City Beat — 9A
Nonprofit talk — 8A
Summer schedule — 6A
Standout seasons
Borigo, Presley named Sentinel's
Athletes of the Year, page 1B
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 126 • NUMBER 50
C LASS OF '15
Social media
causes waves
at Council
meeting
Also
inside:
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
F
or nearly two hours on Monday night,
discussions at the Cottage Grove City
Council meeting steered clear of the contro-
versial May 26 budget meeting and subse-
quent social media fallout.
But while the proverbial elephant in the
room was not offi cially on the agenda, sev-
eral councilors alluded to the topic during
their open-comment session, and a heated
exchange between Councilor Kate Price and
Mayor Tom Munroe erupted over their dif-
fering views on the role of social media in
city government.
Councilor Price said that while people are
more inclined to be hostile on social media
due to its anonymous nature, it’s a place
where the City needs to have a presence.
“The ways that people communicate are
changing,” she said. “And we can do a better
job of reaching out and drawing people into
our conversations.”
Mayor Munroe then reiterated his long-
standing position against using social media
as a city communication tool and took a shot
at Councilor Price for the disgruntled com-
ments she posted to Facebook following the
May 26 budget meeting.
“With all of half truths and misinforma-
tion, it creates more problems than it’s
worth, and I hope the city is never on Face-
book. I also think that anybody who has
been voted into a public offi ce should have
the sense to not call out staff that work for
you,” he said.
Other councilors redirected the discussion
back to business items before the argument
could become more hostile, but it seems as
though social media will continue to be a
hot-button issue. In her report to the City
Council, City Attorney Carolyn Connelly
said she had prepared a brief presentation on
the use of social media by city governments,
but for lack of time she suggested that a later
Please see COUNCIL, Page 10A
Homefront
photo by Matt Hollander
Graduating seniors of Cottage Grove High School are congratulated by faculty as part of the graduation
ceremonies held Saturday at Herald White Stadium. More coverage of local graduation ceremonies can
be found on page 11A in this edition.
National Guard
pitching in on the play-
ground, page 3A
Budget approval vote ruled insuffi cient
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
meeting of the City of Cottage
Grove budget committee that
ended before some of the committee’s
members thought it should have was
scheduled for another round last week
after it was discovered that the vote to
approve the budget was insuffi cient.
The committee met at 6 p.m. on Tues-
day, May 26, and began by establishing
an 8 p.m. adjournment time that eve-
ning. City Manager Richard Meyers
then led the committee through a sum-
mary of each fund included in the mas-
sive budget document. The 8 p.m. dead-
line approached before the committee
had fi nished a line-by-line analysis of
the document, though a motion brought
forth by former mayor Gary Williams
and seconded by Councilor Garland
Burback to approve the budget passed
by a 6-5 margin.
City Councilors and budget com-
mittee members Jake Boone and Kate
Price objected to the proceedings, and
Boone’s desire to place a dicussion of
the budget fi asco on the agenda for the
Monday, June 8 City Council agenda
unearthed a rule that proved the 6-5 vote
was invalid.
“Jake (Boone) wanted an item placed
on the agenda Monday to try and fi gure
out for next year how to give people a
better chance to speak,” said Cottage
Grove City Recorder Trudy Borrevik.
“But when we looked at the rule, we
noticed that the budget has to be passed
by a majority of the committee mem-
bership, not just a majority of those in
attendance.”
The budget approval vote took place
without the participation of absent com-
mittee members Mike Fleck, Heather
Murphy and Chris Holloman, and an
approved budget would have required
‘yes’ votes from the majority of the en-
tire 14-person committee — eight votes
in all. And so the committee was sched-
uled to gather again on Tuesday, June 9.
And with the buzz from the last meeting
still fresh in the minds of many, it seems
certain that a larger crowd of onlookers
will be there to view the proceedings.
Summer Sun
Cottage Grove boasts
a packed schedule for
2015, page 6A
Change afoot for Bohemia principal, A Primary Connection
Jackie Lester will take new P-20 position, while
A Primary Connection moves to local LCC campus
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he bustle of a school year near-
ly completed makes it seem
like everyone at Bohemia Elemen-
tary School is on their way someplace
else, and on Friday morning, Princi-
pal Jackie Lester makes her way to-
ward an eclectic group gathered in the
library.
Lester is checking in on Anna Ma-
ria Dudley and the English Language
Learners, a group of 14 families
whose children (and often, the parents
themselves) are busy learning English
as they adapt to a new community and
a new school system. Spanish is the
most comfortable language for many
of the families, though South Lane
School District has also worked to
adapt recently to help provide a tran-
sition for an Indian family that speaks
primarily Punjabi, recent arrivals
from Guatemala who speak Mam,
an indigenous Mayan language, and
Mixteco, a language spoken in the
Oaxaca region of Mexico.
Many of these families access ser-
vices through A Primary Connection,
the South Lane Family Resource
Center that offers programs including
family support, child development
and domestic abuse prevention from
its headquarters in a room at Bohe-
mia. On Friday, the group gathered
to hear about many of these services,
including the changes expected for A
Primary Connection in the coming
year.
Lester herself will also adjust to
change next year; she’ll be stepping
down as Principal at Bohemia and
taking the brand-new position of P-
20 Coordinator. She’ll be tasked with
helping to improve the connections
between South Lane School District
and the community partners that of-
fer services to families in the District
before they reach school age and af-
ter they leave South Lane, and Les-
ter said she’s thrilled that A Primary
Connection will fi nd a new home on
Cottage Grove’s Lane Community
College campus next fall.
“The District has had the services
of A Primary Connection for almost
25 years; it may be the longest-oper-
ating family resource center in Ore-
gon,” Lester said. “Its director, Peggy
Lintula, has helped train and establish
other family resource centers.”
The center used to operate fi ve
days a week, offering services such as
well-baby checkups and visits from
nurses with the health department.
Now, budget constraints mean the
Please see P-20, Page 10A
photo by Jon Stinnett
Anna Maria Dudley (standing at left), Lise Colgan (next to Dudley) and
Bohemia Principal Jackie Lester visit with the English Language Learn-
ers at the school on Friday.
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