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City Beat — 5A
Pope's visit — 3A
Comm. briefs — 6A
Capone takes
race by a
landslide,
page 3A
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 14
Shooting injures deputy, suspect eludes police for hours
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
Lane County Sheriff’s Dep-
uty is recovering this week
following a Friday-evening alter-
cation between the department and
a 38-year old Cottage Grove man,
who was found hours later with his
own gunshot wound and a dog bite
from the incident.
On Friday just before 8 p.m.,
Sheriff’s Deputies say they respond-
ed to a possible shots-fi red call near
Milepost 3 on London Road in the
Cottage Grove Lake area. Once on
scene, deputies encountered a male
subject armed with a fi rearm, who
immediately fi red on and struck
one deputy. The suspect — later
identifi ed as Carlos Roa of Cot-
tage Grove, fl ed the area, initiating
a search that found police blockad-
ing the intersection of London Road
and Cottage Grove Reservoir Road.
Personnel with the Cottage Grove
Police Department, Florence Police
Also
inside:
Department, the Bureau of Land
Management and the Lane County
District Attorney’s Offi ce assisted
at the scene, and it would be over
six hours before Roa was located
nearby, with a gunshot wound and
a bite from a police dog. Following
Please see ROA, Page 10A
Carlos Roa
Fire District
bond set for
Nov. 3 election
M AGIC M OON
Sunday
evening's
eclipse of the
Supermoon
drew locals
from their
homes just
after dusk. It's
a phenom-
enon that's
not scheduled
to occur again
until 2033.
South Lane Fire and Rescue
hopes to raise $2.6 million to
purchase new trucks
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Our Kids
Book spurs local
changes, page 6A
S
outh Lane County Fire and Rescue Chief
John Wooten said Monday that he’s hear-
ing “nothing but support” from locals regarding
the District’s attempt to secure bond funding to
replace much of its aging fl eet, and in just un-
der fi ve weeks, it will be known whether that
support will translate into yes votes at the ballot
box on Nov. 3.
Bond Measure 20-237 aims to raise $2.6 mil-
lion to replace fi ve of the District’s vehicles at
a rate of $.30 per $1000 of assessed property
value for local taxpayers. The District’s Board
of Directors recently voted to fast-track the
bond process, Wooten said, knowing that South
Lane School District is planning to seek its own
bond to replace Harrison Elementary School in
May of 2016.
If approved, the Fire District plans to use
bond revenue to purchase a ladder truck, two
fi re engines and two water tenders. Wooten
said the District is currently looking at a ladder
truck that can possibly be purchased for around
$800,000, though they can cost up to $1.2 mil-
lion. New engines start at about $380,000, he
said, and water tenders are comparably priced.
Wooten said that the District is “being con-
servative” while it explores its purchase op-
tions, adding that new emissions standards
and safety features make fi re equipment more
costly than it has been in previous years.
“It’s the stuff that’s included now that wasn’t
on these trucks 25 years ago that makes them
photo by Bruce Kelsh
Ten-year CGPD vet dismissed, under
investigation by FBI and U.S. Atty.
Phil Beach investigated for violating evidence procedures
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
10-year veteran of the Cottage
Grove Police Department is
under investigation by federal agen-
cies for alleged violations of the de-
partment’s evidence/property handling
procedures.
In a Friday press release, Interim
Police Chief Scott Shepherd wrote that
Phil Beach, who was hired in a full-
time capacity by CGPD in 2005, had
been suspended in June of this year af-
ter Shepherd was notifi ed of the viola-
tion. Then-Commander Shepherd and
Commander Conrad Gagner initiated
Please see BOND, Page 10A
an investigation of the incident after
they were notifi ed of the possible vio-
lation on May 27, the release stated.
On Monday, Shepherd said that the
violation “probably does have a crimi-
nal component,” adding that the foun-
dation for Beach’s termination and the
subsequent investigation is evident,
though he declined to elaborate on the
nature of the allegations, citing the on-
going investigation.
Cottage Grove Police handed their
investigation over to Oregon State Po-
lice on June 23. Beach was terminated
on July 15, and Gagner said the pro-
cess that allows an offi cer to appeal a
suspension led to the delay in Beach’s
termination.
“It was clear from the beginning that
this was going to be a criminal case,”
Gagner said.
On Aug. 18, CGPD learned that the
Lane County District Attorney’s Of-
fi ce had forwarded the investigation
to the United States Attorney’s Offi ce
and the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion. Shepherd said he didn’t believe
that Beach’s alleged actions posed a
direct danger to the citizenry of Cot-
tage Grove.
“His ethics were in question, and
that’s why he can’t be a police offi cer
here,” Gagner said.
Drummer coming
West Africa's Sylla to
teach skills, culture in
CG, page 9A
School District prepares Harrison bond for May election
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
L
ast spring, the South Lane
School District Board of
Directors voted to pursue a 25-
year, $29.8 million bond levy
to replace the aging Harrison
Elementary building and ad-
dress other areas of need in the
District. Today, planning for the
bond process continues in ear-
nest and includes the formation
of committees dedicated to de-
sign planning and the campaign
for voter approval of the bond.
Built in 1947, the District
has sought to replace the Har-
rison building for some time,
and a large advisory committee
met over the spring and winter
months to outline its recommen-
dations,
which in-
cluded the
duration of
the
bond
and priori-
ties for the
use of rev-
enue gen- Architect Mike
erated by Gorman is a
the
bond CGHS gradu-
b e y o n d ate, and Gor-
what
it man attended
would cost Harrison
to build the School.
new school
building. Initial estimates sug-
gest that it would cost $21.2
million to construct and furnish
a new elementary school. While
the amount of funding for other
projects would ultimately be de-
termined after the new school
is completed, the bond advi-
sory committee estimated that it
would take just under $8 million
to address the other top priori-
ties, which included upgrading
the Warren H. Daugherty Aquat-
ic Center, replacing several ath-
letic fi elds and upgrading tech-
nology and security throughout
the School District.
After reviewing requests for
proposals from the architects
that submitted their qualifi ca-
tions, the District’s design plan-
ning committee has chosen an
architect with local connections
to spearhead planning efforts.
Mike Gorman, a Cottage Grove
High School graduate and mem-
ber of its Athletic Hall of Fame,
was originally involved with the
planning to build the current
Bohemia Elementary building,
and as a child Gorman attended
the same Harrison Elementary
building he hopes to help re-
place. He has recently served
as the principle architect for the
construction of a 700-student
elementary school in Crook
County.
The District faces a March of
2016 deadline to get the bond
measure on the ballot for the
May of 2016 election. Super-
intendent Krista Parent said the
School Board analyzed lots of
data regarding placing the bond
on the ballot in the spring or fall
election next year.
“We had to choose one, but we
haven’t fi led yet,” she said. “We
could still change our mind.”
Parent said a recent develop-
ment in Salem has the District
feeling hopeful about its pros-
pects. Approved by the Oregon
legislature, Senate Bill 447
provides $125 million in match
funding for bonds that school
districts can secure in the May
of 2016, November of 2016 or
May of 2017 elections. Eligi-
bility for the matching funds is
determined by the percentage of
students in a district that qualify
for free or reduced lunches, and
applications are processed on
a fi rst-come, fi rst-served basis.
Parent said the bill could po-
tentially provide $4-8 million in
matching funds for the Harrison
bond.
“We think the timing is really
right for this,” she said.
District representatives re-
cently met with the architects
from Bend-based BLRB Archi-
tects for most of a full day to
tour Harrison and other facilities
including Delight Valley Head
Start and Al Kennedy Alterna-
tive High School, Parent said.
Members of the two bond ad-
visory committees have commit-
ted to an ambitious schedule of
meetings to outline plans for the
potential new Harrison building,
with meetings scheduled at least
twice a month until March.
The District has scheduled
a community meeting/school
board worksession to discuss
the bond in depth on Monday,
Oct. 19 beginning at 5:30 p.m.
at the school district offi ce on
Adams Ave.
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CONTACT US
www.cgsentinel.com
On the Internet
(541) 942-3325
By telephone
(541) 942-3328
By fax
cgnews@cgsentinel.com
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P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424
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Corner of Sixth and Whiteaker, Cottage Grove
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