SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 46
SECTION A
OCTOBER 16, 2015
$1.00
Councilor Ryan rips transit
KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy
Allan Pollock, general manager of Salem-Keizer Transit, presents
information about route changes at a Keizer City Council work
session on Monday. However, information he presented later
about funding drew the ire of councilor Amy Ryan.
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
The intent of Monday’s
Keizer City Council work
session was to hear from Sa-
lem Keizer Transit offi cials and
board members about recent
transit route changes and pos-
sible future plans.
Those items were indeed
discussed.
They were overshadowed,
however, by criticisms about
information regarding the
proposed payroll tax on next
month’s ballot being shared.
Councilor Amy Ryan, a
small business owner who has
been vocal in her disagree-
ment over the proposed .21
percent payroll tax, voiced
repeated concerns about the
process.
Salem-Keizer Transit gen-
eral manager Allan Pollock and
Bob Krebs, president of the
transit board,
discussed what
Phase 2 of
the
Moving
Forward plan
would bring if
funded: week-
end
service,
Ryan
later
week-
night service
and a student pass program for
middle school and high school
students.
“It’s a program we had sev-
eral years ago,” Pollock said.
“When the funding went
away, the program went away.
But it was a highly successful
program. We provided nearly
one million rides a year to stu-
dents in this program.”
Krebs pointed out the .21
percent proposed payroll tax is
much smaller than the .7 per-
cent payroll tax in the Eugene
area for Lane Transit District,
which has the services Salem-
Keizer Transit would like to
have. The main funding for
LTD is $31.5 million from the
payroll tax.
That discussion got Ryan
going.
“It was my understand-
ing we would discuss phase
1 and changes made,” Ryan
said. “We were told no de-
cisions would be made, we
would take no stand and we
would not discuss the budget.
I would like to express my
frustration. I do feel after this
presentation the opposition
should get a chance to meet
with us. They were not invited
to the meeting.”
Mayor Cathy Clark ac-
knowledged some of the slides
shown by transit leaders have
been used to promote the bal-
lot measure.
An aging fl eet of vehicles
has left KFD in the lurch more
often than it would like in re-
cent years. One of its ambu-
lances, the newest one, spent
nine months out of service in
2013, putting KFD offi cials
in the position of borrowing
equipment from Salem Fire
Department to maintain ex-
pected coverage.
“We chose not to purchase
the top-of-the-line vehicle
when we purchased it in 2008,
but we’ve also put more miles
on it than we ever intended
because it was the fi rst-out
vehicle when the older two
were in for maintenance,” said
Jeff Cowan, Keizer fi re chief.
The situation became so
dire over the summer that the
Fire Board opted to use some
operational funds to order two
new ambulances. The fi rst will
be owned outright by the dis-
trict. If the bond measure fails,
the second one will be con-
verted to a lease for $20,000
per year.
Please see KFD, Page A12
KPD cop honored
for Putnam case
Submitted
Chris Nelson (left) from the Keizer Police Department was
honored last week for his work on the Laurin Putnam drug case.
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
As far as he’s concerned,
Chris Nelson and others were
simply doing their jobs under
less than ideal circumstances.
Still, the Keizer Police De-
partment detective and Garrett
Roelof were recognized Oct.
8 with an award presentation
ceremony at the United States
Attorney’s Offi ce in Portland
for their investigation in the
Laurin Putnam case. Putnam,
21, died of heroin overdose in
April 2012, but the investiga-
tion led to 10 drug traffi ckers
being arrested.
Kathleen Bickers, the assis-
tant U.S. Attorney who prose-
cuted the case, presented Nel-
son and Roelof their awards in
a large conference room full
of federal prosecutors. Bick-
ers noted it was the most suc-
cessful Len Bias investigation
in the history of the Portland
offi ce.
Bias was the second pick in
the 1986 National Basketball
Association draft but died of a
drug overdose shortly after. In
1988, Congress passed stricter
drug laws known as the Len
Bias Law.
