WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2018 ❚ SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK Butte Creeks students going ‘green’ Leadership class works towards certified Oregon Green School status Christena Brooks Special to the Appeal Tribune USA TODAY NETWORK Every day “being green” at Butte Creek School means putting cafeteria food scraps into an outdoor compost bin. And washing out milk cartons and half- empty yogurt containers for their classmates. And col- lecting recyclables. The grossest job is probably, “digging through the compost and peeling the stickers off banana skins,” said student Jayden Dewitt. “’Tis not for the fainthearted,” chimed in classmate Quinn Kelley. Eighteen middle school students in teacher Garron Lamoreau’s leadership class are working to achieve “zero waste” lunches and other environmental goals at Butte Creek to make it the only certified Oregon Green School in the Silver Falls School District. “They’ve been so good, so amazingly dedicated to doing icky jobs,” Lamoreau said. “They have filled up the school’s recycling bin four times this year already, and they are great about teach- ing other students – I think kids are the best messen- gers to each other.” Right now, the leadership class – unofficially known as the Green Team – is running a month-long “zero waste” lunch challenge, pitting classrooms at their ru- ral K-8 school against each other. At the end of the competition, the class that’s logged the most days with no lunchtime garbage will earn a pizza party. Seeking green status, Butte Creek recently under- went a waste audit from Clackamas County Refuse & Recycling Association’s Laurel Bates. She’s also a local coordinator for Oregon Green Schools, part of a team See GREEN, Page 3A Butte Creek's leadership class surrounds their composting bin near the school garden. Garron Lamoreau stands at the back right, while high school assistant Tyler Bishop is at the back left. SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE Detroit dam proposal raises local concern Volunteers needed for homeless count in area Creekside Chat Justin Much Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK Army Corps of Engineers meeting in Gates provides information about an envisioned project to address North Santiam River fish habitat, but also draws concerns about recreation, municipal and agricultural water supplies. JUSTIN MUCH/STATESMAN JOURNAL Many express worry about recreation, water supply Justin Much Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK As the longtime owner of Kane's Marina at Detroit Lake, Larry Loveberg has seen hundreds of families bond and make memories on the freshwater lake's waters, shores and mountain grounds. "Detroit is a unique area in that it’s close to Salem and Bend. We have customers from Eugene, we have customers from the Portland area,” Loveberg said. "When you have 400 boats in a single season, that represents 400 families. Parents come up and bring their kids, grandparents come along, etc." The result, he said, is a social web — and an econo- my — built around visiting the lake. He worries that a plan to improve fish habitat by essentially emptying Detroit Lake for one or two years will sever those social webs. The longer those people stay away from Detroit, the more likely they will build their social microcosms elsewhere. About 80 people attended a meeting Wednesday night at the Gates Fire Hall to see and hear details about the project spearheaded by the Army Corps of Engineers. An overarching concern for the Corps of Engineers is how the project will ensure river-flow temperatures that are conducive to upper Willamette River Chinook salmon and steelhead. Recreation in the region was among the concerns, as well as municipal water supplies for Salem and Stayton that come from the Santiam River, as does ir- rigation for farmland within its watershed. Loveberg views the Detroit business community as "tough" and resilient, as it demonstrated through low water levels, smoke issues and even a blue green algae warning in recent years. But some are leery about a project getting underway, running into complications, See DAM, Page 3B DOC faces looming retirements Whitney Woodworth Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK With a staff of 4,700, the Oregon Department of Corrections is struggling to attract new employees as almost one-fifth of its workforce becomes retirement eligible in 2018. Officials with the state's second-largest agency said part of the blame rests on the region's flourishing economy. The employee market is similar to the stock market — it goes up, it goes down, said Steve Cox, workforce planning administrator with the corrections depart- ment. When the economy is bad, people tend to flock to- ward jobs in law enforcement and corrections. "Right now, the economy is very strong, which makes it more difficult for public safety agencies to hire," he said. "We have a shortfall because there's just not the inventory of qualified applicants out there." DOC spokeswoman Betty Bernt said the depart- ment has about 330 job vacancies. Oregon is not the only state grappling with an em- ployee shortfall. Agencies across the country are See DOC, Page 2B Online at SilvertonAppeal.com Vol. 137, No. 5 News updates: ❚ Breaking news ❚ Get updates from the Silverton area Photos: ❚ Photo galleries Serving the Silverton Area Since 1880 A Unique Edition of the Statesman Journal 50 cents ©2018 Printed on recycled paper Twenty years of working in the field as a homeless advocate has taught Karolle Hughes a few things, and one lesson stands out this time of the year. “No matter where you go, the homeless population tends to be invisible to the community,” Hughes said. “In rural communities that invisibility tends to be much more so.” Silverton residents Hughes and Lori McLaughlin stopped into Live Local Marketplace & Café Wednes- day, Jan. 17, for a Creekside Chat and to shine a spot- light on the homeless problem. The advocates dis- cussed strides taken this month to bring resources to those who they feel need them most. Silverton Homeless Connect, which involves a one-day, “point-in-time continuum” counting of the area’s homeless and a resource event from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 500 N. 2nd St., Silverton. The count is part of a nationwide effort through Housing and Urban Development. This regionally fo- cused effort will deploy a new approach: inviting the homeless to a hub to be counted and learn about re- sources. Hopes are that this will be more efficient than springing a legion of volunteers to seek the numbers. A chief aim of the effort is accounting and visibil- See COUNT, Page 3A Next chat What: Creekside Chat Where: Live Local Coffee, 111 Water St., Silver- ton When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7 (First and third Wednesdays) Questions and information: Contact Justin Much, jmuch@StatesmanJournal.com; cell 503-508-8157; or follow at twitter.com/justin- much Contact: Justin Much, jmuch@Statesman- Journal.com; cell 503-508-8157 or follow at twitter.com/justinmuch