COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL January 27, 2016
City clears space for
Library fl agpole
Deli opening
draws a crowd
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Carousel Delicatessen takes
up residence on Main Street
T
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A packed house spent the noon hour
at 616 Main Street in downtown Cottage
Grove on Monday to witness the offi cial
grand opening of the Carousel Delicates-
sen and Ice Cream Parlor.
Local dignitaries, family and friends
joined father/son team Judd Van Gorder
and Michael Cummings for a Chamber of
Commerce ribbon cutting to open the new
deli, the fi rst business located in its down-
town home since Fleur de Lis bakery closed
in September of 2013. Guests tried hot and
cold sandwiches named in honor of the
owners’ family and friends — the Sharon,
Shellby, Missi and Bailey are just a few, in
addition to sampling ice cream from Red
Wagon Ice Cream in Eugene. Van Gorder
said his business is the fi rst outside that city
to offer Red Wagon’s wares. At the front of
the restaurant, a carousel horse belonging
to Judy Cash, a horse many hope is des-
tined to once again fi nd itself atop a carou-
sel in Cottage Grove, welcomes visitors.
photo by Jon Stinnett
Carousel Deli co-owner Judd Van Gorder talks with Cottage Grove Mayor
Tom Munroe during Monday's grand opening.
“This should be a great partnership and
a great use of this space,” said Chamber
of Commerce Executive Director Travis
Palmer. “People in this community have
really missed having a business here on
Main Street.”
“When Michael said, ‘Let’s do some-
thing different,’ I was too stupid to say no,
and here we are,” Van Gorder joked. “It’s
exciting and scary as hell, but everybody’s
been so supportive. It’s going to be a true
adventure.”
Carousel Delicatessen and Ice Cream
Parlor will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
seven days a week.
S
Later, calls Obama presidency 'very disappointing'
U
.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio has
visited Cottage Grove a number
of times in his 30 years in offi ce, and on
Thursday, he addressed the local Rotary
and Lions clubs with good news about a
transportation bill he’s helped to craft and
pass.
“People are pleased when you can tell
them we’ve done something positive,” he
said after the meeting.
DeFazio, a Democrat who represents
Oregon’s Fourth District, is currently the
ranking member on the House Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure, and
he told Cottage Grove about his involve-
ment with what he called “one of the most
historically bi-partisan committees” in
Congress. The six-year “Fixing America’s
Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act)”
provides close to $300 billion to fund tran-
sit, highway and safety programs. DeFazio
said he would have liked to see a larger
number in terms of funding on the bill to
address the 40 percent of pavement that
needs repair in America, in addition to the
$80 billion backlog in repair projects for
major cities. Much of the money from the
bill, he said, will fi nd its way to state trans-
portation departments, which will utilize it
to complete needed projects.
“The policies are good, it was a biparti-
san bill, and it’s going to put a lot of people
back to work,” he said on Thursday.
Still, DeFazio said he was disappointed
that Congress could not come to an agree-
ment on ways to raise revenue to fund such
legislation.
“We’re going to borrow the money,” he
said. “The Republicans have said they’re
going to mandate that the IRS use private
tax collectors, and that that will be used to
photo by Jon Stinnett
U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio
addressed members of Cottage
Grove's Rotary and Lions clubs.
help raise the money. But we’ve tried that
in the past and it hasn’t worked. They also
plan to take $40 billion from the Federal
Reserve, and they just make up money any-
way.”
DeFazio said he’s also happy that a deal
has been reached to get the U.S. Coast
Guard back in the ice-breaking business,
and that he’s opposed to efforts to privatize
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WINTER HOURS:
T HURSDAY , F RIDAY & S ATURDAY
10 AM -4 PM
he City of Cottage Grove
has not budgeted funds to
purchase a fl agpole to be placed
in front of the Cottage Grove Li-
brary, but City Manager Richard
Meyers said the City has cleared
a space for a potential new pole.
“We’re not buying one, but
we’ve cleared a spot,” Meyers
said. “We pulled a tree out of
the way and moved the irrigation
lines. We’ll be putting brick pav-
ers there until we’re ready and
have the resources to get a pole.”
The lack of a fl agpole at the Li-
brary sparked a conversation on
a local Facebook group among
individuals who wished to see
the fl ag fl ying there last fall. At
the Monday, Nov. 23 meeting of
the Cottage Grove City Council,
a group of citizens used a pub-
lic comment period to ask why
there was no fl ag at the Library,
and one woman even offered to
donate a fl ag to fl y there. Meyers
later said 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 purpose back in 2007. Mey-
ers said the City did not want to
lose valuable parking spaces at
the Community Center to accom-
modate a fl agpole, and he added
that, as the building was formerly
a Safeway store, the City still
does not know the schematics of
the utilities that could be located
under the parking lot.
Meyers said last week that the
space cleared for a new fl ag pole
does not eliminate any Communi-
ty Center parking. He said a new
pole, which ideally would have its
hardware mounted inside the pole
to curb vandalism issues, could
cost between $2000 and $3000.
The pole would need to be about
24 feet high. At the Nov. 23 meet-
ing, City Councilor Mike Fleck
said he’d like to see the possibil-
ity of a new pole revisited during
the City’s budget process, which
takes place in May and June.
Hours for I-5 construction
slowdowns limited
DeFazio talks transportation
bill during Rotary visit
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
3A
Please see DEFAZIO, Page 5A
tarting next week, the Or-
egon Department of Trans-
portation says that Interstate 5
motorists will encounter fewer
rolling slowdowns in north Doug-
las County.
Over the past two weeks,
ODOT and prime contractor K&E
Excavating have been slowing
southbound I-5 traffi c between
Cottage Grove and Rice Hill due
to tree cutting operations. The
slowdowns had been taking place
hourly each weekday, resulting in
frequent delays.
ODOT said most of the tree-
cutting work has been completed,
so the hourly rolling slowdowns
will no longer be necessary.
However, starting the week of
Jan. 25-29, workers will begin
blasting rock on the southbound
side of the road to make room for
a new climbing lane. Approxi-
mately 20-30 blasts will be sched-
uled between late January and
early March. Blasting will take
place during the morning hours
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when traffi c volumes are lower.
No more than one blast will be
scheduled each weekday.
As a result, motorists should
expect intermittent delays on
weekday mornings through early
March. Though less frequent, the
upcoming rolling slowdowns will
be conducted in both directions.
Southbound I-5 motorists will be
slowed down between milepost
174 and 160, while northbound
motorists will be impacted be-
tween milepost 150 and 162.
Most delays will be less than
20 minutes.
Meanwhile, motorists should
watch for intermittent lane clo-
sures in both directions between
milepost 154 and 162.
The tree-cutting and blasting
operations are part of a $40.3
million project that will resur-
face eight miles of I-5 and build
a southbound auxiliary/climbing
lane at milepost 161. The project
is scheduled for completion in
summer, 2017.
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