WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020 ❚ SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Effort to guide visitors to
downtown Stayton ended
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
STAYTON – It’s two blocks, but it may as well be two
miles.
Hundreds of thousands of public and private dol-
lars and much effort is being poured into making
downtown Stayton attractive for businesses and cus-
tomers.
The problem is thousands of people pass within a
few hundred feet of those businesses each day and
never go to downtown Stayton.
Unlike most small towns where the downtown is on
a main thoroughfare, Stayton has a unique situation:
its downtown is situated on North Third Street while
the majority of traffic through the city goes up North
First Street or far away on Highway 22.
“You have to give them something to get them to go
down there,” said Steve Poisson, president of Revital-
ize Downtown Stayton.
One of the goals laid out in the city’s 2007 revital-
ization plan was to create gateways into downtown,
something that has never happened.
The efforts to alert the public to downtown Stayton
haven’t had much impact.
See DOWNTOWN, Page 2A
One of the few indications in Stayton of where
downtown is located is this sign on Third Street and
Washington. BILL POEHLER | STATESMAN JOURNAL
Locked-in
tuition plan
has risks
and rewards
UO considers proposal to
guarantee students’ costs
won’t rise for five years
Jordyn Brown
The Register-Guard
The exterior of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 1400 Western Avenue in Stayton.
MADELEINE COOK/STATESMAN JOURNAL
WOMAN SUES
LOCAL CHURCH
Lawsuit asks for $10M for reporting husband’s child sex confession
Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
A Turner woman is suing the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints for $9.54 million after her
husband’s confession to church leaders led to his ar-
rest, conviction and imprisonment on child sexual
abuse charges.
The lawsuit, which accuses local church leaders of
violating confidentiality and the “priest-penitent
privilege,” contrasts sharply with other cases accus-
ing the church claiming the exact opposite — failing to
report abuse to authorities and treating sex abuse like
a sin instead of a crime.
The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Circuit Court,
involves a Turner man convicted of abuse after he
confessed to Stayton clergy that he had repeated sex-
ual contact with a minor.
Church officials did not respond Tuesday to re-
quests for comment on whether the actions of local
leaders were sanctioned by the church.
The man’s confession was meant to be confiden-
tial, said the family’s attorney Bill Brandt. He said lo-
cal clergy’s actions “totally violated church policy.”
“It’s been devasting on the family,” Brandt said.
“They lost a husband and a father.”
The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints has about 16.3 million members
worldwide and about 153,300 members and 300 con-
gregations, also known as wards, in Oregon. The
wards are led by unpaid, laymen clergy.
Timothy Samuel Johnson and his wife Kristine
Johnson were members of a Stayton ward when his
wife learned he had “engaged in inappropriate con-
duct” with a minor known to him, according to the
See CHURCH, Page 4A
Women of the Century honors Oregon leaders
Capi Lynn
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The deaths of two influential Oregon women book-
marked 2019.
Norma Paulus, a political pioneer who helped ad-
vance women's rights and environmental protection,
died in February. She was the first woman to be elect-
ed to statewide office in Oregon as secretary of state in
1976.
Gert Boyle, a no-nonsense businesswoman who
helped build a brand synonymous with the Pacific
Northwest, died in November. She was the longtime
chairman of Columbia Sportswear and star of the
iconic "One Tough Mother" campaign.
Paulus and Boyle could be Oregon's poster women
for an upcoming national project commemorating the
100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
USA Today Network will name 10 American women
from each state and the District of Columbia who've
made a significant difference in the world as Women
of the Century.
The Statesman Journal is coordinating Oregon's
part of the project.
We'll assemble an expert panel to brainstorm can-
didates and consider public nominations.
You can get started nominating women at
usatoday.com/womenofthecentury/.
Project organizers recognize not every woman
worthy of being celebrated will make the list, but
they're committed to having a strong selection that is
"powerful, thoughtful, inspiring, diverse and inclu-
sive."
See LEADERS, Page 4A
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Lindsay Luallen chose to move from Alabama to
enroll at the University of Oregon five years ago be-
cause the university was able to accommodate the
fact that she only had herself to rely on for financial
support. She hadn’t lived at home since she was 16
years old.
At the time, she was met with support from the
university and able to afford college. But since then,
years of tuition increases have forced her to take min-
imal classes, forego internship opportunities and
make tough choices about where the extra tuition
money would come from.
“I look at my finances week to week, month to
month and year to year,” Luallen said. “With the tu-
ition increases, it’s just a little harder to plan because
I don’t know what they’re going to do next. What am I
going to have to take out of next? Am I going to have
some skimp on the car payment? I don’t know.”
Since the 2009-2010 school year, annual tuition
costs at University of Oregon have increased by
about $3,500 for in-state students and $7,380 for
out-of-state students, according to UO data adjusted
for inflation.
As these rising costs weigh on students’ shoulders
and UO administrators plan for next year, the univer-
sity is considering a tuition guarantee model that
would, if moved forward, fix tuition costs for stu-
dents for five years to eliminate the uncertainty and
increased financial burden.
It’s a change that the university hopes will give
students and families peace of mind while improving
its recruiting power and retention. But those benefits
also carry a significant risk for the UO’s bottom line,
leaving it one less tool to manage its budget.
What’s being considered
At the Dec. 10 UO Board of Trustees meeting, Ja-
mie Moffitt, vice president for finance and admini-
stration, gave a presentation updating the board on
the university’s financial standing that included a
conceptual discussion about a tuition guarantee.
The presentation provided the board members a
basic structure of the tuition guarantee model so
they could determine if staff should continue devel-
oping the idea along with the Tuition and Fee Adviso-
ry Board.
It did not include any dollar amounts for what the
set tuition rate would be. However, it did state what-
ever rate was decided would be fixed for five years.
All students who enter the UO in fall 2021, for ex-
ample, would pay the same amount each year until
graduating in 2026.
Every student who entered the UO that year —
whether it be as a freshman or transfer student —
would be part of one cohort. The rate could differ
based on the cohort, though it would be locked in at
that rate for each cohort for five years.
Roger Thompson, vice president for student ser-
vices and enrollment management, helped present
the concept to the board.
“Students will know the full expected costs of
their education before they decide to come to the
University of Oregon,” he said.
If students did not complete their degree within
five years, the cost of their sixth year would change to
match the student cohort that started the year after
them.
All mandatory fees also would be protected from
increases, but course-specific fees would not.
“We read the research all the time, that the second
largest investment a family will make is in higher
education,” Thompson said. “That assumes that they
own a home. If they don’t own their own home, that is
See TUITION, Page 3A