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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2016)
10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL February 3, 2016 Cottage Theatre's latest is T-O-O funny BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel I didn’t expect to be tickled as much as I was while watching “The 25th Annual Put- nam County Spelling Bee.” The whimsical frustrations of mid- dle school were delivered ac- curately and comically by both the younger and older members of the cast, and quite frankly, hit close to home. The title is as much of a syn- opsis as you could really search for. The play is about a spelling bee in Putnam County where contestants have previously won other bees and look to win this one as well. The characters' hopes are portrayed through various emotions such as hope- ful, desperate and extremely boastful. Executive Director courtesy photo (from L to R): Logainne Schwatzandgrubennierre (Madi- son Baker), Chip Tolentino (Joel Ibanez), William Barfée (Donovan Seitzinger), Leaf Coneybear (Kyle Carrillo- Enders), Olive Ostrovsky (Brittany Dreier), and (on the fl oor) Marcy Park (Maeve Dahlen). dantic and sarcastic responses to these questions that really put the audience in an uproarious laughter. However, we cannot forget the performance of Joel Ibanez, who played the character of Chip Tolentino, a typical anxi- ety-ridden middle school boy who struggles with puberty. His song about his unfortunate erec- tion during the spelling bee was the most outstanding number of the play. Any adult male could understand the plight of Chip Tolentino. The female characters were not outdone, however. The voices of Madison Baker, Brit- tany Dreier and Maeve Dahlen truly put the music in the mu- sical. Dreier’s character, Olive Ostrovsky, perfectly pinpoints a middle school girl having her fi rst crush on Willame Barfee (Donovan Seitzinger). Seitzing- er, too, presents an outstanding standoffi sh personality (and si- nus infection) in “the tough kid” of any middle school. Overall, the play was an abso- lute success. While the writing is undeniably a great piece of work, the story is truly brought to life by an extremely enthusi- astic and talented group of cast and crewmembers. Susan Goes describes the play as a “hilarious romp through middle school,” and I couldn’t agree more. Within the play you fi nd pubescent struggles, fi rst crushes and principals driven to alcoholism — it was almost a fl ashback. There are fi ve original con- testants of the spelling bee, but three more are added from au- dience members who are un- suspecting and have no idea of the dialogue or choreography of what was to come. When each person's name was called up to spell, announcer Rona Lisa Per- retti (played by Tracy Nygard) would tell a fi ctional fact about the character's life which always ended comically and uncomfort- ably for the contestants from the audience. The top performance was defi nitely by Ward Fairbairn, who played the cynical and often annoyed Vice Principal Douglas Panch. Panch was the character that would call up the spellers, say the word they had to spell and give a defi nition or use the word in a sentence should the contestant ask for it. It was those instances that were the main generator of humor. It was Fairbairn's eloquent, pe- we’re going to try to make a showing of what the criminal justice system can be, and it’s got a lot to do with the way we do business every day.” In addition to staffi ng more lawyers and legal assistants, Perlow said the County is work- ing with a new smartphone app featuring a bracelet that looks very much like a Fitbit that can remind an offender of appoint- ments that must be kept or send alerts as to locations the offend- er is prohibited from frequent- ing. The County’s parole and probation offi ce is also chang- ing the way it operates, Perlow said, and is adopting a risk-as- sessment based model of deal- ing with offenders. “Not everybody is going to get the same plan or the same treatment,” she said. “There are assessments to see who is ready for drug and other treatments, and when. It’s more about test- ing how a person’s brain works and how they learn, with the goal of getting people into pro- grams when they’re most ready to succeed.” Parole and probation has re- ceived funds from the state that are being reinvested from the savings realized from trying new programs like these, Per- low said. “For the fi rst time in a long time, you’re seeing everybody working at a new level, to- gether,” she said, including the County jail and local mental health professionals. But time will tell whether this new model can work in the long run. “We hope to keep and even improve a higher service level, but I don’t see money return- ing from Secure Rural Schools funding,” Perlow said. “If we can keep showing savings to the state, we hope the public will see the value and we can talk about another levy to specify exactly what we need.” Perlow acknowledged, how- ever, that passing another levy could be tricky. “Public trust is so low for government in general and in Lane County specifi cally that we’re going to have to put forth a lot of effort to earn it back,” she said. ern the burning of yard waste such as limbs. Outdoor burning is permitted during many days of the spring and fall and is pro- hibited during the winter and the dry summer months to help prevent wildfi res. Proposed changes include a limit to the size of ceremonial fi res, which Hough said has been abused by events in recent years including a gathering in Florence. Changes would also prohibit outdoor burning in bar- rels “based on a frequent pattern of burning garbage and other prohibited materials and inef- fi cient combustion,” according to Hough’s presentation. The burning of grass clippings based on the heavy smoke it creates would also be banned under the proposed new regulations, as would the burning of fallen leaves for the same reason. LRAPA has recently updated its website to showcase con- tinuous air-quality data, and the website, located at lrapa.org, also showcases any home wood heating advisories, though Cot- tage Grove does not have stat- utes that prevent wood heating on days of poor air quality. Cottage Grove City Council- or Mike Fleck served as chair of the LRAPA board in 2014 and will serve again this year. The communities of Cottage Grove and Oakridge share a seat on the LRAPA board, alternat- ing which town holds the seat each year. Hough said the Or- egon legislature approved a plan where both communities could hold a fi xed seat on the board, but those communities have to approve such an