Feeding frenzy!
Raptors join the pursuit of
hatchery trout, page 11A
Cottage Grove Sentinel
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
SOUTH LANE COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 40
School Board
worksession
deals with
budget shortfall
Also
inside:
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
W
ith a little more than two months remaining in
the 2015-16 school year, South Lane School
District fi nds its budget about $600,000 short following
a lower-than-expected estimate of the state of Oregon’s
contribution to education funding. The District also
faces a shortfall for 2016-17, and together these gaps
were the sole focus of a School Board worksession late
Monday afternoon.
South Lane Superintendent Krista Parent spent much
of the worksession detailing the methods the District
— particularly Parent herself and district Business
Manager Phil Scrima — have used to estimate South
Lane’s budget numbers throughout the year, then aug-
ment those numbers when more exact estimates come
from the state. The most recent State School Fund esti-
mate, however, which was delivered on March 17, “set
us on our backside,” Parent said.
Declining enrollment at South Lane is partly to blame
for the decrease, Parent explained, showing a table in-
dicating that the District is graduating classes of some
240 students while welcoming classes of incoming
kindergarteners that number only 160 or so. The state
funds school districts per student, and the March 17 es-
timate included an enrollment fi gure that dropped by 30
students since December of 2015 and is about 130 stu-
dents lower than this time last year. When used to cal-
culate the State School Fund estimate, the enrollment
number created a defi cit of $949,919 for the 2015-16
school year.
Other reductions in the estimate would lower the
State School Fund contribution even more. The Dis-
trict lost $81,274 through a drop in the index used to
Please see BUDGET, Page 10A
Jenny Gamez
killer gets 35-
year sentence
Meet my Farmer
New location draws a
crowd, page 3A
photo by Jon Stinnett
Keiko and Rex Ziak tell Kathy Parsons about the writing on a fl ag her father once owned. Par-
sons gave the fl ag to the Obon Society, which will work to return it to its original owner, during
an event at the Cottage Grove Library Saturday.
Flag returned at library exhibit
Group will now work to fi nd its owner or his family
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
society that works to return
heirlooms lost or taken dur-
ing wartime to their original own-
ers fulfi lled its mission in front of
a small crowd at the Cottage Grove
Public Library Saturday.
A donation from the Doyle
and Donna Shepherd Foundation
brought the Obon Society to Cot-
tage Grove for the fi rst stop of its
new traveling exhibit. Its founders,
Rex and Keiko Ziak, brought a dis-
play featuring photographs of many
of the Japanese fl ags that were car-
ried close to the hearts of Japan’s
soldiers during World War II, fl ags
that carried beautifully inscribed
messages from loved ones to sol-
diers that often did not return from
battle.
American soldiers subsequently
brought many of the fl ags home
from them as souvenirs or the spoils
of war, though many soldiers or
their families now desire to give the
fl ags back to their rightful owners
in what Rex Ziak called “the fi nal
chapter of World War II” during
Saturday’s brief library presenta-
tion.
“In this case, American soldiers
brought back memories of their
service, but rather than retain them,
they had feelings that these items
should go back to the families to
provide some closure,” he said. “We
think this is the fi nal chapter of the
war, the healing of hearts that lets us
know the hostilities are over.”
Keiko Ziak added that the fl ags
Fool's errand
Results of new 5K,
page 4B
Please see OBON, Page 10A
Refurbished vs. new: School District chose a new
Harrison as opposed to renovating old school
Former Wisconsin police offi cer
also charged with killing
a Minnesota woman
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he former Milwaukee, Wisc. police offi cer con-
victed of killing a 19-year old former Cottage
Grove resident in 2012 was sentenced to 35 years in
prison for the crime last week.
Steven Zelich, 54, apologized and said he was “100
percent responsible” for the death of Jenny Gamez,
whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase along
a Wisconsin highway in 2014, according to the “Mil-
waukee Journal-Register.” Zelich pleaded guilty to
fi rst-degree reckless homicide and hiding a corpse in
January. He had faced a maximum 50 years in prison.
