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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2019)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2019 | 9A School from A8 “We’ve been talking about the bond and what we’re going to do with the bond funds since Septem- ber, which we almost every month reviewed,” Sullivan said. “And this position of Harrison property was al- ways on there. And no one came in to [comment].” At this stage, it is not clear community involvement would have signifi cant eff ect on future board decisions. “Th is is board work,” said Sullivan. “Th is is not a com- munity engagement event. … We did community en- gagement when we went through the whole process of how we passed the bond.” Housing Implications And so the project to sell the old Harrison property moves ahead. Th e school board’s next step will be to put out a re- Plans from A1 a designated jurisdiction. Though the program was once a feature of the Cot- tage Grove community, it gradually lost traction and dissolved years ago. The past few years, however, have seen a resurrection of the program in the Creswell area. South Lane County Fire and Rescue (SLCFR) and the City of Creswell began a Teen CERT pilot program in 2016, encouraging young people in the Creswell area from ages 14 to 20 to learn disaster readiness skills. Along with disaster train- ing, teens were able to ful- fill some of their re-quired community service hours through the program. SLCFR Division Chief Aaron Smith is the program director for the district’s CERT program. “This, currently, will be our third year,” said Smith. “We opened it up to outside Creswell proper as well, be- cause the more the merrier.” The program proved popular enough, with eight participants joining the first year and an additional four the second. With the success of the Teen CERT program in Creswell, SLCFR was convinced it could be suc- cessfully reintroduced to the wider community. “We’ve put some mon- ey in the program and now we’re going to open it up to everybody,” said Smith. The program, which is free to join, is delivered in nine units covering topics such as disaster prepared- ness, medical operations and light search and rescue. The entire course takes about 40 hours to complete spread out over a few months. The program finishes with a di- saster simulation in which members are deployed and try to put their skills to use. Through the course, participants are expected to learn skills such as how to identify hazards, set up treatment areas, work as a team to apply basic fire sup- pression strategies, employ basic medical treatments and perform other duties as needed under the CERT or- ganizational structure. “We even added on there CPR First Aid,” said Smith, “so anybody who goes through the program will be CPR First Aid qualified at the end of the program.” CERT participation in severe disasters has its own limitations, though. Teen CERT members, for ex- ample, were not deployed during the recent flooding disaster in April. “Do we want the CERT team going out to the trail- er park and wading through water that’s moving?” Smith said. “That’s the thing, that’s where you have to draw that line.” However, CERT pro- grams can provide support to one of the key challeng- es faced by the fire district: quest for proposal (RFP) which will request develop- ment plans from bidders, al- lowing the board to choose plans which meet its partic- ular criteria. What exactly these crite- ria will be remains a topic of future discussion and will appear on a future board meeting agenda. “My goal is to get it to the board by our board meeting in September,” said Sullivan. “And it will have stipulations and a process of what it’s go- ing to be.” Top concern for the dis- trict will be fi nding de- velopers who can address the issues with the current building. “Any developer coming in is going to have to come and deal with that building dem- olition and abatement of as- bestos,” said Sullivan. Th e RFP will also ask for design plans which corre- spond with the property’s new R2 zoning. Initially, the school dis- trict had considered re- zoning the property to R3, which permits multi-family units such as apartments or condominiums. With ad- visement from the city and feedback from the board, the district was encouraged to change the property zone to R2 instead, which allows for single family residences and duplexes. “Th ey were very con- cerned with the density that an R3 would