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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2019)
10A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • MARCH 6, 2019 SNOW from A3 Damage to local buildings included a four-foot hole punc- tured the Coiner Park bath- room roof, fallen awnings on Main Street and a collapsed CenturyLink utility shed. Sev- eral shed collapses on private property were also reported on social media. Four of the city’s wastewater pumps also stopped working, the circuitry of one frying from a power surge. In response to the carnage, emergency services became inundated with calls and inci- dents. “We definitely saw a spike in electrical emergencies, unin- tentional fire alarm activation, public assists and structure fires during the week of the storm,” said South Lane County Fire and Rescue (SLCFR) Division Chief Joe Raade. “All three structure fires were related to the storm, and one produced a serious burn patient.” From Monday to Thursday the week of the storm, calls to- taled at 44 welfare checks, 60 fire or medical and 10 burglary alarm responses. In all, 328 emergency and 875 non-emer- gency calls came in, bloating the phone lines to two or three times the normal amount. Cottage Grove Police Chief Scott Shepherd was pleased with the response of his officers to the deluge of calls and praised the resourcefulness of the com- munity at-large, but said he is looking to lessons learned from the event. “I think we can always be better prepared,” he said. Power companies, too, scrambled to respond to a high volume of inquiries and outage reports. By Monday morning, Cottage Grove was completely without power save for those with generators. The city’s DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SETINEL Main Street traffic continued as normal in Cottage Grove by the end of the week, but large piles of dirt-covered snow greatly reduced parking space. main electricity provider, Pa- cific Power, reported more than 3,300 Cottage Grove customers affected by the power outages and 44,000 throughout its cov- erage area, though the compa- ny’s power was fully restored by the end of the week. Unfortunately, for many res- idents, not everyone is on the same power grid. “Anything that’s annexed af- ter 1976 is in EPUD’s district,” said Meyers. The Emerald People’s Utility District (EPUD) covers parts of Cottage Grove, mostly in the southern, western and eastern ends of the city and extends out several rural roads. Responding to the rural chaos presented a challenge. EPUD General Manager Scott Coe described a perfect storm as the reason for all the destruction. “We had two days of heavy rain that absolutely saturated March 2019 Calendar FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF WEEKLY EVENTS VISIT THE CALENDAR CHOICES PAGE NEXT TO THE COMICS PAGE. 1 - FRIDAY 5 p.m. American Legion BINGO! 826 W. Main Street For additional info call Jerry Kerns at 541-942-0234 6:30 p.m. First Friday Potluck, Healing Matrix 2 - SATURDAY 8 a.m. Cottage Grove High School Bird Walk South R Street, Cottage Grove OR. Park in the back parking lot of Cottage Grove High School (1375 S River Rd., Cottage Grove, OR 97424) along S. R Street. 3 - SUNDAY 4 – MONDAY 5 p.m. LEGO Club for Big People [ages 13 and up] Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Ave 6:30 p.m. Bilingual Family Storytime Cottage Grove Public Library 700 E. Gibbs Ave 5 - TUESDAY 5 p.m. Shrove Tuesday St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church & Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church OLPH 1025 North 19 th St. $5 pp or $20 per family 5 p.m. 2019 Bridge Repairs Open House An informational meeting is scheduled at Stacy’s Covered Bridge Restaurant with a Question & Answer session on the 2019 Bridge Repairs construction schedule and project information. Th e bridges included in the discussion are the: Main Street Bridge, Harrison Bridge, Silk Creek Bridge (on River Road) and the Swinging Bridge. Visit the City’s Construction Corner for detailed and up to date project information. 