4A | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Cottage Grove Sentinel
116 N. Sixth St.
Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424
NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR |
Opinion
541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM
The First Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law respect-
ing an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press, or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Govern-
ment for a redress of grievances.
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800)
USPS#133880
Copyright 2019 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL
Letters to the Editor Policy
The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a
community discussion of issues on the local, state and national
level.
Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters
must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address
and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters
should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to
editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any
letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the
volume of letters received.
Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative,
sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without
documentation will not be published.
Letters containing poetry or from outside The Sentinel
readership area will only be published at the discretion of the
editor.
Political/Election Letters:
Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely
issues of interest to our readers at-large.
Letters must: 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns
on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information
about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand
knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support
candidates based on personal experience and perspective
rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric.
Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor
column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes;
this constitutes paid political advertising.
As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper,
at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and
editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow
the above criteria.
Send letters to:
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
LETTER
Will start bringing
my own water to BMD
I’ve been having a great time
attending local events this
summer. I especially enjoy the
Wednesday concerts in the park
and recently went to the con-
certs each night at Bohemia
Mining Days.
Sadly though, this year the
prices for beer and wine have
gone up to the point that I won’t
purchase either. I enjoy a couple
of glasses of wine while listen-
ing to the music and watching
people do their thing.
It was a little shocking to see
that an approximately 5-oz.
glass of wine is up to $8. That
price takes a little of the enjoy-
ment out of sipping. A nice glass
at a restaurant, served in a wine
glass is only $6 or $7.
A 750-ml bottle of wine holds
25 oz. That means five glasses
from an $8 bottle of wine would
net $40 per bottle!
I am certain the wine be-
ing served is in the $9 to
$11-per-bottle range, but even
a $30 profit per bottle is pretty
steep for the average consumer.
At those prices, the vendors will
make no money from me now.
I only purchased one glass
at that price and no tip (sorry
servers.)
It’s not personal. If the price
per glass was more reasonable,
I would certainly buy one or
two glasses and leave a tip. That
would be more money for the
vendor and the server. Maybe
the price can come back down
and I will go back to buying a
couple of glasses.
For now I have decided to
just take my own water to BMD
from now on.
—Kent Russo
Cottage Grove
Will you be able to communicate in an emergency?
(Editor’s Note: View-
point submissions on this
and other topics are always
welcome as part of our goal
to encourage community
discussion and exchange of
perspectives.)
I’m sure we can all recite
the most important issues
in family preparedness
usually covered as water,
food and shelter. I like to
include communications
as a member of the top
tier.
Humans are by and
large a “pack” animal. We
thrive in an environment
where we can combine
our skills and abilities for
the greater good of the
pack. Basic to that need
is the ability to communi-
cate with each other.
We are blessed with
the finest ability to com-
municate with each other
through technology that
man has ever known in
our history. My attention
in today’s discussion will
be centered on how we
will communicate when
the technology is not
functioning, due to infra-
structure failures.
All of the advanced
technologies require in-
frastructure to function;
phone lines, fiber optic
circuits and electricity are
required for the intercon-
nectivity to exist for face
book, cell phones, twitter,
email, etc.
We have had many re-
cent examples of the fail-
ures in the infrastructure
due to nature’s storms.
Of course nature isn’t
the only thing that can
bring down our infra-
a channel, push the push-
to-talk button on the side
and speak slowly and
clearly of your situation.
The least expensive
kind is called FRS (family
Guest Viewpoint
By Joe Brown
Ham radio operator
structures, but the effects
are the same to the vic-
tims — no matter what
the cause.
No
electricity,
no
phones, means no com-
munications.
How would you re-
spond if your family was
in an environment where
you have no food, no wa-
ter, possibly no shelter and
no communications… for
several days? I’m sure we
can imagine all the stress
we, our families and even
our extended families
would be going through
in not being able to con-
tact anyone — anywhere
for that length of time.
