4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL December 2, 2015
O PINION
Council meetings don't
guarantee a back-and-
forth, but they're still
worth attending
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
s a communicator in Cottage
Grove who works to bring
the news and events of this com-
munity to its weekly newspaper, I
commonly hear
a lament from
the public that
their govern-
ment is not of-
ten responsive
to their needs
and concerns. Similarly, the other
side of the equation also holds true
— local leaders researching an is-
sue and the consequences of actions
that could be taken to resolve it of-
ten feel that the public is not truly
engaged in the process to the extent
that it could be.
The situation illustrated itself dur-
ing the Monday, Nov. 23 meeting of
the Cottage Grove City Council,
where, during a time devoted to
public comment for items not on the
evening’s agenda, a group of citi-
zens inquired as to why a fl ag is not
fl own at the Cottage Grove Library.
Following their comments, many
of these residents left the Council
chambers, some seemingly disgust-
ed with the lack of attention paid to
their concerns, and in most cases
long before City Manager Richard
Meyers addressed the issue during
an agenda item devoted to com-
ments from the City Manager. By
this time, several topics had been
discussed in detail.
Meyers told the Council and
all present that the City has been
searching for a proper place to erect
a fl agpole at the Community Center
for some time, particularly since a
pole had been donated for that pur-
pose back in 2007. Meyers said the
City did not want to lose valuable
parking spaces at the Community
Center to accommodate a fl agpole,
and he added that, as the building
was formerly a Safeway store, the
City still does not know the sche-
matics of the utilities that could
be located under the parking lot.
Discussion involved the possibility
of a pole to be located in an adja-
cent courtyard, and Councilor Mike
Fleck said he’d like to see that pos-
sibility revisited during the City’s
budget process.
Still, the exchange, or lack of one,
illustrated a key component that
those who do not regularly attend
Council meetings may not realize
or fi nd satisfying. Before the public
comment period, Mayor Tom Mun-
roe read (and always reads) a state-
ment pointing out that the Council
will not engage members of the pub-
lic with regard to their comment on
items not on the agenda that night
but will take those comments under
advisement. In short, this means
that citizens who bring an issue they
care about to the City Council can’t
expect a back-and-forth, human
style discussion of that issue at the
time they bring it forth.
It’s not my place to defend or
condemn this system or to lay
blame on either side, but it’s easy to
understand why this isn’t a perfect
scenario, particularly among parties
who need so badly to communicate
and who (I believe) genuinely care
about the future of this community.
But as a regular attendee at Coun-
cil meetings, I also believe that the
members of this City Council are
responsive to the concerns brought
to them by their constituents. Or,
as Mayor Munroe pointed out later,
“You may not get what you want
right now, but that doesn’t mean
we’re not going to work on it.”
In the end, it would be a sad thing
if citizens who genuinely sought
to become involved in the political
process were put off of their desire
to weigh in simply by the structure
of meetings of the Cottage Grove
City Council. It would also be won-
derful to have more free-fl owing,
town hall-type meetings at which
citizens could be heard and interact
with their representatives.
Until the situation changes, how-
ever, I’d urge all involved to con-
tinue to examine the issues with an
open mind and participate in the
decision-making process whenever
and however they can. In an imper-
fect system, it may also require per-
sistence to see change through to its
conclusion. Unfathomable sacrifi c-
es have been made throughout past
generations to give us the right to be
heard and to affect change, and we
owe it to future generations to exer-
cise those rights.
CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
Cottage Grove City Hall:
942-5501.
www.cottagegrove.org/
Cottage Grove Mayor Tom
Munroe: 942-5501.
Heather Murphy, At Large:
942-3444
Lane County
Commissioners:
Oregon State House of
Representatives:
Jake Boone, Ward 1:
653-7413
Faye Stewart, East Lane
Commissioner. Lane County
Public Service Building
Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP)
District: 7
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-379
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: (503) 986-1407
Fax: (503) 986-1130
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
Jeff Gowing, Ward 2:
942-1900
Cottage Grove City
Councilors:
125 East 8th Street
Eugene, OR 97401
Phone: (541) 682-4203
Fax: (541) 682-4616
Garland Burback, Ward 3:
942-4800
Mike Fleck, At Large:
942-7302
Amy Slay, Ward 4:
541-942-5501.
Offbeat Oregon History
The all-night municipal gunfi ght of the frontier town of Ione
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
P
lenty of Oregon towns have been
the scene of Old West-style gun-
fi ghts during the frontier era, but very
few of them have ever hosted one in
which nearly everybody in the town par-
ticipated.
The tiny town of Ione, in northern cen-
tral Oregon, is one that has.
The occasion of Ione’s experiment
in mixing a gunfi ght with a block party
(“two great tastes that taste great to-
gether”?) was the arrival on the scene
of a local troublemaker named Charles
Earhart.
Earhart was well known to the citizens
of Ione. At various times a wheat farmer
and a saloonkeeper, he was also an ex-
convict, having just been pardoned out
of the joint six months earlier on charg-
es stemming from a drunken shooting
spree in Ione. He was one of those fel-
lows who’s perfectly nice until he takes a
drink — but after that, watch out.
That night, his boilers were well
stoked — and he was on the town to
settle a score. Before his jail stretch,
when he was keeping his saloon in town,
he’d boarded with a woman named Mary
Granger. He and Mrs. Granger appar-
ently got along too well for the tastes
of her husband. Whether there was any-
thing to be jealous of or not is unknown,
but Mr. Granger was confi dent enough in
his conclusions that he moved out, taking
the couple’s two sons with him and leav-
ing three daughters — ages 10, 13 and
14 — with her. The couple had a fourth
daughter as well, who had married a man
named Henry Clark and left the nest.
Months went by. Earhart went to
prison, served a year and a half, was par-
doned by the governor, and moved back
to town. Mary Granger left her boarding-
house business and took a job as man-
ager of the Ione Hotel. And then, in late
June of 2009, she offered Earhart a job
on her staff.
When news of this job offer reached
the ears of Henry Clark and his wife, the
two of them confronted Mary and de-
manded that she fi re Earhart and remove
her other daughters from his infl uence.
News of this interference reached
Earhart’s ears on Thursday, July 2. He
apparently stewed on it for a day; but
Friday night found him in a more pro-
active mood.
“Early Friday evening, Earhart began
to tank up, and at dusk went down to the
hotel conducted by Mrs. Granger,” the
Heppner Gazette reporter wrote. “Upon
meeting the woman in front of the hotel
on the sidewalk, a quarrel ensued. The
quarrel, after reaching the warm stage,
was taken up by Henry Clark.”
Clark was, of course, just the man
Earhart wanted to see, and he pulled a
big knife out of his pocket with which
to continue the conversation — escalat-
ing the imminent confl ict from fi sts to
knives. Clark responded by escalating
things a bit more — with a revolver.
Mary Granger jumped between the two
men, trying to hold Clark, who fi red over
her shoulder at Earhart. Then, shaking
free, he ran to the street and fi red three
more shots after the fast-retreating ex-
con. All were clean misses.
But Earhart didn’t scare that easy —
not, at any rate, when drunk. Running to
Walker’s General Merchandise store, he
kicked out the plate-glass front window
and ducked into the building, making for
the gun counter. He was looking for a
Winchester rifl e with which to continue
the arms race with Clark.
Luckily for everyone involved, he
couldn’t fi nd the rifl es in the dark. But
he did fi nd a dandy double-barreled
shotgun, and grabbing a couple boxes of
shells (loaded, in another stroke of luck
for all involved, with No. 1 birdshot) he
headed for the door, bashing the lock off
with the butt of the shotgun to let him-
self out. Then he struck out for Clark’s
house.
Nobody was there. But on his way
back to town, Earhart met Clark with an-
other man. Leveling the shotgun at them,
he ordered them to climb over a nearby
fence, and as they did so, he pumped a
charge of bird shot into Clark’s back.
Luckily for Clark, it didn’t penetrate
enough to infl ict more than a painful
fl esh wound and knock him off the fence,
where presumably he had the good sense
to not move.
Meanwhile, Ione residents who’d seen
or heard the burglary at Walker’s store
had reported the situation to the town
marshal and sheriff’s deputy. Soon vir-
tually every man in Ione was excitedly
(and, in most cases, drunkenly; after all,
it was Friday night) hurrying home, arm-
ing himself, and presenting himself for
service on a posse. The offi cers were
gathering and instructing the excited
members of the still-growing posse on
the main street in town, apparently un-
aware that their quarry was sitting qui-
etly on the steps of the drugstore next to
a friend whom he’d forced at gunpoint to
accompany him.
Finally, Earhart looked over at his
friend, remarked that it was his turn to
make a move and started up the street.
The movement caught someone’s eye,
and a shout went up from the posse:
“Stop right there!” Earhart’s reply was
two quick blasts from the shotgun as he
took to his heels, heading for the far side
of a blacksmith’s shop; the path before
him was lighted by the muzzle fl ashes
of at least a dozen posse members’ rifl es
and pistols, but somehow none of the
bullets hit him, although one did graze
his back.
