S ERVING THE S ILVERTON A REA S INCE 1880
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A U NIQUE E DITION OF THE S TATESMAN J OURNAL
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W EDNESDAY , A UGUST 16, 2017
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
North Korea, Trump among top
concerns at Wyden town hall
CONNOR RADNOVICH
STATESMAN JOURNAL
The growing threat from North Ko-
rea, improving the Affordable Care Act
and uneasiness with President Donald
Trump’s temperament were frequent
concerns expressed during Sen. Ron Wy-
den’s town hall in Silverton Wednesday
night.
The Oregon Democrat faced a conge-
nial, older crowd that gave applause eas-
ily throughout the 90-minute conversa-
tion in Silverton High School’s auditori-
um.
Wyden pledged to be a check on the
Trump administration through biparti-
san legislation and his position on the
Senate Intelligence Committee, particu-
larly that committee’s investigation into
potential collusion between the Trump
campaign and the Russian government.
He also supported states experiment-
ing with single-payer health care within
the ACA and vowed to protect women’s
health care provider choices.
Many of the 15 questions posed to Wy-
den were pulled from news events in the
last week or so, which Wyden said is a
dramatic shift from town halls during
other administrations.
“What I’ve been seeing the last few
times home is how politically involved
people are getting in rural areas,” Wy-
den said afterward. “People were talking
about real issues.”
Contact
the
reporter
at
cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or
503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at
@CDRadnovich.
CONNOR RADNOVICH / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, speaks to a crowd during his Marion County town hall at the
Silverton High School auditorium on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
How fire torched
state’s eclipse plans
Nothing
eclipses the
aesthetics
of Silverton’s
art festival
JUSTIN MUCH
APPEAL TRIBUNE
PHOTO COURTESY
OF WILLAMETTE NATIONAL FOREST INCIWEB.NWCG.GOV
Smoke from wildfires in the Detroit area on Aug.11.
Blaze shuts area where tourists intended to gather
ZACH URNESS
STATESMAN JOURNAL
On the evening of June 26, a thun-
derstorm rolled across the Central
Cascade Range and raked the forest
with more than 100 lightning strikes.
The storm would spark 12 differ-
ent wildfires in Willamette National
Forest, but because conditions were
still wet, the blazes remained small
and were quickly doused.
But it was a lightning strike that
wasn’t detected, that sat smoldering
in a tree for almost a month, that
would spark Oregon’s second-largest
wildfire of the summer so far.
The Whitewater Fire, now 5,920-
acres in the Mount Jefferson Wilder-
ness, blanketed the Willamette Val-
ley with smoke, threatened two small
communities and ruined the eclipse
plans of people around the globe.
Prior to the fire, the area sur-
rounding 10,495-foot Mount Jeffer-
son was expected to draw tens of
thousands for the total solar eclipse
Aug. 21.
Now places such as Jefferson
Park — a back-country meadow con-
sidered the ideal eclipse-watching
destination — will be closed as flames
SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
July 25 - 50 acres
Aug. 3 - 4,579
July 26 - 80
Aug. 4 - 4,800
July 27 - 80
Aug. 5 - 5,206
July 28 - 89
Aug. 6 - 5,421
July 30 - 167
Aug. 7 - 5,515
July 31 - 168
Aug. 8 - 5,515
Aug. 1 - 297
Aug. 9 - 5,580
Aug. 2 - 1,500
Aug. 10 - 5,844
See FIRE, Page 2A
Butts, bags and boxes have
caught the Silverton City Council’s
attention, thanks to a series of
earth-friendly requests made by
citizens on last year’s community-
wide survey.
Cigarette butts, plastic bags and
Styrofoam boxes are the subject of
imminent ordinances outlawing
their use in various applications
and locations around town. The
bans are on track to go to a council
vote this fall.
Smoking would be banned in
city parks and on sidewalks in Sil-
verton’s “downtown core,” retail-
ers could no longer give customers
single-use plastic bags, and restau-
rateurs couldn’t sell food or put
leftovers in Styrofoam containers,
if all four ordinances pass.
“I support all four of these ordi-
nances,” said Councilor Jason
Freilinger, who owns Odd Fellows
Games & Electronics. “I am some-
Online at SilvertonAppeal.com
NEWS UPDATES
PHOTOS
» Breaking news
» Get updates from the Silverton area
» Photo galleries
See FESTIVAL, Page 4A
Whitewater Fire
acres by the day
Council weighs plastic bag, smoking bans
CHRISTENA BROOKS
It’s a comprehensive task to survey
all the activities, accommodations and
events jockeying around the solar
eclipse “weekend” this year.
But there are some tried-and-true
ones that just happen to coincidentally
fall into place at that time.
Such is the case with the 17th Annual
Silverton Fine Arts Festival, hosted by
Silverton Arts Association, which takes
place 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19-20, in Sil-
verton’s arborous Coolidge-McClaine
Park.
In many ways the art-as-usual provi-
sion of this popular, aesthetically ap-
pealing event are in place; in other
ways, the eclipse timing and a few oth-
er tweaks will provide some new fea-
tures and, hopefully, highlights. One in-
cludes expanding activity once primar-
ily confined to the Coolidge-McClaine
Park pavilion.
“There are a few new things this
year,” said SAA President Robin Mallo-
ry. “A number our artist/demonstra-
tors will be doing their demonstrations
throughout the park grounds instead of
having them all in the pavilion.
“To attract kids of all ages, the Art-
Zone, which was formerly known as the
Kids Activity Area, added how-to work-
what negatively impacted by some
of the items, but I am still suppor-
tive of them because it is the right
thing to do.”
One smoking ban now being
crafted by city staff, would outlaw
smoking and vaping (using e-ciga-
rettes) in the city’s eight parks, in-
cluding the one at Silverton Reser-
voir. The other would ban smoking
on sidewalks in the downtown area
but would leave alleys and private
See COUNCIL, Page 2A
INSIDE
Life..........................................4A
Outdoors ...............................1B
©2017
Printed on recycled paper
DANIELLE PETERSON / STATESMAN JOURNAL
Patrons browse the booths during the 16th
annual Silverton Fine Arts Festival on Aug.
20, 2016, at Coolidge-McClaine Park.