10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL June 29, 2016
BMX
Rotary welcomes new president,
honors outstanding efforts
Continued from page 1A
of RC car enthusiasts envisioned using the track be-
fore constructing an indoor facility elsewhere. A donor
who sought to put money into the track also couldn’t
fi nd a group to see to its upkeep, Wellman said.
“The buildings had started to fall down, and there were
weeds and garbage everywhere,” he said. “The bleach-
ers were a safety hazard, but there were other dangerous
buildings, too.”
In the City’s Friday Update bulletin, Meyers wrote
that “the City is currently exploring the possibility with
the Cottage Grove High School Mountain Bike Club
and other interested riders” of creating a ‘pump track,’”
a continuous loop of dirt berms and “rollers” (smooth
dirt mounds) that can be ridden without pedaling. The
name “pump track” comes from the pumping motion
used by the rider’s upper and lower body as they ride
around the track.
Wellman said that Rex Basting, CGHS counselor and
supervisor of the mountain bike club, told the City that
the club could build the pump track by hand, though
Basting could not be contacted by Sentinel press time
Sentinel fi le photo
Monday to elaborate on those plans.
Once a thriving hub of activity, the BMX track had fallen into disre-
pair in recent years.
M ARIJUANA
Continued from page 1A
a driver’s system cannot be
determined at the time of a traf-
fi c stop and does not fi gure into
potential enforcement action.
Whether a driver is impaired to
a perceptible degree is the only
requirement for a DUI, he said,
and the three-part test to deter-
mine a DUI in those suspected
of consuming alcohol — test-
ing a person’s gaze, their abil-
ity to walk a straight line and
turn around and ability to stand
on one leg — is still the go-to
method for judging impairment,
despite the fact that marijuana
doesn’t cause the effect mea-
sured by the gaze nystagmus
test, which attempts to detect
a jerking or bouncing of the
eyeball caused by alcohol con-
sumption.
“Nothing’s changed in that
regard,” Gagner said. “Even
before legalization, there was
no way to test the amount of
THC in a driver’s system. The
enforcement of drivers isn’t any
more diffi cult. Are more people
driving under the infl uence of
marijuana now? Maybe, but it’s
not a huge number.”
Gagner said that police are
not noticing a measurable in-
crease in marijuana use here in
general.
“It seems strange to a lot of
people because it’s new, but
eventually seeing dispensaries
or other retail outlets will be as
benign as driving past a liquor
store,” he said. Alcohol, Gagner
added, remains the most heavily
abused drug in Cottage Grove
despite a marked rise in the use
of heroin.
means that most small farm-
ers must receive income from
outside sources, and most local
farmers in fact do just that, the
downfall of which is that these
farmers are away from home
more and can produce less.
The average age of America’s
farmers now stands at 58, she
pointed out, with many over 65
years of age, and the diffi culty
with making farming profi table,
coupled with the lack of access
to quality farmland, are the two
biggest obstacles to emerging
farmers.
Still, Reynolds said there are
opportunities to foster a more
local food system, including
the ability of institutions such
as South Lane School District
to procure more locally sourced
food.
“Institutional purchasing of-
fers an opportunity to strengthen
those bonds,” she said. “When
the School District buys local
food, it offers the chance to get
that food to a wider audience.”
Still, she said that institutions
have needs for consistency,
quantity of products and distri-
bution networks that local small
farmers may not be able or even
willing to meet.
“Some small farmers do not
want to be tied to larger institu-
tions,” she said. “They like the
concept of a ‘small farm.’ But
it’s what the community needs
going forward, and we’re asking
local institutions to prioritize lo-
cal purchasing.”
In studying north Douglas
County, Reynolds said she dis-
covered an area that is still very
much mired in the recession
that urban areas have largely put
behind them. Those who live
in these areas fi nd few options
for quality groceries, with the
Ray’s Food Place in Drain the
only option for many. Still, she
added that Ray’s offers products
that are too expensive for many.
As such, driving to the grocery
store becomes a necessity for
many, though the cost of that
drive compounds the problem
of affordability. Ride sharing
or produce delivery programs
could foster greater access to
food, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said her report will
be online at oregonfoodbank.org
in July, and another presentation
of its contents is scheduled for
Tuesday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m. at
the Healing Matrix.
F OOD
Continued from page 3A
systems through South Lane
School District’s procurement
and use of funding through the
Farm to School grant.
Small-scale farms dominate
the southern Willamette Valley,
Reynolds said.
“Farmers here really care
about local systems,” she said,
adding that the challenge for
those working on a small scale
as opposed to a larger, more in-
dustrial setting centers around
profi tability.
“The current system rewards
larger-scale operations,” she
said. “Local farmers are going
against the grain in ways that af-
fect all aspects of production.”
The inability to make a small
farm profi table, Reynolds said,
R
uth Linoz, who served
as President of Cottage
Grove Rotary Club in 2015-
16, handed the gavel to in-
coming president John Woo-
ten on Thursday. Linoz also
honored Carol Kuhn-Simons
(right) as Rotarian of the Year
in reconition of her efforts as
treasurer, on the membership
committee and working with
Interact Club students.
PeaceHealth
receives award
P
eaceHealth Cottage Grove
Community Medical Cen-
ter has been recognized with the
2016 QUEST® Award for High-
value Healthcare from Premier
Inc. for providing outstanding
patient care.
Only fi ve hospitals received
the award for achieving top per-
formance in all six of the areas
measured in Premier’s nation-
ally acclaimed QUEST collab-
orative, including cost and effi -
ciency, inpatient and outpatient
evidence-based care, mortality,
safety, patient experience and
appropriate hospital use. Pre-
mier Inc. is one of our nation’s
leading healthcare performance
improvement alliances of more
than 3,600 hospitals and 120,000
additional providers.
Honored during Premier’s
annual Breakthroughs Confer-
ence and Exhibition on June
21, 2016, PeaceHealth Cottage
Grove was the only hospital in
Oregon to receive the award.
PeaceHealth Cottage Grove is
being recognized for excellence
in six categories including:
Obtaining a mortality rate at
least 15 percent less than ex-
pected;
Reducing the average cost of
care to at least less than $6,870
per discharge;
Reliably delivering inpatient
and outpatient evidence-based
care measures in the areas of
heart attack, heart failure, pneu-
monia and surgical care at least
96 percent of the time;
Improving the hospital expe-
rience so that patients and fami-
lies favorably rate their stay and
would recommend the facility
to others at least 76 percent of
the time;
Reducing preventable harm
events; and
Obtaining a readmissions rate
at least 11 percent less than ex-
pected.
Located across the
street from Koffee Kup at
1220 N. Highway 99
Cottage Grove, OR
541-942-0480
(Formally
Toad’s Market)