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
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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