“‘It was not an intentional act,’ Zelich reportedly
said. ‘I’m very sorry Jenny was the victim and I wasn’t
able to protect her the way I was supposed to.”
Zelich is also charged in the killing of Laura Simon-
sen, a 37-year old Minnesota woman who died under
similar circumstances. The bodies of both women were
discovered in suitcases. He reportedly told investiga-
tors that the women’s deaths came about as a result of a
sex act that went too far, which he described as “breath
play” involving asphyxiation.
For a time, Gamez had stayed in the care of Lorraine
Ericksen of Cottage Grove, who served as her foster
mother. She graduated from Al Kennedy Alternative
High School in 2010, then started school at Lane Com-
munity College. Ericksen told the Sentinel she had lost
contact with Gamez shortly after she moved out of her
home.
S
outh Lane School District
offi cials hope that a bond
levy to replace the aging Harrison
Elementary building in Cottage
Grove will pass muster with voters
during the May 17 primary. Others
in the community, however, have
wondered about the feasibility of
renovating the existing Harrison
property and whether it might be
more cost-effective to repair the
old Harrison building than to build
a brand-new one.
It’s a question that the District
sought to answer itself in 2015
when, during the deliberations of
the 50-member Bond Advisory
Committee that examined the pos-
sibility of putting a bond before
voters to replace Harrison, it com-
missioned a report from architect
David McClean (himself a member
of the advisory committee) of DMc
Architects that would outline the
costs of renovating the old building
and the needs a renovation could
fulfi ll.
Voters this May will decide
whether to approve a $35.95 mil-
lion bond to rebuild Harrison El-
ementary at the former Cottage
Grove High School site on Taylor
Street, make security and tech-
nology upgrades throughout the
District, relocate Kennedy High
School, renovate the Warren H.
Daugherty Aquatic Center and
tackle deferred maintenance proj-
ects. The District enlisted the ser-
vices of BLRB Architects, which
has worked with the community to
formulate a plan for a new Harri-
son at an estimated cost of $18.921
million, plus the costs of furnish-
ings, permits and other associated
costs that total about $4 million of
the cost of the bond.
The Harrison Elementary Space
Needs/Facilities Audit, Master
Plan and Renovation Project, sub-
mitted by McClean in July of last
year, seeks to “determine the costs
associated with repairing, modify-
ing and, if necessary, expanding
the Harrison facility to the extent
that it is functionally comparable
to a new school.”
To accomplish this, the report
aims to identify current issues with
the Harrison building, determine
the need there going forward, gen-
erate a facilities master plan and
determine the costs related to such
a project.
In the report, McClean acknowl-
edged that the report stepped be-
yond merely renovating a new
building:
“While the data contained within
this study is derived from a com-
bination of design experience
and reputable costing sources,
the broad scope of this project re-
quired educated assumptions and a
degree of subjectivity…” he wrote.
“While not an exact science, the
data herein should serve as a use-
ful tool in helping determine the
value of a repaired, modifi ed and
expanded Harrison in comparison
to a new school of similar size and
complexity.”
The report details a Harrison
Elementary building with a host
of shortcomings. Expanding the
building to the west (the only di-
rection McClean deems possible
on the narrow site) would entail
the purchase of nearby residential
properties. There are currently no
provisions for off-street parking
at Harrison, and the report is short
on details with regard to how to
include enough parking at a reno-
vated site.
The existing Harrison building
has no dedicated gymnasium, and
the master plan proposed the addi-
tion of a gym. The existing kitchen
is half the size that would be ap-
propriate for a school its size, and
the plan proposes expanding the
kitchen to the west. Many class-
rooms were built between other
classrooms, cutting off light to
several rooms, and the report states
that their “biggest fault is their
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Please see REPORT, Page 10A
Calendar....................................... 11B
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Opinion .......................................... 4A
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