be and they felt more comfortable with R2 because of the predom- inance of duplexes, individ- ual homes, cottages, things like that,” said Sullivan. “It fi t into that local footprint.” Ferguson, too, was pleased with the collaboration. “It helped reassure them that the path of rezoning was a better option, that it wouldn’t hurt them fi nan- cially and it would meet the stated needs that the community has,” she said. “I think it was a really great partnership.” In the Cottage Grove’s housing needs analysis, it is suggested that the city build an average of 69 dwell- ing units annually to meet the projected need of 1,379 more units by the year 2038, a number likely unachiev- able if single-family de- tached homes continue as a development trend. Th e site at Harrison has potential to add several dozen units to this year’s tally. “You look at the needs of the district and we have a lack of aff ordable housing for young families and chil- dren,” said Sullivan. “We’ve seen a decrease in our ele- mentary school population over the last fi ve years and that might have something to do with it. I don’t know.” Putting in housing that addresses these concerns may turn out to be the easiest step; developers have already appeared at the doorstep. manpower. “If we can employ and utilize say, 30 more people … they can cover such a bigger area and then con- tact us,” said Smith. “It casts a broader net.” Smith hopes to introduce CERT to the community this fall after a public ques- tion and answer forum this September. “We’ll hold the meeting here in the training room … and find out what kind of interest we really have,” said Smith. One of the challenges of keeping such a program alive is maintaining mem- ber interest, as evidenced by CERT’s gradual fading away years earlier. “We want the CERT team to be more than just, ‘We’ll call ya when we need ya for a disaster,’” said Smith. “If you just have them sitting in the wind and they took the CERT program class seven years ago, the Rolodex is go- ing to be obsolete.” With Teen CERT, SLCFR has used several programs and events such as the Emer- gency Preparedness Fair, Fourth of July celebrations and firefighter breakfast functions as components of its outreach program, keep- ing members involved and connected with the fire dis- trict. Smith is intent on con- tinuing to give CERT mem- bers a sense of community with similar outreach events. “They need to do more than just sit at home at wait for the call,” he said. “We want to create a family dy- namic as well.” Smith is hopeful the pro- gram will provide not only training, but a stronger com- munity cohesiveness that will ultimately serve to aid SLCFR in its mission. “It’s that small piece of the pie that’s missing in the community to supplement our efforts,” he said. different,” she said. Glaspell fears that many households rely too much on government authorities to take care of problems during an emergency and as such emphasizes individual dependence. “Within certain guide- lines they can help to an extent,” said Glaspell of the government bodies, “but they’re not going to be there to help us during an initial disaster. So it’s up to the in- dividuals to be prepared on their own — be aware of their needs and surround- ings. If anything, our snow- storm and some of our flooding taught people that they weren’t ready at all.” Clear plans of action, she said, are critical to resiliency in the face of disaster, be- cause not everyone’s plans may necessarily overlap. “Our city managed their situation exactly the way that their emergency plan Communities Action Response in Emergencies While CERT carries the authority of federal backing behind it, smaller groups, too have come forward to fill in community gaps. One local aspiring non- profit, Communities Active- ly Responding in Emergen- cies (CARE), has ideas of how to provide some foun- dations for the community. “We’re offering pre- paredness opportunities through presentations and we’ll do consultations with folks if they request it,” said co-founder Shiloh Glaspell. “We help them figure out what they need and how to best prepare those supplies.” In contrast to CERT, “ours will be more focused on helping folks get the supplies that they need and help them develop a plan for themselves, because every- body’s lifestyle is going to be Cottage Grove Garden Supply facebook@ greendaygardensupply greendaygardensupply.com M-F 8-6 • Sat 10-4 Sun closed If we are closed and you have a