One more game!
Lions advance to state fi nal,
page 1B
Cottage Grove Sentinel
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2016
SOUTH LANE AND NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889
VOLUME 129 • NUMBER 20
Council votes to
extend EBID, end
garbage agreement
Turkey
Drop date
changed
to Dec. 3
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
A
t its most recent meeting, the Cottage Grove City
Council authorized City Manager Richard Meyers
to break an intergovernmental agreement related to the
City’s garbage service.
Meyers told the Council that the agreement had been in
place since 2000, an agreement that allowed Lane County
to implement and collect a Solid Waste System Benefi t
Fee from the Cottage Grove Garbage Service. The Coun-
ty adopted fees to cover the cost of operating the Short
Mountain landfi ll, in addition to disposal at all rural and
urban sites in the County. Collectively, they are known as
the “tipping fee” paid by those who deliver solid waste to
the landfi ll, though the benefi t fee specifi cally covers ser-
vices such as master recycling and transfer stations such
as the one that operates in Cottage Grove. The County has
only been able to collect the fee in cities that have agreed
to it, and on Monday, Nov. 14, the Cottage Grove Garbage
Service sought to end that agreement.
Meyers pointed out that, should the Garbage Service
choose to haul solid waste to another facility for disposal,
it would not have to pay the benefi t fee to Lane County.
Which appears to be what the Garbage Service is mull-
ing over. At the meeting, its manager, Tim Alverson, said
that an increase in the County’s tipping fee could make it
more economically feasible to dispose of solid waste else-
where, most likely the Coffi n Butte landfi ll in Corvallis.
“This gives us another option,” Alverson said. “The
concern is that if the County raised the fees, it might make
economic sense to haul to Benton County. That’s the pri-
mary push behind this.”
Meyers also pointed out, however, that should the inter-
governmental agreement with the County end, the County
would no longer offer the master recycling service or con-
duct its household hazardous waste roundup.
Public Works Director Jan Wellman asked if Garbage
Service customers would see a decrease in their rates
should the agreement with the County end. Alverson re-
sponded that, should the County raise its rate and the Gar-
bage Service choose to haul to Benton County, its costs
would still likely increase, though not by as much as if it
had continued with the status quo. Thus, there may be an
increase but likely no decrease.
Councilor Garland Burback, who owns the Garbage
Service, recused himself from the proceedings, as did
Councilor Mike Fleck. The Council approved an action to
terminate the agreement unanimously.
EBID, BID extended
Also on Nov. 14, the Council voted to extend the exis-
tence of Cottage Grove’s Business Improvement District
and Economic Improvement District, collectively known
as the Economic and Business Improvement District, or
EBID, for fi ve years.
The Council held two public hearings regarding the pos-
sible extension, with the fi rst taking place on Oct. 10 and
the second on Nov. 14. No one from the public spoke at
either hearing. The Districts aim to promote “within said
districts economic and business improvements by plan-
ning or management of development or improvement ac-
tivities; by landscaping or other maintenance of the pub-
lic realm; by promotion of commercial activity or public
events; and by activities in support of business expansion,
development and recruitment.” Notable past projects in-
clude the redesign and renaming of All-America City
Square, though the EBID has also spearheaded the Turkey
Drop set to occur on Main Street on Dec. 3, in addition to
other recent efforts.
Businesses located in either District are assessed a fee
of fi ve cents per square foot of their lot area with a cap of
$500 for the EID and a fl at $50 fee for the BID. As part of
the extension process, business owners were allowed the
opportunity to opt out, or remonstrate, from the District.
If 33 percent or more of the involved business owners had
opted out of the Districts, they could not be extended,
though that threshold was not reached for either District.
Organizers moved
event to avoid confl ict
with state title game
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
photo by Jon Stinnett
Teacher Mary Nisewander uses fl ash cards to teach concepts to a group of English Lan-
guage Learners that includes both parents and their children.
C LASS MAKES LEARNING A FAMILY AFFAIR
Parents learn English
alongside their young
students at ELL class
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
L
earning knows no age
boundary
at
Cottage
Grove’s family resource center,
where a class for those learning
English as their second language
often educates parents right
alongside their children.
On Friday mornings, the center,
also known as Peggy’s Primary
Connection, hosts a class for
English Language Learners that
caters to preschool-aged children.
The class can serve any incoming
student whose fi rst language is not
English, according to the center’s
Ana Maria Dudley, though cur-
rently it aims to educate a group
of 16 young people from Guate-
mala who happen to speak Mam,
a Mayan language used by half a
million people in several parts of
the country.
