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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2019)
CGSENTINEL.COM 3 WEDNESDAY EDITION | AUGUST 28, 2019 | $1.00 S entinel C ottage G rove Est. 1889 VOL. 131, NO. 34 P OSTAL C USTOMER C OTTAGE G ROVE , O RE . 97424 S ERVING C OTTAGE G ROVE , D ORENA , D RAIN , E LKTON , L ORANE AND Y ONCALLA Your Local News Delivered Your Way: In Print. Online. On the Go! PERSONAL | BUSINESS BENEFIT PLANNING | SURETY Territorial Highway project gets green light By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel.com (541) 942-0555 PayneWest.com /Cottage-Grove WEATHER Sunny skies with a high of 95 and a low tonight of 62. Full forecast on A5 COMMUNITY The Lane County Board of Com- missioners approved the Territorial Highway project Aug. 20, marking a significant step in the project’s multi-year development. “The success of this project has been, and will continue to be, the result of all of us working together to realize these needed improve- ments,” said the county’s Senior Transportation Planner Becky Tay- lor in a statement. The highway project is a result of many years of input and coordina- tion with a community of residents, bicycle riding groups, freight com- panies and other stakeholders to discuss ways to address safety con- cerns on the 5.7-mile stretch of ru- ral road. Meetings with these groups indi- cated a shared desire to protect the natural environment and preserve the rural character of the roadway while softening sharp curves and widening the shoulders. The project is slated to be com- pleted in four phases over four sum- mers. Phase 1 will begin in the summer of 2020 at a midway section of the highway, which addresses a land- slide hazard at Stony Point and See PROJECT 6A AKHS mural marks milestone for Kennedy By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Library celebrates Summer Reading A3 SPORTS — B CGHS teams take to the field B1 • RECORDS Obituaries Police Log A2 • LORANE NEWS A5 • CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices B6-B7 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : Students at Al Kennedy Alterna- tive High School (AKHS) are enter- ing the year with a new face on their school. A mural depicting the AKHS logo and forested surroundings now welcomes visitors at the school entrance, marking a milestone in the school’s transition into its rural setting. “It’s kind of symbolic that we have a home now,” said Principal Kim Scrima. “Having this, kids can start that ownership process again.” The mural bears significance in light of the school’s tenuous first two years at the location. “It’s been kind of a rocky transi- tion,” Scrima said. In the last three years, the school has not only seen three different principals, but struggled with some of the logistics of a new site. When the school moved from its @CGS ENTINEL CGS ENTINEL . COM location in town to its current site in Delight Valley, the space was initial- ly shared with Head Start, putting pre-school and high school youths on the same campus, which re- quired fencing to be put up in some parts of the school. Then, as part of the Harrison El- ementary School transition, Kenne- dy’s greenhouse at the old Harrison site was demolished and various ob- stacles have so far prevented a new one from being installed on the new site. Additionally, well water for the school’s garden, which requires at least a year of monitoring before be- ing allowed for use, had prevented the garden program from being ful- ly realized. However, the school has since found ways around the issue with water tanks and a rain catch- ment system. Now entering its third year at its See MURAL 9A Armed suspect shot, killed by LCSO deputies Last Friday, Aug. 23, shortly before 10 p.m., the Lane County Sheriff’s Offi ce (LCSO) received a report of a dispute between a male and a female at the 37000 block of Row River Road in Cottage Grove. Deputies responded but were un- able to locate the male and the fe- male. Saturday morning (Aug. 24) at approximately 1 a.m., the Sheriff’s Offi ce received two 911 calls re- porting that the involved male and female were back at the location in a dispute again. Deputies respond- ed to the location and were initially unable to locate the involved female but received information that the in- volved male was in an outbuilding on the property. Deputies used a loudspeaker in attempt to get the male to come out of the outbuilding. After several minutes the male, later identifi ed as 34-year-old Larry Leonard Lowry Jr., exited the building and came at deputies with a large, fi xed blade knife. Deputies shot Lowry as he ad- vanced on