S ERVING THE S ILVERTON A REA S INCE 1880
50 C ENTS
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A U NIQUE E DITION OF THE S TATESMAN J OURNAL
V OL . 135, N O . 27
W EDNESDAY , J UNE 22, 2016
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
CREEKSIDE CHAT
Trees fundamental to town character
JUSTIN MUCH
APPEAL TRIBUNE
AND MICHAEL
DAVIS
STATESMAN JOURNAL
Local design professional
Gene Pfeifer stopped by Creek-
side Chat on Wednesday, June
15, and brought some personal
philosophy mixed with local
character and historical con-
text with him.
Gene, a designer of 48 years
and lifelong Silverton resident,
harked back to a much earlier,
celebrated resident to illustrate
not only the town’s character,
but how concerns for maintain-
ing that character transcend
generations.
Trees
and
their
adorning
importance were
foremost
on
Gene’s
mind
Wednesday, just
as they were on
Gene Pfeifer
Homer Daven-
port’s well over a century ago.
Quoting Homer Davenport,
Gene shared: “The old oak-
…was a stately giant, and the
early settlers of Silverton
looked a fitting people to group
themselves under it and around
it, and, as I have said, it was the
superb character of both men
and women that made Silverton,
the old town, so distinctly dif-
ferent.”
JUSTIN MUCH / APPEAL TRIBUNE
Silver Creek Coffee House
Gene pulled Homer’s words
from “The country boy: the sto-
ry of his own early life,” which
was published around 1910, but
a few years before his death.
Gene said Homer regretta-
bly continued some pages later:
“…yet I am certain that the pio-
neers, the men and women who
belong to the old oak tree, have
seen in every word I have ever
written or line I have ever
SWEET SUCCESS
drawn pertaining to Silverton
and the farmers around it, noth-
ing but love…My only regret is
that we couldn’t have remained
always the same as we were be-
fore the old oak tree was
chopped down, as that tree
seemed to fit our landscape bet-
ter than open or paved streets
do. The tree seemed to be a cen-
ter of dignity…”
More than a century later
Gene shares that sentiment. As
a designer, he ponders why con-
crete, such as sidewalks, often
win out politically over a vener-
able tree: the latter takes dec-
ades to grow and reach out into
See CHAT, Page 2A
Celebrate
Silver
Falls
history
JUSTIN MUCH
APPEAL TRIBUNE
CHRISTENA BROOKS / SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
Workers at Willamette Valley Pie Company make turnovers.
Willamette Valley Pie settles
into renovated warehouse
CHRISTENA BROOKS
SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
The air smells mighty sweet around
Silverton Industrial Park these days, as
Willamette Valley Pie Company brought
its entire pie making and baking opera-
tion to town four months ago.
Production is rolling on frozen and
baked pies, cobblers and other treats,
with bakery employees working in a ret-
rofitted 67,000-square-foot building in
Silverton. The whole operation moved in
February to Eska Way from the 82 nd Ave-
nue site it shares with Willamette Valley
Fruit Company.
The pie company’s popular retail store
on 82 nd Avenue will remain open along-
side the fruit packing operation.
In Silverton, bakery employees are
more comfortable, production is linear,
and there’s room to expand in the future,
said owner Jeff Roth.
“We’re using the same process, but
now we have more efficiency and more
elbow room,” he said.
In fact, Willamette Valley Pie is cur-
rently using only two-thirds of its new
building – 20,000 square feet is available
for lease. Pie making occurs in a spar-
kling new metal-skinned “building-with-
in-a-building” constructed by CD Redd-
ing Construction and designed jointly by
Food Facility Engineering of Yakima and
Mildred Design Group of Tigard.
The Salem company worked for nine
months to turn the warehouse, previous-
ly owned by Snodco and leased out to
grass seed farmers, into Willamette Val-
ley Pie’s manufacturing headquarters,
said project manager Jeremy Kuenzi.
“This is big for Silverton – to find
someone willing to utilize and repurpose
an existing building,” Kuenzi said.
A custom-built 8,500-square-foot stor-
age freezer was one of the warehouse re-
model’s big jobs. It maintains temper-
atures as low as -10 degrees and required
specialty engineering including a heated
slab floor to prevent cracked concrete,
Kuenzi said.
On the manufacturing floor, now
there’s room for multiple production
lines, with clusters of employees making
a variety of things at once – pies, turn-
overs, cobblers and freezer jams. Also, at
the old location, freezing required an ex-
tended trip by cart; now the freezer is
right there on the floor.
For workers who make 27 varieties of
9-inch pies alone, this makes a big differ-
ence.
“We have the ability to run more lines
… the flow has improved,” Roth said. “In-
stead of pulling machines out of lines, we
have a dedicated line for each product.”
“We’re ecstatic to be in the new facil-
ity,” said Marlene Gunderson, bakery
production manager.
Willamette Valley Pie’s need for more
space became obvious after the Gerald
Roth family sold the fruit-processing
arm of its business to Phoenix-based In-
venture Foods in 2013. The family re-
A one-day outing at Silver
Falls State Park will feature a
little bit of history, a little bit of
music, some family games
and, as planned, a lot of fun.
The seventh annual Histor-
ic Silver Falls Day is sched-
uled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat-
urday, July 9, at the South Falls
Historic District.
Friends of Silver Falls State
Park organizer Lou Nelson
said the event is a celebration
of the history of the area that is
now the park. A rich history it
is.
Nelson itemized the activ-
ities and exhibits on hand:
Model T and Model A antique
cars; demonstrations of an-
tique logging tools; flint knap-
ping; families participating in
old-fashioned games, story
telling of the area’s historic
days and horse logging dem-
onstrations.
Adding to the atmosphere
will be bluegrass music from
the Roundhouse Band and car-
riage rides throughout the af-
ternoon.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Nelson
said. “In the past they’ve
brought in a covered wagon
and gave rides on that, and it
was very popular.”
She said another annually
popular display is the logging
demonstration, showing visi-
tors what it was like to handle
the job in the early days.
Nelson said the event tradi-
tionally has been held over two
days, but this year plans are to
pack everything into one day.
Preparations are underway to
ensure that all activities and
exhibits will be equally re-
warding and prepared for the
single-day show.
Also on tap:
Area historical societies
will have displays in the histor-
ic Silver Falls Lodge, while the
Forest History Center will dis-
play Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC) artifacts and a
See PIES, Page 4A
See HISTORY, Page 4A
Teacher workshops become smarter
ANNETTE UTZ
FOR THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
“Reluctant,” “uncer-
tain,” and “confused”
were oft-used adjectives
when parents and teach-
ers were asked about
their reactions to the new
Common Core school cur-
riculum adopted in Ore-
gon and several other
states in 2010.
Common Core values
represent a shift in con-
centration for both stu-
dents and teachers back
to the basics of English
language
arts/literacy
and mathematics. It is de-
signed to ensure students
are prepared for future
careers, college and
workforce training pro-
grams.
The aforementioned
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adjectives were also
heard when the Smarter
Balanced
assessment
tests were introduced to
measure student pro-
gress in meeting those
goals. The assessments
are aligned to standards
for English language arts
and math and are adminis-
tered in grades 3–8 and
grade 11.
David Bolin, North
Santiam School Dis-
trict Associate Super-
intendent, sees the
move towards Smarter
Balanced Assessment
as an important im-
provement over past
methods of testing.
“Our students de-
serve better tests, ones
that measure high-lev-
See TEACHER, Page 2A
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