Tag: Territorial Highway Project

Sweet Lorane Community News, November 19, 2020

November 19, 2020Newspaper Columns, , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
November 19, 2020
By Pat Edwards

Lane County’s Public Works Department has issued another update for November on the Territorial Highway’s “Stony Point” project. Here is the text of what was sent to us this past week:

“Lane County’s primary goal this winter is to maintain safe travel through the construction site for all users.

“Construction is still underway at this time but varies based on weather conditions. We anticipate construction will shut down for the winter within the next month.

“The contractor is currently armoring the embankment on the north end of the construction site. There is noticeable road deterioration in this area and the armoring should prevent further decline. A large slide is not anticipated as this area is also supported by the tie-back stabilization system that was constructed early this summer. Additionally, the traffic signal has been moved further north and the length of the single travel lane has been extended to encompass this area.

“County staff and the contractor will continue to monitor the project site throughout the winter to ensure the road stays safe to travel.”

Much of the road through the work area has now been made into a single lane of traffic with either flaggers or a traffic light at each end. This has made those of us driving through it feel much safer as large cement dividers keep us away from the precipitous edges of the road, but we are finding that this week, since the length of the single lane has been extended and while flaggers are being used, the waits have gotten to be 20 to 30 minutes in length before cars at one end or the other are allowed to proceed. Residents who have posted about the long waits on Facebook suggest that anyone planning to go through that area add another half hour to their travel time schedule to ensure they get to appointments on time.
Another comment to that posting helped to explain that the long waits were caused by “the equipment working right next to the road needing to swing out into roadway while working.”
In any case, it appears that the actual work will only proceed for a short while longer before it is halted for the winter. At that time, the wait at traffic signals will be adjusted to shorter periods.

Like so many of you, our family is having to adjust our Thanksgiving plans this year. Those who know us have heard about our big family get-togethers here at our house, but we have decided to sacrifice this year’s celebration of thanks and family to help ensure that we can all be together next year. I’m going to put the big turkey in the oven as usual Thursday morning, and our two daughters, Gloria and Michele, and our son Rob, will come over in the afternoon to help Jim and me with the rest of the big meal. When it’s all prepared, each will take enough food to their own homes to feed their own small family groupings. Before we eat separately, however, all of us will join together with our daughter, Kelly, in Arizona, and other close family members at their own homes by Zoom so that we can say grace together and give our thanks for all that we do have and have been blessed with. We usually hold hands around our big dining room table to say grace, but this year, we’ll be connected in our hearts.
I am going to miss snuggling our babies and reading to our older great-grands as well as visiting with their mamas and papas so much this Thanksgiving Day, but we all feel that it’s something that we need to do, not only for ourselves, but for the health of our communities.

May God bless each and every one of you this holiday season. We are all in this together and if we do what we must now, our future Thanksgivings can return to true celebrations of thanks and love.

Sweet Lorane Community News, October 29, 2020

October 29, 2020Newspaper Columns, , , , , 2 Comments

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 29, 2020
By Pat Edwards

I begin this week’s column with a heavy heart. Two days ago, we learned of the sudden and tragic death of a good friend. Life-long Lorane resident, Charles Drullinger, was killed in a farming accident on October 27. Charles and his wife Phyllis have two adult children, Jeff and Jan, who went to the Lorane and Crow schools with our own daughters and son. Jim and I have attended many football, volleyball and basketball games, track meets, school carnivals and programs, 4-H club meetings and other social events with the Drullingers over the years.

Phyllis and Charles Drullinger; Long-time members of the Lorane Grange

Before his retirement, Charles was a department manager for Sears Roebuck when it was located in downtown Eugene before later moving on to work at Jerry’s Home Improvement Center; Phyllis was a pediatric nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital. He was a kind, gentle and quiet man who was deeply respected by those who knew him. Both he and Phyllis have been active members of the Lorane Christian Church for many years—most, if not all, of his life, in fact. Charles, with his best friend, Bob Hing, was an avid sports fisherman, and they spent many years together, drowning worms.

Charles will be sorely missed and my heart goes out to Phyllis, Jeff, Jan and the rest of their family this week.