As he ran, Earhart tripped over an
elderly hobo, who had spread his bed-
roll out between two houses. The hobo
raised his head, trying to see what had
happened — and a member of the posse,
seeing him there and thinking
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 8A
Eight steps to reducing cholesterol naturally
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
A
lmost 50 percent of
American adults have to-
tal cholesterol levels above 200
mg/dl, plac-
ing them at
risk for car-
d i ova s c u -
lar disease
— elevated
cholesterol
is one of
the
most
important
risk factors for heart disease.
Elevated cholesterol is also as-
sociated with increased risk of
several cancers.
A high-nutrient diet is by
far the most effective method
of reducing cholesterol while
avoiding side effects. A di-
etary intervention study using
my recommended eating style
found that LDL cholesterol was
reduced by 33 percent in just
six weeks. Similar six-week
interventions using low-fat veg-
etarian, Mediterranean or other
diets have not been nearly as ef-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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fective.
Statin drugs are also not as ef-
fective for reducing cholesterol
as an excellent diet coupled
with exercise. After six weeks
of taking cholesterol-lowering
statin medications, cholesterol
levels decreased by 26 percent
— almost as much as a high
nutrient diet, but statins have
harmful side effects compared
to the healthful benefi ts of a
high nutrient diet. Statins are as-
sociated with liver dysfunction,
acute renal failure, cataracts,
diabetes and impaired muscle
function. In contrast, not only
will a high nutrient diet lower
cholesterol, it will also decrease
heart disease risk by improving
other factors such glucose lev-
els, blood pressure, infl amma-
tion and body weight.
The safest and healthiest
strategy for reducing choles-
terol and preventing future
heart attacks and strokes starts
with eating a high nutrient, veg-
etable-based diet with plenty of
raw and cooked vegetables. In
particular, follow these eight
simple rules to maintain healthy
cholesterol levels and to protect
against heart disease:
1. Eat at least one cup of
beans every day. Beans are
packed with resistant starch, sol-
uble fi ber and phytochemicals,
which help to lower cholesterol
– a pooled analysis of 10 trials
found that consuming beans
regularly signifi cantly reduced
total and LDL cholesterol. Plus,
a 19-year study found that peo-
ple who eat beans at least four
times a week have a 22 percent
lower risk of heart disease than
those who eat beans less than
once a week.
2. Eat at least one ounce
of raw nuts and seeds daily.
When eaten regularly, nuts not
only reduce total and LDL cho-
lesterol but also aid in weight
control, reduce the glycemic
load of the diet, and they reduce
heart disease risk by 35 percent.
Nuts and seeds have a variety of
heart healthy nutrients, includ-
ing plant sterols, antioxidants,
minerals, and arginine. Include
walnuts in your diet for their
omega-3 and other heart protec-
tive benefi ts.
3. Eat one large green salad
each day, and include raw on-
ion. Higher leafy green and
cruciferous vegetable intake is
linked to lower risk of heart dis-
ease.
4. Eat steamed green veg-
etables with every lunch and
dinner. Recent research sug-
gests that phytochemicals from
green vegetables can turn on the
body’s natural antioxidant and
anti-infl ammatory
protection
mechanisms.
5. Include tomatoes/tomato
sauce, berries and/or pome-
granate in your diet daily.
The antioxidants in berries and
pomegranates, such as antho-
cyanins and punicalagin, are
especially effective in improv-
ing both LDL and HDL cho-
lesterol. Many observational
studies have made a connection
between higher blood lycopene
(the signature carotenoid of the
tomato) and lower risk of heart
attack.
6. Have 1 Tbsp. of ground
fl ax or chia seeds plus a DHA
supplement each day. Flax-
seeds contain the benefi cial
omega-3 ALA, lignans, fl avo-
noids, sterols and fi ber. Clinical
trials show that daily fl axseed
consumption reduces total cho-
lesterol by 6-11 percent. Chia
seeds are also rich in ALA and
fi ber, and taking a DHA sup-
plement ensures adequacy of
long-chain omega-3 fatty acids,
because conversion of ALA to
DHA and EPA varies greatly
among individuals.
7. Avoid refi ned carbohy-
drates and added oils. Pro-
cessed foods are full of these
calorie-dense, nutrient-poor in-
gredients that promote weight
gain and increase heart disease
risk.
8. Minimize animal prod-
ucts to less than fi ve percent of
total calories per week. If you
have heart disease or signifi cant-
ly high cholesterol, avoid ani-
mal products altogether. Higher
animal product consumption is
linked to increased heart disease
risk.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
family physician specializing in
lifestyle and nutritional medi-
cine. Visit his informative web-
site at DrFuhrman.com. Submit
your questions and comments
about this column directly to
newsquestions@drfuhrman.
com. The full reference list for
this article can be found at
DrFuhrman.com.
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