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 . 38
W EDNESDAY , S EPTEMBER 7, 2016
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
Woman grabs gun, assaults policeman
Chain of bizarre events leads to arrest
WHITNEY M. WOODWORTH
APPEAL TRIBUNE
A lit cigarette allegedly thrown by a
woman outside the Silverton Communi-
ty Swimming Pool sparked a chain of
events — giving a fake name, grabbing
for an officer’s gun and squeezing anoth-
er officer’s genitals — that led to her ar-
rest Thursday afternoon, officials said.
A Silverton police officer said he saw
Megan Frays, 25, of Salem, toss a ciga-
rette while she was sitting in a car
parked outside the city pool.
A probable cause statement from the
responding officer gave the following
account:
Frays told the officer her name was
Margaret Fitzhenry. The officer, who
recognized Frays, informed her he knew
her name was not Margaret, and she
could be arrested for giving false infor-
mation to police.
She asserted her name was Margaret.
When the officer tried to
arrest Frays, she refused
to get out of her car. She
pulled away from the offi-
cer and reached for her
passenger seat, ignoring
Megan Frays the officer’s commands to
show her hands.
“With the assistance
from other officers (Frays) was force-
fully removed from the vehicle,” accord-
ing to the statement.
She continued to pull away, push the
police officers and threatened to bite the
officers. When they forced her to the
ground, she dropped a knife, then began
kicking and spitting on the officers.
While one of the officers tried to se-
cure her in the patrol car, she first
grasped the handle of his service pistol.
When he forced her to release the gun,
she grabbed another officer’s genitals
and squeezed. The injured officer de-
scribed the pain as a five on a scale from
one to 10 and said the pain lingered for
about two hours.
Officers were able to handcuff Frays
and take her to Marion County jail. She
See ARREST, Page 2A
County
ratifies
$9.8M
agreement
A longer goodbye
CAITLYN M MAY
APPEAL TRIBUNE
PHOTOS BY ANNA REED/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Terri McCarrell, from left, an assistant nurse manager, and Melissa Ngaida, a bereavement coordinator, watch as Roberta Gruber, the
co-founder of Willamette Valley Children's Charity, puts together a CuddleCot donated by the WVCC at Salem Health. The cooled bassinet
allows families of stillborn or short-lived babies to spend more time saying goodbye. The WVCC also delivered a CuddleCot to Silverton
Hospital.
Donation aids
grieving parents
CAPI LYNN
APPEAL TRIBUNE
A local charity made a special deliv-
ery to two hospitals Monday that will
help families who suffer the loss of a
baby.
Willamette Valley Children’s Char-
ity raised nearly $6,000 to purchase
CuddleCots for both Salem Hospital
and Silverton Hospital.
A CuddleCot is a cooling device
used to preserve the body of a stillborn
or short-lived baby so that families
A CuddleCot is a cooling device used to preserve the body of a stillborn or short-lived
babies. A cooling pad is filled with cold water and connected to a cooling unit.
See BABIES, Page 3A
The Marion County Commission ap-
proved a new agreement with employ-
ees that includes cost of living in-
creases for the next four years.
Under the new agreement, employ-
ees will see a 1.5 percent cost of living
increase immediately, 1 percent in-
crease is scheduled for 2017, 1.15 per-
cent in 2018 and 2 percent in 2019. They
also receive improvements to health
care, additional vacation time and in-
centives for both new and long-term
employees.
The agreement will add about $9.8
million in expenses to the county bud-
get over the next four years. The Mar-
ion County Employees Association Lo-
cal 294, part of the Service Employee
International Union, began negotia-
tions requesting changes that totaled
$17 million over four years for approxi-
mately 700 county employees. There
are 5 unions responsible for negotiat-
ing 15 contracts for various Marion
County employees and require sepa-
rate action by the commission.
Employees will receive step in-
creases through 20 years of service.
Previously, increases ceased at seven
years before resuming at 10 and 15
years. Commissioner Janet Carlson
cited the institutional memory of long-
term employees that contributed to the
county and applauded the changes to
longevity.
New employees will now have im-
mediate access to two personal holi-
days and all employees receive one ad-
ditional day of vacation.
While Carlson said employees had
not seen a salary increase in years, she
did note that the cost of living increases
had long term effects.
"When you increase the cost of liv-
ing, it takes the salary scale and it
bounces it up and that becomes the new
floor," she said. "Each of these step in-
creases and market adjustments go
from that so it shifts everything up-
wards so there is a cumulative effect to
this."
Marion County Chief Administra-
tive Officer John Lattimer also said the
financial impacts of the agreement
could be long lasting.
"We know that PERS is going to in-
crease in 2017, by some estimates 20
percent," he said. "In 2020, unless Con-
gress changes it, we face the possibility
of a Cadillac tax. That's a tax on health
systems that are considered better
than average and it's a substantial tax.
I'm very concerned about building up
those layers that are going to get
whacked again with PERS and the Cad-
illac tax."
See WORKERS, Page 2A
Silverton city manager search begins
CHRISTENA BROOKS
SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
SILVERTON – City Manager
Bob Willoughby’s pledge to work
five years before retiring is a
promise kept.
Now the City Council is working
to replace Willoughby, 69, before
he steps down Jan. 31. The nation-
wide search for a new city man-
ager is underway, with last Friday
being the deadline for application
submissions, and a series of phone
interviews next on the council’s
agenda.
“Now we need a city manager
who has a strong public finance
background – finances are still our
big challenge,” Willoughby said.
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
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“I’d also like to see Silverton main-
tain the political organization and
stability that we have right now.”
If the upcoming election is any
indication of Silverton’s political
temperature, things are relatively
cool now. Three council seats are
up for grabs in November, and only
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See MANAGER, Page 2A
INSIDE
Births ......................................3B
Briefs ......................................3B
Classifieds..............................3B
Life..........................................4A
Obituaries .............................3B
Sports......................................1B
©2016
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