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Published as
supplement to
Cottage Grove Sentinel 2015
June 3
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015
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SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 126 • NUMBER 49
School Board talks budget, drug testing recap
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
year-end review of a con-
troversial policy com-
prised much of the South Lane
School Board’s Monday-night
meeting, which also found the
Board sifting through a long list
of retirements and new hires for
the 2015-16 school year.
The Board had fi rst approved
a policy of mandatory random
drug testing for high-school stu-
dents participating in extracur-
ricular activities back in August
of 2014, a policy that ignited a
fi erce debate among parents,
students and staff as its imple-
mentation began during the fall
sports season. It was later de-
cided that only student-athletes
would be tested this school year,
and on Monday, the Board was
asked to review the results of the
testing policy with the option to
expand testing to the middle-
school level or to participants in
other high-school extracurricu-
lars such as band and choir.
First on the agenda Monday,
though, came good news in the
form of a promise from the Or-
egon legislature to increase its
funding allotment for K-12 edu-
cation. The previous $7.15 bil-
lion allocation for the 2015-17
biennium had put South Lane
School District in a hole to the
tune of about $100,000. A new
fi gure of $7.36 billion, however,
allowed the School Board to ap-
prove a list of add-backs to the
2015-16 budget.
Superintendent Krista Parent
said the higher allocation would
allow the District to add back
$707,994 to the 2015-16 bud-
get. She recommended trans-
ferring an additional $250,000
to the District’s reserve fund
to cover its obligations to the
Public Employees Retirement
System (PERS). In addition,
she recommended adding eight
hours of funding for a special
education assistant and eight
Please see SCHOOL BOARD, Page 11A
Committee approves
city budget — quickly
Some members upset with amount of review
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Photographing Pre
T
he City of Cottage Grove
Budget Committee ended
its May 26 meeting on time
and with an approved budget
to boot. But this did not sit well
with several members.
At the beginning of Tuesday’s
meeting, which began at 6 p.m.,
the committee established an
adjournment time of 8 p.m. City
Manager Richard Meyers then
led the committee through a
presentation of the 2015-2016
budget, including a summary of
each individual fund.
When 8 p.m. came around,
Local artist shares
experience during '72
Trials, page 1B
the committee had not yet fi n-
ished going through the 228-
page document, and several
members expressed interest in
a line-by-line discussion of the
budget. Nonetheless, a motion
to approve the $26.4-million
budget passed by a vote of 6-5.
And a public hearing and com-
ment session was scheduled for
the June 22 City Council meet-
ing.
Several of the committee
members, including City Coun-
cilor Kate Price, were openly
frustrated by the conclusion.
Please see BUDGET, Page 6A
photo by Jon Stinnett
Kay Beckham of Creswell docks her kayak at the Baker Bay boat ramp Sunday.
Beckham visited Dorena Reservoir with her husband, Charlie, and was pleased
with its high water level.
W ATER WE TO EXPECT ?
Say 'Velo'
Futuristic vehicles
zip through Cottage
Grove, page 3A
Dorena, CG
Reservoirs more full
than most following
dry winter and spring
Young folks gather together
for a rousing volleyball match,
and all manner of pleasure craft
ply the waters, which reach
high up the boat ramp, offering
easy access to the lake.
It’s a scene that will be-
come increasingly common
at Dorena Reservoir southeast
of Cottage Grove as summer
weather continues to grace
the southern Willamette Val-
ley, though it’s one that won’t
be taken for granted at other
area reservoirs managed by
the Army Corps of Engineers,
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
n a hot, muggy Sunday
afternoon, boats line
the dock at Baker Bay. Fami-
lies crowd together at picnic
tables, the smell of grilled hot
dogs and burgers fi lling the air.
reservoirs that still showcase
low water levels following a
dangerously dry winter and
spring.
Low water conditions are a
serious concern throughout the
west, though Dorena should
be one of few reservoirs in this
area not lacking for water.
“One of the serious mission
impacts will be recreation,” ac-
cording to Corps of Engineers
spokesperson Scott Clemans.
