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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2016)
A 'novel idea' Creative movement CT's 'Bee' is T-O-O funny, page 10A DanceAbility focuses on inclusion, page 3A CG native pens fi rst in a series, page 3A $ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016 SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889 VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 32 School Board talks grad rates End of an era BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel S Braswell to retire after 50 years (exactly) with Safeway BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel R oger Braswell is a man in near-constant motion. On a typical day at the Cot- tage Grove Safeway store, Bras- well, its manager, checks in with employees at each department, trouble-shooting issues with each conversation. He offers a greeting and a thank-you to cus- tomers, many of whom he knows by name, until a call over the in- tercom pulls his attention else- where. To those who frequent the store, the fi gure of Braswell photo by Jon Stinnett Safeway Manager Roger Braswell chats with Assistant Manager Tim Glenn. making his rounds is as familiar as its corporate logo, its baked goods or its check-out aisles. This week, however, will bring a milestone anniversary for Bras- well in tandem with his last day at Safeway. On Thursday, Feb. 4, he will mark 50 years to the day since he began working at the Cottage Grove store, albeit a Please see BRASWELL, Page 11A District Attorney visits, touts County's changes Perlow says County is working to prosecute low-level offenders BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel L ane County District Attor- ney Patricia Perlow said a tax levy approved by county vot- ers in 2013 has proven “of great benefi t” to the County’s ability to hold people accountable for the crimes they commit here, and on Thursday, Perlow visited Cottage Grove to make the case for her election in 2016 and to talk about how she believes early interven- tions are changing outcomes in the County’s court sys- tem. P e r l ow, who has worked in the District Patricia Perlow A t t o r n e y ’s offi ce for 26 years, was appointed to head the offi ce on July 31 of last year following the resigna- tion of Alex Gardner, and she’ll be running for election this fall. On Thursday, Perlow visited the Sentinel prior to a presentation for the local Lions Club, and she said that the D.A. has processed 80 more low-level felony drug- possession cases since she took over in August. “We’ve been referring many of them to the County’s drug treatment court, and we had fi ve more graduates from treatment programs this week,” she said. “These were parents who had had kids removed from their homes due to their use, and they’ve now become contributing members of the community once again. It’s very rewarding.” In the past, Perlow said the County was not in the habit of fi l- ing such cases due to its lack of funding and the lack of jail beds available to house those convict- ed, contributing to what she called “the complete decay of the crimi- nal justice system in Lane County, little by little.” A low tax base rate in the County brought about by Measure 5 has left the District Attorney’s offi ce unable to keep up with criminality, she said. “The goal has been to intervene in criminal activity earlier so that we can stop referring so many people to prison,” Perlow said. “In the past, the model seems to have been to allow people to amass large criminal histories. Those people would then be sent right to outh Lane School District Superintendent Krista Par- ent spent much of the School Board’s Monday-eve- ning meeting discussing the District’s high-school gradu- ation and dropout rates, in particular a signifi cant decline in the four-year graduation rate at Cottage Grove High School. Parent presented data the District received at the end of last week detailing South Lane’s percentages of students completing their high-school careers, with those statistics placed alongside the rates of other schools in Lane County and schools throughout Oregon. Cottage Grove High School’s four-year graduation rate fell from 88.76 percent for the 2013-14 school year to 82.78 percent for 2014-15. Parent pointed out to the School Board that the drop in the CGHS rate “drives the drop” of the District as a whole from 70.31 percent two years ago to 64.29 percent last year. When given another year to complete high school, the CGHS rate jumps to 90.36 percent; its dropout rate for 2014-15 was 1.34 percent according to the data presented Monday night. The state of Oregon as a whole posted a 73.82 percent graduation rate in 2014-15 compared to a 71.98 percent rate the year before; its rate has climbed steadily each of the past four years. Meanwhile, Al Ken- nedy Alternative High School, a school that serves students that might not otherwise be continuing their high-school careers, improved its four-year graduation rate to 22.73 per- cent from 12.96 percent the year prior. Parent sought to provide context for the decline at CGHS and indicated that more time would be spent studying the reasons behind it. “I