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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 2019)
4C COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Garden • OCTOBER 2, 2019 from C1 Some students who have gone through KCC have continued on to get ap- prenticeships through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program. “Most recently we’ve got a student who just got his second part-time job with the county,” said Hall. “His endeavor is to become a full-time member of the county workforce.” Education is also a large part of the program. Many activities involve hands- on learning experiences in various subjects like environmental science and math which has seen students measuring pH levels in soil, identifying plants, building structures for rainwater collection and studying chemical compositions. “He has defi nitely taught me more about plants than any other individual in my life,” Kane said of Hall. Kane joined the KCC last summer and contin- ued working through the following school year and summer break. “It teaches you good work ethic, I think, just being forced to get up and be in the sun for six hours at once and being asked to actually work with tools and do something for Damien Sherwood/Cottage Grove Sentinel several hours straight,” Transition specialist and KCC crew supervisor Matt hall overlooks the garden at Al Kennedy High School, she said. “It takes energy which produces plants and vegetables to be shared with the community and other entities. from you, but it’s also what pass his essential skills particular benefi t from the otherwise. do that.’ It really gives you will be expected from you test, qualifying him for “I’d probably be a su- program as his previous this motivation in your- when you get older. … So graduation. per-senior, ” said Leach. challenges at Cottage self, so it feels really good I think it’s good to give “I passed that on my Aft er dropping out Grove High School saw at the end of the day. ” kids an opportunity to get fi rst try and that’s what I of Cottage Grove High his grades and attendance Montoya also spoke out like that and just get a was really worried about,” School for two weeks, he suff er, putting his future highly of the program’s feel for what it’s like to be he said. “I know I would was told he would have working in the real world.” impact on the area’s youth. at risk. have been pretty discour- to redo a year. Coming to “At CG (High School) “I think it’s really good For senior Haley Mon- aged if I had to do a whole Kennedy changed that. I struggled to get help, ” for the community, ” she toya, working on the KCC other year. … It would “If you have motivation Leach said. “When I came said. “If you go to this summer crew was her fi rst have been a whole diff er- and drive and actually use here, teachers were really school, certain kids might job. ent direction.” all these programs they one-on-one. … If you’re not have certain opportu- “When I fi rst started, Leach’s turnaround is in struggling, they’ll seek you have, you can easily get nities, so you come, you I was really, really shy,” part owed to the experi- credit,” Leach said. out.” make money and you’re she said. “Now I’m really ences he had in the KCC. Leach was struggling Th e personal engage- getting credit for it. … It’s confi dent about myself. “Getting to do such particularly in math and ment Leach experienced really good for your men- Because of the things diff erent things in one met with teachers aft er at Kennedy set him on a tal health, too. ” we’ve done, I can look job,” Leach said. “Some school to get caught up, trajectory he said would Recent AKHS gradu- back and say, ‘Oh, I did which enabled him to then days we were doing trail have been much diff erent that. So I if I did this, I can ate Wyatt Leach found maintenance, some days we were picking weeds for the community, some days we were deconstructing bridges. Th ere was a lot to do and lot of skills we were learning instead of just one set thing like most jobs.” Th e crew jobs taught Leach to use power saws, reciprocating saws, weed eaters and a variety of other equipment. “Th is job taught me how to work long hours outside in boots and full uniforms, being all sweaty and hav- ing to push through,” said Leach. “It’s a really good program because you can learn a crazy amount of things in a short amount of time.” Th e program also gave Leach an appreciation for the work he was commit- ted to. “In the past, I’ve worked at fast food and retail stores,” he said. “What I’ve noticed that was diff erent from most jobs, in this job I really care about my work because I knew it was going toward some- thing I cared about.” Leach plans on enlisting in the military and later using the GI Bill and a $750 OYCC scholarship to pursue interests in zoology or photography. “I actually want to work with animals and do conservation work in the future,” he said. As the summer crew wraps up its projects, Hall is hoping to have a school- year crew ready as soon as possible. “I have an open hiring period, so I hire the school year from now through May,” he said. Looking forward to future projects this school year, Hall is prepared for new challenges. “Who knows what will come up?” he said.come