athletic budget funds. The athletic department has taken recent budget cuts in the past years, but Roberts says it isn’t really a response to that. “We don’t really want it to be a Band-Aid for the those cuts,” he said, “Krista Parent and the school district has done an awe- some job to keep athletics going and to keep participation fees down.” The athletic department has set a goal to raise around $20,000 on the night. One larger 5A school raised around $100,000, but Roberts believes Local theatre readies for new season State of the City: A word from the Mayor I’d like to start by thanking the citizens of Cottage Grove for giving me the opportunity to serve as your Mayor. It has been a long time goal of mine and I am honored to have been selected. I’d like to thank Mayor Tom Monroe for his years of service to the city and the guidance he has given me. I’d also like to welcome Bob Ehler to the council, he has been involved with community ser- vice here in town for almost 30 years and I’m confi dent he’ll BY SAM WRIGHT swright@cgsentinel.com See State of the City pg.10 The Cottage Theatre is now entering its 2017 season which will boast six new plays, includ- ing several musicals. All of the plays bare no fa- miliarity with the theatre except for one, The Importance of Be- ing Earnest, which the Cottage Theatre presented once before in 1994. The theatre will kick off its fi rst production in early Feb- ruary with Peter and the Star Catcher, which will run from Feb. 3 to Feb. 19. The play is based off of a series of novels which document the fantasti- cal backstory of Peter Pan. The play revolves around a name- less boy (guess who), who is shipped off from England to a distant island. Upon the ship, the boy befriends a girl who is a Starcatcher-in-training and fi nds a mysterious and celestial substance within a trunk in the Captain’s cabin. The journey takes a turn when the ship is tak- en over by the fearsome “Black Stache” (Hook?). In April, the theatre will move on to Curtains, a musical set in Boston in the late 1950s. A poorly talented leading lady mysteriously dies on stage during the opening night curtain call and a detective is brought in to solve the murder and save the musical. Expect a variety of exciting numbers from this play in the spring. In June comes The Impor- tance of Being Earnest, a local adaptation of the Oscar Wil- de comedy. There are few that could be called more masterful in language arts and theatre arts than Mr. Wilde. In the play, a spry young man from rural England invents a fi c- titious brother, Earnest, which provides him an excuse to take wile trips to London. Comedy, drama and a love story ensues in this theatrical classic. In August, The Good Doc- tor comes to the stage which is originally a Broadway play based off of several short sto- ries from Russian author Anton Chekhov. October will feature Jekyll and Hyde, based off of the pop- ular story by Robert Louis Ste- venson. The good vs. evil fl ick will be fi t for the Halloween month. See Play pg. 7 CONTENTS HIGH LOW 54 41 Calendar......................................... 3B Channel Guide Classified ads................................. 5B Obituaries....................................... 2A Opinion .......................................... 4A Public Safety .................................. 5A Sports ............................................ 1B Some showers 1 Dollar Coffee with the Editor Every Tuesday 10 am @ Backstage Bakery Come chat about the community! S