After beginning the morning
with a brief lesson in nutrition,
instructor Mary Nisewander gath-
ers the group together around a
carpet, where they practice letters
and words through pictures, songs
and rhymes and where, Nisewan-
der points out, progress is rapid,
despite the fact that only a few of
the adults in the group have any
experience speaking Spanish,
much less English.
“I spent a huge amount of time
preparing the material because it’s
language based, and the trick is to
expand on what’s being learned
in both Spanish and English,” she
said. “I deliver the material with
activities at their level and keep it
as basic as I can.”
Throughout the morning, waves
of understanding can be witnessed
as Nisewander’s instructions are
relayed in Spanish through Dud-
ley, helper Lesly Canales and
a few of the parents, then to the
children.
“After I speak, I can hear them
interpreting, and I know to slow it
down,” Nisewander said. “It usu-
ally takes four times the wait that
you’d imagine.”
Sign language often bridges
the gaps between spoken words,
and the class also functions as
a way to prepare the preschool-
aged children for their upcoming
school experience.
“We’re trying to get close to
what the rules and expectations
Please see ELL, Page 11A
Ewing honored on eve of retirement
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
ottage Grove High School
students and staff had the
opportunity to recognize and thank
one of the long-standing staff mem-
bers from the high school offi ce.
Athletic secretary Pam Ewing was
given a standing ovation from over
800 students and dozens of faculty
in the high school gym on Friday.
Ewing plans on retiring come
December, making it nearly 20
years that she was worked for Cot-
tage Grove High School.
Ewing started working at Delight
Valley Elementary School in Au-
gust of 1995, where she worked a
year and a half before moving to
CGHS in February of 1997.
“The school has become great
in my time here,” Ewing said “The
use of new technology has allowed
us to lead the state in some areas.”
The athletic secretary said she
has mixed emotions about leaving.
“It’s such a wonderful place to
work, and I’m going to miss all the
kids, but I’m also really looking
forward to the next adventure in my
life,” she explained. Ewing plans on
spending a lot of time with her par-
ents and doing a bit of traveling.
Ewing spent the last 16 years of
her time at CGHS being athletic di-
rector David Presley’s right hand.
“She was a gift from God,” Pres-
ley said. “If you can have someone
that can think like you and antici-
pate the same things, you can get
a lot of things done. She was re-
ally someone that dotted her Is and
crossed her Ts.”
Presley said that they clicked on
all cylinders and that Ewing always
worked from a high moral stand-
point.
CGHS Athletic Secretary
Pam Ewing
“She never cut corners and always
made sure the department stayed
Please see EWING, Page 10A
his time around, plans do
not call for any live tur-
keys to be harmed.
Such was not the case with
Cottage Grove’s original Turkey
Drop on Main Street, an event
depicted in the fi lms of Crip Mo-
relock, owner of the Diane and
Arcade Theatres in the 1930s.
Morelock’s fi lms, featured in
“Cottage Grove — Snapshot in
Time,” show live turkeys being
released for capture by towns-
folk waiting below, birds that
were presumably processed for
the roasting pan thereafter.
Turkey Drop 2.0, however,
will take place Saturday, Dec. 3
and will use stuffed birds as op-
posed to live ones. Main Street
will be closed under the Odd
Fellows building across from
City Hall beginning at 2:15
that afternoon, when a draw-
ing of names will be held and
50 stuffed turkeys showcasing
various prizes donated by local
businesses will be dropped.
Main Street Coordinator
Shauna Neigh, who is spear-
heading the Turkey Drop at the
behest of the Economic and
Business Improvement District,
or EBID, said that those who
spend $10 at any participating
local business (which will have
a turkey fl yer in its window) by
the drop date will be entered in
the drawing, and the 50 people
whose names are drawn will
get to catch a falling turkey
— which of course means that
those who are drawn will need
to be present to participate.
On Monday, Neigh announced
that the date of the Turkey Drop
would be changed from this Sat-
urday, Nov. 26 to Saturday, Dec.
3, so that it would not confl ict
with the Cottage Grove Lion
football team’s pursuit of the
state championship in the title
game at 2:30 p.m. this Satur-
day. The drop was originally
scheduled to coincide with Shop
Small or Small Business Satur-
day, a nationwide initiative of
American Express that aims to
encourage shoppers to spend
the Saturday after Thanksgiving
supporting their locally owned
small businesses.
The Morelock fi lm of the
original Turkey Drop can be
found on the City’s webpage,
www.cottagegrove.org, under
the City News and Meetings
heading.
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