plant emergency call 541-232-1125 541.933.4419 2895 Mosby Creek Road “We had a developer who came in and said he was very excited that it was going to R2,” Ferguson said. “He’s very interested and has actu- ally already started looking at how he would lay out de- velopment on this property.” Considering city and school district leanings, housing in the area would likely fi t an income bracket that can aff ord between $800 and $1,200 per month in rent, according to Ferguson. “Th is would be looking at the group that really can’t af- ford a single-family home on a single-family lot, but can aff ord more than the low-in- come stuff ,” she said, “so it’s going to be in that ‘missing middle’ section.” Cottage Grove’s median household income hovers around $39,000, a demo- graphic which housing of this kind would be able to serve. “I expect this property is going to be developed as a mixture of things,” said Fer- guson. While plans for this site progress toward what inev- itably looks like new hous- ing, those troubled by the region’s identifi ed “housing crisis” may be happy to learn that this development will slake some of the burden off the shoulders of middle-in- come families. For those crestfallen by learning a new community recreation area is that much more distant, the time to protest may well be over; but it does not preclude the voic- es of a community to shape future movements in Cot- tage Grove’s future. New Location! 11-9 Tuesday - Saturday Sourcing Local & Organic ingredients & Making 95% of our Menu Items In House. 338 Main Street, Springfield 541.650.6672 Come see what we are doing and like us on our Facebook Page. Cottage Grove Genealogical Society 700 Gibbs Ave. P.O. Box 388 Cottage Grove, OR 97424 541-942-9570 “Partners in History” See READY 11A Kiwanis of the Coast Fork would like to thank our community sponsors at this year’s fundraising events. Your support of our efforts helped us to not only meet but far exceed our goals to support our community events and scholarship program for 2019. Judges Choice 1st Place People’s Choice 1st Place Blazzin Saddles Blazzin Saddles 2nd Place 2nd Place Dan O’s Deer State Farm 3rd Place 3rd Place Elks Lodge Squatch ‘N Beans Best Booth Blazzin Saddles Team Spirit Award “C” Shift EMT’s Best Hot Dog’s Russ & Elisha Mayors Choice Blazzin Saddles The Cottage Grove Chili Cook-Off and KNND Radio’s Rock, Roll and Rumble Sponsors: CG Historical Guns, Grove Medical Equipment, Commonwealth Financial, FBO Systems, Grocery Outlet, Jim’s Automotive, Jim’s Point S, KNND The Mighty 1400, Les Schwab Tires, Micky’s Affordable Auto, Saginaw Vineyards, Cottage Grove Sentinel, StarFire Lumber Congratulations to the 2019 Winners! Thank you to all teams that participated, you all did a delicious job. The Charlie Stovall Scholarship Golf Tournament Golf 1st Place Golf 2nd Place Golf 3rd Place Big Picture Construction Brad’s Chevrolet Old Boy’s/Arnold Valdenegro 2019 Silverado Pick-Up Brads Chevrolet Hole in One/ $10,000 Holes/ $2500 Putt No Winners this year Sponsors Up to 30% OFF Appliances Up to 20% OFF Power Lawn & Garden PRICES VALID NOW THRU SAT., AUGUST 17TH, 2019 Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-6:00pm | Sat 9am-6pm | Sun 11am-4pm 118 Gateway Blvd., Cottage Grove (Next to Bi-Mart) • 541-942-7377 Allstate –Garden Valley Insurance of Roseburg, Banner Bank-Creswell, Barry Barreau Insurance Service Eugene, Blue Valley Bistro, Book Mine, Brads Cottage Grove Chevrolet, Cascade Home Center, Creswell Chronicle, Grove Medical Equipment, Cottage Grove Sentinel, Creswell Liquor, Emerald Valley Armory- Creswell, Emerald Valley Golf, Evergreen Land Title, Fiddlers Green, Fire Horse Trading, Geomax, Grocery Outlet, Grove Café, Hidden Valley Golf, Horner’s, I-5 Glass, Imagine it Framed, Jack Sprats JDL Construction, Jims Automotive, Kingsford Charcoal, KNND 1400AM, Lane Professional Fire Fighters, Les Schwab Tire, Mickey’s Affordable Auto, Mike Minshall, Oakway Golf, Commonwealth Financial, Point S Cottage Grove, Point S Creswell, Saginaw Vineyards, Sanity Chocolate, Sherry Duerst/Higgins, Sugar Shack Bakery, StarFire Lumber, State Farm Insurance, Territorial Seed Company, The Flower Basket and Gift Boutique, Village Green Resort and Gardens, Walmart, Watson Hole, Willy’s Barber Shop, 6DORQ)LYH0LGGOHÀHOG*ROI&RXUVH0LNH6WRYDOO%HVW/LWWOH3ULQW+RXVH Nathan VanderKley , Markham Electric and Pinocchio’s Pizza Thank You! 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