COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL November 9, 2016
Council, Planning
Comm. set to meet
Local developer
invents test
prep app for
med students
C
ottage Grove local gov-
ernment agencies are set
to tackle several issues in up-
coming meetings. Here’s a brief
rundown of upcoming agendas
of the City Council and Plan-
ning Commission:
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
City Council: EBID
extension, tiny homes
T
aking a test that has immense impli-
cations for one’s future can lead to no
small amount of anxiety, even if its subject
matter can be mind-numbingly dull. A Cot-
tage Grove-based
game developer,
though, has in-
vented a game that
aims to take the
anxiety and ennui
out of studying
for students of the
medical
profes-
sions.
A
self-taught T. Raven Meyers
computer
pro-
grammer, web de-
signer and midwife, T. Raven Meyers lived
in various places throughout the world and
courtesy graphic
Scrub Ninjas allows players to create a surgical 'weapon' to answer study
questions for exams in AP psychology and biology, pre-med and nursing
studies.
spent years in Thailand with her family be- ten requires a visual element to learn any
fore journeying back to Cottage Grove, from piece of information, and she knows she’s
where her husband hails. Now, Meyers said not alone. She said she’s the fi rst person to
she’s combined her passions for program- create a game that includes test preparation
ming and helping create a more fulfi lling for medical students, which she developed
learning experience in creating Scrub Nin- in tandem with a doctor friend that supplied
jas, a test preparation application designed the instructional material.
“The students love it,” she said. “It’s got
to support students taking a range of courses
from high school advanced placement psy- visual stimuli that help keep them engaged
chology and biology to pre-med and nurs- and stimulate the part of the mind that helps
ing school requirements.
Please see NINJAS, Page 10A
A visual learner, Meyers said that she of-
Art sought for new elementary school entry
S
outh Lane School Dis-
trict is seeking an artist to
beautify part of Cottage Grove’s
new elementary school.
Voters passed a bond to re-
place the aging Harrison El-
ementary School building in the
spring, and the school is sched-
uled to open in the fall of 2018.
Now, South Lane has put out a
request for proposals for art that
will be displayed as a center-
piece in the entryway of the new
school.
In the request, Communica-
tions Coordinator Garrett Brid-
gens wrote that the building’s
design narrative “is to create an
engaging metaphor for growth
that is functional, fl exible and re-
3A
courtesy graphic
spectful of children as thought-
ful, independent learners.” The
school’s main entry and living
room will be a gathering place
for students who will then cir-
culate into the main building.
Its design will reference the
historical abundance of covered
bridges, wood trusses and cross
bracing.
The art that is chosen would
be displayed above the school’s
main vestibule. The dimensions
of the area are approximately
22 feet high, 16 feet wide and
24 feet deep. The chosen appli-
cation will be awarded $5000
and given a $3000 budget for
materials and other supplies.
The District said that applica-
tions should include a narrative
of what the proposed artwork
represents and how it ties to
the local heritage and history of
Cottage Grove. A drawing and
itemized budget is also to be
included. The deadline for ap-
plications is 4 p.m. on Monday,
Jan. 2. Questions can be directed
to Superintendent Krista Parent
or Bridgens at 541-942-3381.
On Monday, Nov. 14, the
City Council will hold its sec-
ond public hearing on the pos-
sible extension of the Business
Improvement District and Eco-
nomic Business Improvement
District. The fi rst hearing, at
which no one spoke, was held
last month.
The EBID and BID are assess-
ment districts in which property
owners choose to be assessed an
annual fee that is used to pro-
mote and improve the business-
es located there. The original
districts were created in 2004
and extended in 2007, 2010 and
2013. The EBID/BID boards are
requesting a fi ve-year extension
this time around. The extension
will be considered after the sec-
ond public hearing. Previous
EBID initiatives include the
remodel and renaming of All-
America City Square (a/ka Opal
Whiteley Park.)
Planning Commission: Air-
port rezoning, rental shop
At its Wednesday, Nov. 16
meeting, the Planning Commis-
sion will examine a zone change
application for the Cottage
Grove Airport, which was re-
cently annexed by the City from
Lane County. The applicant is
seeking to change the zoning on
Cottage Grove’s Land Use Map
for the Airport from Lane Code
Chapter 10 AO, Airport Opera-
tions, to Cottage Grove Chapter
14 Parks and Recreation Dis-
trict.
The Planning Commission
will also examine an application
for a site design review of plans
for a new industrial rental shop
facility in the Cottage Grove
Industrial Park, located at 2125
Getty Circle.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m.
in Council Chambers. Both
meetings are open to the public.
Applications for
home heating
assistance increase
T
he need for energy as-
sistance for low-income
families in the Cottage Grove
area increases a bit each year,
according to one local agency
charged with implementing a
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Also on Nov. 14, the Council
is expected to hear a presenta-
tion from the Cottage Villages
Coalition, a group dedicated to
bringing ‘tiny homes’ to Cot-
tage Grove as housing for those
at risk of being homeless. The
meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the
Council Chambers at City Hall.
Member FDIC
federal energy assistance pro-
gram.
Mike Fleck, Executive Di-
rector of Community Sharing,
which distributes funds through
the federal Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program, or
LIHEAP, said late Monday that
566 local households had signed
up for the program on or after
the Nov. 1 deadline. Commu-
nity Sharing would likely close
the registration process for LI-
HEAP on Monday, Fleck said,
after reaching its quota, though
registration may be opened up
again if more funding is allo-
cated.
Fleck
said
Community
Sharing was allocated about
$160,000 to provide energy as-
sistance through the program, a
number that could climb toward
$170,000. For the fi rst month,
households that have a mem-
ber living with a disability are
given preference for funding,
after which all households mak-
ing 185 percent of the federally
recognized poverty level are eli-
gible.
According to Mary Ellen
Bennett, LIHEAP coordinator
for Lane County, a household’s
current gross monthly income
must be at or below 60 percent
of Oregon’s median income
level to qualify for LIHEAP. A
household of one person can
have a gross monthly income
as high as $1,885 and qualify.
A household of four people can
have a gross monthly income of
$3625 and qualify.
The amount of assistance a
household receives depends on a
number of factors. The program
pays the assistance directly into
a household’s utility account
as a one-time payment that can
range from $150-$550.
Fleck said that Community
Sharing will continue paying
out LIHEAP assistance through
the winter and often into April.
“We will probably reopen reg-
istration, and if we do, it always
happens on the fi rst business day
of the month,” he said. “At that
time, those interested can call to
see if it’s been reopened.”
Fleck said energy assistance
is frequently accessed by the
“working poor” of the area,
though such “front-of-counter”
services such as laundry and
prescription drug assistance are
held to a much more stringent
requirement of 110 percent of
the poverty level. Another key
Community Sharing outreach,
its food box program, has re-
portedly leveled off in the 700
or so per month range, but has
not decreased with an improv-
ing economy.
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