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.
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3 bedroom, 1 bath
1342sqft on corner lot.
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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
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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