6 - WEDNESDAY 8 a.m. Pillars of Eff ective Leadership – A Nonprofi t Board Training Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Ave 10:30 a.m. Th e Cottage Grove Community Center is hosting free AARP Tax Help every Wednesday through April 16th. Sign-up for tax help begins each Wednesday morning You may call 211 for more information. WALK-IN SIGN UP. Everyone is welcome to use this free Tax Help from AARP. 2:30 p.m. Lego Club Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E Gibbs Ave 3 p.m. Th e Iron Giant (Discover Exoplanets Film Festival) Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Ave 7 - THURSDAY 9 a.m. Ukulele Morning Jam Cottage Grove Public Library 700 E. Gibbs Ave out power. Nearly a week later, 2,400 were still lacking service. Damage to the Dorena area was deemed “significant,” and resi- dents have been told to expect several more days without pow- er. Though the company expect- the soil,” he said. “And then you put the heavy snow on top of the trees and the roots just gave up.” Those trees were the pri- mary cause of all power outag- es. “There’s an area by Cottage Grove Reservoir I counted for four miles,” Coe said. “Every span had a tree or more through it and it’s all trees that lost their root system because of soft soil and heavy snow.” Half of the company’s sub- stations lost their feeds due to the storm. “To have five of our 10 sub- stations down by Monday was unprecedented,” Coe said. Though thousands of cus- tomers initially lost electricity, as of press time only about 300 EPUD customers remained without power. In other rural areas, Lane Electric crews had by Wednes- day restored power to approx- imately 2,000 of the 10,130 households that had been with- ed power to be restored to a ma- jority of service areas by March 7, other areas may be without power into the weekend. Without power, fuel supply to Cottage Grove was drasti- cally limited. Most gas stations were forced to close or, if they did open, were significantly un- derstaffed as their workers were unable to get in. Pat Pannu, a manager of the Chevron stations in Cottage Grove, helped keep the business open through the event, open- ing business at 10:30 a.m. Mon- day and regaining electricity for pumping by 11:30. “I think we were the only place within 20 miles that had power and had gas,” Pannu said. Though fuel ran out four times, the stations continued service. “I kept it open, but barely,” said Pannu. “People have been pretty awesome, honestly, be- cause it’s been long waits.” Being one of the few fuel resources in town, a staff of 11 workers at the Gateway station and five by the Village Green station worked tirelessly to move customers through. “I think we honestly han- dled it pretty well,” Pannu said. “My employees have been rock stars.” Outside city limits, rural res- idents were heavily impacted by the storm. Roads to outlying ar- eas were crisscrossed with fallen trees and buried in up to two feet of snow. Hundreds of trees were reported downed in rural, forested areas, many tangled up power lines. In addition to the dismal prospect on power restoration, water became an issue for Dore- na residents. Many residents reported melting snow to flush sewage and wash. Though power has been out in Dorena, landlines were still operable and residents found that, although they could not make outside contact, residents could communicate amongst themselves. This stroke of for- tune provided a safety net of communal support as neigh- bors pooled resources and per- formed welfare checks. Meanwhile, the Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office notified the water customers of Drain to ration water usage on Friday as power outages and pump issues See SNOW conclusion11A Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental Dentistry is our profession, people are our focus. Birch Avenue Dental 1325 Birch Ave. 541-942-2471 • General Dentistry • Implants • Sedation • Financing 1325 Birch Ave. Cottage Grove birchavenuedental.com 541-942-2471 Tammy L. McClung DDS • Park W. McClung DDS 8 - FRIDAY 5:00 p.m. American Legion BINGO! 826 W. Main Street For additional info call Jerry Kerns at 541-942-0234 9 - SATURDAY 10 - SUNDAY Noon - 4 p.m. Occupy Eugene Medical Clinic, free at Washington Jeff erson St. Park at 5th St., Eugene Noon - 4 p.m. Friends of Creswell Public Library book sale. Open to the general public. Free admission. Creswell Community Center, 99 S. 1st Street. 