4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL October 21, 2015
O PINION
New fl eet can improve ISO rating,
homeowners insurance premiums
S
outh Lane County Fire
and Rescue formed a
Bond Committee to explore
and discuss the issuance of a
general obligation bond appear-
ing on the ballot for the Nov. 3
election. If approved, the bond
provides an estimated $2.6 mil-
lion to purchase and upgrade the
current fl eet, which has an aver-
age age of 24 years.
Measure 20-237 will cost Dis-
trict patrons $30 per $100,000
of assessed property value for
5.5 years. This means that if
your house is worth $250,000,
you would contribute about $75
a year for 5.5 years to upgrade
the fl eet, providing improved
fi refi ghter safety, citizen safety
and community risk reduction.
The National Fire Protection
Association, which sets the stan-
dards for fi re apparatus, provides
that fi re apparatus should be re-
moved from service at 25 years
of age. The majority of our front
line fl eet is aged out or will age
out very soon. The costs asso-
ciated with keeping the current
fl eet in service are over $70,000
a year. This is money that can be
saved every year to provide for
planned fi re truck replacements,
which we are fi nancially unable
to do now.
A new fl eet will provide for
reduced carbon emissions and
fuel effi ciencies not possible
now. Those who would like
more information can visit the
SLFR website at www.south-
lanefi re.org. Those who would
like a presentation made to a
group can call our offi ce at 541-
942-4493 or send us an email.
Based on scenarios we have
run in cooperation with area in-
surance providers, we are con-
fi dent in saying these scenarios
provide a positive result in po-
tential annual premium savings,
should our ISO rating improve.
A major piece of this would be
gaining the full point values as-
sociated with a new fl eet.
What we discovered in our re-
search is that even one point can
make a difference in an ISO rat-
ing changing from our current
5/9 to a 4/8 or even a 3/7. These
changes correlate to increased
point values for new apparatus.
The proposed bond costs for a
$200,000 home are $60 a year
for 5.5 years. If you saved $300
a year on home/property insur-
ance costs from an improved
ISO rating, you could still have
$240 left in your pocket in an-
nual savings resulting from an
improved ISO rating. These are
scenario based estimates and
every property is different.
apart. It set neighbor against
neighbor and ruined many
friendships — all in the name
of intolerance, hate, and most of
all, hypocrisy. When they were
defeated they slithered away
back into their caves, only to
reappear when tragedy struck.
Is Mr. Jenkins trying to re-start
that culture war?
Mr. Jenkins' article is not only
incoherent, but it goes against
all the Christian principles that
he espouses. He holds up Sher-
iff John Hanlin as a hero. This
so-called law enforcement of-
fi cer stated that he will enforce
only the laws that he determines
to be following his interpreta-
tion of the Constitution. So we
have an anarchist sheriff who is
obviously not a Constitutional
scholar (as Obama is) spouting
off treasonous beliefs, and yet
he attracts fans.
Toward the end of Jenkins’
diatribe he puts across his im-
mense self-satisfaction by brag-
ging how he worked in stress
debriefi ngs at a high school
shooting and being a “chaplain”
at Ground Zero.
He is a fan boy of the Republi-
can Party that has accomplished
zero in making our country bet-
ter — a party that espouses mas-
sive hate for immigrants, the
LGBTQ community, and people
who do not embrace the hereti-
cal “Gospel of Prosperity”. The
rise of the Christian Taliban is
both shocking and sad.
I travel all around the world
holding dialogues with many
people. The most often asked
question is “What is wrong with
America?” The follow-up ques-
tions are about guns, the tea bag-
gers, Trump, and the tolerance
of our children being murdered
by guns. Of course then comes
universal health care, which we
lack, and the Republican obses-
sion with a woman’s uterus.
We must purge this poison
that is sickening our country. It
is not liberalism that is the en-
emy but the people who want
to “take our country back” to
the 1950s. These people are
hell-bent on destroying the so-
cial fabric of our country and
howl war cries as they succeed.
They do not want progress and
growth; they want destruction.
They are yearning for the “end
of days”. They are a cult of
death.
In the 45 years of my daily
Buddhist practice I vowed to
alleviate human suffering. My
mission is to have people live
the happy lives that they de-
serve. Yes, and I have made this
world a better place.
