The Chronicle : Creswell & Cottage Grove., October 24, 2019, Page 15, Image 15

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2019
THE CHRONICLE - 15
Teens share spooky stories
BY ALIYA HALL
THE CHRONICLE
Willamalane Memorial Building at 765 A St. has been identifi ed as a suitable Springfi eld Egan Warming
location. VICTORIA STEPHENS/THE CHRONICLE
Council focuses on housing
BY VICTORIA STEPHENS
THE CHRONICLE
SPRINGFIELD – Housing dominated the Springfi eld
City Council agenda this week, including a mobile home
park rezone, a temporary homeless shelter designation and
grant for low-income housing.
Council voted to rezone the 13.6 acres currently home to
the 55-and-over Patrician Mobile Home Park.
The decision came down to a 4 to 2 vote; councilors Sheri
Moore and Leonard Stoehrrs voted “no.”
The rezoning changes the current low-density residential
(LDR) park to mixed-use commercial zoning, which allows
for more redevelopment options.
It also shakes the long-term security of the 130 elderly
residents living there. Councilor Moore said she hopes that
the property owner will “go the extra mile” to help current
residents of the park to fi nd other housing options.
Last year, the former Springfield Public School
Administration building at 525 Mill St. was designated the
Egan Warming Center. Storm damage rendered the build-
ing unusable and forced the City to seek another location.
This week, the council also voted to allow for tempo-
rary emergency housing in governmental buildings to
help provide winter shelter for the homeless. The City of
Springfi eld, working St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County,
have identifi ed the Willamalane Memorial Building at 765
A St. as a suitable location to provide emergency housing
as an Egan Warming Center for Springfi eld. The center
opens in extremely cold weather, below 30 degrees, begin-
ning Nov. 15.
Additionally, Homes for Good was granted a $750,000
one-year Community Development Block Grant loan to
create 70 low-income housing units on 5th Street next to
Fred Meyer. The funds will be paid back in time to provide
funding for St. Vincent de Paul to acquire land for a new
manufactured home park it is planning in the future.
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SPRINGFIELD – A group of over 20 teenagers huddled
together around a fake campfi re, s’mores in hand as they shared
scary stories in a dark room behind the library, preparing for
Halloween.
The event, on Oct. 15, was the latest for the Teen Program at the
Springfi eld Library, put on by the Teen Advisory Board.
“The teens asked for this one,” Teen Services Librarian Cara
Kinsey said. “We had on the schedule a board game day, but right
as we were going to press in August someone asked for spooky
stories. I was like, ‘Really? That’s something you want to do?
Okay!’ I’m not going to say ‘no’ to that.”
The program was open mic – as long as the stories were appro-
priate – but Kinsey said she came prepared in case she was the only
one who would be telling stories.
It turned out, however, that the group had a few stories they
wanted to share themselves.
Springfi eld teen Liv Fooks captured the room’s attention as she
read a story from internet page Reddit’s No Sleep tag, called “My
friend is a plastic surgery monster.” The story played with the idea
of unattainable Korean beauty standards, and talked about how
the main character’s best friend became obsessed with becoming
more beautiful – to the point that everything she was putting into
her body to make her more beautiful, was in fact making her look
waxy and fake, and the toll it took in making her body rot from
the inside out. The story had touches of gore that made Kinsey
check in that it wasn’t going to get more graphic, and afterwards
Fooks commented on how much she loved horror. She even read
a description of her own story, which is on Wattpad.
Other teens, including Maggie Britton, shared stories that they
wrote – or classics such as Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Kinsey commented on the variety of stories that ranged from
modern to classical. One teen even read brief newspaper articles
about scary things found in fast food restaurants, citing the horse
burger, fi nger in the sandwich and a fried chicken head.
Another Springfi eld teen, Ellie Sloan, shared a conspiracy
theory about the Man from Taured. In 1954 a man claimed to be
from the nonexistent country of Taured and was trying to travel to
Japan. His passport was legitimate and showed that he had fl own
to Japan multiple times that year, but the airport staff was baffl ed
by the country of origin. He was detained and put in a hotel, where
he disappeared the following day. The case has been used as proof
of parallel dimensions.
Kinsey also took a moment to share how graphic novels and
horror have a history together, and recommended a few scary
graphic novels that the library owned.
Spooky Stories is only one example of the programming the
Youth Advisory Board comes up with for teenagers. Kinsey said
the board is made up of teenagers over 13 years old, and they help
contribute ideas or give Kinsey feedback about what would be
fun for them to do.
One event they had was a cake decorating class, which Kinsey
didn’t expect teenagers to be interested in. “They came up with
it independently,” she said. “I love it when teens come to the table
with things they think will be fun, and I have the fun of trying to
implement that.
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