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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2016)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL May 18, 2016 B UDGET Continued from page 1A Retirement System (PERS), changes in sick leave calcula- tion and a hike in the minimum wage were factors that had to be considered this year. Nevertheless, the 2016-16 budget includes the addition of staff members that will work to solve specifi c problems as iden- tifi ed by the City Council and staff. The budget also includes yet another rate increase for the City’s water customers. It includes a line item for a three- percent tax on recreational mar- ijuana, though the tax has not yet been put before voters and it is uncertain what the proceeds from such a potential tax may be. “I hope you’ll think about how this budget impacts your life,” Meyers told the com- mittee at the end of his budget message. “Each and every hour, somebody is impacted by it.” Additions This year’s budget adds fund- ing for a part-time staffer in the City’s planning department who will work to identify and improve “nuisance” properties year-round, especially the vari- ous “zombie houses” in the City that are not being maintained be- cause they are lost somewhere in the foreclosure process, Meyers said. Currently, the City mainly conducts nuisance abatement for properties that allow their vegetation to over-grow during the late-spring and early sum- mer. The budget also includes funding for a part-time staff member at the Cottage Grove Police Department whose job it will be to handle tasks such as feeding prisoners, checking for the security of local businesses K INDER at night and parking enforce- ment. The change aims to free up the offi cers who would nor- mally complete these tasks for more patrol duties at a fraction of the cost of a full-time offi cer. Community promotions The budget for “Community Promotions” funds projects that are seen as compatible with the goals of City government, and the public hearing for the Bud- get Committee largely consisted of requests from groups to have their efforts funded. Karol Kuhn Simons spoke on behalf of T.E.A.M. Cottage Grove with a request for a $1500 appropria- tion to pay speakers’ fees for an event that aims to offer tools and skills to area non-profi ts. Bohe- mia Mining Days Coordinator Cindy Weeldreyer requested a $3200 contribution from the City to sponsor the BMD Ex- press, a rubber-wheeled train that transports people to the Festival from downtown and other areas. A request was put forward by the Cottage Grove Airport that the City cover fees related to the construction of a pilots’ welcome center there. The Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council requested a $2500 increase to conduct edu- cation outreach regarding the City’s water systems. Commu- nity Promotions also includes the $50,000 the City has bud- geted to fund citizen use of the Warren H. Daugherty Aquatic Center. In previous years, this line item has provoked quite a bit of discussion, and before the committee adjourned, City Councilor Jeff Gowing, elected chair for the meeting, congratu- lated the group for not spending two hours talking about the pool contribution as in years past. On Thursday, the committee hashed out its recommenda- tion for each promotion. It was moved that a recommendation be made to the City Council that fees estimated to total around $6000 be waived for the Airport welcome center, as the structure could help draw added tourism spending. The committee fund- ed the T.E.A.M. Cottage Grove request at $500 in an effort not to discourage other organiza- tions from investing in the new event, and it voted for $1500 in one-time funding to BMD, an amount not tied to the express train or any other particular en- deavor, as opposed to signing up for an ongoing contribution to the train. It also voted for the full $2500 increase for the Wa- tershed Council. Marijuana tax The City has budgeted $15,000 in revenue from a three-percent tax on recreational marijuana, a tax expected to be placed on the November ballot this year. Mey- ers said that the amount is based on sales of $500,000, which he said “seems reasonable.” “It’s a placeholder,” said Fi- nance Director Bert Olsen. “It’s just a guess,” Mey- ers continued. “They (retail- ers) wouldn’t tell us how much they’re selling, but $500,000 seems about right for how much marijuana may be smoked here in a year.” “That’s probably only for about four people,” Mayor Tom Munroe joked. Water for the typical water customer was approved in this year’s bud- get, a hike that aims to build up reserve funds in anticipation of projects including the expan- sion of the City’s effl uent irriga- tion system. If the system were expanded, Meyers said, more effl uent could be applied to City land and parks that would keep the warmer water and the material it contains from being pumped directly into the river. It would also save the City money by not treating water that is ap- plied to these lands for irriga- tion. The increase follows a plan for the gradual build-up of the reserves that has been occurring each year for almost a decade, though it also adds to an already high base rate of almost $80 per month that is deemed far too high by many customers. The City is also building re- serves to help meet its require- ments to treat its stormwater when the threshold of 10,000 population is reached. Current- ly, the City has a population of about 9875 persons and is grow- ing about 1.8 percent per year. Meyers also announced that, starting June 1, water custom- ers will be able to pay their bills online and use a debit or credit card to do so, a long-anticipated development. Each Budget Committee