Feeling neighborly? — 4A
Emergency Fair — 3A
Locales locals love — 6A
Ball's in
your court
Pickleball, tennis
sharing space, page 1B
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
Also
inside:
VOLUME 127 • NUMBER 7
Kris Boylan
of Weitman
Excavation
surveys the
box culvert
that will take
Row River
Trail users
under Row
River Road.
Boylan said
the under-
crossing
should be
complete in
the next cou-
ple weeks.
Trail Talk
Aging engines
SLFR explores bond
for new equipment,
page 3A
photo by Jon Stinnett
City, BLM meet to discuss future of Row River Trail
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
Rain song
Local musician pens
tune to end drought,
page 8A
ffi cials with the City of Cottage
Grove and the Bureau of Land
Management say they recognize the
valuable asset that the popular Row
River Trail represents for the City and
the region. Caring for that asset in the
long run was the subject of a meeting
that brought leaders from both agen-
cies together last week.
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Habitat homeowner
burns the mortgage,
page 3A
son why the City began maintaining
the entire span of the trail — not just
the three miles in town that it actually
owns — last year. Liz Aleman of the
Upper Willamette division of the BLM
said that the City’s track record with
regard to maintaining its section of the
trail also helped prompt the mainte-
nance agreement.
Please see TRAIL, Page 11A
School Board consults with administrators
Gallery Walk allows a
preview of the upcoming
school year
All done!
Originally a rail line connecting
Cottage Grove with the Bohemia Min-
ing District, a rails-to-trails conversion
brought the Row River Trail into exis-
tence, and today it spans 15.6 miles be-
tween Cottage Grove and Culp Creek.
A popular destination for cyclists and
other visitors, the trail welcomes an
estimated 100,000 users each year.
Cottage Grove City Manager Rich-
ard Meyers said that the value the trail
offers to the community is a big rea-
W
ith a new school year just over
the horizon, administrators
with South Lane School District met
on Monday with members of the school
board to talk about their goals and new
developments for 2015-16.
“We see this as an opportunity to in-
teract with each other, to talk about your
focus for the year, your successes and
challenges,” South Lane Superintendent
Krista Parent told a large group gath-
ered at the district offi ce for the “State
of the Schools Gallery Walk.” Parent
shared basic information about the Dis-
trict as a whole, such as its near-even
split of 1675 and 1678 female and male
students, respectively. About 67 percent
of South Lane students qualify for free
or reduced lunches, she said, suggesting
a high poverty rate. Around 16 percent
of students have a recognized disability,
and 2.6 percent are learning English as
their second language.
Each board member present had
about eight minutes to interact with
the principal from each of the district’s
schools. Some schools shared similar
information, such as their school’s in-
volvement with CATCH curriculum,
which provides combined instruction
in physical education and healthy snack
choices. Instructors at London, Latham
and Dorena schools also intend to col-
laborate on writing projects, providing
a chance for students to interact with
other students in their grade level that
they might not otherwise see too often.
At Harrison Elementary, Principal
Ali Nice said six new teachers will take
Please see SCHOOL, Page 11A
Fire chief eases
restrictions
Wooten said recent humidity
is keeping things a bit wetter,
lowering fi re risk
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
S
outh Lane County Fire and Rescue
Chief John Wooten knows that local
residents have work to do. And he’s recently
eased fi re restrictions that were put in place
in response to dangerous conditions to allow
that work to get done.
Restrictions banning the use of open
fl ames, power equipment such as mowers and
chainsaws and other equipment that could
potentially make a spark and smoking near
dry brush have been in place since July 30 in
response to extremely hot and dry conditions
throughout the region. On Saturday, Wooten
effectively lowered the restrictions one level.
“I’ve lifted the restrictions so that people
can get their yard work done,” Wooten said
Monday morning. “They’re essentially back
to a Level 3.”
This means, Wooten said, that open fl ames
are still banned, but mowers and chainsaws
can now be used — but only before 1 p.m.
each day.
“The high humidity right now actually
helps boost the fuel moisture of the veg-
etation,” he explained. “That means that the
burning period starts later in the day. But
at 1 p.m., everybody needs to be done with
that work, and there should still not be open
fl ames anywhere.”