them. Deputies per- formed CPR for several minutes un- til medics arrived and pronounced Lowry deceased. The Sheriff’s Offi ce would like to thank the multiple law enforcement agencies that responded to assist. This incident is being investigated See LCSO 6A SVRA helps fill gaps among The Grove’s most hungry By Sophia Edelblute /CGS ENTINEL PHOTO BY DAMIEN SHERWOOD The new mural was painted over the summer by AKHS graduate Samantha Kelsey and WIOA Transition Specialist Heather Lawson. sedelblute@cgsentinel.com 541- 942-3325 ph • 541-942-3328 fax P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 It’s a good feeling to enjoy a fi lling meal, but some don’t have that opportunity as often as others. South Valley Resource Alliance (SVRA) is looking to change that. SVRA could be characterized as an up-and-coming food distribution group, having started in early 2019, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing all they can to help. Working with donations, the group dedicates the fi rst and third Friday of every month to a food sharing event held at the Cottage Grove Community Center, which is organized by Sara Simochko and executed through the help of numerous volunteers. The group is a partner agency of Food For Lane County (FFLC), one of 157 that distribute food. To qualify as a partner agency, a group must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofi t or be umbrellaed under an agency with that status. SVRA is still in the pro- cess of receiving nonprofi t status so, for the moment, it works under Another Way Enterprises (AWE) of Cottage Grove. The Rotary Club ŽƩĂŐĞ'ƌŽǀĞ UPCOMING AT OPAL CREATIVE CHAOS: SOMEWHERE IN TIME Show Times September 13, 14, 20, 21 show at 7:00pm September 15 and 22 show at 2:00pm According to Karen Edmunds with FFLC, the food the organi- zation receives for distribution to partner agencies comes from a vari- ety of sources. Local businesses do- nate about 43 percent, with 25 per- cent contributed from Oregon Food Bank, 27 percent coming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, four percent from local food drives and the remaining one percent com- ing from miscellaneous sources. SVRA collects food from Food For Lane County and transports it 513 E. MAIN ST. COTTAGE GROVE, OR 97424 5 41 . 6 2 3 . 0 51 3 TICKETS AVAILABLE ON-LINE OR AT THE CRAFTY MERCANTILE OPALCENTERCG.ORG Welcomes the Rotary Friendship Exchange Team from Rotary District 3850 Central Philippines See FOOD 7A Investigation concludes in Dowens fi re By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Offi cials at the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) have concluded that the Dowens Road Fire, which occurred on May 10 just outside Cottage Grove, was not directly hu- man-caused. “The cause of it was a branch coming into contact with the power lines,” said Michael Curran, unit forest- er with ODF’s South Cas- cade District. “It is import- ant to note, though, the tree that had the branch fall to cause the fi re was outside of the power line right of way.” The 75.6-acre blaze took four days to contain, destroyed one residence, threatened several others and prompted a Level 1 Evacuation to be issued be- tween Dowens Road and Shoreview Drive by Lane County Emergency Man- agement. Within two hours of be- ing reported, a full comple- ment of agencies including ODF, South Lane Fire and Rescue, Eugene-Springfi eld Fire, Coburg Fire, Lowell Fire, Lane Fire Authority, Harrisburg Fire, Lane Coun- ty Sheriff’s Offi ce, Lane County Search and Rescue, Lane County Emergen- cy Management, Cottage Grove Police and Oregon State Police were on the scene to battle the blaze and direct residents to safety. At least 86 emergency response personnel were in- volved in the event. Meanwhile, three heli- copters on six-hour shifts took turns dropping water on the fi re while two bull- dozers helped build contain- ment lines along the fi re’s fl anks. By 10:30 p.m. on the day of the fi re, the threat to homes had been mitigated and the sheriff’s offi ce lifted the evacuation notice. No deaths or injuries re- sulted from the fi re. Fires caused by power lines have caused immense devastation lately in North- ern California. In late 2017, power lines owned by Pa- cifi c Gas & Electric were blamed for 18 related deaths and a dozen Northern Cali- fornia wildfi res, including the infamous Camp Fire which burned up the town of Paradise. One of Oregon’s largest power companies, Pacifi c Power, has said it will con- sider shutting down electric- ity during extreme weather events to avoid wildfi res, though only “as a last re- sort,” the company said in a press release in June.