10A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • DECEMBER 19, 2018
Habitat
from A1
Misty Hutchinson speaks to
the crowd gathered for her
home dedication on Saturday,
Dec. 15.
one speaker. Oxley, howev-
er, thanked the city of Cot-
tage Grove for its support
throughout the years.
Hutchinson’s house, which
was gift ed a new fi re extin-
guisher from South Lane
County Fire and Rescue
Division Chief Joe Raade, is
the fi rst since organization
underwent a restructuring.
In a statement released last
year, the Springfi eld/Eugene
and Cottage Grove Habitat
for Humanity announced
the two would be merging to
form Habitat for Humanity
of Central Lane.
“Th e cost of rent is in-
creasing faster than wages,
housing stock is scarce and
homeownership is increas-
ingly out of reach for local
families,” the release read.
“We believe that by combin-
ing our administrative costs
and deploying our resourc-
es more eff ectively to where
they are needed, we will pro-
vide safe, decent, aff ordable
homes for more families and
complete more repair proj-
ects on a local level.”
Th e local Restore also
closed its doors citing a lack
of profi t and a need to redi-
rect funds toward projects
rather than keeping the store
open.
Hutchinson doesn’t have a
move in date yet but said she
is blessed to have had the ex-
perience of helping to build
her own home.
“It’s amazing. I’ve gotten
to spend the most quality
time with my mother,” she
said. “I never thought this
was possible. It still feels sur-
real to me.”
CAITLYN MAY/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Latham
from A1
from other schools around
South Lane.
“Th at’s the only place that we
have funds at this point,” Sullivan
told the board. Adding, “Th is
is what discourages me, to be
honest with you. We don’t have
the funds to continue to do the
deferred maintenance without
bond funds at this point.”
Th e deferred maintenance at
other schools covers an array of
improvements including roofi ng
at fi ve schools around the dis-
trict (which will cost $886,000)
and other improvements such as
heating and various upgrades.
If Latham were to close, that
$353,000 sum could fund proj-
ects at other schools such as
classroom lighting at Bohemia, a
gym fl oor at Dorena and a kitch-
en upgrade at London.
“An ugly little facet to [this] is
comparing the worth of diff erent
schools feels very, very wrong.
It’s not like one school is better
or one school is worse, they are
all valuable,” said board member
Tammy Hodgkins during the
board’s fi nal comments.
Th roughout the meeting,
board members grappled with
the reality of what appears to be
an impending decision to close
the school.
“It really feels like, when you
look at deferred maintenance,
it’s just like putting the entire dis-
trict on an all-starch diet: it keeps
you alive but everything starts to
break down,” said board member
Gary Mort. “Th e whole thing
gets less and less healthy.”
Continuing to discuss each
section of the “Latham School
Report” and board broke into
groups of two or three and shared
their fi ndings. Th ey discussed
general details of where students
and staff could possibly go if the
school were to close and what
that would look like across the
district. Th e group also returned
to the idea that this decision has
been looming over staff , students
and parents at Latham off and on
for the past decade if not longer.
“I’m really sorry for what
Latham has gone through. Th e
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people there are going through
or may still be going through,”
said Mort. Adding, “I’m actually
just sorry. Even if we come in, in
January and miraculously some
angel donated $2 million to us
and said, ‘Only for Latham,’ that
would be amazing, but you still
would have gone through all of
this and suff ering and horrible-
ness which is just not okay.”
One Latham parent who was
feeling the eff ects of that pain
was Andrea Griffi th who has a
third grader at the school. Grif-
fi th chose Latham for the size
of the school in addition to the
community it provides and not-
ed that if the district closes the
school, she plans to take her child
out of the district.
“It sounds to me, as a parent,
that they’ve already made their
decision. And my kid is going
to lose out because they didn’t
do their jobs and put the money
where it should have been and
it makes me mad,” said Griffi th.
“And very sad because there are a
lot of kids who are going to miss
out on a lot of stuff at Latham.”
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