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Wednesday May 27, 2026 | 137 years
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Main Street rebuild reaches finish Budget committee line with community celebration sends
balanced budget to council for approval
CINDY WEELDREYER Cottage Grove Sentinel
Cottage Grove reached a long anticipated milestone on Saturday, May 16, with a community celebration marking the completion of the Downtown Revitalization Project, which rebuilt five blocks of Main Street in the Historic District. Earlier that morning, the Gran Fondo’s 8:30 a.m. mass start sent hundreds of colorfully dressed cyclists west on Main Street for the annual 70 mile ride into the Coast Range. Periods of liquid sunshine punctuated the three and a half hour event that began at 11 a.m. and continued through 2:30 p.m. It featured live music, food, vendors from the South Valley Farmers Market, and thousands of dollars in raffle prizes donated by local businesses. At 11:30 a.m., well wishers gathered at the intersection of Seventh and Main to witness three ceremonial ribbon cuttings. The $6.3 million project was funded through a $5 million federal grant from the Economic Development Administration, awarded through the American Rescue Plan, along with a $1.3 million local contribution. Construction began in February 2025 and wrapped up in December, delivering the district’s first full rebuild in more than 50 years.
CINDY WEELDREYER Cottage Grove Sentinel
Greg Lee Photography
(Top) From left to right, City Manager Mike Sauerwein, EDA Representative Wesley Cochran, Public Works Director Faye Stewart and Mayor Candace Solesbee cut one of three ceremonial ribbons celebrating the completion of the Main Street Refinement Project. City Councilor Randell Lammerman (background) fires a confetti cannon. (Bottom) CGPD’s new bike patrol made its debut at the May 16 Main Street Dedication Celebration. Officers Buckland and Blalack pose with Public Works Director Faye Stewar. The ribbon cutting marked the culmination of roughly 15 years of planning, design and pursuit of
funding to bring the project to life. City leaders and business owners say the improvements, new pavement, wider sidewalks, upgraded utilities and safer crossings, lay the groundwork for renewed investment and a more welcoming Main Street. Public Works Director Faye Stewart, who served as the master of ceremonies, read from a long thank you list of project partners and volunteers before outlining the day’s activities. The three ribbons reflected the groups that carried the project from concept to completion. The first honored city leadership, the second recognized the planning, engineering and construction
teams, including representatives from LCOG, Branch Engineering and Wildish Construction, and the third acknowledged the community partners and organizations that supported the project and the day’s celebration. It was also a “ribbon cutting and confetti moment” for the Cottage Grove Police Department’s new bike patrol to make its community debut. Officers Blalack, Israel and Buckland traveled to Bend, Ore., to attend an 8 hour Bike Patrol Course hosted by the Bend Police See MAIN Page 6
Cottage Grove Garbage Service outlines recycling changes includes recycling, composting and other forms of material recovery across all 35 “wastesheds”. Lane County contributed significantly to that total. The county generated 603,846 tons of material and recovered roughly 319,000 tons, giving it a 52.9 percent recovery rate, one of the highest in the state. Local officials say the numbers reflect strong participation from residents and businesses, along with long standing regional investments in waste reduction and reuse programs. According to a DEQ video, the new law is based on studies and discussions among stakeholders in Oregon’s recycling industry. The outcomes include the creation of one statewide collection list and increased public awareness of what can and cannot be recycled. The law created a system that meets the needs of unserved and underserved
CINDY WEELDREYER Cottage Grove Sentinel
From kitchen counters to curbside carts, Cottage Grove residents will soon sort their recycling a little differently as Oregon launches a statewide list of what can and cannot go in the bin. The statewide update aims to make recycling easier to understand and more uniform across the state. Oregon lawmakers passed the Recycling Modernization Act during the 2021 legislative session as Senate Bill 582, and Governor Kate Brown signed it into law on August 6, 2021. According to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the law was designed to create a Uniform Statewide Collection List, reduce contamination, improve recycling system efficiency and require producers to share responsibility for managing packaging and paper products. IMPACTS OF NEW LAW According to its most recent report in 2022, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) reported approximately 1.7 million tons of material was collected statewide. That total
See GARBAGE Page 6 Courtesy photo
Cottage Grove Garbage Service has produced this new Recycling Guide for customers.
INDEX
The Cottage Grove City Budget Committee has closed its final meeting with a series of amendments that restored funding for community use of the warm water therapy pool, added money back into library staffing, and approved a recommendation for the city council to adopt the 2026 27 budget at its June 22 meeting. The decisions came after weeks of public testimony, a town hall, and repeated warnings from city leaders that the general fund is under long-term pressure. Prior to the committee’s discussion several citizens spoke in support of reallocating funds to the library and one speaker described how rate hikes on the utility bill will be a financial hardship for her and others on fixed incomes. GENERAL FUND PRESSURE Due to property tax limitations, the inflationary costs for wages, materials and services keep rising faster than the city’s fixed rate that feeds the general fund. police and library services consume nearly all of that revenue each year. Budget Committee Chair Greg Ervin opened the meeting by describing the situation as a structural problem that has been building for years. Ervin said expenditures have been outpacing revenue and the city cannot collect additional revenue through traditional means. “The city is now forced to address long standing issues more quickly than expected,” he said. “The community created a charter that promises good roads, police services, clean water, sanitation, parks and a library, but the cost of providing those services continues to rise faster than the money available to pay for them.” Ervin said the city has tried to shift some administrative costs out of the General Fund and into the utilities to better align the cost of services with the departments that use them. He said the allocation was a first attempt and that the city will conduct a more detailed time tracking analysis next year. Even with that shift, he said the committee still had to decide how to fund services that residents consider essential. He told the committee, “We are at a crossroads.” POOL FUNDING RETURNED The annual contribution to the school district owned pool and the library became the two most debated issues of the budget cycle. Both had been targeted for significant cuts in the proposed budget presented by city staff. The staff proposal removed the City’s contribution to the pool and reduced the library’s personnel budget by See BUDGET Page 6
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