Please see NELSON, Page A7
PAGE A2
Please see RYAN, Page A6
Chief explains Taking
the KFD bond the bump
of brain
injury
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The Keizer Fire District is
seeking to raise $6.2 million
over the next 20 years to re-
place aging equipment with a
general obligation bond mea-
sure on the ballot this Novem-
ber.
The measure, No. 24-389, is
expected to have an estimated
average rate of about 14 cents
per $1,000 of assessed prop-
erty value. For a home valued
at $200,000, the homeowner
would pay $28 per year.
The bond will replace a
1996 measure approved by
voters to pay for the Keizer
Fire Station, which will be
paid off in February 2016. The
average rate on that bond was
16 cents per $1,000 of assessed
value.
“We very specifi cally didn’t
want to add one bond on top
of another so we timed this
one to come online after the
bond for the fi re station ex-
pired,” said Joe Van Meter,
president of the Keizer Fire
Board.
Transit tax
discussion
Trucker is a
true diamond
PAGE A5
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Keizerite Thomas Lucas was working toward a career in pro wrestling when a car-on-bike colli-
sion left him with a traumatic brain injury. He's now pursuing his GED, and a job.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
There is one memory of
his budding pro wrestling
career that survived Thomas
Lucas’ traumatic brain injury:
getting a piledriver from the
vertically-challenged Dink the
Clown.
“He showed up while I was
in Portland and he was one of
the main coaches for the pro
wrestling school there. He was
teaching us how to take a head
bump like when someone’s
piledriving you,” said Lucas,
25. A “bump” is pro wrestling
parlance for a fall.
Lucas’ path to this point in
his life has had many twists
and turns, but he’s got the type
of persona you can see taking
a mic and calling out his next
opponent in front of television
camera. Even battling with his
memory problems, he can fi ll
a room with his easy-going,
open-to-it-all attitude.
He credits WWE’s Mick
Foley for his own calling to
the squared-circle rope opera.
“He sacrifi ced his body for
the fans, and he proved you
didn’t have to have six-pack
abs or 24-inch pythons,” Lu-
cas said. “It didn’t matter if he
was the disturbed Mankind
or the lovable, sweet hipster
Dude Love, he always kept me
watching.”
Given the big personalities
and shock-and-awe theatrics
of pro wrestling, Lucas got a
bit of a wake-up call when
he went to wrestle with the
Boys & Girls Club as a fi fth
grader in Arkansas. The fi rst
day of practice he learned no
one would be going through
a table.
“I fi gured it was a start.
Normally, a wrestler won’t
win his fi rst year. What’s im-
portant is learning the moves
and building off that. I scored
one victory my fi rst season
and the adrenaline from that
just kept me going. I went in
and was undefeated for the
next season and the four sea-
sons after that,” Lucas said.
It was while wrestling for
Boys & Girls Club that Lu-
cas had one of his more eye-
opening matches.
“I wrestled a match with
a kid from the school for the
blind. It was cool watching
people with differing abili-
ties and learning how to start
matches and keep hand con-
tact with him so he knew
where I was at,” he said.
For reasons he wouldn’t
realize until much later, it was
a match that had an indelible
impact on him.
Lucas moved back to the
Pacifi c Northwest as a sopho-
more in high school, but kept
on wrestling. He learned in his
junior year that he was likely
to be held back and decided
to drop out.
“After I dropped out, I
was going to go to JobCorps
and study welding, but then I
heard about a wrestling school
in Portland. I learned how
to sign up, but it was $100 a
week,” Lucas said.
He talked it over with his
father, James, who he credits as
his biggest role model in life,
and decided together to give
it a shot. Before starting, Lucas
wanted to take a trip to visit
family in Arkansas.
While visiting, Lucas start-
ed coaching other high school
wrestlers and discovered an-
other school offering lessons
in pro wrestling for half the
cost.
Please see LUCAS, Page A7
Get 'em started young
Mary Opra,
left, helps her
grandniece
Charlotte Rae
Bauer, 22 months,
with lunch at the
Keizer Chamber
of Commerce
luncheon Oct. 13
at Keizer Quality
Suites.
KEIZERTIMES/
Craig Murphy
Celts notch
big win
PAGE A8
Homecoming
Court at MHS
PAGE A12