10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL July 27, 2016
T AX
Continued from page 1A
West Main and R Street,
Fourth Street and Highway 99
and others that have been car-
ried out with gas tax revenues.
“The tax has been successful,
but it’s getting more and more
diffi cult as costs have gone up
and revenue isn’t really chang-
ing,” he said. “Professionally,
I think it’s (the gas tax) not a
solution. We have hybrid cars,
and vehicles today get far bet-
ter gas mileage. There needs
to be some kind of solution to
match modern technology, and
it hasn’t happened yet.”
The option of placing a bond
for street repairs before vot-
ers drew the support of several
councilors, including Councilor
Garland Burback, who pushed
the issue of bonding for repairs
throughout the meeting and ul-
timately voted against placing
the tax increase on the ballot.
Meyers pointed out that the City
does not have the staff to direct
the number of needed repairs
all at once. He also added that a
bond could be used to repair the
infrastructure under the street,
which is not covered by fuel tax
revenue.
“Even if we couldn’t bond the
whole amount, we could bond
parts like 16th Street and South
Sixth that you could get done,”
Burback said. “This thing here
is just a waste of time, trying to
come up with enough money to
do anything.”
The Council seemed to agree
that a multi-part solution involv-
ing bonding and gas tax rev-
enues could work best, though
Meyers pointed out that placing
a bond before voters could take
a while.
“We could get together a list
of some of the streets, some of
the cost totals and get ready to
put something out in May or
later,” he said, adding that reve-
nue would not be available until
much later than that.
Councilor Mike Fleck said he
could support a gas tax increase
that would not put Cottage
Grove’s tax higher than that of
nearby cities. Fleck supported
placing the three-cent hike on
the ballot, which Councilor Jeff
Gowing said might still be a
tough call for voters.
“I think you’ll have a hard
time selling it at three cents,”
Gowing said.
The Council will review the
prospective ballot measure at its
Aug. 8 meeting.
P AK T ECH
Continued from page 1A
“We’ve had a wonderful re-
sponse from EPUD on this,” he
said. “Scott Coe has been instru-
mental in making it happen.”
Borg shared similar kudos for
Meyers, who he called “spec-
tacular to work with.”
PakTech is expected to start
limited operations in Cottage
Grove by December.
“It’s still unfolding, exactly
how we’ll use this much more
space,” he said. “The Cottage
Grove facility is larger than the
facility we have in Eugene now.
This is going to be an excellent
expansion for us, and we’re ex-
cited to be coming to Cottage
Grove.”
Mayor Tom Munroe also
lauded the move.
“Bringing PakTech to Cottage
Grove was a community effort,”
Munroe said. “It could not have
happened without the efforts of
City Staff, Commissioner Faye
Stewart, Emerald People’s Util-
ity District and the Chamber of
Commerce. “We are happy to
have them here not only because
of the new quality manufactur-
ing jobs but because of the ad-
ditional improvements to elec-
trical services that will come to
the area as a result.”
of the District, its major taxpay-
ers and the health of the state
school system itself. Parent said
she alone was interviewed for
an hour as part of the process.
Now, the District will ramp
up its planning efforts to build
the new school and make its
upgrades, though cost estimates
returned by Highland Construc-
tion, which will build the new
Harrison, have gone up from the
$19 million anticipated during
the bond planning process.
“The construction world is
really intense right now, and
costs are really escalating,” Par-
ent said. “We’ll be scaling back
some on our original design, but
it won’t be much.”
South Lane will work with
a $22.6 million estimate that
Parent said will involve scaling
back the square footage of the
new Harrison. The school is ex-
pected to cost $250 per square
foot, she said, and cutting 1000
square feet from the 82,000
square foot size as originally
planned could provide signifi -
cant savings.
“We won’t be cutting class-
rooms or anything else; it will
just be fi ne-tuning,” she said.
The District initiated a Con-
struction Management General
Contractor model during the
bond planning process, and as
such, plans from BLRB Archi-
tects will carry over to Highland
Construction, though with 21
school districts passing bonds in
the state last fall, it may prove
diffi cult to secure sub-contrac-
tors to fulfi ll some aspects of
construction.
Parent said South Lane is cur-
rently paying its architects’ fees
related to the new building, in
addition to tackling the network
upgrades and deferred mainte-
nance. The District is working
to replace 80 devices including
computers, and Maintenance
Supervisor Matt Allen is over-
seeing fl ooring upgrades in
many schools. Crews will likely
not start roof work until next
summer, Parent said.
The District is also currently
ordering 500 new security locks
for classroom doors, locks that
can be used to secure rooms
from the inside. The work nec-
essary to begin the move of
Kennedy High School to the old
Delight Valley campus and con-
struction of the new early learn-
ing facility may begin next year.