arrangement. For her birthday, Pruitt presents a gift photo by Cathy Bellavita Phyllis Pruitt talks to a crowd of more than 25 guests about the 150-year old family quilt she do- nated at the celebration of her 90th birthday hosted by the Cottage Grove Museum and Cottage Grove Genealogical Society on Saturday afternoon. P ERLOW Continued from page 1A prison, where they would soon be released because there was no capacity to keep them. The jail levy has at least helped us hold people until they can ap- pear in court.” Grant funding stemming from the passage of House Bill 3194 has helped the District Attor- ney’s Offi ce hire more lawyers to prosecute such low-level of- fenses, Perlow said, funding that will be available until 2017. “Our numbers of support staff are really low, and it’s not sus- tainable,” she said. “If we lose those grants or our workload changes substantially, we can’t keep up with capacity. But un- til the grants give out in 2017, 2015 e Grove Cottag er Chamb merce of Com s Busines of the Year NEED A RIDE? Work ~ School ~ Doctors Appointment ~ Shopping We can get you there. Give us a call today! L RAPA Continued from page 1A “We’re a little nervous about Eugene, and we’re not quite where we want to be in Oakridge, but it’s a pretty good report for Cottage Grove.” Hough said that complaints received by LRAPA have de- creased in all categories in re- cent years except those related to open burning and home wood heating. This year, the agency will hold a public hearing aimed in part at discussing proposed changes to LRAPA’s outdoor burning guidelines, which gov- Your Local Public Transportation Service 1450 Birch Ave 541-942-0456 southlanewheels.org Find your way to savings. O FFBEAT fully completed, and the Alli- ance is working to raise the nec- essary funds to get it done; when it is, the Lacey Lady will be one of just seven B-17s remaining in fl yable condition. Full details of their project are at www.b71al- liancegroup.com. Continued from page 4A out with a few passes, touch- and-gos and gentle turns — the yoke in one hand and the fl ight manual in the other. And it was going pretty well, he thought. But then he realized that the landing gear was stuck. He fl ew the plane around for a while, trying to fi gure out how to get it unstuck. Finally he real- ized he’d just have to bring the plane in on its belly and hope for the best. So down came Art Lacey in his new, doomed warbird, land- ing in a shower of sparks with a screech of tearing metal. Although the cat was now out of the bag, the manager felt bad about the broken landing gear — and probably a little relieved, too, since his customer wasn’t dead. “He turned to his secretary and said, ‘Have you written up the bill of sale yet on that B- 17?’” Punky recounted. “And she said no, and he said, ‘Worst case of wind damage I’ve ever seen.’ And so he sold him a sec- ond B-17.” The second plane set Art back just $1,500 — a special deal the manager made him, knowing he’d spent all his money on the fi rst one. Of course, faking the copilot was no longer going to work, so Art called his wife long-dis- tance and asked her to send two of his friends down with a case of whiskey. The booze was to be used to bribe the local fi re de- partment to pump the fuel out of the old B-17 and into the new one using their fi re truck, and it was a powerful enticement; Oklahoma was still a dry state at the time. Everything worked as planned, although Art had to kite a check in Palm Springs to The Bomber as it appeared just a few years after Art Lacey installed its signature airplane in 1947. refuel the big plane; luckily, he made it home to cover his paper before it could bounce. But when he got home, Art found his troubles had just begun. The city of Portland wouldn’t issue permits to bring the plane from the airport. It was just too big, even after the wings were dismantled. But Art was in so deep now, there was no turning back. He scheduled the move for the dark of night, well after the bars had all closed. He hired two teenag- ers with hot cars to accompany the motorcade, with instructions to fl oor it and race off reck- lessly into the night if the police should appear — the idea being to draw the cops away from the plane. The truck drivers were instructed that under no circum- stances were they to stop before they arrived at the gas station, no matter who ordered them to. And he promised to pay any tickets anyone was written by any cop for his or her part in the move. The move’s only mishap was a drunk driver who, seeing an airplane bearing down on him, thought he’d accidentally driven out onto an airfi eld and panicked and skidded into the ditch. City Hall offi cials were, of course, furious. But after their initial attempts to punish Art re- sulted in some very unfl attering newspaper coverage, they gave it up, fi ned him $10, declared victory and went home. Art was able to pay half his fi ne with the $5 collected from his friend. He promptly had his airplane mounted above the gas pumps and renamed the place “The Bomber.” And there it sat for the next 63 years, bringing in hundreds of thousands of curious gawkers and customers alike. Over the years the Laceys added a restaurant and a small hotel. In the early 1990s they closed the gas pumps, and the big B-17 started to look increas- ingly forlorn up there, exposed to the weather and the occasion- al predations of vandals. Then, in 1996, the family de- cided to do something about it — and the B-17 Alliance was born, dedicated to restoring the “Lacey Lady,” as they’ve dubbed the bomber. Currently the bomber is in the B-17 Alliance Museum and Restoration, located at McNary Airfi eld in Salem (3278 25th St. SE). The museum is open Fri- days through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The multi-mil- lion-dollar restoration still has a ways to go before it’s success- (Sources: “The Art Lacey Story,” www.b17alliancegroup. com; Bamesberger, Michael. “The ‘Lacey Lady’ B-17 bomb- er, a Milwaukie landmark, comes down from its perch,” Portland Oregonian, 13 Aug 2014; Spitaleri, Ellen. “Lacey Lady’s New Home,” Portland Tribune, 10 Nov 2014) Save an average of $464* Stop here for great rates with America’s #1 car insurance company**. Give me a call today. Matt Bjornn, Agent 1481 Gateway Blvd Cottage Grove, OR 97424 Bus: 541-942-2623 bjornninsurance.com statefarm.com ® *Average annual per household savings based on a 2015 national survey of new policyholders who reported savings by switching to State Farm. 1005000.1 **Based on A.M. Best written premium. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm Indemnity Company – Bloomington, IL
