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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: Accepting what homelessness isn’t criminals, we insulate ourselves from the reality of homelessness, and how close we all are from a life without shelter. Truth be told, nearly half of Americans live less than two paychecks away There are a lot of from the kind of financial things we’re proud of as crisis that could lead to Oregonians: homelessness. The scenic beauty we That’s not the kind From the Managing Editor’s Desk are constantly surround- of stereotype we want Ned Hickson ed by. to think about, but one Our generally progres- we have to be willing to sive thinking on import- accept in order to affect ant issues. half of Oregon’s homeless faces we often avoid. The the kind of change that Being outside of Cali- will, in turn, change the fact is, more often they families (60.5 percent) fornia. are without shelter, either are those whose faces we lives of so many of our Yet, amid all the things living on the street, in homeless in Oregon. recognize each day but about Oregon that make cars or in tents within While the bigger solu- who never say a word us proud, there’s one that scenic beauty I men- about their homelessness. tion to solving home- thing I find it hard to lessness in Oregon will They are mothers and tioned earlier. admit about my beloved As much as we want to fathers, sons and daugh- require more than dona- state. While homelessness tell ourselves that most tions of food and cloth- ters. They are students, has declined around the of the homeless are drug cooks, part-time employ- ing, our willingness to nation, Oregon contin- ees, unemployed veterans acknowledge the home- addicts, criminals or ues to have the highest and senior citizens faced less in our community suffering from mental percentage of homeless by offering support is an disorders, the fact is more with deciding between families with children. important step toward than half of the homeless medication, food or Between 2017 and 2018, living without shelter shelter. achieving something else the number of homeless By stereotyping the we can all be proud of as in Oregon — more families decreased in 41 homeless as addicts or Oregonians. than 7,000 — are either states across America while, in Oregon, we experienced a 2.5 percent increase — the fifth high- est in the nation. Right after California. According to a report released last November by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than school-aged or displaced veterans. Before we can tru- ly address the issue of homelessness, we must be willing to understand that the majority of those who are living their lives without a home aren’t those on the street whose 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 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 LETTERS Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Visions of the future and historic value I had the good fortune Saturday evening to attend the Mayor’s Ball, a fundraising event for the contin- ued reconstruction and update of the historic National Guard Ar- mory in downtown Cottage Grove. Th e event was opened with Th e Jewel Tones singing the old stan- dards from the 1930s and 1940s. Th ey were accompanied by Blue Sky Big Band, who aft er the fund- raising event and dinner, continued to play for the enjoyment of the many people who enjoyed dancing. Th e keynote speaker for the event was Maj. Mary Jennings He- gar. Maj. Hegar fl ew over 100 com- bat and rescue missions in Afghan- istan as a helicopter combat pilot. In addition to her Purple Heart that she was awarded for injuries in combat, she is the only woman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal, other than Amelia Earhart. We witnessed a historic event, as the mortgage was shredded on stage. Th e Armory is now solely owned by the citizens of Cottage Grove! For those of us who are rural, and the neighbors to the north and south, in Drain and Creswell, the Armory, in years to come, will off er so many venues that we can all par- ticipate and enjoy. For instance, very shortly, roller skating will return to the Armory. Th e Armory brings back many memories to me, and I’m sure to many, young and old, in the area. For so many years, Rotary held the annual Christmas party at the Ar- mory. In those years, Ivan Hoyer and I would photograph up to 350 young ones on Santa’s lap. Th e citizens of South Valley have so many wonderful things to be proud of, such as the covered bridges, the beautiful bike trails, recreational lakes, and soon to open an updated rebuilt swinging bridge, and not in the too distant future, a beautiful 1929 restored carousel. Many of the above items have been brought about through volun- teerism, fundraising events, such as the Mayor’s Ball, and visions of a few people of the future, and love of historic value. —Don Williams, Founder and President, Friends of the Cottage Grove Carousel Where’s the money? A news item in The Sentinel (“The Bonds to Finance Various City Projects,” Oct. 9) indicated that the City of Cottage Grove is in the process of offering bonds for sale to the public in the amount of $6,765,000, and that of these funds — several millions of dollars — will be spent in various upgrades to wa- ter projects. My most recent billing from the city was for a total of $146.61. The amount for water was $59.88. The remaining $86.73 was distributed among five other items. I presumed that that $86.73 was to be deposited in various sinking funds so that those funds would be available when the need arose in the future. In the 14 years that I have resided inside the city, I have paid several thousands of dollars to the city for such an eventuality, and I presume that so have at least several other customers of the city water department. The sum should have amounted to much more than the value of the recent bond offerings. My question to the City of Cot- tage Grove is: What has happened to those dollars? —Herbert Dean Ball, PhD Cottage Grove Editor’s Note: Rep. Cedric Hayden is coming for a Community Meeting in Dore- na on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m., at the Row River Christian Fellow- ship, 37553 Row River Rd., Dorena. Rep. Hayden was involved with some rescue and cleanup efforts during last winter’s snowstorm and will be talking about an Emergency Action Plan. I encourage commu- nity members to attend and be a part of this important discussion. 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... 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