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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2021)
4A | JUNE 24, 2021 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 Damien Sherwood, editor | 541-305-1409 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Opinion 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 2021 © 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anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published.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: Making safety a priority In recent years, mul- tiple people have been killed and seriously in- jured in traffic crashes on London Road. All of those crashes involved driving under the in- fluence of drugs and/ or alcohol (DUII) and most involved excessive speeds. The most recent speed data collected in February 2021 identi- fied 36 percent of peo- ple driving over the 55 mph speed limit with the greatest recorded speed at 90 mph. To reduce DUII, speeding and the num- ber of people killed and injured, Lane County has designated London Road as a Safety Corri- dor which doubles traf- fic fines. The designation in- cludes the first seven miles of London Road, from Latham Road to Cottage Grove Reser- voir Road. The dou- bling of fees will be effective July 4, 2021 through July 5, 2023. The Safety Corridor program aligns with Lane County’s commit- ment to work toward zero deaths. In partnership with the Association of Or- egon Counties, Oregon Department of Trans- portation (ODOT), and South Lane Fire and Rescue, Lane County will be guiding safety sheriff ’s office will be working overtime to provide traffic enforce- ment on the corridor. The doubling of fines is intended to deter peo- ple from violating traf- fic laws. Education: Pub- lic service announce- ments, press releases, and other public edu- cation campaigns will be provided throughout the two-year program. From Your Commissioner’s Desk Heather Buch actions on the London Road Safety Corridor. Safety actions include: Engineering: To re- duce head-on collisions, centerline rumble strips were installed in 2019. To increase visibility of the travel lanes, the pavement markings will be upgraded in summer 2021. To reduce road- way departure crashes, guardrails and curve warning signs will be installed in summer 2023. Enforcement: The The education cam- paigns will be focused on behavior change. People will be encour- aged to avoid speeding and intoxication. Lane County is asking the community what they would be willing to do to prevent DUII. An online survey is avail- able at www.lanecoun- tyor.gov/LRSC. Paper copies and Spanish ver- sions of the survey will be available. For more information, contact Becky Taylor, senior transportation planner, becky.taylor@lanecoun- tyor.gov, 541-682-6932. Postcards promoting the survey and provid- ing more information about the London Road Safety Corridor are ex- pected to be mailed to the entire Cottage Grove ZIP code in the coming weeks, thanks to postage and printing costs being covered by a safety grant provided by the Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation (ODOT). We need everyone to make safety a priority. To prevent speeding, please plan travel times realistically. Traveling at safer speeds make the roads safer for our friends and family. To prevent DUII, coordi- nate with friends and family to designate a driver so the person driving is sober. We all want to get home safely. Together, we can prevent traffic crashes. —Heather Buch Lane County Commissioner District 5 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: dsherwood@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Rep. Peter DeFazio (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Oregon federal representatives Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • 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 • Heather Buch Lane County Commissioner - District 5 Email: Heather.Buch@lane countyorg.gov 125 E. Eighth Ave. Eugene, OR 97401 Or call 541-682-4203 S entinel C ottage G rove 541-942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Carla Skeel, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... 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