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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 2020)
8A | THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2020 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL BMD from A7 Weeldreyer said was repre- sentative of the increasing efficiency of the group. “We’ve been doing this for so long now, since 2012, that it has become a much tighter, well-run event. We’re really getting better at producing it,” she said. “We had a great time and we hope everyone else did too.” At-risk residents find ‘Safe Haven’ (Originally printed Oct. 23, 2019) This May, Cottage Grove Safe Haven opened the city’s first transitional home for women recover- ing from addiction. Five months in, the nonprofit is still looking for more resi- dents. The ‘Booher House’ — named after Darrell Booher, the former own- er of the house who was also in addiction recovery — came to the nonprofit amid a challenging search for property in the Cottage Grove area. After Booher passed away, his surviving family, aware of the group’s mission, happily agreed to let Safe Haven use his property. Safe Haven board mem- ber Billie Bird is the cur- rent ‘house mother’ at the Booher House. “There’s nothing else like it in Cottage Grove,” she said of the program. Though the project has garnered a degree of local popularity and support, only two women in recov- ery currently reside in a space which can house up to six. Resident Heather Thompson is the first to use Safe Haven’s services. Earlier this year, Thomp- son had her own business and was engaged to be married in Tacoma, Wash., when her brother’s sudden death at age 29 brought her back to her hometown of Cottage Grove. After at- tending the funeral, she felt compelled to stay in town. “I couldn’t find it in my heart to leave my family because they were so dev- astated,” Thompson said. Thompson fell into a pattern of smoking mari- juana to excess and keep- ing her pain suppressed regularly with alcohol. It wasn’t her first experience with substance abuse and its return caused a rift be- tween Thompson and her fiancé in Tacoma. Before long the two were split. Desperate to extricate herself from the situation, Thompson chose the soli- tude of homelessness over the steady downward tra- jectory of her social en- vironment. For a month, Thompson lived and de- toxed in her car, sleeping in parking lots. In a desperate bid for help, Thompson appealed to social media for support or guidance. In a turn of fortune, someone posted the phone number of Safe Haven. Thompson was vetted over the phone and stayed in a warm bed that night. Now, she says, her chil- dren have told her that she speaks more positively about life since her sober living began. “My kids are very proud that I got clean,” said Thompson. Thompson is currently back to work pursuing her career as a nursing assis- tant. “I can see it going a lot of good places for me in the future,” she said. A few days after Thomp- son took up residence in the Booher House, Leah (her last name has been withheld) became the house’s second resident. Nearly a decade ago, Leah’s son died of amyo- trophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable and progressive neurodegenerative dis- ease that causes gradual loss of muscle control. He succumbed to the disease within a year of his diag- nosis. By her own admission, Leah was no stranger to al- cohol abuse, but the loss of her son catalyzed the habit into something more deep- ly pathological. “Ever since then I’ve been trying to drink myself to death,” she said. “I found this place when I was at my wit’s end. This house and AA (Alcoholics Anon- ymous) have given me a whole new outlook on life. It used to be the tunnel was dark. Now I see light at the end of the tunnel.” With only two residents, the nonprofit is operating in the red on a monthly ba- sis and fundraising efforts have not been as fruitful as they would have liked. Ide- ally, Safe Haven will soon take on four more women. “There’s a drastic need in Cottage Grove for this,” BINGO COUPON COTTAGE GROVE ELKS LODGE 755 North River Road Information 942-3554 PUBLIC WELCOME Every Wednesday (except Holidays) Warm Ups 6:30pm Regular Games 7:00pm Frequent Smoke Breaks, Exciting New Game Program “Bingo Burger Menu” Available 2 PROGRESSIVE JACKPOTS Bring this coupon and receive a 2nd Warm-up Pack FREE CG said Leah. “And if they can help me turn my life around, they can do it for just about everybody.” KNND settles into new home (Originally printed Sept. 11, 2019) For the second time since its inception, local radio station KNND has found a new home in Cot- tage Grove. The move marks a deep- er imprint for the station in the city, an imprint which has already met the test of time as the station has long retained local appeal. “Most radio stations, you listen to them and they’re either getting syndicated programming from across the country or it’s all just canned stuff,” said station owner Cameron Reiten. “But here, we have live programming seven days a week.” First broadcasting in 1953 from the rodeo grounds on Highway 99 under the callsign KCTG, the station later moved downtown around 1975 to 321 E Main Street, where it had stayed until recently. “It was a good arrange- ment over the years. It worked out well,” said Re- iten, who has owned the station since 2013. “Over the years, it had been re- modeled, changed and fine-tuned until it was a very smoothly functioning studio.” Last year, however, the station’s lease with the Odd Fellows was up and the fra- ternity opted to do some work on the building. Af- ter conferring with their counterparts in the Metro area, it was suggested that the rent price was unrea- sonably low and it should be raised to a level the group felt was more con- sistent with current market conditions. “Two to three times more than what I was pay- ing,” said Reiten. Fortuitously, Richard and Brenda Conklin, own- ers of the AGS Automotive building on Main Street, had been trying to sell their building since the passing of Brenda’s father, the pre- vious owner, two and a half years earlier. “Nobody wanted to buy it,” Richard said. “We tried everything to sell it and nobody would buy it.” Richard saw an opportu- nity and offered the build- ing to Reiten at a greatly reduced price. The purchase was a sig- nificant move not just for the station, but for Reiten himself. As a 16-year-old high school intern, Reiten be- gan his career at KNND in 2003. “I wanted to get into ra- dio. I’ve always had a love for all things radio and electronics,” said Reiten. “When I was a kid, I’d tear stuff apart and put it back together and fix stuff.” With the move complet- ed the station can turn its attention to a plan that has been in motion since last year: KNND FM. Broadcasting on FM will enable the station to in- crease advertising revenue and reach a broader client base. “So I think the future for this radio station is really bright,” said Reiten. “Not Live Music Every Friday 6 to 9 pm || No Cover Charge Jan 3 • Lonesome Randall Old Rock Jan 10 • The Fiddlin’ Big Sue Band Suegrass Jan 17 • Heavy Chevy Lite Classic Rock Open Daily 11am for Complimentary Tasting 942-1364 X www.saginawvineyard.com 911 E. Main St. Cottage Grove 541.649.1188 Open 24 Hrs. LOWEST PRICES ON BEER, CIGARETTE, ICEE’S AND MILKSHAKES 18 Pk. $13.99 + Dep. 16oz. TURNING 65 AND NEED HELP WITH YOUR MEDICARE CHOICES? 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