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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019
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Damien Sherwood
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
Damien Sherwood
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
A truck passes Linda Raade-Vaught’s tree on Sears Road, one of 61 trees targeted by the county for removal due to safety
concerns regarding fi xed objects.
analysis when distributing the
grant.
At the hearing, Lane County
Traffi c Engineer Steve Gallup
presented data that counted six
crashes with fi xed objects be-
tween 2010 and 2016. One of
the crashes resulted in a fatality
and the other fi ve in injuries.
As part of its goal to reduce
fatal and severe-injury colli-
sions, the Lane County Board
of Commissioners adopted a
Transportation Safety Action
Plan (TSAP) in 2017 to iden-
tify and address the greatest
risks in the county. As part of
this approach, fi xed objects are
identifi ed as risk factors when
they are within what is a con-
sidered a “clear zone,” an oth-
erwise unobstructed roadside
area that drivers may use to
pull to the side of the road or
“I really see writing as a part
of something bigger, which is
one’s calling in the world,” said
Kim Staff ord, refl ecting on the
importance of his craft . “Th at
calling will be active, but those
words and stories can enrich
that action.”
Staff ord, Oregon’s Poet Lau-
reate and a teacher at Lewis &
Clark College, is due to stop by
Cottage Grove Monday, Feb.
25, to meet students, local writ-
ers and read from his works at
the library.
Staff ord was born and grew
up in Oregon. Th ough his fa-
ther, William Staff ord, was a
well-known and accomplished
poet, his renown came notably
late in the poet’s life and Kim
remembers much of his early
inspiration for writing stem-
ming from his own self-refl ec-
tion.
“It was the internal world of
dreams and imagination and
being in nature coupled with
being extremely shy when I
was young,” he said. “Teachers
in school taught me how to
bring that forth in words.”
Staff ord can still name the
teachers up through high
school that had a profound im-
pact on his mode of expression,
and he credits them with evolv-
ing his craft .
“I think it made writing a
personal friend,” Staff ord said.
“Not a school task so much as a
school companion.”
Henry David Th oreau and
Emily Dickinson were among
his fi rst literary infl uencers.
Th oreau, who famously
wrote Walden and Civil Dis-
obedience, appealed to Staff ord
for his independence and life as
“a self-appointed student of the
world.”
Dickinson’s writing, which
Staff ord categorized as “fi erce
and original,” and her lack of
need for validation through
publishing evoked in Staff ord
the image of the courageous
writer.
“For both them, there was an
ambition to write wonderful
things, but not an ambition to
have others say, ‘Th at’s wonder-
ful,’” Staff ord said. “It’s a self-di
See Poet A10
See Sears Road A6
See Upgrade A9
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
While covered bridges receive
plenty of attention in Cottage
Grove, it’s the city’s uncovered
bridges now under the eye of the
city.
In a Feb. 11 City Council meet-
ing, councilors voted to award a
contract to Delta Construction
Co. from Eugene to begin work
on three city bridges: Th e Main
Street bridge crossing the Coast
Fork Willamette River, its down-
stream counterpart on Harrison
Avenue and the bridge crossing
Silk Creek on South River Road.
At an estimated cost of
$534,179, Delta Construction
won out over rival bidder HP
Civil Inc, which submitted a bid
of $647,278.
“I’m glad to get Delta in,” said
the Cottage Grove Civil Engi-
neer Ryan Sisson. “Th ey have a
lot of experience with this kind
of work.”
Th e city had previously bud-
geted the project at $511,500
based on an Engineer’s Estimate
of Construction Costs last No-
vember by OBEC Consulting
Engineers. Th e engineer’s es-
timate had placed the cost at
$438,426, nearly $100,000 lower
than Delta’s winning bid. Th e
HOUSE FIRE
COMMUNITY
Adopt a carousel horse
SLCFR quickly put out
an upstairs fi re on Grant
Avenue last week
A local woman adopts a
carousel horse in memory
of loved ones.
