COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2020 | 11A
Blackstone to speak at
CG Historical Society
Highway 99 improvements boring beginning
DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
PHOTO COURTESY COTTAGE GROVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A parade takes place along Main Street in Cottage
Grove, past the bank building in the 1950s.
The Cottage Grove His-
torical Society will host its
next meeting this Saturday,
Jan. 18, with Cottage Grove
Bank Building owner and
developer Len Blackstone
speaking on the history of
the bank building.
The talk will begin at 10
a.m. at the Cottage Grove
Community Center, 700
Gibbs St.
Zone
from A9
“We want to act in ac-
cordance with that law,
of course,” he said. “If it
turns out to be complete-
ly unethical or unlawful,
we want to know.”
What Next?
Whatever the implica-
tions, a consensus seems
to exist on the need for a
solution.
Howell said she has
noticed a tendency
for speeding along the
The event is free and
open to members of the
community. Coffee and
donuts will be served and
there will be an opportuni-
ty to tour the bank build-
ing afterward.
For more information,
contact publicity coordi-
nator Katy Vaughn at 541-
946-2000.
stretch in front of Great
Days.
“There are buses and
[drivers] still don’t slow
down,” she said.
Meyers described the
road as an enticing place
to speed.
“This all goes to how
drivers react to the en-
vironment around them
for what speed they
travel,” he said. “River
Road is a good example:
a pretty straight wide
street with a pretty good
shoulder on it and the
lanes are wide. As a driv-
31157 Kenady Lane, Almost 7 Acres,
Timber, Year Round Creek, High End
Updates and Amenities
On Jan. 9, crews bore 25 feet into the subsurface of travel lanes on Oregon
Route 99, gathering samples to examine the condition of the existing road. The
sampling is the first step in a new project in Cottage Grove to improve safety
and traffic flow on OR 99 from Woodson Place to the Coast Fork Willamette
River, a short section of road that connects homes to shopping and services.
The existing four-lane section will be redesigned to have a one-vehicle travel
lane in each direction with a center turn lane. Sidewalks with ADA ramps, bike
lanes and a crosswalk with a rapid flashing beacon will also be added. Planning
is underway, with construction scheduled for fall 2021.
Trashion Show seeks participants
The community is invited for a
Trashion Gathering of Creative Souls
as planning for the Opal Theater’s
2020 Trashion Show begins.
Designers, models, artists, busy
bees and other interested parties are
er, you go faster.”
The stretch River
Road from Main Street
to Woodson Place is
mostly unimpeded by
stop signs, driveways or
intersections.
Gagner proposed that
the stretch needs a speed
consistent with an area
highly concentrated by
young people.
“If you’ve got a
20-mile-per-hour school
zone in front of the high
school, then one certain-
ly needs to be there, too,
in my opinion,” he said.
Howell also felt the
street would benefit
from such a speed limit.
“Twenty [miles per
hour] is great,” she said.
“It slows people down
and they have enough
room to stop.”
The somewhat recent
addition of a crosswalk
at the site has been one
tool in combating the
speeding.
“It was a good thing
we put the crosswalk in
— just about a year and
half or two years ago —
and that’s helped,” Mey-
ers said.
Before the crosswalk,
“it was terrible,” said
Howell.
As other means to
encouraged to attend the planning
meeting on Sunday, Jan. 26, begin-
ning at 4 p.m. at the Opal Theater,
513 East Main St. in Cottage Grove.
For more information, call 541-
623-0513 or visit opalcentercg.org
curb hurried traffic such
as speed bumps are off
the table, the city has
courted with an option
that may have reper-
cussions far beyond the
community.
“We’d have to actually
go through the state leg-
islative process to get the
law changed,” said Mey-
ers. “We’ve got some
ideas, but we want to sit
down with our legisla-
tors and say, ‘What do
you think? How would
people feel on this if we
tied it to funding sourc-
es — if we tied to num-
ber of kids or size of the
school?’ Some of those
could be an area that
could be going that way.”
A significant challenge
in changing the statute
lies in creating an appro-
priate definition, howev-
er.
“The intent probably
is, with the state law,
that they don’t want all
of those [daycares] rec-
ognized as schools,” said
Meyers. “Then you’d
have a school zone every
four houses through a
neighborhood. We be-
lieve the intent is to try
to restrict that to some-
thing that is an actual in-
stitution.”
Opal hosts 16mm
Film ‘The Primitives’
this Saturday
The next 16mm Film Night at
the Opal Center will highlight
films from the first decade of
motion picture history on Satur-
day, Jan. 18, beginning at 7 p.m.
In the beginning of motion
pictures, there were inventors,
photographers,
mechanics,
showmen, magicians, actors and
adventurers who — with vary-
ing degrees of imagination and
entrepreneurism — were the pi-
oneers of modern cinema.
Saturday’s program brings to-
gether a sampling of their works.
Highlights will include the early
films of Edwin Porter, Lumière
Bros., Thomas Edison, Georges
Melies and Cecil Hepworth.
Brief introductions place the
films in context, preceded by a
newsreel and cartoon. This is a
one of a kind 16mm film show
that should not be missed by any
cinema enthusiast.
The Opal Center is located at
513 East Main Street in Cottage
Grove.
For more information, call
The Opal Center at 541-623-
0513.
Finding that right bal-
ance will be part of the
conversation if the city
moves ahead with the
idea.
“We need to figure out
how to define that and
not create another situa-
tion,” said Meyers. “We’ll
meet with our legislators
and see how receptive
they are. They might
have some thoughts as
well.”
Howell posited that
certain centers could
qualify by attendance.
“If they go to the state,
I think there should be a
limit of how many chil-
dren attend in a building
for education purposes,”
she said. “Probably at
least 15.”
This year, however, is
the Oregon Legislative
Assembly’s short session.
During short sessions,
which take place every
even-numbered
year
and last no more than 35
days, senators can intro-
duce one piece of legisla-
tion and representatives
two.
Getting the school
zone statute on a legisla-
tor’s wish list, then, may
not be a viable option
this session.
Another pathway ex-
ists in changing the stat-
ed speed limit on River
Road, however it would
require the city to appeal
to the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation
and go through a speed
study. The process may
not guarantee the city
getting its desired speed.
Short of changing the
statute and the speed
limit itself, a strategic
navigation of the law has
even been floated as pos-
sibility, even if fancifully.
A potential loop-
hole exists in which the
school district may pur-
chase the land and sell it
back to Great Days, thus
qualifying the land as
being “previously owned
by a school district” in
accordance with the
state statute.
“It’s an option,” said
Meyers. “But it’s not as
legitimate as trying to
make it really fit.”
Howell agreed the
solution is not ideal.
“I would rather have
the state tell me that
we’re a school,” she said.
“I always felt that we
were a school. Especially
since we’ve got that des-
ignation from the De-
partment of Education.”
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