From the Fields
The 'dirt' on Cottage Grove area farms — page 8A
Cottage Grove Sentinel
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2016
Attention: Early
deadlines
The Sentinel asks that
items for its July 6 edition
be submitted by Thursday,
June 30 at noon.
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inside:
SOUTH LANE AND NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 128 • NUMBER 52
Sisters accused of robbing elderly veteran
Amount of alleged theft believed to be over $100,000
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
n Friday, the Cottage Grove Po-
lice Department announced the
arrests of two area sisters suspected of
bilking an elderly area veteran out of
over $100,000 in a four-month period.
The Department said Friday that it
had arrested 57-year old Rita Amundson
and her sister, 64-year old Teena Taylor,
both of Cottage Grove, after a 94-year
old World War II veteran reported that
he had been the victim of theft that had
so far totaled $107,000 as of press time
Monday but was expected to rise. The in-
vestigation began on June 10.
Detective Doug Skaggs told the Senti-
nel that the man, who found himself iso-
lated and without companionship or help
after the passing of his wife of 71 years,
was fi rst introduced to Taylor, who sug-
gested that Amundson move in with the
alleged victim and become his caregiver.
Skaggs said that purchases made by
the sisters using the man’s money began
right away; they were asked to buy him
a car, he said, which they did. Skaggs
said the women convinced the victim
that there would be no one authorized or
able to pay for his burial when he passed
away, after which he agreed to authorize
Amundson to access his bank account.
“That’s where the spending goes cra-
zy,” Skaggs said. The title to the car the
man authorized the ladies to purchase
was not registered in his name, Skaggs
said, and $19,000 was allegedly trans-
ferred soon after into another account.
The sisters allegedly purchased another Rita Amundson
Teena Taylor
car with the man’s money. Skaggs said
Skaggs said the
the women are believed to be responsible victim’s bank account had been brought
for the purchase of “at least seven vehi- down to a balance of $500 from a total
cles” using their victim’s money, includ- of close to $80,000 in about 3 ½ months.
ing a 2014 Subaru that they allegedly
traded in to purchase an older vehicle
Please see THEFT, Page 10A
and pocketed cash in the trade.
Local LCC
campus plots
its future
A PROPER END
Looking back
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Columnist Betty
Kaiser on 20 years of
Sentinel memories,
page 6A
T
photo by Kelli Wesolowski
Area Boy Scouts solemnly prepare a tattered American fl ag for retirement at a ceremony held
on Flag Day, Tuesday, June 14.
Joint ceremony held to honor, retire fl ags
Downtown vigil
Event held to support
assault victim,
page 3A
tatives of local American Legion
Post 32, VFW Post 3473 and Boy
Scouts Troop 140 presented a cer-
emonial fl ag retirement ceremony
at the Legion, where a fi re pit has
been constructed for just that pur-
pose. Boy Scouts disassembled the
The United States Flag Code
states that, "The Flag, when it is in
such condition that it is no longer
a fi tting emblem of display, should
be destroyed in a dignifi ed way,
preferably by burning." On Flag
Day, Tuesday, June 14, represen-
fl ags by cutting apart the blue fi eld
of stars, then stripping each col-
ored stripe apart. As each was laid
upon the fi re, a saying was read. A
beautiful rendition of "America the
Beautiful" was then sung by Mar-
lene Nowak.
he economic downturn that devastated this country’s
economy several years ago sent many people who
were frustrated with the state of the workforce and their
place in it back to the halls of higher education. College
enrollment fi gures soared, though the protracted recovery
from the Great Recession has had the opposite effect, as
numbers continue to fall. It is against this backdrop that
a committee of concerned local citizens got together last
week to plot the future of the Lane Community College
center in Cottage Grove.
The LCC Cottage Grove Advisory Committee met for
the fi rst time on Wednesday, June 15 to envision the fu-
ture of the local branch, and the group reportedly plans to
meet monthly into the near future. Eight of its 11 mem-
bers (of which this reporter is one) joined LCC staffers
Lida Herburger, MJ Kuhar and Holli Turpin to talk about
how the college might best prepare for the task of educat-
ing Cottage Grove in future years.
Near the start of the meeting, Herburger, who serves
as director of the Cottage Grove campus, outlined the of-
ferings there. She said the campus offers only non-credit
classes, in addition to the testing necessary to receive an
Oregon National Career Readiness Certifi cate. The col-
lege offers a popular General Equivalency Degree (GED)
program, she said, and hosts the South Lane Chilren’s
Dental Clinic and Peggy’s Primary Connection, a family
Please see LCC, Page 8A
Local gardener Andrea Mull receives state's top honor
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he care and maintenance
of a downtown Cottage
Grove park was one of the rea-
sons that a local woman was
named the Oregon Federation
of Garden Clubs’ Gardener of
the Year for 2016. A meeting
involving that very same park,
however, kept her from attend-
ing the ceremony and accepting
her award.
Andrea Mull has been in-
volved with the Cottage Grove
Garden Club since its inception,
and she was instrumental in
convincing the club to take over
R
the maintenance of All-America
City Square at the corner of
Seventh and Main Street. But
a meeting involving the park
on Tuesday, June 14 kept Mull
from attending the Federation’s
state convention and accepting
her award in person.
Mull said that fellow Garden
Club members Peggy Severns
and Colette Kimball compiled
the information that led to her
nomination for the statewide
honor.
“I fi gured that with all of the
garden clubs in Oregon, that
there was no way,” Mull said.
Mull found out a week before
the state convention that she had
received the honor.
“I’m pretty proud about it,”
she said, “but it wouldn’t have
happened without the Garden
Club.”
In an entry on the Garden
Club’s blog, located at cottage-
grovegardenclub.blogspot.com,
Kimball wrote of the reasons
that Mull was nominated for
the award, which included “her
work and leadership during the
critical infancy stages” of the
club.
“As a charter member of the
club, Andrea quickly volun-
teered to be vice president, then
went on to serve as president for
3½ years,” she wrote. “Andrea’s
C
Please see GARDENER, Page 8A
R
leadership in the club went be-
yond her capacity as an elected
offi cer. During the formative
years for the Garden Club, An-
drea was the plant sale coordina-
tor for the annual district-wide
plant sale; she volunteered to
lead many informative, hands-
on programs; she wrote educa-
tional pieces for our newsletter
and was dedicated to promot-
ing the club within the Cottage
Grove community.”
Kimball also wrote that, in
2009, Mull helped convince the
Garden Club that maintaining
All-America City Square was
Sentinel fi le photo
Andrea Mull (far right), the Oregon State Federation
of Garden Clubs' Gardener of the Year, is shown being
interviewed by "Garden Time TV" in 2014.
.
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