member was given a large binder containing the 2016-17 budget document, but the City’s new website features an option to view the entirety of the bud- get in PDF form online. It can be accessed by visiting cottage- grove.org/documents. An increase of $3.04 a month Continued from page 4A Just a few weeks after Llewellyn Banks embarked on his new ca- reer as a newspaper editor and publisher, the bottom fell out of the stock market on the other side of the continent – and the country began a slow, terrify- ing plunge into the worst eco- nomic depression in its history. It would, over the next couple years, hit Jackson County with crushing force. And unlike the prosperity of the “roaring twen- ties,” its effects would be felt by everyone. By 1932, the ru- ral residents of Jackson County were not merely angry – they were, increasingly, desperate. CAN A WEBSITE PROVIDE PERSONALIZED INSURANCE ADVICE? Continued from page 1A Superintendent Krista Parent said the District has budgeted three extra hours of time from educational assistants to aid kin- dergarteners and their teachers with their new full-day schedule at the larger elementary schools and two hours of assistance in classrooms at smaller schools. Parent said the increase in EA time, which is expected to cost about $120,000, should give each classroom assistance for about six hours of its day. In ad- dition, many incoming kinder- garteners will hone their skills before school starts during the summer as part of the KITS, or Kids in Transition to School, program. And the extra help will be most welcome, according to Harrison kindergarten teacher Sarah Parsons, who told parents about the plan for a staggered start at Harrison’s Kindergarten Round-up event on Wednesday. “There were some things that didn’t go wonderfully last year,” Parsons said. “We feel that the afternoon was a hard time for everybody, and we weren’t able to build the relationships with students that were necessary because we were dealing with a lot of discipline issues. Basi- cally, the kids were just tired, and in the afternoon, we saw behaviors that we hadn’t dealt with before.” Parsons said kindergarten teachers asked for extra help from educational assistants to deal with those issues, but the help was not given, which Parent has called a “huge oversight.” “Our number one recommen- dation was for more support in class; that was a huge piece for us,” Parsons said. She said teach- ers recommended not starting a full day until mid-October but added that they’re thankful for the staggered start that they’re getting. “September through Novem- ber is going to be rough, but then it’s hard every year,” she said. This year, kindergarten stu- dents will begin school with other students; they’ll be wel- come for breakfast at 7:55 a.m., eat lunch and be dismissed at noon, a schedule that will be- gin the Monday after a “Fam- ily Day” scheduled for Sept. 9. Teachers will conduct student assessments the fi rst full week of school, and a full-day sched- ule for kindergarteners will be- gin Oct. 3. See for yourself O FFBEAT the rural residents’ frustrations into active hostility against the incumbent elites, and then offer themselves and a slate of their friends as a political ticket. There was a major compli- cation coming around the next corner, though, for both these would-be insurgency leaders. 11A And they responded to the two publishers’ campaign more wholeheartedly than the plotters had dreamed. Llewellyn Banks and Earl Fehl were, in effect, sowing the wind. Within a couple years, both men would reap the ensu- ing whirlwind, and it would put both of them in prison along with several of their friends — and, directly or indirectly, it would put four other Jackson County residents in the ground. We’ll talk about how that played out next week. K WIKEE Continued from page 1A “The Kwikee building could be the biggest return on our in- vestment in terms of time and resources,” former Community Development Corporation Di- rector Sarah Mizejewski (now Sarah Means) said in 2012. “I refer to it as plug-and-play. It’s set up for a manufacturing-type business that can employ people in Cottage Grove and provide higher-wage jobs.” Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the Kwikee building in 2014, which led the City to hope that progress toward fi nding a new occupant could gain momen- tum. Its former owner, a compa- ny owned by Douglas Mergen- thaler of the Seattle area, owed nearly $4 million in principal and interest on the building, which was built in 1995. Schesser said the potential buyer of the building would be a “perfect” fi t for the building in terms of its zoning and the type of business that would be brought to town. He declined to name the business or elaborate too much on what type of busi- ness it is, however. “It’s a manufacturing com- pany,” he said. “But until we have offi cial word of new own- ership, I can’t say too much more. I wouldn’t want to spoil the deal.” Schesser did say the new business could potentially bring “around 100 jobs” to Cottage Grove. The company has indi- cated that it would require the high ceilings, loading dock and broadband access that the build- ing boasts. “They seem truly interested; it’s the most promising lead we’ve had on the building for some time,” he said. “I hope we will know within the next two to four weeks; it appears to be moving quickly.” Great Care in a Great Place. Right here in Cottage Grove. No, it can’t–-but sitting down with an independent, PayneWest advisor will. We know insurance, understand local issues and offer coverage from many different providers. Sit down and talk with us today, because sound advice is the best insurance. 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