This doesn’t even take
into consideration pos-
sible injuries, loss of life,
and missing persons that
a storm like this can cause.
The best communica-
tion devices available that
require no infrastructure
are simple hand-held two-
way radios. They require
only a few small batteries
(usually AA size), and ev-
erything else is built in.
Simply turn it on, select
radio service), they have
14 channels you can use,
and require no licensing
to operate. They are limit-
ed to ½ watt of power and
their expected range is up
to about a mile, depending
on terrain, trees, build-
ings, etc. They are kind of
rare anymore in the stores,
since most radios sold
now are a combination of
FRS channels and GMRS
channels (General Mobile
Radio Service).
GMRS radios are capa-
ble of a few watts of power,
so they may have a usable
range of 2-3 miles. GMRS
radios require a license
from the FCC to operate
legally, and I believe the
charge for the license is
around $85 for the term
of the license, which is five
years. Anyone in the im-
mediate household may
operate the radio under
the single license.
You can find these in
most hardware stores,
Walmart, Bi-Mart, etc.
The FRS radios can be
found on Amazon for
a very low price, about
$39.95 for four radios;
GMRS run anywhere
from $29 to $59 for a pair
of radios.
Anything that advertiz-
es more than 14 channels
is a GMRS radio.
I don’t recommend us-
ing rechargeable batteries.
They are very economical
for regular use, but for
storage and saving for an
emergency, I guarantee
they will probably be dead
when you need them —
then you need electricity
to recharge them.
I suggest getting a blis-
ter pack of new alkaline
batteries of the correct
size, leave them in the
package and put them
away with the radios.
Most batteries boast of a
10-year shelf life. I’m not
sure I’d bet my lunch mon-
ey on that claim either, but
if you rotated them into
use in other devices with-
in five years, and buy new
ones for your storage, you
should be fine. Under no
circumstances should you
install batteries in the ra-
dios then store them that
way for an extended peri-
od (six months or more).
They usually leak out, and
will destroy the radios.
I believe the ability to
communicate locally to
your nearest neighbors
and discuss each others’
needs and relay import-
ant messages is absolutely
vital in any emergency sit-
uation in our community.
Oregon state
representatives
Oregon federal
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
• Rep. Peter DeFazio
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@
state.or.us
(House of Representatives)
405 East 8th Ave.
#2030
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: defazio.house.gov/
contact/email-peter
Phone: 541-465-6732
• Rep. Cedric Hayden
Republican District 7 State
Representative
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301
Phone: 503-986-1407
Website: www.leg.state.or.
us/hayden
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
• Sen. Ron Wyden
405 East 8th Ave., Suite
2020
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: wyden.senate.gov
Phone: (541) 431-0229
• Sen. Jeff Merkley
Email: merkley.senate.gov
Phone: 541-465-6750
S entinel
C ottage G rove
541-942-3325
Administration
Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher
Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207
gmanly@cgsentinel.com
Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216
gsantana@cgsentinel.com
Veronica Brinkley, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1205
vbrinkley@cgsentinel.com
Carla Summers, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203
csummers@cgsentinel.com
Editorial
Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212
dsherwood@cgsentinel.com
Nick Snyder, Sports/Community News Reporter... Ext. 1204
nsnyder@cgsentinel.com
Customer Service
Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200
mfringer@cgsentinel.com
Production
Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... Ext.1215
graphics@cgsentinel.com
Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties:
10 Weeks ....................................................................................$11.50
One year .....................................................................................$43.50
Senior 62+ ...................................................................................33.00
e-Edition year ............................................................................$35.00
Rates in all other areas of United States: 10 weeks, $16; 1 year, $56.50; e-Edition $35.
In foreign countries, postage extra.
No subscription for less than 10 weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30
days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are
non-refundable.
Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.
Local Mail Service:
If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication,
please let us know.
Call 541-942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Advertising Ownership:
All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the
property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without
explicit written prior approval.
Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2019 Cottage Grove Sentinel