South Lane will be putting out a
bid for security equipment and
cameras soon, Parent said, and
by next April, she estimates that
construction of the new Harri-
son will be advanced to a stage
that “we’ll start to see things go
vertical.”
The Seamen’s Union soon found
that the brazenness of the ruling
offended and mobilized social
progressives and sailors alike,
and what seemed a clear attempt
to thwart the intent of Congress
won the Supreme Court no
friends on Capitol Hill. It still
took 15 years, but the ruling led
directly to the Seaman’s Act of
1915 – which fi nally ended in-
voluntary servitude on Ameri-
can merchant ships for good.
SENIOR MEALS
PROGRAMS
Offering Meals on Wheels
and Cafe 60 at the following
locations:
Anyone age 60 and older is
served, regardless of income,
suggested donation is $3.
Guests under age 60 are
welcome to attend for $8 per
meal.
Omelet Bake
Monday, Aug 1: Turkey Di-
van Bake or Beef Rigatoni
Tuesday, Aug. 2: Hearty
Chicken Stew or Beef Chili
w/Beans
Wednesday, Aug 3: Curried
Chicken & Rice or Turkey
Pasta Salad
Cottage Grove Riverview
Terrace
925 W. Main St., Cottage
Grove
Noon: Tues., Wed., Thurs.
Drain/Yoncalla area
Creswell Cresview Villa
350 S. 2nd St., Creswell
Noon: Mon., Wed., Fri.
Thursday, July 28: Chicken
Salad or Egg Salad Sand-
wich Halves
Friday, July 29: Cowboy
Campfi re Sew or Southwest
Served at 400 Main St.,
Yoncalla.
(For Douglas County Meals
on Wheels eligibility, call
541-440-3677.)
Suggested donation $3.50
Thursday, July 28: Spaghetti
w/Meat Sauce
Friday, July 29: Scalloped
Potatoes and Ham
Tuesday, Aug. 2: TBA
B ONDS
Continued from page 1A
also allow the District to
pursue a bond for other capital
projects when the drop occurs,
or Parent said South Lane could
instead maintain the $1.90 per
$1000 rate and “lop off a year or
two” in the life of the bonds.
The District is expected to
sign paperwork for the bonds
on Aug. 1, and Parent said that
she expects the $35,950,000
to be in its account the follow-
ing day. Much of the money,
however, will wait in the Gov-
ernment Investment Pool to be
invested even further while the
new school is built and security
and technology upgrades are
carried out.
South Lane School District
was the subject of an in-depth,
58-page analysis before receiv-
ing an A-1 rating from Moody’s,
including studies of the makeup
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O FFBEAT
Continued from page 4A
Next, in an attempt to estab-
lish the ancient tradition of in-
voluntary servitude for sailors, it
cited the laws of an ancient tribe
of seafaring barbarians from
circa 900 B.C., and then moved
on to approvingly cite the laws
of the Hanseatic League of Ger-
man traders in the late Middle
Ages — among whom desertion
was punishable by a year’s im-
prisonment on bread and water
or by having the deserter’s face
branded.
As for American precedents,
the court pointed to the laws
against soldiers going AWOL,
ignoring the obvious moral dif-
ference between a soldier serv-
ing his country and a worker
helping another private citizen
make money. Then the court
asserted that all Constitutional
rights come with special ex-
ceptions – a claim it tried to il-
lustrate with a series of really
silly examples: that laws against
carrying concealed weapons
are an exception to the Second
Amendment, for one, and that
laws against libel are an excep-
tion to free speech, for another.
The laws requiring cops to
act as goon squads for private
shipping companies, the court
claimed, were the same sort of
thing — a special exception to
the Thirteenth Amendment.
And as if saving its most out-
rageous point for last, the ruling
fi nished off with this gem:
“Indeed, seamen are treated
by Congress, as well as by the
Parliament of Great Britain, as
defi cient in that full and intel-
ligent responsibility for their
acts which is accredited to or-
dinary adults, and as needing
the protection of the law in the
same sense in which minors and
wards are entitled to the protec-
tion of their parents and guard-
ians.”
In other words, the court
ruled, sailors were a child-like
special class of persons and
were too stupid to be entrusted
with the full rights and privileg-
es of citizens.
Shanghaiing had, of course,
been a real and growing prob-
lem in Oregon port cities for at
least 10 years before this ruling
came down. But it was after this
decision, which became known
as “Baldwin v. Robertson,” that
the real glory days of shanghai-
ing came to pass. Having legal
cover from the Supreme Court
emboldened the captains and la-
bor contractors in a whole new
way.
But it emboldened others, too.
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