WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2020 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
19-year-old Aumsville climber remembered for skill, kindness
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Todd Adelman loved everything about the moun-
tains.
The Aumsville 19-year-old, who died in a climbing
accident Sunday on Three Fingered Jack, was a re-
spected and beloved member of the Salem climbing
community even at such a young age.
He’d ascended some of the Northwest’s most chal-
lenging peaks, from Mount Olympus to Mount Hood to
the Pickett Range in the North Cascades. A member of
the Salem-based Chemeketans climbing program, he
was known for his kindness, skill and a maturity be-
yond his years.
“You only had to meet him once to know how very
special he was,” said Leslie Drapiza, who climbed
Mount Hood with Adelman. “He moved with ease in
the mountains and was a total natural. He laughed
along at the jokes we made about not being able to go
to the bar after the climb because he was so young. He
had a maturity that surprised all of us.”
His death, apparently caused after rock gave way
high on Three Fingered Jack, sent shockwaves across
the Salem outdoors community.
“He was an amazing climbing partner, but above all,
he was a remarkable human,” said Shonee Langford,
president of the Chemeketans. “He was incredibly
smart. He loved talking to people, learning and just be-
ing in the mountains. Honestly, this doesn’t seem
real.”
“We all loved Todd,” said Drapiza.
A quick study, with multiple interests
Growing up outside Aumsville, Adelman’s family
was active with the Chemeketans outdoors club his
entire life. By his teenage years, he was an accom-
plished outdoorsman.
“I met Todd when he was 15 years old, and we just
hit it off right away,” Langford said. “He would speak to
See CLIMBER, Page 3A
Todd Adelman, 19, is seen here last September
during a climb in the Terror Basin of North Cascades
National Park. Adelman died in a climbing accident
on July 19, after a fall from Three Fingered Jack.
SHONEE LANGFORD/THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
State agrees to
fund removal of
Scotts Mills Dam
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Tito Vidales with ¡Salud! Services disinfects equipment at Bethel Heights Vineyard near Salem on July 7.
PHOTOS BY BRIAN HAYES/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Salud takes on COVID
testing for ag workers
Organization adds coronavirus
role to health care services
Emily Teel
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
A
t Willamette Valley wineries, the
warm weeks of July represent the
final moments of quiet before the
grapes hanging on the vines begin
ripening. Come August, the first white wine
grapes will be ready, followed soon after by a
parade of Pinot stretching through October.
With harvest looming, one organization is provid-
ing preventive care and COVID-19 testing, readying
some of Oregon’s 123,000 agricultural workers for the
crush of 12-hour shifts required to make the 2020 vin-
tage.
For the past 25 years, non-profit organization ¡Sa-
lud! has provided multi-lingual, multicultural health
care to the people who work in Oregon’s vineyards – in
wineries, tending vines, harvesting grapes, and bot-
tling.
While winery workers are often full-time staff with
access to medical benefits, contract harvest crews are
largely made up of migrant “guest” workers — Oregon
issued 243,000 H2-A visas in 2018 — who often lack
access to those same benefits.
Through worksite clinics hosted in partnership
with area wineries, Salud provides preventive care
screenings, vaccinations, dental cleanings, nutrition
counseling, patient advocacy and more to a workforce
that might otherwise go without.
In recent months, the organization has modified its
mobile health clinics for COVID-19 safety, preparing to
test as many farmworkers, and address as many un-
derlying health conditions as possible, before the bulk
of harvest begins.
See SALUD, Page 4A
Route 99 family restaurant heading for Brooks
Emily Teel
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The former Iggy's Bar & Grill at 9015 Portland Road
NE is getting a major face lift. Soon, it will reopen as
Route 99, a new family-friendly restaurant.
The new bar and grill is the project of Annette Day,
known to many as the founder and longtime owner of
Annette's Westgate Cafe on Edgewater Street in West
Salem.
Though the restaurant still bears her first name,
Day sold Annette's in 2017. She stayed on staff until
last summer, when she departed to launch a new con-
cept in her hometown.
See ROUTE 99, Page 2A
Two state agencies have agreed to pay for the re-
moval of the Scotts Mills Dam. All that's needed now
is approval from the Marion County Commissioners,
who aren't in agreement.
A proposed project that would remove the crum-
bling 40-foot-wide structure blocking Butte Creek
has long been eyed by state and non-profit entities for
removal.
Marion County’s commissioners addressed the
project at a June 1 management update, but they have
yet to make a decision.
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
awarded $49,992 for the project in June. With the
$48,613 the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
has contributed, the proposed removal has received
full funding.
But due to delays in funding – OWEB delayed ap-
proving it until June from April due to the COVID-19
pandemic – the proposed September removal won’t
take place.
If Marion County approves the project, the water-
shed council still needs to apply to the Army Corps of
Engineers, Department of State Lands and the De-
partment of Environmental Quality for approval, and
that could take 60 days to six months.
“As far as this year, it’s not happening,” said Anna
Rankin, Executive Director of the Pudding River Wa-
tershed Council.
The earliest the dam’s removal could take place is
in 2021.
The dam has been on the state’s Fish Passage Bar-
rier Priority List for years as the creek is native habitat
for Endangered Species Act-listed spring Chinook
and winter steelhead as well as cutthroat trout.
The 5-foot tall concrete wall was built on top of a
natural waterfall in the 1850s to divert water into a
100-foot-long side channel to drive a mill; it was con-
verted to generate electricity in the 1900s.
After Pacific General Electric stopped using it in
the 1950s, the dam and 10 acres of land was donated to
Marion County, and it became Scotts Mills County
Park in 1961.
Over the years, segments of the dam have fallen off
and its makeshift fish passage no longer functions as
intended.
“There’s history associated with the Scotts Mills
Dam, but there’s a lot of history at that site that pre-
dates the settlers,” Rankin said.
Butte Creek is the political border between Marion
and Clackamas counties, and the private landowner
on the Clackamas County side of the creek – who also
has to give approval for the removal – has put their
property up for sale.
The Marion County Parks Commission voted to re-
move the dam in November 2019 after years of debate.
At Marion County’s management June update,
commissioner Colm Willis said he would like to en-
gage community members about the dam’s removal,
Kevin Cameron said he is in favor and Sam Brentano
said he was against it, but they all said they wanted
more information about the restoration of fish pas-
sage at the site.
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the States-
man
Journal.
Contact
him
at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/
bpoehler
Support local journalism by subscribing to the
Statesman Journal.
Annette Day of Annette’s Westgate Winners of the
Statesman Journal’s Best of The Mid-Valley awards.
THOMAS PATTERSON/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Vol. 139, No. 32
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Photo taken of the dam on Butte Creek in Scotts
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COLLECTION, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES