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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2015)
10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL July 15, 2015 C OUNCIL Continued from page 3A How the City Council selects an individual for appointment and the timeline for that pro- cess is, however, not detailed in within the Charter and is left to he Council to decide. The Coun- cil could even choose not to fi ll the vacancy, but Meyers said that course of action would be inappropriate. In other Council news: Meyers reminded the Coun- cil that Bohemia Mining Days begins this week, and the Eu- gene Symphony will visit the Bohemia Park Amphitheater on Monday. The park will open at 5 p.m., and the concert will start at 7 p.m. Concert goers could also see the unveiling of a 12’ by 18’ American fl ag which would be hoisted up a new 60’ pole by a color guard while the symphony plays the national anthem. The fl ag and pole were paid for by Steve Stewart. Meyers noted that 13 reserved tables located in front of the stage have already been sold at $500 each. These funds will help support future concerts. “The cities and counties are playing catch-up with regard to preparedness, and people are, too.” before the Pacifi c Northwest recovers. By then, many people will likely have moved else- where and the economy will be devastated. So what’s been done so far to prepare for this scenario? Not a whole lot, according to the arti- cle and to Ryan, who explained that the existence of the Casca- dia Subduction Zone itself was unknown until fairly recently. “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready,” she said. “It’s a fairly recent revelation that the Cascadia zone could produce a magnitude 8.0 or 9.0 earth- quake. It’s only been consid- ered in city planning fairly re- cently, and it’s only been since the mid-90s that building codes have considered the possibility. Anything built before then was not built to withstand such an earthquake.” A large quake could bring the facades off buildings in down- town Cottage Grove and cause a lot more damage, according to Community Development Director Howard Schesser, who also coordinates the City’s emergency response. “It depends on the type of quake, how long and where it is,” he said. “Many of those buildings weren’t built to cur- rent earthquake standards.” Schesser said the City is ex- ploring options to shore up buildings like the Armory, add- ing that many other structures downtown and buildings like Harrison School are prone to damage. Areas near hillsides are also vulnerable to landslides that may result from a large quake, and the City has concerns about aging infrastructure such as wa- ter lines. Schesser said the state of Or- egon is putting in a “lot of ef- fort” in an attempt to prepare for a large earthquake and that the City is taking its lead from the state, as it doesn’t have the resources to anticipate such a disaster on its own. “You can’t pre-stage a sce- nario for this,” he said. “With an earthquake, you don’t know when it will happen, so you pre- pare as much as you can.” For the City, this has meant efforts to update its emergency management plan, and Schesser said a new draft of that plan should be available by August. Events will be held in August and September to get the word out about emergency prepared- ness, he said. Ryan said that preparedness in the home on an individual or family level can be just as im- portant. “The cities and counties are playing catch-up with regard to preparedness, and people are, too,” she said. “We tell people that it’s wise to prepare to be without many of the resources we often take for granted like running water, electricity and grocery stores for at least two weeks. When we feel an earth- quake like the most recent one, we can take it as an action item and get prepared, make a plan and start getting ready.” Ryan recommended oregon- geology.org, tsunami.org and materials prepared by the Red Cross as excellent resources for emergency preparedness. berg said. “People think the riv- er is public. If you’re in a boat or a kayak, you can navigate the river, and you’re allowed access to the riverbank if something happens and you need help. But you’re not supposed to be swimming on private property without permission. We’re tired of being taken advantage of and cleaning up after others. It’s not safe to even walk around out here anymore, and we don’t know what to do.” What many residents have done so far, and what the Ry- bergs say they’ve been forced to do, is barricade themselves behind gates. They say calls to the Lane County Sheriff’s Of- fi ce don’t often have the desired effect. “We’ve been told before to expect at least a two to three- hour wait time,” Cindy Ryberg said. “There was supposed to be a levy to increase rural patrols. We’re tired of hearing that they don’t have the money, and in the meantime, we’ve had to take care of ourselves.” Sgt. Carrie Carver, public in- formation offi cer for the Lane County Sheriff’s Offi ce, said that while help may not be im- mediately available upriver due to staffi ng levels and other inci- dents, the Sheriff’s Offi ce rec- ommends calling its dispatchers to report any incidents of tres- passing, etc. “Calling to report it creates a case number and puts it on our radar,” Carver said. “When fi ve or six calls come in from a certain area, it ratchets up the response and creates a record. If we start to notice a problem area, we can make sure it gets at- tention. We want to know about any suspected criminal activity, and we don’t want people to be shy about calling in.” Carver said dispatchers know where deputies are at any time and, while deputies aren’t al- ways close by, sometimes they are. “Dispatch will prioritize calls based on who’s in the area, and sometimes you’ll get lucky and there might be a deputy fi ve minutes away,” she said. It’s also important to let peo- ple know that they are on private property, Carver said. “Once you tell somebody to leave, it’s considered trespass- ing,” she said. “Give us a call when that happens, because that’s an in-progress call, which is different than calling and say- ing that somebody was out here last week.” Q UAKES Continued from page 1A of some 34500 people. So is Oregon’s critical energy-infra- structure hub, a six-mile stretch of Portland through which fl ows 90 percent of the state’s liquid fuel and which houses every- thing from electrical substations to natural-gas terminals. To- gether, the sloshing, sliding, and shaking will trigger fi res, fl ood- ing, pipe failures, dam breaches and hazardous-material spills. Any one of these second-order disasters could swamp the origi- nal earthquake in terms of cost, damage, or casualties—and one of them defi nitely will.” A large-scale tsunami can also be expected after a major quake on the Cascadia Subduc- tion Zone, and it could be years — DOGAMI spokesperson Ali Ryan D DAILY BLOODY LUNCH MARY BAR & DINNER SIUNDAYS • 12-8PM S L A I C E P S NEW HAPPY HOUR FOOD MENU 3-7PM EL TAPATIO (541) 767-0457 Mexican Restaurant & Cantina “The little blue box with the food that rocks” “Th e best in American comfort food.” I Burgers, Philly Cheese Steaks, Salads, Fish & Chips, Jumbo Prawns, Soups, Chicken Breast Burgers, Chicken Strip Baskets, Tots, Fries and lots more! Mangiano’s Pizzeria Homemade Pizza ~ Lasagna ~ Spaghetti Everything made from scratch! Call ahead for ready-to-go pick-up orders Tues-Sat open till late Corner of 6th and Washington 541-968-1134 Check out our facebook page! TWO ONE TIME SALAD BARS & LARGE ONE TOPPING PIZZA $25.00 U NEW MENU!! 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