“A great many boat ramps
Please see WATER, Page 12A
Fire District budget funds added staffi ng in Creswell
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
committee overseeing
the budget process for
South Lane County Fire and
Rescue approved a $5,437,147
budget for the agency last week
that includes funding for in-
creased staffi ng, particularly for
staff based in Creswell.
South Lane provides fi re
protection, rescue, emergency
medical services, fi re preven-
tion and code enforcement
services for Cottage Grove,
Creswell and outlying areas of
South Lane County. Chief John
Wildwood Falls
claims another life
Wooten said Monday that the
department will be increasing
staffi ng in Creswell by moving
three of its engineers — one per
day — to the Creswell station.
Another fi refi ghter/paramedic
will also be hired with funds
garnered through the local op-
tion levy that was approved for
SLCF&R by voters in 2013. In
all, the agency will be increas-
ing its total staffi ng by 12 hours
per day, Wooten said.
The change comes in response
to high call volume, particularly
in the northern part of the Fire
District, Wooten said.
“I’d bet that for every three
structure fi res we’ve responded
to in the year I’ve been here,
two have been in Creswell, and
they’ve usually come at a time
when the ambulance was al-
ready out on call,” he said. “The
change is an effort to maintain
the ability of that engine (in
Creswell) to respond even if
the ambulance is already out on
a call. We’re trying to limit the
risk as much as we can.”
The additional staffi ng in
Creswell will reduce the “daily
footprint” at the Cottage Grove
station by one person, Wooten
said.
Elsewhere in the budget,
South Lane budgeted more
funding to the Public Employees
Retirement System (PERS) in
response to what Wooten called
“signifi cant cost increases,” in-
creases the department expects
to occur again in 2017. He said
South Lane has attempted to
withhold funds to cover those
anticipated cost hikes without
being forced to reduce staffi ng.
“We weren’t able to put a lot
into reserve funds due to those
added costs,” he said.
The South Lane Fire and Res-
cue Board of Directors is ex-
pected to approve the 2015-16
budget at its June 18 meeting.
Nineteen-year old student jumps,
does not resurface
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
popular recreation area
southeast of Cottage
Grove became the scene for yet
another water-related death over
the weekend.
South Lane County Fire and
Rescue personnel responded at
about 4:30 p.m. Sunday to a re-
port of an unknown subject that
had reportedly jumped from
Wildwood Falls and failed to
surface. Dispatchers with the
Lane County Sheriff’s Offi ce
were advised that the subject
had been underwater for at least
fi ve minutes.
Sgt. Carrie Carver, public in-
formation offi cer for the Sher-
iff’s Offi ce, said LCSO heard
reports that the man had resur-
faced briefl y after the jump and
that a bystander had attempted
an unsuccessful rescue before
witnesses ran to a nearby home
to call for help.
Sheriff’s deputies and the
County’s Search and Rescue
dive team responded to the lo-
cation, and volunteers were able
to locate a body at the bottom
of a deep pool at the base of the
falls.
The deceased was identifi ed
as Sidney Anthony Nelson III, a
19-year old student at the Uni-
versity of Oregon, whose fam-
ily resides in California and has
been notifi ed. Carver noted that,
until the County’s medical ex-
aminer issues a cause of death,
the incident has yet to be offi -
cially classifi ed a drowning and
is instead referred to as a “wa-
ter-related death.”
The incident is the second
fatality at Wildwood in just
under a year. On July 1, 2014,
16-year old Scott Alexander
Smith of Aloha did not emerge
from the waters beneath the
falls after attempting to rescue
his younger brother. The assis-
tance of a towtruck was even-
tually required to remove the
downed log from the falls that
had trapped Smith. Past drown-
ings have occurred at the falls in
1996 and 1999.
Joe Raade, Division Chief of
South Lane Fire and Rescue,
said he wasn’t sure that Sun-
day’s incident was caused by
the characteristics of the falls
themselves, though he acknowl-
edged that cold water early in
the year and the force of water
cascading over the falls could
certainly have contributed.
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www.cgsentinel.com
On the Internet
(541) 942-3325
By telephone
(541) 942-3328
By fax
cgnews@cgsentinel.com
By e-mail
P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424
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