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SMALLTOWN PAPERS
5026 CALIFORNIA AVE SW
SEATTLE WA 98136-1208
I,11
Serving the Sweet Home community since 1929
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Vol. 7'9, No. 9
75 Cents
Games raise funds to fight cancer
Brinden Sanders, above, center, shows off the results of his run-in with a
cream pie on the final day of the Battle For The Sexes at Sweet Home High
School. The boys got the pie treatment after the girls, showing off the
check with the money the two teams raised, beat them in a two-week-long
fund-raising series of competitions. The boys raised money for prostate
cancer while the girls collected funds for breast cancer through a series
of efforts that included collecting pop cans, a coin drive, movie night at
the Sweet Home pool, ticket sales for a Valentines' Day dance and doing
lots of games. The total raised was $1,153, as indicated on the check. For
more on high school activities, see page 8.
Photos by Sean C. Morgan
By Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
In an effort to build on the results
of the assessment of Sweet Home's
business district by two experts in
downtown renewal on Jan. 29, city
and Sweet Home Economic Devel-
opment Group officials are planning
two meetings for those interested in
deciding what to do next.
The first meeting will be Tues-
day evening, March 4. A second is
planned for March 20.
Pam Silbernagel of the Oregon
Cascade West Council of Govern-
ments and Vicki Dugger, executive
director of the Oregon Downtown
Association, spent a day in Sweet
Home on Jan. 29, talking with lo-
cal residents and business people,
circulating through the downtown
area and then reporting back to some
40 residents, city officials and busi-
ness owners gathered at the Police
Services Conference Room in the
evening.
Dugger and Silbernagel de-
scribed the downtown appearance as
"worn, blighted, cheap and tacky,"
with an "unhealthy" business dis-
trict. They said they thought Sweet
See Future, page 5
nce-ln-=
me view
Photo by Scott Swanson
A total eclipse of the moon, coupled with the rare bonus of a "broad
triangle" with the planet Saturn on the left and the bright star Regulus,
at top, could be seen Wednesday evening, Feb. 20, from Sweet Home.
The event lasted nearly three hours, greatly bothering some dogs in the
photographer's neighborhood (and under his bed). According to the
Web site www.space.com, this is the only time in the next millenium that
the broad triangle would be visible during a lunar eclipse.
SHEM seeks new home
By Sean C. Morgan a better location.
Of The New Era Two days after Christmas, she
Sweet Home Emergency Minis- received a phone call telling her the
tries is busier than ever but doing well contribution would be doubled if the
financially, according to Executive board could come up with another
Director Peggy Blair. $5,000 in matching funds by the end
Now it's looking for a new oftheyear.
home. "Everyone got on the phones,"
"In December, we had an anony- she said, and they raised the match-
mous donor come up with $5,000," ing funds for SHEM. "So we do
Blair said. It had a stipulation that
the money had to be used to move to See SHEM, page 3
warned
.ryl dangers
By Scott Swanson "I walked up and talkced to the They were very cold, shaking." Trahan said when he asked what
Of The New Era student and I could tell stomething When Trahan pressed them to tell the student had taken, the Student told
Police and fire officials are warn- was wrong," Trahan said. him what they had taken, they told him that it was a runoff effect from
ing teens against misusing over-the- Assuming that this wa'~s abuse of him it was Benadryl. Trahan called the day before. But when he called
counter drugs after several episodes at a controlled subject. Traham said, he medics and they transported the stu- Samaritan Lebanon Community Hos-
Sweet Home High School involving started escorting the student to his dents to the hospital where they were pital emergency room staff, they told
Benadryl overdoses, office. On the way, he noticed another eventually released, him there was no way the carryover
School Resource Officer John student sitting on the floor with other The next day, one of the students could take that long, he said.
Trahan said he first became aware students attempting to help. who had been taken to the hospital Trahan said last week that he's
of the problem a couple of weeks "They were shaking and there came' to Trahan and told him that aware of five cases of Benadryl
ago when someone approached him would be a delayed reaction when their friend,the other student who had overdoses, including one handled by
and told him a student was acting I'd ask something," he sMd. "Their been transported the day before, was
strangely in the hallway, pupils were different tha~n normal, hallucinating on Benadryl. See Benadryl, page 5
Flu bug hits
local schools
By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Upset stomachs, coughing, vom-
iting, fevers - Sweet Home has had its
share in recent weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
says she and her colleagues think this
busy flu season has reached its peak,
and the number of students and staff
missing school in Sweet Home last
week was lower last week than the
week before.
Still, School District 55 officials
think the flu has hit the district and
community unusually hard this year,
in keeping with a nationwide trend.
"We've had a high percentage of
students and Staff absent over the last
week or two," District 55 Supt. Larry
Horton said Thursday. "It appears as
though it's a cross between the flu
and a cold. Some people have cold
symptoms. Some have flu symptoms,
and some have both.
"It seems as though it's starting to
get better. This week was better than
last. We have turned the corner, I think
it's safe to say."
The district had 315 students out
of 2,053 absent on Feb. 11. The next
day, it had 159 absent, but on Feb. 19,
See Flu, page 7
Photo by Gary Graham
Firerighters in reflect?ve suits, right, battle afire in a motor home that was reported at 9:37p.m. Saturday night
at 1183 23rd Ave. Filre officials said the blaze is still being investigated and referred questions to the police.
Police Chief Bob Burford said an officer visited the address to check on one of the residents, Angela Glover,
39, who appeared to 1have been assaulted. While talking to Glover, the officer noticed that the RV was on rire
and called in the Swe,et Home Fire and Ambulance District, Burford said. Another resident, Danny Mink, 47,
told officers he and Glover had had a verbal argument earlier but that he was not home at the time of the rire,
the chief said. He said Glover had visible injuries, which she blamed on a rght in a bar, though she did not
identify the person she allegedly had fought with. Bur~brd said she gave "multiple accounts" for the rire and
her injuries. He said she told officers she had returned home and noticed flames but thought they were coming
from a burn barrel. "We don't really know what took place, what led up to the fire - whether it was intentional
or accidental," Burford said. "It's under investigation." The RV, he said, appeared to be uninsured.
