COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL December 23, 2015
City meets with
third-party building
inspectors
Socks thrown for
charity at Armory
YAC's fi rst ever sockball fi ght helps those
in need and promotes local businesses
downtown
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
In an effort to help the less
fortunate and to promote more
business later in the day down-
town, the Cottage Grove Youth
Advisory Council hosted its
fi rst ever sockball fi ght Friday
night. Dozens of pairs of socks
were donated and collected at
schools around town, and before
the socks serve their actual pur-
pose, they were the subjects of a
mock snowball fi ght. The festiv-
ity took place in the Armory and
played out more like a game of
dodgeball than anything else.
“We’re not only trying to do-
nate socks for people who need
them, but we’re trying to get
local businesses to stay open
late in the hopes that this would
bring more people downtown
later in the day or evening,” said
City Manager Richard Meyers.
The socks will be donated to or-
ganizations such as Community
Sharing and Beds for Freezing
Nights.
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
photo by Sam Wright
Duane Taddei and his daughter Shelby strategize with friend
Samantha Hernandez on how to win the new sockball game.
Police believe truck theft was a 'malicious act'
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
n Monday morning, dis-
patchers with the Cottage
Grove Police Department said
they were still fi elding numerous
calls about a silver GMC pickup
in the rushing waters of the Row
River just southeast of Cottage
Grove.
Police say the 2008 pickup was
stolen from one of their offi cers on
the evening of Wednesday, Dec.
16, though Interim Police Chief
Scott Shepherd declined to name
the offi cer due to safety concerns.
The offi cer discovered the vehicle
missing when departing for a 4
a.m. shift the next morning, and
a report of the truck being located
in the river subsequently came in
to CGPD at about 8 a.m.
Commander Conrad Gagner
said police believe the truck was
stolen from the offi cer’s home as a
“malicious act,” possibly because
the thieves knew it belonged to a
cop.
“It was only driven a short dis-
tance,” Gagner said. “We’ve had
cars in the river before, and we’ve
had stolen cars in the river, but
typically they’re stolen elsewhere
and driven for a while before be-
ing dumped there. There was no
photo by Jon Stinnett
indication that anything was sto-
len out of this truck, and it wasn’t This GMC pickup was discovered in the Row River Thurs-
stripped. What other purpose day morning.
could there be?”
bend by mid-afternoon Thursday. fi ce did not respond to calls for
Police say the keys were left
Removal of the truck will report- more information on efforts to
in the truck and that the thieves edly be the work of the Lane remove the vehicle, though depu-
most likely deposited the truck in County Sheriff’s Offi ce, as that ties did reportedly break out the
the river at the boat ramp near the part of the Row River is located truck’ windows to ensure that no
BMX track, though the truck had outside the City Limits. Repre- one was trapped inside.
drifted downstream and around a sentatives from the Sheriff’s Of-
“The water is too high,” Gagner
said. “We called the Sheriff’s Of-
fi ce for the recovery, but the water
is too high.”
Has Your Home Seen Better Days?
recent meeting that brought together representatives
of Cottage Grove’s Community Development Depart-
ment and the company that conducts building inspections on
its behalf functioned as a review of the relationship between
the two groups.
Back in March, the City contracted with the Clair Com-
pany, a third-party plan review and inspection agency located
in Corvallis, for local building inspections, in the process
ending its contract with Mortier Engineering for those ser-
vices. Cottage Grove’s Community Development Director,
Howard Schesser, City Planner Amanda Ferguson and Cindy
Blacksmith recently met with Building Offi cial David Flem-
ings and Building Inspector David Willard of Clair Company
to review the City’s building inspection program. Schesser
said the meeting was the “fi rst time we’ve really sat down”
with Clair representatives since the company began conduct-
ing inspections here. The City contracts with a third party for
inspections, Schesser said, because it does not have the vol-
ume in building permit requests that could support the City
employing someone for the purpose. Clair Company sends
a representative to Cottage Grove to conduct reviews and in-
spections three days a week as needed.
Schesser said a main point of the discussion concerned
conditional permit approvals.
“We wanted them to be a little more specifi c with how
much more information may be needed,” he said. “Once is-
sued, these permits often allow people to get to work, though
they still need additional information from the inspector. We
wanted to clarify at what point they will be receiving informa-
tion for their next project.”
According to the City’s Friday Update publication on Dec.
11, Clair and the City also discussed changing to the state of
Oregon’s permit tracking software from the D14 model the
City currently uses.
“Once that process is completed, staff will also be able to
track planning applications, and eventually the system will
be connected to our fi nancing software, as they are both
owned by the same company,” City Manager Richard Mey-
ers wrote.
Schesser said that Clair Company requires a lot of informa-
tion from applicants at the start of the review process, though
providing that information up-front often pays off in the end.
“If everybody reads the information they provide, they
know where they stand,” he said.” This fi rm defi nitely re-
quires more information up-front, but it makes for a much
cleaner application in the end.”
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who
are away
from their
families
this
Holiday
Season!
3A
Happy Holidays
to our friends and neighbors around town!
Wishing you and your family the very best.
Love, Health and Happiness in the New Year.
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