10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL January 21, 2015
C HAMBER
B URGLARIES
Continued from page 1A
Continued from page 1A
next year’s scholarships, making it likely
that additional scholarships will be awarded.
Fonda Norris and Carolyn Jenkins were
honored as the Classifi ed Employee and
Teacher of the Year, respectively. Norris
serves as the food service manager at Bo-
hemia, and Jenkins is a special education
teacher at Harrison.
Ruth Linoz was recognized as the First
Citizen in part for her work as the Execu-
tive Director of South Lane Wheels. Other
nominees included former city attorney
Gary Ackley and former city councilor Lind-
sey Haskell. Haskell was presented with the
President’s Award for Community Service.
The award for Business of the Year was
presented to Aaron Shumway and Debbie
Chalmers of Edward Jones. Also nominated
were Buster’s Main Street Café, Common-
wealth Financial, KNND Radio and South
Lane Fire and Rescue.
“All of the nominees this year were incred-
ibly well deserving,” Palmer said.
“Generally people tend to take things that are
somewhat alike because they either know how to
get rid of it quickly or know someone who wants
it,” he said. “The name of the burglary game is
to get the property and turn it into cash or drugs
ASAP.”
Shepherd encouraged the victims of a home
invasion to report the incident to police, then
check with local pawn and secondhand shops for
unique items that can be identifi ed. Any specifi c
information on the items could potentially be
useful. He said police have already alerted such
shops in this area of the recent rise in burglaries,
which he said is certainly alarming by Cottage
Grove standards.
“Is seven incidents a task-force issue? No, be-
cause we’re a small enough department that we
can still investigate each incident,” he said. “But
it is concerning — I hate it.”
With regard to prevention of such crimes, Shep-
herd said modern security and lighting systems
are certainly helpful, but there are no guarantees.
“Do what you can to make it hard to get into
your home,” he said. “Lock up everything you
can, because you just never know.”
photo by Greg Lee
Honorees at Saturday's Chamber of Commerce Banquet included, from left: President's
Award for Community Service winner Lindsey Haskell; Teacher of the Year Carolyn Jen-
kins; Classifi ed School District Employee of the Year Fonda Norris; Debbie Chalmers and
Aaron Shumway of Edward Jones, CG's Business of the Year; Junior First Citizen runner-
up Jarett Raade and winner Justin Bennett; First Citizen Ruth Linoz and Distinguished
Service Award winner Gene O'Neill.
S TREETS
Continued from page 1A
could receive from the regis-
tration fee would barely touch
the backlog of maintenance
projects needed in the City, ac-
cording to Meyers.
“The Council will be looking
in the near future at fi nancing
road improvements,” Meyers
said, adding that the City’s roads
“desperately need attention.”
“Our revenues don’t take care
of our needs, and if we try to
save money to get something
done for four years, we can
manage a $600,000 project. But
that doesn’t get us anywhere
near completing the $9 million
in projects we need to do,” he
said.
Cottage Grove Public Works
Director Jan Wellman agreed.
“Anything will help, but the
fee won’t make a major dif-
ference,” Wellman said. “Pav-
ing roads has just gotten very
expensive over the years, due
to the cost of prevailing wages
and the cost of asphalt being so
high.”
Wellman said it can easily
cost $3-4 million to repair three
to four blocks of road, particu-
larly when the cost of needed
repairs to the sewer and other
systems under the road are tak-
en into consideration. (The City
has a policy not to conduct road
repairs unless it has the funds
to repair the water, sewer and
storm systems under the roads,
Wellman said.)
Meyers said revenues from the
tax on fuel that serves as Cot-
tage Grove’s primary source of
road funding can only lawfully
be saved for three years, which
hampers the City’s ability to
save money for major projects.
He added that gas tax revenues
have been declining as vehicles
become more fuel-effi cient.
“It’s how things were funded
in the past, but it’s not working
anymore,” he said.
About fi ve years ago, the
City Council, with the help of
a paid consultant, developed a
fi ve-year plan to address a simi-
lar backlog in the City’s water,
sewer and stormwater systems.
Fees for water usage were sub-
sequently raised for most of the
City’s water customers, and the
City’s systems development
charges were raised to help fund
capital projects.
But it’s more diffi cult to iden-
tify a possible revenue source
to fi x city streets, and Cottage
Grove is certainly not alone
among municipalities that may
seek to fi nd new ways to charge
for their use.
In the meantime, a map devel-
oped by the City showcasing the
condition of Cottage Grove’s
streets indicates that about 2.86
miles of streets in very poor
condition could be upgraded
to good condition at a cost of
$3,221,600; 6.32 miles of streets
need an upgrade from “poor” to
“good” condition; 17.21 miles
of roads could be upgraded from
“fair” to “good” and 1.51 miles
of gravel road need to be paved
at a cost of $2,599,300.
The map showcases roads in
mostly “fair” condition in many
of Cottage Grove’s residential
areas, and Meyers said residen-
tial streets such as Bryant are in
desperate need of repair.