PAGE A5
www.homesteadcg.com
Th e Project
To achieve this goal, the Sears
Road project states the need to
cut 61 trees from the road at
the cost of the grant amount,
$150,000. A second phase of
the project would widen the
road with two 11-foot travel
By Damien Sherwood
Firefi ghters end blaze
PAGE A3
safely navigate and return from
if they leave the roadway.
“By creating clear zones,
roadway agencies can increase
the likelihood that a roadway
departure results in a safe re-
covery rather than a crash, and
mitigate the severity of crashes
that do occur,” read the sum-
mary of the agenda item.
Safer routes to Cottage
Grove schools are on the way.
A $1,272,143 grant from
the Oregon Department of
Transportation
(ODOT)
toward the Safe Routes to
School (SRTS) Program was
approved by City Council
vote Jan. 11.
SRTS is a nationwide ef-
fort to assist communities in
identifying and reducing bar-
riers and hazards to children
walking or bicycling to and
from school through infra-
structure improvements and
safety education.
At an estimated cost of
$1,676,512, the project will
address key safety concerns
on fi ve routes to Cottage
Grove schools. For most of
these routes, safe sidewalks
are an issue.
“In many cases, the major-
ity of sidewalks are probably
going to be replaced,” said
Public Works and Develop-
ment Director Faye Stewart.
In the SRTS grant agree-
Bridge restoration, repairs set for spring
Chair
Side
Tables
On
Sale!
INDEX
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
School
routes to
get safety
upgrade
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
Poet laureate to
visit Cottage Grove
By Damien Sherwood
For a complete six-
day forecast please
see page A5.
CGSENTINEL.COM
Local voices delay county project
Residents of Sears Road won
a small victory in Lane Coun-
ty’s Courthouse Feb. 12 as the
Lane County Board of Com-
missioners voted to delay a
tree-cutting and road-widen-
ing project on the rural road.
“I’m really glad the commis-
sioners listened,” said Robin
Mayall, a frequent cyclist of
Sears Road who testifi ed at the
hearing. “It’s ideally what pub-
lic process should be. People
come and speak from diff erent
points of view and the commis-
sioners listen and they don’t
necessarily just rubber-stamp
something – they take advise-
ment on what people said and
study it further.”
Sears Road lies just past Cot-
tage Grove city limits and is
under county jurisdiction. Th e
section of the road in question
stretches from Molitor Ranch
Road southward to Row River
Road.
Th e proposed Sears Road
Fixed Object Removal project
began with a $150,000 Oregon
Department of Transportation
(ODOT) grant as part of the
All Roads Transportation Safe-
ty (ARTS) fund to remove fi xed
objects on the sides of Sears
Road. Th e decision to use the
road, according to offi cials, was
data-driven, based on crash
history and recommended by
ODOT as part of a cost-benefi t
WED
40º/31º
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
The Main Street bridge is one of three bridges due for repairs and restorations this year.
discrepancy means the city must
dig into its street contingency
fund or possibly push other proj-
ects into the next fi scal year.
“It’s not that we don’t have the
money,” said Sisson. “It’s about
what other projects we’re not do-
ing.”
In a climate facing a draught
of available construction person-
nel to meet the high demands
Calendar ...................................... B12
Channel Guide ............................... B5
Classifieds ...................................... B7
Obituaries ...................................... A2
Opinion ......................................... A4
Sports ............................................ B1
throughout the state, cities re-
questing bids on projects may
fi nd responses from as little as
one or two contractors. Limited
options can result in bidders set-
ting the price, which may force
cities to opt for contracts that ex-
ceed their budgets.
Repairs and restoration tasks
on the bridges have been on the
city’s radar since a 2016 report
by OBEC Consulting Engineers
identifi ed several items as need-
ing attention. While some work
will result in aesthetic improve-
ments, much of it will go toward
infrastructural changes that will
extend the bridges’ lifespans.
First among the items is rail-
ing. To various degrees, each of
See Bridge A7
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