Preparing for
pollinators,
page 3A
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
Holy Week climate walk, page 9A
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 39
City moving to new website
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
photo by Jon Stinnett
City Manager Richard Meyers checks out features of
the new city website, which is expected to go live in
mid-April.
This month brings a new digi-
tal era of sorts for the City of
Cottage Grove, which will transi-
tion to a new webpage and email
system.
City Manager Richard Mey-
ers recently announced that the
City is “going to Google” for
its new webpage, which is being
designed by Lake Oswego-based
Aha Consulting. Meyers said he
expects the site to be ready to go
live by the second week in April.
The move will end the City’s
relationship with locally based
Oregon Internet Properties for
these services, a move Meyers
said it was necessary to make.
“The whole world is chang-
ing,” he said. “The challenge is
that we’re public offi cials. A lot
of our emails are public docu-
ments, and they have to be saved.
There’s been no way to central-
ize that system, and it’s got to be
done simply.”
Cloud-based storage will aid
the City’s storage woes, Mey-
ers said, adding that the City has
already been using Google for
its calendars. He said that he is
excited about the move himself
because he has previously been
responsible for coding the Hyper
Text Markup Language (HTML)
for anything that appears on the
site.
Late last week, Meyers asked
members of the City Council to
come to Monday’s meeting pre-
pared to have their pictures tak-
en and with short biographical
blurbs to update their page on the
website. Middlefi eld Golf Course
and the Cottage Grove Public Li-
brary will also fi nd their informa-
tion located on the same site.
“It’s taken time, because
there’s a lot of data to input,” he
said. “But City staff are very ex-
cited about it.”
The City also continues to work
to have online bill paying options
available on the site for its water
customers, Meyers said.
The switch for email is ex-
pected to cost between $6800
and $8000. The City’s internet
technologies services will be
handled through the Lane Coun-
cil of Governments, which has
facilitated the move to the new
website.
Lately, more and more
Grovers are
Despite
concerns, City
says Main
Street bridge
is safe
p
u
g
n
i
k
c
i
P
chicks
Guide Dogs
Falling in love with
furry canine helpers,
page 6A
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
S
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
D
espite the concerns raised over an an-
nouncement concerning a well-traveled
bridge downtown, Cottage Grove City Manager
Richard Meyers insisted early this week that the
structure is indeed safe.
At its Monday, March 14 meeting, Mey-
ers told the City Council that the Main Street
bridge, which spans the Coast Fork of the
Willamette River, “could collapse any day,”
prompting concerns and calls from many in the
community to close the bridge or restrict access
to it. A consultation with OBEC Engineers re-
vealed that the land under the bridge abutment
on its southern side had washed away signifi -
cantly.
“The river bank between the bridge abutment
and the land on the other side of the street is
eroding,” Meyers said. “It needs to be addressed
right away.”
On Monday, Meyers added that, despite the
need to address the bridge, the “engineers have
not told us that it is dangerous.” Nor have the
engineers placed any kind of travel restriction
on the bridge.
“The urgency is that we’ve got to get moving
on what to do about it, how to fi x it,” he said.
In the City’s weekly “Friday Update” pub-
lication, Meyers elaborated that the City had
contracted with OBEC to examine seven bridg-
es that it is the City’s responsibility to maintain.
Their work uncovered 36 projects that “were
mostly simple maintenance projects that can be
addressed by City staff.”
The Main Street bridge, however, is a bigger
issue, and Meyers told the Council that fi xing
it will likely require the use of funding that the
City had earmarked for repairs of the extensive
potholes on South Sixth St.
“Eventually, the erosion of the bank under
the approach to the bridge will be an issue and
cause the approach to collapse,” Meyers wrote.
On Monday, Meyers said that the City is tak-
ing measurements at the bridge every three days
to monitor the situation and see if the bridge has
settled any further.
“If we see any changes, we may make a deci-
sion on placing some restrictions on travel,” he
said. “But right now, it’s fi ne.”
photo by Jon Stinnett
Coast Fork Feed Store owner Emily Rinck examines a new
arrival. She said her store is selling more chicks than ever.
ome of Cottage Grove’s newest (and
cutest) arrivals are turning heads at lo-
cal farm and feed shops.
For a few weeks now, owners at the Old Mill
Farm Store and Coast Fork Feed Store have
been working to supply the public’s need for
baby chicks, a need they say has been fostered
by the growing desire of many to take charge
of their own food production, in addition to
more lenient rules regarding the keeping of
chickens (and other livestock) in town.
Raising chickens to collect their eggs and
harvest the birds themselves for meat has
brought more fi rst-timers into her shop each
spring of late, said Coast Fork owner Emily
Rinck.
“People are more and more interested in
where their food comes from, and raising your
own chickens allows for some control over
the process,” Rinck said. “People also like the
RKET
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Police charge two with
abusing kids in sepa-
rate incidents, page 3A
Society that returns war heirlooms subject of exhibit
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
group that works to return items
taken during wartime to their own-
ers or their owners’ families will be the
subject of an exhibit that will appear at
the Cottage Grove Library beginning this
weekend.
According to its website, the Obon So-
ciety “is a humanitarian movement that
heals hearts and connects broken families.
We accomplish this by returning personal
family heirlooms to their relatives.”
During World War II, Japanese soldiers
carried fl ags into battle that were inscribed
with calligraphy by their families. Ameri-
can soldiers often brought these and other
items home as war memorials, and the
Obon Society works to return them to their
families as a means of reconciliation.
“Obon Society staff and members strive
to heal the hearts and broken families that
1908 E. Whiteaker
4 bedroom, 1
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were a result of the war fought between
America and Japan. Our goal is peace and
reconciliation,” the site states.
Community Services Director Pete Bar-
rell, who wrote the grant that recently
brought the Smithsonian Institute’s human
origins exhibit to Cottage Grove, said grant
funding also helped bring the upcoming
Obon exhibit to town, funding from the
Doyle and Donna Shepherd Foundation.
Barrell said World War II veterans are ex-
pected to attend the exhibit’s kickoff event
this Saturday, April 2 at the Cottage Grove
Library. The event begins at noon.
“It’s going to be a nice way to honor ev-
eryone,” Barrell said. “These are incredi-
ble and very personal items, and when they
are returned to the families, it’s almost as if
grandpa’s coming home from war at last.”
Barrell said the Obon Society’s execu-
courtesy photo
tive director will also be on hand for Satur-
day’s ceremony. The exhibit will be at the Flags like the one above were carried by Japanese
soldiers during World War II, and many Americans are
CG Library until April 30.
now attempting to return them.
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Also
inside:
Calendar....................................... 11B
Channel Guide ............................... 5B
Classified ads................................. 7B
Obituaries....................................... 2A
Opinion .......................................... 4A
Public Safety .................................. 5A
Sports ............................................ 1B
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