Herbert
hustles at
home
Green for
yes...
Marijuana meeting
gets colorful, page 3A
Lions take ninth in
invitational, page 1B
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 126 • NUMBER 33
Also Council votes to regulate e-cigs
inside:
Ordinance prohibits use by minors,
restricts marketing
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
n Monday, the Cottage
Grove City Council
took a signifi cant step towards
regulating electronic cigarettes
devices (ESDs) within its local
jurisdiction. By a vote of 6-1,
the Council passed an ordinance
that includes prohibitions of
ESDs for minors, includes re-
strictions on product market-
ing and subjugates ESDs to the
same restrictions of use as to-
bacco under the Oregon Indoor
Clean Air Act.
The ordinance came in re-
sponse to the previous City
Council meeting on Jan. 26, in
which the Council received a
presentation from Lane County
Health and Human Services
staff regarding’ the County’s
Tobacco Retail Licensure pro-
gram. The program — which
includes ESDs — is intended
to more effectively regulate the
market by providing better le-
verage for enforcement. If, for
example, a retailer consistently
sold tobacco products to minors,
he would risk losing his license
to sell the products.
One of the options discussed
at this meeting was either for
Cottage Grove to implement its
own licensure program or em-
power the County to administer
one on its behalf.
While the City’s ordinance
draws heavily from the County’s
example, a major distinction is
that it only deals with ESDs.
After conducting independent
research, Councilor Jake Boone
— the lone nay vote — said the
Council was “hornswoggled”
by the County’s presentation,
specifi cally in regards to its
claims of health risks. He said
the County’s list of cancer-caus-
ing chemicals in ESDs was
greatly exaggerated and that
much of its data was formed by
extrapolation on unsustainable
levels of ESD usage. Councilor
Boone accused the County of
having an agenda channel funds
from this program back to its
own agency.
Councilor Boone also ques-
tioned the County’s view of
ESDs as a gateway to other
harmful substances. He said
ESDs are the “lesser of two
evils” when compared to ciga-
rette use among Cottage Grove
youth.
In response, Councilor Mike
Please see COUNCIL, Page 8A
I N TIMES OF TROUBLE
The efforts of many to treat mental health
crises in Cottage Grove
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
You don't say!
Two couples share
wedding date, meet by
chance, page 6A
t the far end of the
emergency department
at PeaceHealth Community
Medical Center in Cottage
Grove sits an exam room not
quite like the others.
The size and dimensions
are similar, sure, and the room
can be converted to operate
like its neighbors. But here no
pictures adorn the stark beige
walls. Absent from view are
the medical instruments, kept
behind a steel door that can be
rolled up and out of sight to
reveal them as the need arises.
A soft padded bench abuts the
back wall, and a window al-
lows those in an unseen adja-
cent room to closely monitor
all activities in this one. A sign
near the door describes (in lan-
guage not dissimilar to the Mi-
randa Rights read to arrestees)
the situation of the moment to
the room’s current occupant.
“You are being held in this
hospital because someone is
concerned that you may hurt
yourself or other people,” the
sign reads. “Anything the staff
of this hospital observes you
do or say while you are in
custody here may be used as
evidence in a Court of Law to
determine whether you should
be committed as a mentally ill
person.”
It’s known as the “safe
room,” a room set apart that’s
purposefully devoid of objects
a patient may use to harm
himself and any external stim-
uli that could exacerbate an al-
ready fragile mental or
Please see TROUBLE, Page 9A
photo by Jon Stinnett
Dr. Paul Kranitz, Director of the Emergency Department at PeaceHealth Community
Medical Center in Cottage Grove, stands in the hospital's safe room, which provides a
place for treatment that's largely devoid of external stimuli and dangerous objects.
Oregon Supreme Court dismisses City's water rights appeal
City objected to order to conduct fi sh study
before drawing more water from Row River
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he Oregon Supreme
Court recently dismissed
an appeal by the City of Cottage
Grove of a decision that called
into question the validity of a
water right sought by the City, a
move that has perplexed city of-
fi cials and the City’s legal team.
The City had previously ar-
gued that Oregon’s Water Re-
sources Department had issued
the City a right to draw more wa-
ter from the Row River prior to a
2005 law that mandates a study
to determine “fi sh persistence”
in the river and determine ways
to reduce waste in the city’s
water systems. In late 2013,
however, Oregon’s Court of Ap-
peals disagreed and sided with
Water Watch, a Portland-based
non-profi t that aims to “protect
and restore water to Oregon’s
rivers,” which objected to the is-
suance of the water right on the
grounds that the studies had not
been conducted.
Cottage Grove Public Works
Director Jan Wellman argued
that, while the City does not
currently need the extension to
draw more water from the Row
River, the expectation of popu-
lation growth means the City
needed to plan for increased
water needs in the future.
“We have to have water rights
that reach into the future,” Well-
man said. “If you’re looking
ahead 20 to 25 years, you have
to start securing the water rights
you need now.”
The last time the City needed
to prove its right to draw water
from the Row, Wellman said,
it was only capable of draw-
ing about two million gallons
per day from the Layng Creek
treatment facility. The 2008
construction of the Row River
Water Treatment plant doubled
the City’s capacity, and Sean
O’Day, an attorney representing
the League of Oregon Cities,
said he believed the City had
proven the entire water right
granted by the Water Resources
Department when it began using
the Row River facility.
In early 2014, the City en-
listed the help of attorney Mi-
chael Gillette, who served as an
associate justice on Oregon’s
Supreme Court from 1986 until
2010 and served as a judge on
Oregon’s Court of Appeals from
1977-86, to appeal the case to
the Supreme Court. The City
also had the League of Oregon
Cities in its corner, as the case
was deemed of interest to any
municipality in the state that
fi nds itself in the process of
seeking an extension of its wa-
ter rights.
Gillette told the Sentinel last
January that an excellent legal
argument could be made that,
once issued, a water right is in-
violable. He added that the Su-
preme Court could potentially
be interested in the case because
of its potential importance to
other communities.
“The substance of it is a ques-
tion of whether what the City did
to attain the water right is suffi -
cient,” he said. “That question is
important by itself, because it’s
something every city in Oregon
has to do at one time or another.
On the procedural side, there’s
a notion that, once the Water
Resources Department issues a
water certifi cate, there’s a statute
sort of saying that the certifi cate
is good ‘against all the world.’
There’s a question of whether
the Court of Appeals can over-
turn something like that, and it’s
an important question for any
citizen who deals with a state
agency.”
The Supreme Court’s dismiss-
al, though — which comprises
all of one page that came to the
City without further explanation
— amounts to a decision not to
accept the City’s appeal, which
City Manager Richard Meyers
called a “weird surprise.”
“It’s bewildering,” Meyers
said. “In a way it’s like they
wasted our time. In essence,
they’re saying that what we’ve
already done is no good and we
have to do the study.”
Meyers said the City is “still
looking at its options” to decide
what to do next.
“It could be a legal solution,
legislative, I don’t know,” he
said. “We were granted a water
right, and when one is granted,
no one is supposed to be able to
take it away. How can a court
decide to do that?”
City offi cials were expected
to meet with the City’s legal
team on Monday to discuss their
next move.
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