COTTAGE GROVE — On Oct. 9, the Cottage Grove Community Center hosted a full house for city council and mayoral candidates. Candidates fielded questions about residents’ top concerns, including navigating homelessness, job growth, and effective ways to budget taxpayer dollars.
The Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the event. Cameron Reiton, Beeper Show host and owner of KNND, and Jeremy Ruark, editor of The Cottage Grove Sentinel, co-moderated. During the first half of the evening, Reiton read questions selected by the Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee, while in the second, Ruark read audience-submitted questions.
“As far as the government and its decisions have an impact on our day-to-day lives, this is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak,” Reiton said.
All candidates voiced similar viewpoints about the city government’s role in Cottage Grove’s economic development. Common themes included maintaining the cleanliness of city streets, increasing housing accessibility, and implementing a specialist through grant funding to research areas of improvement that are barring new businesses from calling Cottage Grove home.
“We are in the Willamette Valley and encircled by wineries, and yet we do not have any on our Main Street,” said Candace Solesbee, mayoral incumbent and candidate. “This is something a recruitment company, like this person, can go out and attract into our city.”
Solebee’s opponent, councilor Dana Merryday, voiced concerns about the city’s lack of housing and how it has affected attracting potential businesses and residents.
“The Cottage Grove Development Corporation attempts to promote and develop new businesses that support the Chamber of Commerce. They’re also the current plan with what is known colloquially as Project Sparrow, which will involve attracting a clean energy that will provide up to 70 jobs,” Merryday said. “Our teachers, firefighters, and police officers find it difficult to live in our town because of housing. So housing is a key element in attracting workers and being able to house them in our community.”
Candidates were asked about the use and ownership of the Cottage Grove Armory at 628 E. Washington Ave., a hub for local events and activities. In a hypothetical question from the audience, candidates were asked whether a private entity could continue to host activities year-round or if the candidate advocated to sell it for other development. The National Guard sold the historic 1931-era building to the City in 2010.
While all candidates were adamantly against selling the building, Randell Lammerman, prospective Ward 2 city councilor, described how personal the Armory is to him.
“If it weren’t for that armory, I probably would’ve never met my wife,” Lammerman said. “I was in the last (military) unit to call that armory home. I remember doing a lot of stupid stuff in that building. I remember walking out on the front steps, holding our weapons, getting ready to mobilize, and the community getting behind us and supporting us. It was a sad day when the state decided to decommission that building as an armory. It was awesome when the city decided to invest and buy that building. I’d hate to see it go to a private entity because it might not stay the same.”
Kevin Adamski, Ward 1 city councilor hopeful, also expressed positive sentiments about the building.
“I support the Armory. It really looks nice, and I see more uses out of it than there have been in the past,” Adamski said. “It’s a good thing.”
Christine Hyink, Adamski’s opponent at the polls, did not participate in the forum.
Other topics needed more resounding responses. Resources and services for people experiencing homelessness saw differing stances.
Candidates outlined the services and resources they believe the City should be providing to the unhoused.
Chris Holloman, councilor at large candidate, shared a personal story that aided his viewpoint.
“I lost my brother about three years ago,” Holloman said. “He was a lifelong alcoholic and drug addict. A lot of people say, ‘Well, it’s about housing.’ He had $5300 tax-free added into his bank account every month, so he could certainly afford housing. But the issue was sobriety,” said Holloman. “If he wasn’t in a period of sobriety, you couldn’t have a conversation. And so, that’s really the key. Trying to house them without a barrier, sobriety, is futile.”
Jim Settlemeyer, Holloman’s opponent, took a more neutral stance.
“I could tell you what I would think was ideal, but that isn’t representing the entire community. Perhaps we need to open this up like people have suggested. We need to hear ideas,” Settlemeyer said. “I don’t think anybody’s come up with a really good answer yet. I think it would spread like wildfire.”
Greg Ervin, the incumbent and sole candidate for Ward 4, mirrored Settlemeyer’s stance on seeking further community opinion.
“Each aspect of the community will have different philosophies on what is most necessary and will be free to give those. I would like to see that door spread wide open and let the community come to the decisions and then tell the city cohesively through a vote, on ‘This is what we agree to part with our tax dollars to support,” Ervin said.
Richard Andrew, vying for the second councilor at-large candidate, described his experience sitting on the board of a homelessness task force in Lodi, Calif., that specialized in providing resources for mental health, drug addiction, and housing solutions. Andrew conveyed concerns about the disparity between Cottage Grove’s size and its unhoused population.
“You’re getting people that are from out of state, from Canada, maybe a different country. You know, these are people that are just stragglers. It’s one thing to help a homeless person born and raised in this city and help them develop the skills and trade or try to adapt to their value of trying to understand how they can be housed. But as said before, some of them don’t want to be housed,” Andrew said. “I’m not looking down on them, and I’m not bad-mouthing them, but it is a problem, and I think Cottage Grove needs to make a stand and say, ‘This is not a place to dwell.’”
Darrel Wilson, one of Andrew’s opponents, voiced frustration surrounding the cost of a recent homeless camp cleanup.
“One of the major issues surrounding the homeless population is mental health and drug addiction, and having a partnership with private industry that is actually good at providing those services, that is something that we should look into as a city,” Wilson said.
“Actually, inviting more of them is not the solution. Giving them land that should be used for its original purpose to set up tent cities, is just not, in my opinion, the best solution. It is more of an attractant, as we’ve recently seen a cleanup that had to be done around the Cottage Grove Speedway area that is costing a local business owner 10s of 1000s of dollars to clean up,” he said.
Patrick Cartwright, the third candidate vying for this seat, did not participate in the forum, while candidate Bernie Donner has reportedly dropped out of the race.
Candidates provided a wide range of answers to the evening’s questions, and decorum was maintained by all in attendance.
View the City of Cottage Grove Local Voters’ Pamphlet to learn more about the candidates.