up?” he said. S AFE R OUTES IMPROVEMENT PROJECT DELAYED APPROXIMATELY SIX MONTHS B Y D AMIEN S HERWOOD Cottage Grove Sentinel Construction plans on streets leading to Cottage Grove schools as part of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program hit a snag last month. “Between the surveying and design changes, it’s thrown the project off,” said Public Works and Development Director Faye Stewart. “The project was actually scheduled in the application to be done in February. It looks like the project’s going to be about six months longer to complete provided we can get it out to bid toward the middle to end of September.” SRTS is a nationwide effort to assist communi- ties in identifying and reducing barriers and hazards to children walk- ing or bicycling to and from school through infrastructure improve- ments and safety educa- tion. At an estimated cost of almost $1.7 million, the project will address key safety concerns on five routes to Cottage Grove schools. For most of these routes, safe sidewalks are an issue. A $1,272,143 grant from the Oregon D ep ar t ment of Transportation (ODOT) toward the SRTS program was approved by a City Council vote Jan. 11. In the SRTS grant agreement, the five identi- fied routes are: East Harrison Avenue from South River Road to South 3rd Street; South 4th Street from Central Pacific Railroad to Grant Avenue; Damien Sherwood/Cottage Grove Sentinel Grant Avenue from South A solar-powered stop sign in front of Harrison Elementary School lights up to 4th Street to South 6th warn drivers of pedestrians. to fairly apportion the cost Street; Fillmore Avenue to improve the area storm upgrades.” of such improvements to Now looking at a new between its elementary from South 4th Street to South 6th Street; and and middle schools, the timeline, part of the city’s the abutting properties.” Before the SRTS pro- Taylor Avenue from South city was an obvious con- strategy is to solicit bids at gram’s revitalization, plans a time when contractors tender. 4th Street to South 8th had been in motion to are not in peak construc- The project will not Street. execute this ordinance on tion. only include enhancing The SRTS grant came at “It’s not by design and the targeted roads, mean- fortuitous time for the street safety for cyclists city. After lacking dedicat- and pedestrians, but also desire that the project has ing adjacent landowners ed funding in Oregon for replacing aged water, taken longer to get ready would have had to pay for many years, the SRTS pro- sewer and storm pipes, to bid,” said Stewart, “but all sidewalk improve- gram was revitalized in mainly under a stretch of it might be to the advan- ments. When the grant 2017 with the passage of Fourth Street from about tage of the city that we entered their radar, city the state’s landmark trans- the railroad to Grant might have some folks officials jumped on the looking for winter work opportunity. portation funding pack- Street. “Because of the success and early spring work.” The grant, however, age. of getting this grant from Ultimately, this could does not apply to such Among 112 applica- end up saving on the cost the State of Oregon for tions for the SRTS grant, work. this project, it drastically “Anything that improves to landowners. 24 were selected for fund- reduces the amount that A municipal ordinance the access and commute ing. ODOT’S primary each adjoining property in place since 1999 holds for kids going to school, focus was elementary owner is going to have to Cottage Grove landown- either bikes or pedestri- schools, then middle responsible for pay,” Stewart said. “I really schools and finally high an-wise,” Stewart said. “It ers schools. Because Cottage will not pay for paving or improving adjacent streets can’t give numbers, but Grove had already any of the piping work or and sidewalks that have there’s an overall general assessed and made plans for the water, sewer and fallen into disrepair “and hope that … it’ll be reduced to virtually noth- ing, that the grant will cover the majority of it.” These number won’t become apparent, howev- er, until after the project goes out to bid. If propos- als come back higher than current estimates, home- owners can expect some costs for the project. “And if it comes in less, then that would be great,” said Stewart. “There would be no cost.” The city is working on giving contractors a broad window in which to choose construction times, increasing the chances of more proposals at less costly estimates. Weather permitting, sidewalk work along streets such as Fillmore and Grant that don’t require pipe work could conceivably begin as early as this winter, though the details will have to be negotiated in consider- ation of traffic flow and access. “We would try to have work times that don’t con- flict with the release times of school or the beginning of school,” Stewart said. “We’re going to have to work with the school dis- trict and the contractor to minimize impact.” According to the grant agreement, the project must be completed within three years, giving the project a deadline of Jan. 2022. “I’m really optimistic it’s going to be done by September 2020,” said Stewart, “so it should be a year and half before the deadline.”
