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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2021)
2A | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2021 | APPEAL TRIBUNE Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309 Phone: 503-399-6773 Fax: 503-399-6706 Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com Staff News Director Don Currie 503-399-6655 dcurrie@statesmanjournal.com Advertising Westsmb@gannett.com Deadlines The Capital Pioneers warm up during halftime in a game against the Portland Fighting Shockwaves on May 15 in Portland. The Pioneers won the game with a score of 6-0. PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL Pioneers Continued from Page 1A h “Football? What do you know about football,” the store clerk asked. h While they assumed Ri- vera, a mother of three, was shop- ping for her son, she knows a thing or two about the sport. Rivera is one of 20 players on Salem’s newly formed semi-pro women’s tackle football team: the Capital Pio- neers. The Pioneers compete in the Wom- en’s Football Alliance, a national tackle football league for women. The team already was hurdling set- backs long before they stepped onto the field for their first game. In 2020, the Pioneers were preparing for their pre- miere season but it was canceled due to COVID-19. “We started off with, ‘Can we do this? Can we make this happen,’” Rivera said. “As long as we get to play that’s all that matters right now.” The Capital Pioneers have a range of varying experiences but anyone is wel- come to play. The team originated when 10 players who formerly played for a tackle football team based in Eugene wanted to start a player-owned team based in Salem. The Pioneers are a nonprofit and re- ceive funding through sponsors, fund- raisers and team fees. A board made up of six players and one family member help make decisions for the team. Each woman on the Pioneers pays $400 to play for the season, which cov- ers the cost of their uniforms, referees and other expenses. The players also additionally pay for their own equip- ment, like cleats and gloves, and any other travel expenses when on the road for games. From girls who are still in high school to women who have teenagers of their own, each player has their own reason for wanting to play the game of football. News: 4 p.m. Thursday Letters: 4 p.m. Thursday Obituaries: 11 a.m. Friday Display Advertising: 4 p.m. Wednesday Legals: 3 p.m. Wednesday Classifieds: 4 p.m. Friday News Tips The Appeal Tribune encourages suggestions for local stories. Email the newsroom, submit letters to the editor and send announcements to sanews@salem.gannett.com or call 503-399-6773. Classifieds: call 503-399-6789 Retail: call 503-399-6602 Legal: call 503-399-6789 Missed Delivery? Call: 800-452-2511 Hours: until 7 p.m. Wednesdays; until 3 p.m. other weekdays To Subscribe Call: 800-452-2511 $21 per year for home delivery $22 per year for motor delivery $30.10 per year mail delivery in Oregon $38.13 per year mail delivery outside Oregon Main Statesman Journal publication Suggested monthly rates: Monday-Sunday: $22, $20 with EZ Pay Monday-Saturday: $17.50, $16 with EZ Pay Wednesday-Sunday: $18, $16 with EZ Pay Monday-Friday: $17.50, $16 with EZ Pay Sunday and Wednesday: $14, $12 with EZ Pay Sunday only: $14, $12 with EZ Pay To report delivery problems or subscribe, call 800-452-2511 To Place an Ad Published every Wednesday by the Statesman Journal, P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309. USPS 469-860, Postmaster: Send address changes to Appeal Tribune, P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID: Salem, OR and additional offices. Send letters to the editor and news releases to sanews@salem.gannett.com. A football family Renee Gonzales, 31, has been sur- rounded by football her entire life and joined the Capital Pioneers four months ago. Gonzales remembers cheering on both of her brothers who played youth football in Canby and watching her dad coach on the side- lines. The name of her four-year-old daughter, Oaklyn, was inspired by the Oakland Raiders. “It’s just always kind of been the center of my family,” Gonzales said. Gonzales has carried on the family tradition, and one of her brothers has joined her. She is a starting offensive lineman for the Pioneers, and her brother is the line coach. This time around, though, it’s her time to shine. One of Gonzales’ favorite things about playing football is seeing her daughter fall in love with it, too. “To see the happiness and joy that it Marion County commissioners Colm Willis and Danielle Bethell speak to community members about a proposal to remove the Scotts Mills dam on Thursday. 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Power (HP/KW) and other specifications are based on various standards or recommended practices. K1166-04-145829-8 The Pudding River Watershed Council proposed removing the dam first in 2020 and was able to obtain about $100,000 in funds and in-kind work from the state’s departments of fish and wildlife and the watershed en- hancement board. But over the past years, community gatherings like Thursdays were largely prohibited – and Scotts Mills was im- pacted by wildfires and the ice storm – so it was impossible to bring the inter- ested parties together. The project, as proposed, would re- move about 400 cubic yards of materi- al, including the dam and much of the sediment that has gathered behind it for the past century. The work would occur during a two-week period after Labor Day when the water level is at its lowest. “Everything out in the channel would be removed,” Marion County Public Works Director Brian Nicholas said. Locals questioned the scope of the project and how it would change the popular swimming area into a slightly interrupted stream. “It’s been there over 100 years, why should we take it out?” Scotts Mills res- ident Andrew Isaksen said. Some neighbors questioned wheth- er the removal would result in native fish species returning to the body of water, what noise and disruption would occur while it is being removed and how it would impact the property of those who live downstream. “I would say nobody wants to see the dam removed, we want to see the dam fixed,” said Scotts Mills resident Ireland and Coraline Peters sit near the Scotts Mills dam on Thursday, May 27, 2021 in Scotts Mills, Oregon. ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL Dick Bielenberg. “There is no money, there is no funding to fix the dam. “What’s going to happen is it’s going to continue to crumble. If we don’t tear down the dam in the next few years, we’re going to have a swimming hole full of concrete and rebar.” Funding for removal, not repair Kate Smith, who lives nearby on the Clackamas County side of Butte Creek, brings her children to the park often. She said she’s seen the fish passage run dry and fill with trash, making it unusable for its intended purpose. The dam has become such an impedi- ment that many of the native fish species no longer exist there. “Let’s just take it out,” Smith said. Locals pointed out that native fish species that formerly migrated up the creek are no longer present. “Years ago, we used to have Chinook salmon up here, a lot of them,” said Mike Wolff, who has lived in Scotts Mills since 1978. Anna Rankin, the executive director of the Pudding River Watershed Council, said if Marion County approves the pro- ject later this year, it would be too late to complete the removal this year. The soonest it could be done is 2022, but the watershed council will have to apply to the state for money again. “We can get funding to do site en- hancement, but not fix the dam,” Rankin said. Willis said he doesn’t want the coun- ty, and especially the residents of Scotts Mills, to feel pressured to tear down the dam because of the $100,000 that has been earmarked for the removal project. He said the county will host another work session about the fate of the dam, where interested parties like those who attended the town hall could come to a resolution about the future of the dam. “It sounds like not everybody had the same information and so I’m kind of hopeful that as people get together and talk, they’ll come together and find something out,” Willis said. “Maybe not, but that’s my hope.” Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler @statesmanjournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler.
