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
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“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.
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our community events and scholarship program for 2019.
Judges Choice
1st Place
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1st Place
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2nd Place
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Dan O’s Deer
State Farm
3rd Place
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Elks Lodge
Squatch ‘N Beans
Best Booth
Blazzin Saddles
Team Spirit Award
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Best Hot Dog’s
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Mayors Choice
Blazzin Saddles
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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.
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Golf 1st Place
Golf 2nd Place
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