The Cottage Grove city council met in a packed house Monday night to discuss the hot button issues in town: the proposed homeless shelter and Community Health Clinic.  The meeting audio was piped into the city hall lobby and extra chairs were placed in the hallway to accommodate the crowd.[Read More…]

COTTAGE GROVE – The City of Cottage Grove is still trying to figure out how to shelter its homeless population.  In an ongoing conversation, though a short meeting by Grove council standards – only two hours long – council covered a lot of ground, reviewing legal sticking points and discussed a[Read More…]

COTTAGE GROVE – What was sure to be a decisive evening on Monday turned into yet another stalemate: Cottage Grove City Council voted to suspend its rules in order to dodge a decision on the construction of a homeless shelter on Highway 99 near the industrial park. It will now[Read More…]

RYLEIGH NORGROVE / THE CHRONICLE – City manager Richard Meyers, left, and mayor Jeff Gowing discuss homelessness with a crowd at the Cottage Grove town hall. COTTAGE GROVE – With nearly 250 people in attendance, community members, local leaders and advocates gathered in the Cottage Grove Armory on April 5[Read More…]

RYLEIGH NORGROVE/CHRONICLE PHOTOResidents watch a presentation on homelessness at last week’s town hall in Cottage Grove. COTTAGE GROVE – On Monday, April 11, nearly a week after Cottage Grove’s Community Town Hall on Homelessness, the city council met to discuss the outcome and impact, the ripples and the ruffled feathers,[Read More…]

Editor’s Note: Dana Merryday wrote this tribute story through interviews with friends and family of the late William “Bill” Welt.  COTTAGE GROVE – William “Bill” Welt was a worker. He liked to work hard, had a tremendous amount of pure grit, and really thrived when he had a lot of irons[Read More…]

Photo / Teri McCoy – After the fall, with grandsons Joe and Jacob for scale. Last week while on a 10-mile hike on the Row River Trail, one of our scouts said, “We are getting close to where the Indian Wedding Tree used to be.” That reminded me of hearing[Read More…]

First Pinewood Derby, 1953. One of the most exciting and enduring traditions in Cub Scouting is the Pinewood Derby. The Cubs and their parents work together to build a racecar out of a 7-inch-long block of wood (pine, of course) and 4 plastic wheels held on by nails. The Derby[Read More…]

Nation’s first Arbor Day celebration Nebraska City, NE, April 10, 1872, 150 years ago. Photo courtesy Arbor Day Foundation. This year is turning into a colossal tree year. First off, there are anniversary years for Arbor Day (150 years), and the Arbor Day Foundation which is celebrating five decades of[Read More…]