Offbeat Oregon History
it a marvelous coincidence, and
it became the basis for a great
friendship.
daughter of another offi cer. Both
of them were part of a group of
recruiters barnstorming New
York trying to enlist volunteers
for the war. When Thomas and
Mandana were married, it was
before the full regiment, and
they exited the ceremony be-
neath an arch of crossed sabers.
The two of them then plunged
into action — he fi ghting with
his regiment, and she helping in
an auxiliary role; she insisted on
accompanying him in the fi eld.
Thorp was captured in the battle
of Trevelyan Station, but in the
POW camp he made such fi ery
patriotic speeches that the reb-
els decided he was a security
threat and transferred him to a
POW camp in Charleston; while
en route, his guards fell asleep,
so he leaped off the speeding
train into the blackness without.
Landing by sheer good fortune
without being injured or killed,
he then traveled back through
hundreds of miles of enemy ter-
ritory to rejoin his regiment.
At the end of the war, Thorp
was promoted to the rank of
Brigadier General by brevet
(which means, essentially, that
his title got a promotion but his
paycheck did not; he remained a
colonel in all but name).
After the war, the Thorps
headed west. They farmed and
ranched in Michigan and Ari-
zona before coming to Newberg
in the early 1890s when their
two children enrolled in Pacifi c
College (now George Fox Uni-
versity). By the turn of the cen-
tury, they’d settled in Corvallis,
where Thorp met the former
enemy who was to become his
great friend: The Reverend Dr.
J.R.N. Bell.
Black mission fi gs are pur-
ple-black in color and have the
sweetest taste of all types of
fi gs. Mission fi gs are named
for the Franciscan missionaries
who planted them in California
in the 1700s.
Calimyrna fi gs are a pale
yellow-green color. These fi gs
originated from Turkey and are
now grown in California. Black
mission and Calimyrna are the
most common varieties of culti-
vated fi gs.
Brown turkey fi gs are a light-
er purple than black mission fi gs
with hints of yellow-green and
brown.
There are about 60 different
varieties of fi gs grown through-
out the United States today.
Like other high-nutrient fruits,
fi gs are rich in fi ber, minerals,
and polyphenol antioxidant
compounds; eating fi gs has
been shown to increase the an-
tioxidant capacity of the blood,
which could help to prevent oxi-
dative damage in the body. Figs,
similar to beans and oats, are
notably high in soluble fi ber, a
nutrient with cholesterol-lower-
ing properties.
Soft fruit with sap coming
out of the end opposite the stem
means it is ripe and has a high
sugar content. Because they
spoil quite easily, refrigerate
them as soon as they ripen.
It is so much fun to grow
your own fi gs, as they are easy
to grow almost anywhere in the
United States if you have any
space in your yard or on a bal-
cony. All you need to do is plant
them in a big pot with good wa-
ter drainage and if you live in
the northern states, just wheel
the potted trees into a garage or
shed between Thanksgiving and
April 1. You can trim them back
before the winter so they easily
BY JOHN WOOTEN
FIRE CHIEF, SOUTH LANE COUNTY
FIRE AND RESCUE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A shameful article
I am writing in response to
the publication of an ‘article’
in the Oct. 14 edition of the
Cottage Grove Sentinel by Jim
Jenkins. After reading it I felt
shocked and physically ill. It
defi es all common sense and so-
cial responsibility that the editor
chose to publish this hit piece.
If the citizens look back at our
recent history in Cottage Grove,
back in the 90s they will recall
the rise of a toxic and hate-
ful group called the “OCA”.
Mr. Jenkins was a party to this
hate group. This collection of
“Christians” in their witchhunt
for gays and other unsuitable
humans had torn Cottage Grove
A tale of two heroes
of two different
Civil Wars
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
O
n July 28, 1915, one of
the heroes of the Ameri-
can Civil War was laid to rest in
a grave in Crystal Lake Cem-
etery in Corvallis.
The life story of U.S. Army
General Thomas Thorp had been
a remarkable one. But nothing it
contained was too much more
remarkable than the story of that
funeral service. Presiding over it
was one of Thorp’s best friends,
a Methodist minister and fellow
Civil War veteran named John
Richard Newton Bell — J.R.N.,
as he was called by nearly ev-
eryone.
Bell was a Confederate vet-
eran — a Virginian by birth.
When Thorp had arrived in Cor-
vallis 15 years before, he and
Bell had quickly found each
other — the Civil War veterans
of both sides formed a sort of
informal brotherhood in every
community at that time. So, of
course, Thorp and Bell started
reminiscing about battles they’d
been involved in, cross-refer-
encing their memories to see
if they might have been in the
same fi ghts.