Wooten said he was aware that the restric-
tions had been, well, restrictive for those hop-
ing to break out the chainsaw or the weed-
eater.
“They haven’t been popular with a lot of
people, so I don’t like to keep them in place
if I don’t have to,” said Wooten, who himself
returned from a stint fi ghting the Stouts Fire
near Canyonville late last week.
Wooten cautioned, though, that a return
of hot, dry conditions could necessitate the
more stringent restrictions. South Lane Fire
has fi elded a few complaints from those who
have seen others violating the restrictions, he
said, but by and large people have complied.
“There was an incident where an offi cer
had to ask somebody to stop working be-
cause it was a violation, but that may have
just been a case of somebody that didn’t get
the memo,” he said.
Neufeld to leave Cottage Grove, resume costume design career
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
ware that a photograph is immi-
nent, Lesley Neufeld of Victori-
ana Antiques and Costumes searches
for accessories to spice up her outfi t.
Rummaging through racks of western
wear, vintage dresses and props, she
snatches up a Cleopatra-style head-
dress/cape combo, and voila! She’s
ready for her close-up.
Such is often the scene at Victoriana,
where Neufeld has been busy dolling
up Cottage Grove in period dress and
Halloween spookery for a decade now.
Still, the onetime costume designer
for some of Hollywood’s biggest fi lms
has felt the big screen calling her once
again, and she’s announced that she’ll
be leaving this community soon, bound
for southern California.
Neufeld said she plans to keep the
antiques portion of her shop on Main
suggested the move to Oregon.
“I was at the top of my career with
‘Pirates’ when we moved here,” she
said. “If I can get back and do that
again, why not?”
She said Stan’s somewhat sudden
passing just after Christmas last winter
set the wheels in motion for her move
back down south.
“I had only owned my own store
for a year,” she said. “I’d wanted to
own a store here ever since we moved
to Cottage Grove. I’ve got to sell my
house here, too. It’s too big, and there
are just too many memories. I’ve loved
living in Cottage Grove, but I need a
change.”
Neufeld said she doesn’t yet know
which fi lms she’ll be working on, but
she does know that her line of work is
currently in demand. She said she’ll
keep her costumes around through this
Halloween, and she wants to be moved
by Christmas.
Street open for the foreseeable future.
“It’s smarter to let other people run
the store until the building sells,” she
said.
The costumes, though, will go back
to Los Angeles with her, where she
plans to resume her work dressing
up — and then dirtying up — feature
fi lms.
“My specialty is costuming for ag-
ing, dying characters and making
clothes dirty and dingy so that they
look authentic,” she said. “Not a lot of
people like doing that kind of work,
but I look at it as an art form.”
Creating grime for authenticity’s
sake was Neufeld’s stock-in-trade
before she moved to Cottage Grove,
when she designed costumes for
blockbusters like “Pirates of the Carib-
bean,” “Waterworld,” “The Scorpion
King” and others. Neufeld said it was
her husband, Stan, himself a director
of many famed television series, who
photo by Jon Stinnett
Lesley Neufeld of Victoriana Antiques and Costumes said she'll be
headed back to Hollywood this year.
Principal Brokers
HOME
Teresa Abbott ..................221-1735
Frank Brazell....................953-2407
Lane Hillendahl ................942-6838
Home is where your journey begins.
Brokers
Laurie Phillip....................430-0756
Valerie Nash ....................521-1618
L ET R AIN C OUNTRY R EALTY I NC . HELP YOU TAKE THE FIRST STEP .
Licensed in the
State of Oregon
CONTACT US
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
By mail
Corner of Sixth and Whiteaker, Cottage Grove
In person
WEATHER
CONTENTS
HIGH
LOW
78 55
Partly Cloudy
Calendar....................................... 10B
Channel Guide ............................... 9B
Classified ads................................. 5B
Obituaries....................................... 2A
Opinion .......................................... 4A
Public Safety .................................. 5A
Sports ............................................ 1B
75 CENTS
