COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL April 6, 2016
3A
Conversation to detail
history of Black culture,
struggles in Oregon
Cottage Grove’s Blackberry Pie
Society is set to offer a public con-
versation this week about the racial
discriminatory history of Oregon.
“Why Aren’t There More Black
People in Oregon? A Hidden History
Conversation Project,” a historical
timeline and discussion with Port-
land State University adjunct pro-
fessor and author Walidah Imarisha,
will take place Friday, April 8 from
6:30–8:30 p.m. at the Cottage Grove
Community Center, located at 700
Gibbs Ave. The program is co-spon-
sored by the Cottage Grove Black-
berry Pie Society, the Cottage Grove
Library, the Rural Organizing Project
and Oregon Humanities.
“Have you ever wondered why
the Black population in Oregon is so
small?” asks a recent press release,
which goes on to state that “Oregon
has a history not only of Black exclu-
sion and discrimination, but also of a
vibrant Black culture that helped sus-
tain many communities throughout
the state—a history that is not taught
in schools.”
Cara Shufelt, director of the Ru-
ral Organizing Project, said that, “as
demographics shift in rural commu-
nities, it is all the more valuable to
unpack Oregon’s history on race and
photo by Jon Stinnett
Rachel and Roman Dooley chat with Ruby and Amber Organics' Karen Martens and son George.
Crowds gather to
meet their farmers
T
he public seemed to have no problem following the an-
nual "Meet My Farmer" event from its previous home
at the First Presbyterian Church to its new location at Pio-
neer Square on 10th Street Saturday. Expanded offerings
included the opportunity to pet animals cared for by local
4-H groups, in addition to food offerings, arts and crafts and
much more. Gardening presentations, animal products for
sale and live music from local musicians fi lled out a list of
the day's events.
Meet my Farmer was sponsored by local food movement
CG Feast, Sustainable Cottage Grove and the First Presby-
terian Church.
City Council corrects
property line discrepancy
T
photo by Bruce Kelsh
Luke Sexton and Pablo Garibay from London
Springs 4-H Club sell Cosmos popcorn to
raise money for their club.
Evening encounter near Creswell
leads to mysterious injury
L
ane County Sheriff’s Deputies
responded to an area south of
Creswell after a man reported a gunshot
wound last week.
On Monday evening, March 28 just
before 10 p.m., deputies were reported-
ly dispatched to the area of Highway 99
near Howe Lane south of Creswell re-
garding the report of a gunshot wound.
Upon the arrival of responding medics
and deputies, a man was located who
had an injury. The man reported he had
been traveling on his bicycle when he
was passed by an unknown vehicle and
felt a sensation like he had been shot.
The Sheriff’s Offi ce said the man did
have an injury and he was transported to
the hospital, where he was treated and
released with minor injuries. Deputies
searched the area and did not locate any
the lasting impacts of racial exclu-
sion today. These conversations il-
luminate ways that rural and small
town Oregonians can take action and
promote human dignity in their com-
munities.”
Jess Campbell, also with the Rural
Organizing Project, said the conver-
sation is the fi rst of its kind in Cottage
Grove, adding that it offers a time-
line of events focused on the racial
exclusion laws that were on Oregon’s
books until relatively recently.
“We’ll be reading the timeline and
asking questions like ‘how do you
see these issues playing out now,’”
Campbell said, adding that today’s
political conversation “offers the
same rhetoric with regard to immi-
grants that was heard back then.
“I think it’s answering a question
that a lot of folks have been asking
about this state’s history, a history
that is largely hidden from public
view,” Campbell said.
The conversation project is touring
six rural Oregon communities be-
tween April 7 and April 16, including
Josephine, Lane, Polk, Union, Crook
and Columbia Counties.
The event is free and open to the
public, and refreshments will be
available.
suspects. The Sheriff’s Offi ce said it is
unknown what type of weapon caused
the victim’s injury and there is no ad-
ditional suspect information that can be
released. On Monday, the Sheriff’s Of-
fi ce said there were no updates regarding
the case, and Detective Sgt. Carl Wilk-
erson could not be reached by Sentinel
press time to comment on the case.
he Cottage Grove City Coun-
cil fi xed a decades-old prop-
erty-line discrepancy at its Monday,
March 28 meeting, in the process
returning a piece of land to a local
property owner.
City Planner Amanda Ferguson
said the City discovered a discrep-
ancy in the way a property line was
drawn near Trailhead Park in down-
town Cottage Grove, a park adjacent
to land owned by Joe Spady that for-
merly housed Spady’s Auto Art busi-
ness and is now the home of Hard
Knocks Brewing.
The original property line was
based on the railroad right-of-way
from 1901, Ferguson said, though
somewhere in the middle of the last
century, the line was redrawn to in-
clude about 2200 square feet of what
would become city property when
the City purchased Trailhead Park as
part of its purchase of the land that
would become the Row River Trail,
land that formerly housed the rail-
road tracks that led upriver.
The City recommended that the
property line be drawn to match a
1960 deed so that the line did not ac-
tually run under the northwest corner
of Spady’s building, in the process
making a gift of sorts of the 2200
square foot sliver of land involved.
Ferguson said the City did not seek
compensation for this piece of land,
as it purchased the entire park prop-
erty for pennies on the dollar in 1995,
prior to the land’s transition from
railroad to public trail. The Council
unanimously approved the transac-
tion.
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