They quickly realized that, in
fact, they had. In a pitched bat-
tle late in the war, the regiment
Thorp commanded — the 1st
New York Dragoons — had ac-
tually captured Bell and hauled
him off to a prisoner-of-war
camp.
The two of them had never
actually met in person on the
battlefi eld — it would have
been a bit odd for that to have
happened, given that Bell was
a private soldier and Thorp was
a full-bird colonel in charge of
the regiment that had captured
him. But both men considered
The Civil War
hero: Blue vs.
Gray
The fi rst half of Thomas
Thorp’s life was utterly domi-
nated by the U.S. Army. But,
although both his grandfathers
had fought in the Revolutionary
War, he clearly wasn’t envision-
ing a military career for himself
until the rebellion broke out.
When it did, he was close to
graduation from Union College
in Schenectady. Leaving his
classes behind, he raced to join
the Army. He was appointed a
captain in a regiment of volun-
teer infantry and fi nished up his
college work in the fi eld; his de-
gree was conferred on him while
he was with his regiment.
He also was married before
his regiment; in 1862, while re-
covering from a battle wound,
he met Mandana Major, the
Steve Thoemmes
Cottage Grove
Help pass 20-237
The ISO, or the Insurance
Service Offi ce, is the group that
The Civil War
hero: Beavers vs.
Ducks
J.R.N. Bell was just 16 when
the Civil War broke out, but he
was already a college student —
studying theology at Wytheville
College in Virginia. When the
shooting started, he, like Thorp,
rallied to his local fl ag; but un-
like Thorp, he entered the ser-
rates our Fire District. If we do
not keep up our standards, the
ratings will go against us, and
our homeowners’ insurance will
probably go up.
It comes down to a choice of
paying more for homeowner in-
surance or passing Bond Mea-
sure 20-237.
I for one would rather pay a
short-term bond measure and
have a better-rated fi re depart-
ment than pay more to the insur-
ance companies.
The only thing we would
have to show for paying more to
them is a bad rating and more
profi ts for them.
Tom Munroe
Mayor of Cottage Grove
vice as a plain Confederate pri-
vate.
Bell saw plenty of action;
he took a bayonet through the
shoulder in a Union charge at
Cold Harbor and fought in 32
battles. By the time he was cap-
tured by Thorp’s regiment, he
was a seasoned veteran. Even
so, Thorp may have saved his
life on that battlefi eld: of the
original 86 members of his
company, only himself and three
other men survived the war alive
and physically intact.
After the war, Bell took a job
teaching school to raise tuition
money to fi nish his degree;
while there, he met and married
his wife, fellow teacher Marga-
ret Kirk. Once he’d graduated,
he was ordained a Methodist
minister and, after a brief as-
signment in Arkansas, found
himself embarking on what
would be a 50-year career in
Oregon — starting with the
Southern Methodist Church
in Ashland.
Bell fi nally settled in Corvallis
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 8A
Going nuts for fi gs
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
M
any Americans are only
familiar with dried fi gs,
but fresh fi gs are a delicious
treat available in the summer
and fall seasons. Figs are com-
monly grown throughout the
Mediterranean region as well in
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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the south-
ern part of
the United
States.
Figs were
eaten by the
Sumerians
as early as
2900 BC,
and
fi gs
were one of the earliest culti-
vated fruits, eaten in Ancient
Greece and Rome. Figs origi-
nally came to the Americas from
Spain in the early 1500s, and by
the 1800s there were many va-
rieties growing in California. A
fi g is actually not a fruit at all,
but a fl ower inverted into itself;
the small seeds found inside the
fi g are the true botanical fruit.
Figs range in color from pale
yellow to brown to purple. These
are a few of the common fi g va-
rieties that you might encounter
throughout the season:
fi t indoors and use the cuttings
to start another tree. This way
you can have as many fi g trees
as you want in a few seasons,
from buying just one tiny sprig
of a tree.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New
York Times best-selling author
and a family physician special-
izing in lifestyle and nutritional
medicine. His newest book, The
End of Dieting, debunks the
fake “science” of popular fad
diets and offers an alternative to
dieting that leads to permanent
weight loss and excellent health.
Visit his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com. Submit your
questions and comments about
this column directly to news-
questions@drfuhrman.com. The
full reference list for this article
can be found at DrFuhrman.
com.
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