Gold
Rush
recap,
page 1B
A close one — Slabtown prevails in Feud contests, page 10A
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 127 • NUMBER 4
Tragedies on the
area's roadways
Lives shattered in multiple accidents
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
raffi c accidents have
wrecked automobiles
and lives on several local road-
ways in the Cottage Grove area
in the past week and a half.
The third weekend in July
has traditionally been a time of
high call volume, said South
Lane County Fire and Rescue
Division Chief Joe Raade, who
said he was still surprised at
the above-average number of
incidents on local roads lately.
“There’s not a real common
denominator that we can see,”
Raade said. “It was certainly
chaotic there for a while.”
It’s a phenomenon that ap-
parently reaches past the
southern Willamette Valley, as
Oregon State Police Sgt. Greg
Gilbert said Monday that mul-
tiple incidents have also kept
fi rst-responders busy in the
northern part of the state.
Sunday that the cyclist may
have failed to walk his bicycle
across an intersection that had
been busier than usual due to
the Bohemia Mining Days
celebration nearby. Branstet-
ter could not be reached by the
Sentinel Monday, but Com-
mander Scott Shepherd said
the identity of the cyclist was
being withheld due to the on-
going investigation into the
incident.
“We’re continuing to inves-
tigate whether the bicyclist or
the motorist may have been at
fault,” Shepherd said, adding
that CGPD hopes to interview
witnesses to the crash.
Raade said that South Lane
Fire also responded to a sec-
ond accident Sunday at the
intersection of Highway 99
South and Treadwell Road in-
volving a motorist striking a
juvenile on a skateboard. The
involved motorist remained at
the scene, but the skateboarder
did not, Raade said, and a sub-
sequent search for the juvenile
was unsuccessful.
Bicyclist struck in
downtown
Friday-
intersection
evening crashes at
Raade reported Monday that Gowdyville Road,
a man on a recumbent bicycle
was struck in the crosswalk at CG Reservoir
the corner of 10th and Main
streets in downtown Cottage Road
Grove Sunday afternoon. The
accident occurred at about 1
p.m., and the bicyclist was
transported to Sacred Heart
Medical Center for possible
fractures. Cottage Grove Police
Offi cer Shawn Branstetter told
the Eugene Register-Guard
A single-vehicle accident
on Cottage Grove Reservoir
Road late Friday evening drew
South Lane fi rst responders to
the area near the Pine
Please see CRASHES, Page 9A
At left: Michelle Crocker (far left) and
Jordan Beswick perform the 'Toy
Symphony' with the Eugene Sympho-
ny's Randy Larson and Ron Bertucci.
Above: Old Glory is raised above the
park by members of the VFW, Ameri-
can Legion and National Guard.
photos by Jon Stinnett
Symphony's sweet for large park crowd
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
G
uests young and old packed the grass
and bleachers — installed just for the
occasion — at Bohemia Park on a beauti-
ful Monday evening, and the Eugene Sym-
phony, in town for the fi rst time ever and
kicking off it 50th anniversary season, gave
the large gathered crowd a little bit of ev-
erything.
The program, which also included the
raising of the fl ag on its new 60-foot pole,
was a greatest-hits compilation of sorts,
featuring familiar movie themes and the un-
forgettable majesty of Tchaikovsky's "1812
Overture."
The orchestra, some 70 musicians strong,
would include Cottage Grove's Mayor, Tom
Munroe, among a host of guests to perform
the "Toy Symphony," and Conductor Danail
Rachev, striking a relaxed tone in a white
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As talk of 'The Really Big One'
heats up, City sets August date for
Emergency Fair
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
ottage Grove City Plan-
ner Amanda Ferguson
insists that the city’s planning
department was working to host
an Emergency Fair before emer-
gency preparedness became
the hottest topic in the Pacifi c
Northwest.
