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.
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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.”
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