$1.00 PERSONAL | COMMERCIAL BENEFITS | SURETY C ottage G rove S entinel (541) 942-0555 PayneWest.com/Cottage-Grove SEE SCHOOL NEWS FOR THE LATEST AROUND THE DISTRICT WED 68º/47º SOUTH LANE AND DOUGLAS COUNTY'S MOST AWARD-WINNING NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1889 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2017 FACEBOOK.COM/CGSENTINEL • TWITTER.COM/CGSENTINEL For a complete six- day forecast please see page A5. CGSENTINEL.COM He No au bla bla City council issues support for fi re levy By Caitlyn May cmay@cgsentinel.com South Lane County Fire and Rescue (SLFR) Chief Jon Wooten had a presentation planned for the Cottage Grove City Council Monday night on Ballot Measure 20-278. Things changed. Wooten, along with Division Chief Joe Raade and several members of SLFR were sent to Cali- fornia as part of fi ve strike teams from Oregon to fi ght the wildfi res that have claimed more than 30 lives and hundreds of homes. "The experiences I had in Santa Rosa, I won- dered if that could happen here and the answer is absolutely yes," Wooten told the council. Wooten said current conditions and the increase in wildfi re activity over the last few years could lend itself to a crisis like the one in California. And if Cottage Grove were to face such a crisis, Levy set for November 7 ballot could mean cuts to service if voters say no the fi re district would need to maintain its cur- rent level of service or improve and to do that, it must be funded with a continuation of the levy. The fi re levy proposed in Measure 20-278 is not a new tax. The levy was passed in 2011 and set to renew this year by a vote of the people. "I was on the fi re board and I can't tell you how desperate the district was before the levy was passed," Councilman Mike Fleck said. Prior to the passage of the levy, the district had an out-the-door time of three minutes and 30 sec- onds. The current time, with the levy in place, is LIONS COME HOME, WIN BIG Lion's Mane owner celebrates more than 30 years LOW Please see FIRE LEVY PG. A11 By Isabel Hirst PHOTO BY CAITLYN MAY/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove High School celebrates homecoming with its traditional parade through town. The football team beat out Sutherlin to end a winning regular season 8-0. The team will head to the state play-offs after a bye week. Please see LION'S MANE PG. A12 Dollar General continues expansion Guide to Halloween New stores are popping up all in Cottage Grove over Oregon, but not Cottage Grove By Caitlyn May cmay@cgsentinel.com By Caitlyn May cmay@cgsentinel.com In a few week's time, the doors to the new Dollar General in Sweet Home will open. It will follow the opening of the Dollar General in Creswell and Drain and Philomath and soon, Klam- ath Falls. The company an- nounced in January of this year that it intends to open 1,000 new stores in 2017, adding to its fl eet in 44 states. According to Dollar General representative Angela Petkovic, a new store typically brings six to 10 new jobs when it sets up shop in a community. However, Cottage Grove will not be seeing those jobs. "When choosing store loca- tions, meeting customers’ needs is Dollar General’s top priority. The company looks for places where we can offer customers an easy and convenient shop- ping choice," Petkovic said. Cottage Grove was not selected for a new location in the compa- ny's Oregon expansion. Dollar General said it typi- cally serves customers within a three to fi ve mile radius, or a 10-minute drive. Cottage Grove is located 9.2 miles from the new location in Creswell and just over 17 miles from the new- ly opened Drain location. Cottage Grove Area Cham- ber of Commerce Executive Director Travis Palmer said he was unaware of the stores ex- pansion in Oregon and "didn't know much" about the project. He noted that the company may have overlooked Cottage Grove due to the city's three existing grocery stores. Sweet Home has two grocery stores in town, Drain is home to Ray's Food Place, BiMart serves as a grco- ery store in Creswell and Klam- ath Falls has six grocery stores including Albertsons, Walmart and Fred Meyer. Cottage Grove may not miss out completely on the benefi ts of Dollar General coming to town. According to Petkovic, "Dollar General is deeply involved in the communities it serves and is an ardent supporter of literacy and education through the Dol- lar General Literacy Founda- tion, which awards grants each The following is a list of known activities in the city but may not represent every opportunity for fun this Halloween. PHOTO COURTESY DOLLAR GENERAL Dollar General is expanding into three new states, including Oregon. year to nonprofi t organizations, schools and libraries within a 20-mile radius of a Dollar Gen- eral store or distribution center