The combination of a magni-
tude 4.2 earthquake that shook
local residents awake on July 4
and the publication of a “New
Yorker” article entitled “The
Really Big One” — an article
detailing the destruction that
will most likely follow a large-
magnitude quake along the
Cascadia Subduction Zone in
the ocean off the Pacifi c Coast
— has many considering disas-
trous scenarios. On Saturday,
Aug. 15 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., the
City will co-host an Emergency
Preparedness Fair at the Cot-
tage Grove Community Medi-
cal Center helipad at 1515 Vil-
lage Drive, an event that is open
to the public. The City says the
Fair will present residents with
an opportunity to meet the fi rst
responders and state, county
and local groups dedicated to
the community’s preparedness
and safety.
Festival hailed as success despite temperatures, controversy
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
little heat, a little controversy
and a lot of action — such was
the scene at the 56th annual celebra-
tion of Bohemia Mining Days, a cul-
tural festival aimed at recognizing the
Cottage Grove area’s mining heritage,
which took over the town’s Coiner and
Bohemia parks and brought scores of
visitors to town over the weekend.
Temperatures found the triple dig-
its for the festival’s climax on Satur-
day, but organizers say the heat didn’t
cause any major incidents and didn’t
seem to discourage decent crowds
from attending the event. Controver-
sy surrounded one festival vendor’s
wares, which consisted mainly of the
photo by Jon Stinnett
Confederate fl ag and varying versions Cottage Grove's Maeve Dahlen has her likeness rendered by an
thereof (see a more in-depth story artist at the 56th Bohemia Mining Days Friday afternoon.
surrounding the fl ag controversy on
page 8A), but aside from that incident were 69 vendors at the festival, which the fi rst year in a while that Bohemia
and a few small glitches, the festival has housed up to 80 vendors in past Mining Days has entered the festival
went well, according to BMD Board years) and added that patrons seemed season “in the black” with regard to
mostly content as well, with no ma- its fi nances, which Johnson and oth-
President Eric Johnson.
Johnson said the Festival’s vendors jor “brawls or unseemly behavior” ers hope indicates that the festival has
seemed “happier than usual” (there to report. He added that 2015 was weathered the fi nancial diffi culties
polo shirt, even joined in the wackiness,
donning a camofl auge hat and performing
on a duck call. Rachev kept up a warm rap-
port with the audience throughout the hour-
plus show, a free event purchased by the
Faye and Lucille Foundation and the City of
Cottage Grove. Afterward, Rachev praised
the Bohemia Park venue and said he'd be
happy to return to Cottage Grove for a fu-
ture performance.
that have clouded its planning efforts
for the past few years.
Cindy Weeldreyer, publicity coor-
dinator for BMD, said that based on
feedback she received at the festival’s
information booth, a new cultural
stage and Kids’ Zone, in addition to
the Bohemia Saloon — an attraction
aimed at patrons under age 21 —
were welcome aspects of the festival.
The Passport to History program and
the Bohemia Express train, which
shuttled guests to various attractions
at the festival, were also hailed as
successes, Weeldreyer said.
With regard to “The Feud” — the
continuation of the historic feud be-
tween members of the Slabtown and
Lemati communities — contest orga-
nizer Jake Boone said a “very close
contest” was only decided in the late
hours by donations on Saturday eve-
ning, donations that gave Slabtown
(the west side of Cottage Grove) a
narrow 209-201 victory.
“Whatever else happened, I con-
sider this weekend a success,” Boone,
a noted Slabtowner, quipped at Sun-
day’s closing ceremony.
“We’ve been developing this
event before the recent events,”
Ferguson said. “I’ve been plan-
ning this ever since I knew we
were going to have four interns
in our department, and every-
body’s very excited. It’s a topic
we’ve been talking about here at
the City for a long time. Most
people don’t think a high-mag-
nitude earthquake will hit us
anytime soon, so a little public-
ity is a good thing.”
Ferguson said a lot of resi-
dents have asked about emer-
gency preparedness lately, and
several are asking their city
Much more
from BMD
inside:
Festival features
In-depth analyses of
BMD highlights,
page 8A
Games, contests
See who competed and
who prevailed,
page 10A
Parade pix
Cottage Grove on
parade, BMD style,
page 11A
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Please see FAIR, Page 9A
Calendar....................................... 11B
Channel Guide ............................... 5B
Classified ads................................. 6B
Obituaries....................................... 2A
Opinion .......................................... 4A
Public Safety .................................. 5A
Sports ............................................ 1B
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