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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2018
The pros and cons
of STAR Voting
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For a complete six-
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see page A5.
CGSENTINEL.COM
Community eff ort leads to new
wheelchair for local kindergartener
By Caitlyn May
By Jared Anderson
cmay@cgsentinel.com
For The Sentinel
Hallie Roberts believes that STAR (Score
Th en Automatic Runoff ) Voting will rev-
olutionize the way people vote in Lane
County, and throughout the entire coun-
try.
“People are aware of the problems with
our voting methods,” Roberts said. “We
end up with results that are not really what
the people wanted. If we can implement a
system that will lead us to more broadly
favored candidates winning, I think our
political process will be reinvigorated and
people will be inspired to be a part of the
process once they see it’s working more
smoothly.”
Roberts is the campaign manager for
STAR Voting, which was created by politi-
cal scientist Alan Zundel and Mark Frohn-
mayer, a Eugene entrepreneur and creator
of the organization Equal Vote Coalition.
Th ey successfully placed measure 20-290
on the November ballot which, “Amends
Charter, adopts Score Th en Automatic
Runoff voting for elections.” If passed, they
hope it will both change how county offi cer
elections are held, and how Lane County
residents would vote for those candidates.
Roberts said the system has the potential
See STAR 7A
Breast Cancer
Awareness Month:
In their own words
CGHS students
repaired a wheelchair
for six-year-old Harrison
Elementary student with
myotonic muscular
dystrophy
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Soon it will be common to see a
fi retruck roaming the halls of Har-
rison Elementary School.
What has the appearance of a toy
car is, in reality, a newly refurbished
wheelchair for six-year-old Ethan
who has myotonic muscular dys-
trophy, a muscle disease that also
impact his lungs and heart. Th e
wheelchair allows him to learn the
joystick controls so that when he is
older he will be able operate a pow-
er chair.
“He wasn’t supposed to live and
he wasn’t supposed to talk and he
wasn’t supposed to do any of the
things he is doing now. So it’s like
a milestone, everything is a mile-
stone,” said Ethan’s mother Tara
Jones.
On Th ursday aft ernoon, in front
of his kindergarten classmates on
a sun-soaked day, Ethan re-ceived
his newly refurbished wheelchair
that was fi xed up by a group of Cot-
tage Grove High School seniors and
delivered by South Lane County
ZACH SILVA/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Six-year-old Ethan tries out his newly refurbished wheelchair to the delight of his kindergarten
classmates. The chair was constructed with the held of Cottage Grove High School students and will
help Ethan learn to use his wheelchair.
Fire and Rescue. With excited kin- was moving around in it was very learn the controls of getting around.
dergarten-ers, who got to tour the surprising and very exciting,” said Th e device, which stays at school,
fi retruck, looking on, Ethan got the Jones. For Jones, the fi retruck holds was used outside because there was
fi rst chance to drive around in his importance and is a reminder of her no room inside the old Harrison
new wheelchair.
father and grandfather, who have and soon, it began to break down.
“It was super exciting that he both passed away, who were both
“Every day when we’d lift it up
liked it because he didn’t like it last fi refi ghters.
and bring it in and out, the
year. I was like, do you want in it
Last year, Ethan’s doctor ordered
See STUDENT 11A
and he said yeah. And the way he the specialized chair to help him
Cottage Grove City Council candidates talk issues
By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
COURTESY PHOTO
Cancer survivor Coleen Bollinger
Coleen Bollinger started getting mam-
mograms when she was 30. So, when she
went in for her routine exam at 47, she
expected another clean test. It’d been just
a year since her last
By Caitlyn May exam, she had 16
cmay@cgsentinel.com
cancer-free screen-
ings under her belt
and while she had a family history of
breast cancer, it seemed too far away to be
a real contributing factor. But when she
got a call at work, the disease was suddenly
much closer.
“So, I got the call from my doctor and
I was at work and my husband was out of
town and he said, ‘I hate to do this over the
phone but I want you to know right away,’
and it’s like the whole world went gray,” she
said. “Once he said cancer, I heard noth-
ing else, that was it. I went outside to have
a cigarette and I was just stunned. I never
expected, he never expected, it was out of
See WORDS 10A
With just 20 days until ballots
are due in the Nov. 6 general elec-
tion, the race for Cottage Grove
City Council has already staged
what may be the greatest oppor-
tunity for voters to hear from the
candidates on the issues currently
facing the city.
On Tuesday, Oct. 9, six of the
candidates took part in a forum
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Th e interim period has been ex-
tended.
South Lane School District in-
terim superintendent Dr. Larry
Sullivan will be working under the
title of interim for one more year
aft er a vote from the school board
unanimously approved this deci-
sion at Monday night’s special ses-
sion meeting.
Last May, Sullivan’s one-year
contract was approved by the
board and he offi cially began work
on July 1. With the board passing
an action item on Monday, Sullivan
will now be in this position until
June of 2020.
“My idea of transition changed
throughout this whole process. I
originally framed it as I’m going
to help them get through a year
and sort of have some stability and
some support and now it really is
COMMUNITY
Aquatic Center update
CG City Council agrees to
help fund therapy pool
PAGE A6
INDEX
Cottage Grove Police
Department's new dis-
patcher has old ties to The
Grove.
ning unopposed for Ward 1.
homeless population by county us-
Th e night was kick-started by ing volunteers and short question-
what is arguably the hottest top- naires, revealed that the number
of homeless had increased and a
large majority of those individ-
uals lived in Lane County. Th e
county was recorded as having
the second-highest homeless rate,
ics in the city: aff ordable hous- fourth largest chronically homeless
ing and homelessness. Last year’s population and the second-largest
point-in-time count, an informa- homeless veteran population
tion gathering tool utilized yearly
See CANDIDATES 6A
that conducts a count of the state’s
Superintendent extends stay for another year
COMMUNITY
New Dispatcher
hosted by the Chamber of Com-
merce’s legislative committee and
spoke on issues ranging from
homelessness to the communi-
ty pool.
Th ree of the city’s wards
were represented at the forum
with Jill Hermansen and Can-
dace Lamb-Solsbee challenging
sitting councilor Garland Burback
for Ward 3, Ashley Rigel taking on
current at-large councilor Mike
Fleck and Jake Boone who is run-
moving that transition to really
moving forward and setting that
foundation for the future rather
than just taking a year and wait-
ing for the next superintendent to
come,” said Sullivan. “Set a stronger
foundation for the future. I think
transition is the foundation for the
future.”
In the next year, the board will
be fi nalizing the allocation of funds
from the 2016 bond measure in ad-
dition to deciding whether Latham
Calendar ...................................... B12
Channel Guide ............................... B5
Classifieds ...................................... B7
Obituaries ...................................... A2
Opinion ......................................... A4
Sports ............................................ B1
Elementary School will remain
open long-term.
“Any district would have any
diffi culty just dealing with those
two things – with the closure dis-
cussion and maintaining a school
or a bond – that’s hard enough as
it is besides going through a tran-
sition in leadership,” said Sullivan.
“So it allows for more stability and
we can walk through it rather than
try to run through it.”
See BOARD 11A
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