to support adult, family, summer and youth literacy programs." Drain lost its library after vot- ers turned down a ballot measure to continue funding the Douglas County Library system. Cottage Grove is 17 miles from Drain, falling within the 20-mile radius detailed by Petkovic, and offers the closest functioning library. "Since its inception in 1993, the DGLF has awarded more than $140 million in grants to nonprofi t organizations, helping more than nine million individ- uals take their fi rst steps toward literacy or continued education. For more information about the Dollar General Literacy Foun- dation and its grant programs, visit www.dgliteracy.com," Pet- kovic continued. She went on to explain that the foundation also does education and language outreach, "The Dollar General Literacy Foundation also sup- ports individuals in the commu- nities that Dollar General stores serve who may be interested in learning how to read, speak English or prepare for the high school equivalency test. Refer- rals to a local organization that provides free literacy services are available online or a post- age-paid reply card that can be mailed in for information is available at the cash register of every Dollar General store." On Thursday, October 26, activities will kick off with the Opal Center's annual Halloween Mash-up at 7:30 p.m. The show puts a spin on classically horrifying stories including Dracula. The sched- ule calls for a showing of "Draculala Land" which is described as follows: DracuLaLa Land is a musical tale of undying life and love. Mina is a struggling actress in Hollywood which has been taken over by bloodsucking vampires. Will she choose the mysterious Count Dracula, her fi ancé Jonathan or a life of fame and fortune? The Oscar-less performance will be followed by Les Misery and Hairplane. Les Misery will detail an author's periless interaction with his rescuer after having car trouble in Cottage Grove while Hairplane will tell the story of a plane full of hippies on its way to Cottage Grove. Opal's Mash-up won't be the only theatrical celebration of Hal- loween this year. Cottage Theatre's schedule plays special attention to the spooky holiday by putting on Jekyll and Hyde. The classic story will be shown on stage Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. On Halloween, Cottage Grove families can take part in the Fall Family Fun event being held at the Nazarene Church on M St. The event promises a free dinner, kids clothing and games from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Delight Valley Church is also hosting an event on Hallow- een beginning at 6 p.m. For families who want to indulge in tradi- tional trick-or-treating but don't want to walk blocks and blocks to score a haul of candy, Trick-or-Treat on Main St. will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Main St. Booths will line Main St. manned by local businesses and children can parade down the line, receiving candy along the way. Other Halloween-related activities this coming week include: Please see HALLOWEEN PG. A11 SPORTS Makeover Lions stay perfect Great Days set for a day of renovations. PAGE A10 The football team takes on its last regular season game. PAGE B1 INDEX COMMUNITY Calendar ...................................... B11 Channel Guide ............................... B5 Classifieds ...................................... B7 Obituaries ...................................... A2 Opinion ......................................... A4 Sports ............................................ B1 AD 6x2 cgnews@cgsentinel.com (541) 942-3325 ph • (541) 942-3328 fax P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 Corner of Sixth and Whiteaker, Cottage Grove _______________ VOLUME 129 • NUMBER 66 MAGENTA struggle of fi nding long-term clients. Luckily, for her she was able to get her name out fast and just like that, her talents brought in many new clients. Hirst said, “At the beginning it was diffi - cult to bring in clientele and to fi gure out how to run a success- ful business. Once I got more comfortable with the idea of owning a business, that's when I started succeeding.” Speaking to other challenges she went through as a business owner, Hirst explained that she used to run her business out of a very small building, CYAN In Cottage Grove there are many small businesses com- peting for survival. One that has undergone many challenges and still survived is owned by a woman named DeAnne Hirst. The Lion’s Mane, a hair salon in Cottage Grove, had been up and running for almost 37 years thanks to Hirst and her manage- ment. As you can guess in the 37 years Hirst has been in busi- ness, she's come across a few struggles as well as a few major successes. When Hirst opened her salon in 1989, she had the YEL- For The Sentinel