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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2021)
S ERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF C OTTAGE G ROVE , C RESWELL , D ORENA , D RAIN , E LKTON , L ORANE AND Y ONCALLA C ottage G rove THURSDAY EDITION | OCTOBER 7, 2021 | $1.00 S entinel VOL. 132, NO. 40 • Est. 1889 Your Local News Delivered Your Way: In Print. Online. On the Go! Get an insurance plan —not just a policy. (541) 942-0555 WEATHER Partly cloudy with a high of 62 and a low tonight of 38. Full forecast on A5 IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION Community weighs Mobile Crisis Response program By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Cottage Grove may be on track to see its own version of Eugene’s CAHOOTS program. Community members and re- gional stakeholders met on Sept. 22 to gather input and feedback around the idea of creating a Mo- bile Crisis Response (MCR) team for the area. The virtual meeting was host- ed by the Lane County CCO Ru- ral Advisory Committee in part- nership with Be Your Best, Lane Community Health Council, Lane County, PacificSource Community Solutions and Trillium Communi- ty Health Plan. As a key ingredient in the proj- ect, the Cottage Grove Police De- partment (CGPD) is also serving as a planning partner. In essence, a mobile crisis re- sponse team would provide 24/7 crisis intervention for people in distress experiencing mental health or a situational life crisis. Discussions about establishing such a response team in Cottage Grove have been circulating for years, though not much headway has been made until now. Some of the conversation has been informed by a local mod- el which already works: the de- cades-old CAHOOTS (Crisis As- See CRISIS A8 SLCFR adds automated CPR to inventory CONTRIBUTOR By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel.com DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Last week, South Lane County Fire and Rescue (SLCFR) strengthened its life-saving toolkit with the addition of six LUCAS devices, automated CPR machines designed to im- prove outcomes of sudden cardiac arrest victims. “We’re ahead of [almost] everybody in the county that I’m aware of,” said SLCFR Division Chief Joe Raade. “Even Springfield hasn’t gotten them yet.” The devices aid first responders by performing consis- tent, mechanical CPR on patients, freeing responders to do other work. While strapped to a patient and performing chest com- pressions, the LUCAS machine continues working even as the individual is tilted to the side or transported to another location, guaranteeing uninterrupted compression. Battery-run, the machines can continue compressing for a couple hours. Once in an ambulance or hospital, they can plug in and run indefinitely. The LUCAS chest compression device can provide consistent, automated CPR for victims of cardiac arrest. See CPR A9 Steve Kleiner Home coverage A3 SPORTS & REC Warriors elevate their play B1 • RECORDS Obituaries Official releases A2 • LORANE NEWS A5 • CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices B5-B6 follow us for the latest news: /CGSentinel @CGSentinel Creswell airport to receive nearly $3.3 million in federal funds Oregon’s Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merk- ley announced last week that Hobby Field Airport in Creswell will receive about $3.3 million in fed- eral funds to reconstruct its runway as well as rebuild its runway lighting and airfield guidance signs. “The City of Creswell Airport is very excited to receive this grant,” said Shelley Humble, airport manager. “The airport’s runway is 34 years old and it is critical to complete this rehabilitation project. Creswell Airport is a major component of the Oregon’s Aviation cluster linking travel throughout the Wil- lamette Valley. Completion of this project will allow the airport to continue as one of the busiest general avia- DAMIEN SHERWOOD/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL See FUNDS A7 The Creswell Hobby Field Airport will use its federal funds to complete some much-needed reconstruction. SLSD vaccination rate nears 90 percent ahead of deadline By Damien Sherwood dsherwood@cgsentinel. com 541- 942-3325 ph • 541-942-3328 fax P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424 Vaccination rates among South Lane School District (SLSD) staff have reached 88 percent, said Superin- tendent Yvonne Curtis to the SLSD board on Monday (Oct. 4). The latest report comes as a statewide deadline to vaccinate educators draws closer. On Aug. 19, Governor Kate Brown announced that all adults in K-12 school campus communities and all healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18. SLSD prepared by put- ting together staff surveys this school year, hoping to gain insight into who is al- ready vaccinated, planning to get vaccinated or may be asking for an exception by the deadline. “The good news is we have a large percentage of people vaccinated,” said Curtis. There are currently about 367 people vaccinated in the district — about 88 per- cent — with the remaining 12 percent either request- ing exceptions or deciding to become vaccinated. Among 416 staff sur- veyed, initially 47 requested exceptions and 11 said they would not be vaccinated or ask for an exception. Of the 47 asking for ex- ceptions, 39 are classified workers, mostly in trans- portation and food service. Eight certified staff mem- bers requested the religious exceptions, though two are now retiring. A handful of religious See SLSD A6 170 Melton Rd. Creswell, OR • (541) 658-5301