am concerned about this,” she said. “For four years we’ve been number one or two at Cottage Grove High School. This is the fi rst year in three or four that we haven’t been at the top. We will look at that.” “I’ve asked Iton (Udosenata, Cottage Grove High School Principal) to analyze that cohort, to report why that drop happened,” Parent said. “A lot of times kids are near the fi nish line in June, and we encourage them to enroll in summer classes,” Udosena- ta replied from the audience. “We encourage them not to take breaks because they don’t want to go back next fall to a building where all the kids are younger than them. We’re continually trying to fi nd these kids that kind of get lost and don’t report in anywhere.” Please see PERLOW, Page 10A Local air-quality agency details proposed changes to outdoor burning rules Lane Regional Air Protection Agency proposes a ban on burning grass, leaves BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel T he task of monitoring and protecting Lane County’s air quality falls to the only local air quality agency in the state of Oregon, and representatives of the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency recently detailed its ef- forts to the Cottage Grove City Council. Director Merlyn Hough and Public Affairs Manager Jo Nei- haus were on hand as part of a packed agenda to talk about the history and scope of LRAPA, in addition to proposed changes that could alter the way it conducts it- self in the future. Hough told the Council that, while Washington and California have local air quality agencies in several locations, LRAPA works to protect the airsheds of Lane County in a state where much of such work falls to the Department of Environmental Quality. The agency was formed in 1968, and Cottage Grove joined in 1992. “Achieving air quality health standards is important not only for protecting public health and the environment, but also for eco- nomic development,” Hough said, adding that it is the mission of LRAPA to “protect public health, quality of life and the environ- ment as a leader and advocate for the continuous improvement of air quality in Lane County.” Locally, LRAPA monitors air quality at stations in Saginaw and at the City shops in Cottage Grove, and Hough explained that the Saginaw site is the fi rst south- ern location that is furthest enough from the population centers of Eu- gene and Springfi eld to allow for air-quality measurements that are not affected by pollutants from those communities. Of concern to the agency is the concentration of ozone in the local atmosphere, a compound that’s especially prevalent and can be problematic in the summertime. “Ozone isn’t emitted by pollu- tion sources directly, but it forms in the atmosphere, especially on hot afternoons,” Hough said. He added that LRAPA has helped Lane County stay ahead of tight- ening standards for ozone preva- lence in recent years, standards that have become more stringent in 1997, 2008 and again in 2015. The greatest concern in regard to local air quality, however, is particulate matter — small solid particles of dust, pollen, mold and other pollutants — and especially the much smaller particles that are the by-products of combustion from automobiles, home wood heating and industrial processes. Cottage Grove’s air quality fares pretty well when compared to monitoring sites in Eugene, Springfi eld and Oakridge, Hough said, adding that quality concerns due to home wood heating con- tinue to hover near unacceptably high levels in Oakridge. Please see LRAPA, Page 10A photo by Jon Stinnett SHINE ON: After quite some time in the dark during which only its "I" and fi rst "O" were operable, a grant from the City of Cottage Grove's Historic Landmarks Commission was used to help repair the neon sign that adorns Cottage Grove's Odd Fellows Hall. The grant came from the City's Facade Renovation pro- gram. Rain Country Realty Inc. RE C A 9 2 S 81510 Sears Rd Creswell 29 Acres in 3 tax lots with some commer- cial industrial zoning – River close with your own campground and 1800sqft manufac- tured home. W NE 3 bedroom, 1 bath 1342sqft on corner lot. Attached garage & shop, loading dock. New certified wood insert, hot tub just serviced. Washer and dryer & furnishings included. www.cgsentinel.com On the Internet (541) 942-3325 By telephone (541) 942-3328 By fax cgnews@cgsentinel.com By e-mail P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 By mail Corner of Sixth and Whiteaker, Cottage Grove In person WEATHER Valerie Nash ....................521-1618 Licensed in the State of Oregon CONTENTS HIGH LOW 49 40 Mostly Cloudy Broker $135,000 $375,000 CONTACT US Principal Brokers Teresa Abbott ..................221-1735 Frank Brazell....................953-2407 Lane Hillendahl ................942-6838 133 Date St. Drain Calendar....................................... 10B Channel Guide ............................... 6B Classified ads................................. 8B Obituaries....................................... 2A Opinion .......................................... 4A Public Safety .................................. 5A Sports ............................................ 1B 1 Dollar