6:00 p.m. London Grange Meeting 11 - MONDAY 6:30 p.m. Bilingual Family Storytime Cottage Grove Public Library 700 E. Gibbs Ave 18 - MONDAY 6:30 p.m. Bilingual Family Storytime Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 12 - TUESDAY 6:30-11 p.m. Habitat for Humanity Open Mic Night, at Axe and Fiddle 6:30 p.m. Humane Society of CG, City Hall Sinclair Room. 6:30 p.m. Jazz Jam at Th e Cottage, Th e Cottage Events Venue, 2915 Row River Rd 19 - TUESDAY 7:30 p.m. Th ird Tuesday Poetry Night at Axe & Fiddle, hosted by Kalapuya Books at the Axe & Fiddle Public House 657 E. Main Street 13 - WEDNESDAY 10:30 a.m. Th e Cottage Grove Community Center is hosting free AARP Tax Help every Wednesday through April 16th. Sign-up for tax help begins each Wednesday morning You may call 211 for more information. WALK-IN SIGN UP. Everyone is welcome to use this free Tax Help from AARP. 3 p.m. Short Circuit (Discover Exoplanets Film Festival) Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Ave 6:30 p.m. Cottage Grove Toast People (future Toastmasters Group) Th e Cottage Events Venue, 2915 Row River Rd 14 - THURSDAY 9 a.m. Ukulele Morning Jam Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 10 a.m. Startup Coff ee Meetup Backstage Bakery and Cafe 25 S 7th St 6 p.m. Exoplanet Lecture with Steve Kilston [Discover Exoplanets] Cottage Grove Public Library 700 E. Gibbs Ave 20 - WEDNESDAY 10:30 a.m. Th e Cottage Grove Community Center is hosting free AARP Tax Help every Wednesday through April 16th. Sign-up for tax help begins each Wednesday morning You may call 211 for more information. WALK-IN SIGN UP. Everyone is welcome to use this free Tax Help from AARP. 2:30 p.m. STEAM Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E, Gibbs Ave 3 p.m. Star Trek (2009) (Discover Exoplanets Film Festival) Cottage Grove Community Center 700 Gibbs Ave 21 - THURSDAY 9 a.m. Ukulele Morning Jam Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 5:30 p.m. Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce Business Aft erhours host by the Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel at the King Estate Bottling Plant 1780 Carnegie Way (in the Cottage Grove Industrial Park) 22 - FRIDAY 5:00 p.m. American Legion BINGO! 826 W. Main Street For additional info call Jerry Kerns at 541-942-0234 Old Mill Farm Store 327 South River Rd. • Cottage Grove 17 - SUNDAY 8-11 a.m. Community Breakfast, Masonic Lodge, 33322 Row River Rd. Adults $6; kids free 25 - MONDAY 1:30 p.m. Classic Movie Showing Cottage Grove Community Center 700 E. Gibbs Ave 5:30 p.m. Costume Workshop: Finding Parts [Discover Exoplanets] Cottage Grove Public Library 700 E. Gibbs Ave 6:30 p.m. Bilingual Family Storytime Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 26 - TUESDAY 6:30 p.m. Jazz Jam at Th e Cottage, Th e Cottage Events Venue, 2915 Row River Rd 27 - WEDNESDAY 10:30 a.m. Th e Cottage Grove Community Center is hosting free AARP Tax Help every Wednesday through April 16th. Sign-up for tax help begins each Wednesday morning You may call 211 for more information. WALK-IN SIGN UP. Everyone is welcome to use this free Tax Help from AARP. 3 p.m. Wall-E (Discover Exoplanets Film Festival) Cottage Grove Community Center 700 Gibbs Ave 6:30 p.m. Cottage Grove Toast People (future Toastmasters Group) Th e Cottage Events Venue, 2915 Row River Rd 28 - THURSDAY 9 a.m. Ukulele Morning Jam Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 6 p.m. Wisdom Seekers Exoplanet Discussion [Discover Exoplanets] Cottage Grove Public Library 700 Gibbs Ave 29 - FRIDAY 5:00 p.m. American Legion BINGO! 826 W. Main Street For additional info call Jerry Kerns at 541-942-0234 30 - SATURDAY 31 - SUNDAY 15 - FRIDAY 5:00 p.m. American Legion BINGO! 826 W. Main Street For additional info call Jerry Kerns at 541- 942-0234 16 - SATURDAY 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friends of Creswell Public Library book sale. Open to the general public. Free admission. Creswell Community Center, 99 S. 1st Street. 10 a.m. CG Historical Society Program, Topic: Granges: London & Dorena, Community Center 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Oregon Trail Lace Makers, Willamette Oaks Retirement Center, Eugene. 23 - SATURDAY 24 - SUNDAY 541-942-3042 600 Jefferson Ave. Cottage Grove (541) 942-3371 www.nwcu.com 319 E. Main St. Cottage Grove (541) 942-7423
