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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2016)
S ERVING THE S ILVERTON A REA S INCE 1880 50 C ENTS ● A U NIQUE E DITION OF THE S TATESMAN J OURNAL V OL . 135, N O . 42 W EDNESDAY , O CTOBER 5, 2016 SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM Silverton police arrest man on child porn charges WHITNEY M. WOODWORTH STATESMAN JOURNAL A Marion County man was arrest- ed Thursday for encouraging child sexual abuse by downloading and possessing child pornography, ac- cording to court records. A grand jury indicted Ronald Heigh, 49, on five counts of first-de- gree encouraging child sexual abuse and two counts of second-degree en- couraging child sexual abuse. According the indictment, Heigh is accused of duplicating and down- loading photos depicting explicit content involving child abuse from November 2014 to November 2015. A warrant was issued for his ar- rest Wednesday, and he was detained by Silverton police the next day, tak- en to Marion County jail and held on $120,000 bail. His arrest came almost 18 months after Silverton police began investi- gating him, officials said. According to court records, agents with the Oregon Department of Justice were also involved in the investigation. Ronald Heigh Rain dampens Oktoberfest tally CHRISTENA BROOKS SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE MT ANGEL – The booths are gone, the music halls are empty and the streets are quiet again. Now Oktoberfest organizers are counting the money made at the Sept. 15-18 festival and preparing, as usual, to give away tens of thousands of dol- lars. After last year’s record atten- dance, they presented $91,000 to 45 or- ganizations from more than 10 cities. In November, they’ll announce this year’s festival giveaways. It’s too early to tell exactly what the total will be, but it’s not expected to reach last year’s levels. Neither will the festi- val’s 50 food booths best last year’s gross earnings of $700,000. “It rained on Saturday – all day – and that’s always a tough one for us,” said Oktoberfest marketing director Monica Bochsler. “We are certainly affected by the weather. Our venues are covered areas, but we understand who really gets impacted by rain are all our great food booths.” If there’s good news, it’s that until Saturday’s downpour, attendance was tracking with the past few years’ up- ward trend. An estimated 325,000 people came to eat, dance, sing, shop and enjoy the celebration of all things German. That number is usually 350,000, Bochsler said. “Overall, it was a great year,” said Oktoberfest board president Chris Bischoff. “If the weather had cooper- ated on Saturday, we could’ve been really close to last year.” Until its Nov. 17 meeting, the board will be counting its money, deciding what expenses to pick up (last year, it voted to make double payments on the Festhalle mortgage) and picking recipients for the profits. Grant appli- cations are available at info@oktober- fest.org. “Grant applications are happening now,” Bochsler said. “We try to sup- port that grants that come in.” While 2016 was a “quieter year,” it still was a memory-maker, she said. This was the first and only time that the town’s Glockenspiel, giant musi- cal clockworks housed in a restaurant of the same name, featured a new col- lection of military figures. The wood- en figures, roughly half life-size, were each accompanied by songs re- corded by Z Musikmakers. The Glockenspiel’s 10-year-old tra- ditional German figures were on dis- play in a tent below for Oktoberfest visitors see. For the first time, party- goers were able to examine the char- acters that usually “play” in the clock up close and personal. “Everybody wanted to have their pictures taken with Papa Oom Pah. He’s like Santa Claus!” said Henri Dill, one of the three owners of the Bratwurst with sauerkraut is a festival favorite. PHOTOS BY DANIELLE PETERSON / STATESMAN JOURNAL Festivalgoers brave the rain during the 51st Mount Angel Oktoberfest on Saturday, Sept. 17. The four-day festival celebrates the harvest, features live music, Bavarian-style food and beer. See FESTIVAL, Page 2A Oregon wildfires down significantly ZACH URNESS STATESMAN JOURNAL Despite dry conditions and sum- mer temperatures on the warm side, Oregon enjoyed one of the least damaging forest fire seasons of the past decade. Wildfires torched 186,317 acres in Oregon this year, the lowest total since 2010 and well below the 10- year average, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center. Forest fires are down nation- wide as well, with 4.9 million acres burned, compared to last year’s record-setting 10 million acres blackened. “We’ve seen significantly less fire activity than last year,” said Jessica Gardetto, spokeswoman for the interagency fire center. Even human-caused fires are down in Oregon. People caused 910 fires and burned 126,409 acres this season, down from 1,397 fires and 139,483 Online at SilvertonAppeal.com NEWS UPDATES PHOTOS » Breaking news » Get updates from the Silverton area » Photo galleries acres burned in 2015. There is still the chance of fires popping up during October. How- ever, no large wildfires are active in Oregon and most fire restric- tions have been lifted after cool and wet conditions on the state’s west side. A major reason for the overall improvement was the lack of dry lightning strikes this summer, offi- cials said. Silverton Spotlight $574,900 OPEN HOUSE! Remarkable Spaces-Inside & Out! 609 Shadow Ridge Ct. Silverton, OR 97381 Sunday, October 9th, 1-3 pm 5bd/2.5ba ~ 3999 SqFt ~ .54 ac MLS#705306 Robin Kuhn 503-930-1896 $419,900 Charming Style ~ Great Location! Beautifully detailed Craftsman near Coolidge park! 4bd/2.5ba ~ 2692 SqFt ~ .24 ac MLS#707574 Marty Schrock 503-559-9443 $249,900 Secluded Sanctuary right in Town! Awesome yard, RV Parking, cozy wood stove, & more! 3bd/1ba ~ 1152 SqFt ~ .17 ac MLS#710463 Jackie Zurbrugg 503-932-5833 See WILDFIRES, Page 3A INSIDE Births ......................................3B Calendar ...............................2A Classifieds..............................3B Life..........................................4A Sports......................................1B ©2016 Printed on recycled paper 119 N. 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