10A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JUNE 7, 2017
Village Continued from A3
one who, sort of, got the river
fl owing on this,” she said. “Kar-
en ended up in his driveway one
day and she was an emotional
mess and Don didn’t know what
to do so he called me.”
Weeldreyer drove to the Vin-
tage Inn to meet Williams and
Munsell.
“I found myself sitting in
the restaurant with her and she
was pouring out her heart and I
said, ‘Hey what about going to
church with me?’ So she ended
up at church.”
The Methodist church in Cot-
tage Grove is a long, rectangu-
lar building with pews stretch-
ing into the back of the room.
That’s where Weeldreyer sat.
“One of my dearest members
was old and couldn’t walk well
so I sat in the back with him,
he was a widower and when he
passed, you know how church-
es are, that was now my spot,”
Weeldreyer said. “So I invited
Karen to join my posse at the
back of the church.”
Munsell began attending
regularly and Weeldreyer says
they would text back and forth,
some-times on a daily basis.
She and Williams would direct
her to the webbed network of
do-gooders and public offi cials
in the city that might have a lead
on how to put a stop to the sale
of whip its in Cottage Grove.
They would also listen to her in
her darkest hours and provide a
shoulder to cry on.
“She said to me, Cindy said,
‘Karen, God has a special place
for a mother’s prayer,’” Mun-
sell remembers. “So I just kept
praying.”
MISSED
OPPORTUNITIES,
NEW STARTS
Exactly 18 years ago, on June
7, the Oregon Governor ap-
proved legislation that would
limit the use of and defi ne the
illegal nature of inhalants. The
list included acetone, butane,
chloroform, nitrous oxide and
a dozen others. Under the law,
the assistant director for alcohol
and drug abuse programs was to
create educational material fo-
cusing on the problem of inhal-
ants and their abuse by minors.
Signs, posters, and drawings
depicting the abuse and product
were scheduled to be part of the
standard drug warning system
like smoking for pregnant wom-
en and drinking by minors.
“If the law had been enact-
ed the way it was supposed to
be, then maybe I would have
known. In 1999 my son was a
toddler. I would have known
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to warn against this. Maybe it
would have been in a program
like Every 15 Minutes,” Mun-
sell said.
It was a point she made when
she visited the Cottage Grove
City Council again in 2016.
She spoke about her son and
she spoke about the stores that
still sold the products in Cottage
Grove and she spoke about how
cheap they were. The council
still couldn’t do anything to
help but the city had instituted
the Youth Advisory Board. It
was made up of civic-minded
high school students who sat on
the council, heard issues with
the council and voted with the
council. The youth board repre-
sentative there that night heard
everything Munsell said and
brought it back to the board.
had climbed up from rock bot-
tom and he was embarrassed.
She didn’t want to identify him
or steal his story from him to
broadcast in public but there
were more kids in Cottage
Grove, more kids at Cottage
Grove High School and Lin-
coln Middle School. There were
more kids in the village.
“Now, we wait,” she said.
“They say it’s dead on arrival.”
There’s a nervousness in her
voice but it’s swept away with
the recital of promises she’s col-
lected from the community. If
the bill doesn’t become law at
the state level, there’s hope for
it at the county level with Lane
County’s new commission-
er Gary Williams. He went to
school with Graig. He was may-
or of Cottage Grove for over a
decade.
HOUSE BILL 3030
“We took a trip to the cap-
itol in Salem and we talked to
Cedric Hayden,” said Cottage
Grove City Manager Richard
Meyers. “He, being a dentist,
knew a lot about nitrous oxide
and a few months later we get
this legislative concept.”
House Bill 3030 would raise
the age to purchase nitrous ox-
ide to 18. Anyone caught selling
a whip-it without checking ID
would be subject to a year in jail
and a $6,250 fi ne.
“I got involved with HB 3030
because the Cottage Grove
Youth Authority reached out
with concerns over nitrous
“whip its” use,” Hayden said.
“With my background in den-
tistry, I am familiar with the ef-
fects and hazards of nitrous use.
I submitted the bill and the kids
from the youth advisory took
the lead and did a tremendous
job coming to Salem and testi-
fying before the House Health
Care committee then the Senate
Judiciary Committee where it
passed both unanimously.”
Munsell remembers shaking
the morning she testifi ed before
the committee in Salem.
“They thought it might be
harder in the Senate so they
asked me to speak,” she said.
But it was complicated. Her son
VILLAGE KEEPERS
Munsell still has breakfast
with Williams almost every
morning. She sees Weeldryer
in church, stops by the police
station to chat with Shepherd.
She’s exchanged letters with
Parent and has stood up at
school board meetings to give
her two cents on the agenda.
On Mother’s Day her son
went fi shing. He’s working
again and looking at returning
to school. “He put on the wad-
ers we got him last Christmas.
He had never put them on. He
got a new boat because his old
one was ruined since he wasn’t
in a place to help us move a few
years ago when everything was
going on,” she said. Munsell
will continue to collect research
in triplicate and hand it to what-
ever offi cial she runs across.
She’ll swallow her nerves to
speak in front of councils and
boards and make phone calls
to community lobbyists who
may be able to help. She has
gone to every smoke shop and
convenience store in the city
begging store owners to pull
the canisters. Several have com-
plied. Two have not and she will
continue to visit them, showing
them a photo of her son who
lost everything but his life with-
625 N. 9th St. Cottage Grove
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dealing with a similar
situation as detailed
in "We are a Village"
please contact South
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at (541) 942-3939 or
visit the offi ce at 1345
Birch Ave. in Cottage
Grove. If you suspect
illegal activity in your
home related to the
subject in "We are a
Village," contact the
Cottage Grove Police
Department at (541)
942-9145.
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in the span of three months and
then wallowed and scratched
his way back in the subsequent
months and year that followed.
In the end, she wants to bring
legislation to the federal level
because she says, there’s no rea-
son for a mother to get a phone
call at 4 a.m. because their child
was able to buy a whip-it and a
balloon. She will continue her
quest but it’s measured because
for her, her son’s health and
well-being comes fi rst, a notion
she balances with the good of
the village. “I got my son back.
He’s coming back.” She speaks
of a man who walks the length
of Main St. He passes the po-
lice station and the cafe where
her son recently ate breakfast
in public for the fi rst time in
months. He shouts and talks to
himself, his hair long and rag-
ged. “He went to school with
my son. He’s part of our vil-
lage. We are better than this and
we’re going to fi x it.”
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