But with limited funding, the
City must concentrate on the
arterials and connectors that
draw the most traffi c, and as
such Meyers and Wellman both
pointed to sections of South
Sixth St. and South 16th Street
as two of the worst stretches of
road in town.
Without funding to fi nance
major repairs, Wellman said
Public Works has adopted a
maintenance and preservation
approach, fi lling potholes and
spot-patching trouble spots
before they get much worse.
He said heavy trucks mov-
ing through town do much to
damage road surfaces, though
state law prevents assessing big
trucks for that damage.
Creating local improvement
districts could fi nance repairs in
certain areas, Meyers said, and a
local bond levy for street repairs
could be a possibility for fund-
ing repairs in the future. Mey-
ers expects the City Council to
schedule a worksession dealing
with street repairs in the coming
months.
Councilor Jake Boone said on
Monday that he’s unsure which
tact the Council may take to ad-
dress the problem.
“Our roads are in terrible
condition,” Boone said. “But
we don’t have the money to fi x
them as fast as they’re falling
apart. I don’t know the solution,
but it may be a matter of choos-
ing the least worst option at this
point.”
always dreamed of making a fea-
ture together,” he said. “We’ve
had a few stories kicking around,
and this one is loosely based on
our co-director’s grandfather.
Both of our families grew up on
Christmas tree farms, and we
thought a farm would be a nice
setting for a dramatic fi lm about
loss and grief, about a man who
isolates himself in grief.”
According to its synopsis,
“Noble Fir” “follows Henry
Dean, a man not given to emo-
tion, who is struggling to main-
tain control over his life during
the busiest part of the Christ-
mas-tree harvesting season.
Like his body, Hank’s wounded
spirit limps along; he’s ‘out in
the trees’ and it’s ultimately his
choice whether or not to walk
out. ‘Noble Fir’ is the patiently
unfolding story of a strong man
who has strung himself up from
circumstance. As the fi lm navi-
gates the shaky curves of grief,
it is held together with a tense
and, at times, hopeful score.
Like a devastated soul, the fi lm
feels as full as it does hollow—
with gaps in time and words—
while showcasing a quiet truth:
loss can be hard to live with,
and even more diffi cult to watch
someone try to survive.”
A large group came up from
Southern California to help
Last Light shoot the fi lm, and
Graham said the local fi lmmak-
ers had a lot of fun introducing
them to the area they grew up
in. Finding locations to shoot
the movie was easy, he said, and
much of it was shot at Pleasant
Hill’s Northern Lights Christ-
mas Tree Farm.
“The community was very ac-
commodating,” he said. “People
were loaning us their properties
to shoot on, which is so refresh-
ing after all the red tape we dealt
with in Southern California.”
To come up with cast mem-
bers for the fi lm, Graham and
Holbrook contacted the latter’s
father, Hal Holbrook, a fi xture
in the local theater community,
who introduced them to most of
the fi lm’s eventual cast.
“An awesome group of peo-
ple came to audition, and I’d
say that about 60 percent of
them were eventually cast in the
movie.”
Graham said that his group’s
main focus is trying to get the
fi lm purchased so it can be dis-
tributed to a wider audience.
“Noble Fir” has found itself in
good company in several fi lm
festivals, and Graham is also
working on a documentary pro-
duced by Sharon Stone.
Graham had great things to
say about fi lming in his home-
town.
“It’s rich material in a rich en-
vironment,” he said. “This is a
beautiful place to fi lm, and we
hope to use what we’ve done
here to draw more fi lmmakers
to the area. It’s something we’ve
always wanted to do.”
Tickets for the premier of
“Noble Fir” are $10, and the
fi lm will be playing this Friday
at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at
Bijou Art Cinemas, 492 E. 13th
Ave. in Eugene.
F ILM
Continued from page 3A
it was shot.”
For someone who’s spent
much time in the area, even lo-
cations shown in the trailer for
“Noble Fir” may look familiar,
as the movie was fi lmed in the
spring of 2012 and shot entire-
ly in locations around Cottage
Grove, Creswell and Pleasant
Hill.
And the setting isn’t all that’s
local about this movie, as Gra-
ham, his co-director for “Noble
Fir,” Joseph Arney, cinema-
tographer Justin Holbrook and
audio expert Chad Sanders are
all graduates of Cottage Grove,
Marist and South Lane Chris-
tian high schools.
After graduation, Graham
said, each member of the team
went their separate ways, but
each pursued their dream at dif-
ferent fi lm schools throughout
the nation. They began collabo-
rating again about 12 years ago.
“I’ve been doing professional
videos and commercials, but we
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FALLING LIMBS? YARD OUT OF CONTROL?
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“Fostering a lifelong love of reading,one little library at a time”
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11:30am – 1:00pm
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Whiteman Community Park
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207 N. H St. & Birch Ave.
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A project of The Ford Family Foundation Leadership South Lane Cohort Team
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