A lot of progress is being made on the Territorial Highway Project at Stony Point the past few weeks. A traffic light has been installed and a concrete barrier has been erected so that one way traffic can proceed in a single lane around the worst part of the existing road that has no shoulders. What they are calling “the big fill” is showing some progress below where the new, less curvy route is being built. The new arrangement has alleviated a lot of our nervousness in driving in the area where there were not only any shoulders, but where traffic had to be navigated at the edge of steep drop-offs just on the other side of the fog lines. Thank you, Lane County!

Lorane residents have been commenting all week about the thousands of blackbirds and starlings that have been lining all of the utility lines and ground along the straight stretch of Territorial as it passes the King Estate Winery. We discovered that their presence was also related to other comments from many of us that our power was breaking off almost every day for a couple of seconds at a time—just long enough to make us have to reset our clocks each time. It seems that the birds have been attracted to the grapes at King Estate that were not picked this year because of being tainted by the wildfire smoke and ash in September. We’ve been told by Lane Electric that the weight of so many of them sitting on the lines have been shorting things out. Apparently the smoke-flavored grapes could not be used for wine, but the birds didn’t seem to mind at all.

After working on this year’s 2020 Groundwaters anthology (“The Year of Crises” issue) since August, Jennifer Chambers and I have finally been able to send it off to Amazon.com for distribution. The huge project this year contains the work of 79 local writers and poets and many of the stories and poems were about the pandemic, protests, wildfires and general difficulties faced this year by all of us. I offered to donate one to the BRING Recycling “100-year Time Capsule Project” and they eagerly accepted it. It will be buried in the time capsule with other memorabilia from 2020 by BRING and won’t be dug up and opened until 2120. How exciting!

Sweet Lorane Community News, October 15, 2020

October 15, 2020Newspaper Columns, , , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 15, 2020
By Pat Edwards

The increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Lane County and all over the country necessitates that we continue protecting ourselves and our loved ones as best we can. Wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing, and not seeing our loved ones as often as we would like are taking their toll on many of us, but we cannot let up our vigilance. The first three things have been easy for Jim and I to assimilate. They are simple inconveniences that seem almost natural to us when we are out and about these days. The hard part is not being able to spend more time with our son and daughters; our grandchildren and great-grands. We still get together—outdoors—maybe once a month or so for special events, and Jim and I get to hold and cuddle our babies and ration ourselves to quick “hello” and “goodbye” hugs from the other “littles” while maintaining distance from the adults. Jim and I know that each of our family members are as careful as we are around others and if they have any doubt about possible exposure to the virus or have symptoms, they would not expose us or the rest of the family. Now that we are getting into the fall season, however, we need to be even more careful… even around each other.

The groups in Lorane that hold events have made hard decisions about whether or not to try to proceed during this pandemic and a couple have come up with ways to hold them while still staying within the CDC guidelines.

The Lorane Christian Church continues to meet each Sunday. The members have the options of coming inside the church for services as long as they wear masks and social distance. They are also given the option of participating in the service in their cars, parked in the parking lot outside, while listening to it on the car radio on FM 89.1. Before the service, Pastor Dave Langstraat and his wife Heidi, spend time circulating among the cars while masked and welcome attendees and take any prayer requests from them.

The church’s membership is planning to host its annual Trunk ‘n Treat event on Halloween night between 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the church’s parking lot. For those attending, masks are required and candy and goodies that will be handed out to trick or treaters from the trunks of cars must be sealed in individual ziploc bags. Hand sanitizer and/or disposable gloves will also be used.

Another annual fall series, the Rural Art Center’s Lorane Movie Night may or may not happen. The RAC board of directors canceled its initial October movie and is currently discussing whether or not they will try to offer future ones in the 2020-2021 season under CDC guidelines.

Last week, I provided an update on the plans for the Territorial Highway Road Project at Stony Point. As of this writing, truck travel between Hamm Road and Cottage Grove-Lorane Road will be restricted with the exception of those making local deliveries to the Lorane area. This past weekend, traffic lights were set up, covering 600 feet of roadway, to regulate one-way traffic through the most hazardous part of the construction. We ask everyone who is driving through that area to use caution and respect the other drivers who are also having to share this very difficult portion of the road.

We’ll soon be only 2 weeks away from a very important Election Day. Please! Remember to VOTE!… and send in your ballots early.