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2-5 pm
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Citizens, students,business rally to fight ‘3’
By J. Dana Haynes
Of The Print
Representatives from
Clackamas Community Col
lege, the county fire depart
ments, police, senior citizens,
high school students and
businessmen, along with more
than 300 concerned residents
of the county, gathered in
Oregon City last weekend to
help fight against Ballot
Measure 3.
The combined press con
ference and rally was the star
ting point and command center
for a canvassing blitz. Nearly
every county in Oregon held a
similar door-to-door campaign
last weekend.
The Clackamas County
rally was spearheaded by Col
lege Board member Ralph
Groener and Roy Dancer, the
county coordinator of Citizens
in Support of Community Ser
vices, an anti-Measure 3
organization.
Mary Felmet, legislation
advisory chairperson for the
Oregon Education Association
and the Oregon City Education
Association was in charge of
the hundreds of canvassers,
who separated into groups of
two and three and were assign
ed approximately 100 homes
each.
Groener (D-Oregon City)
is a member of the county
Board of Commissioners. He
explained that his opposition to
the property tax role-back
measure stems from its rigidity.
“I’m tired of my property taxes,
too. But if ‘S’ passes, and it
doesn’t work, it will legally take
“. . . this is simply a bad bill. It
doesn’t consider students or
senior citizens as essential. ”
Commissioner
Ralph Groener
\_________
at least two years to change it.
This state doesn’t have a
surplus of money to cover such
a problem, and I’m afraid it will
make Oregon look less inviting
to outside businesses,” he said.
“Also, this is simply a bad
bill. It doesn’t consider students
or senior citizens as essential,”
Groener said. “It will be the
students who really lose. At
Clackamas Community, we’ve
had an open-door policy in a
time when people have been
too hard hit to afford the four-
year schools. If ‘3’ passes, we’ll
have to turn people away.”
The College receives 55
percent of its funding through
local property taxes. The
passage of measure 3 would
necessitate the estimated loss
of 70 full-time employees.
Among those speaking at
the press conference was
Harold Jeudes, a senior citizen
from Oregon City and an ex
teacher.
“What would happen to
senior citizen centers if this
passes?” Jeudes asked.
“They’ll have to be one of the
first things cut.”
Jeudes, who is on the
board of directors for the
Retired Seniors Volunteer Pro
gram at the College, feels that
most of the elderly population
will rally behind the “No On 3”
campaign.
Clarkes District Fire Chief
Jim Schreiber also spoke out
against the measure. “The fire
departments will undergo a
vast curtailment of services,”
Schreiber estimated.
“In the professional
departments, we expect cuts of
30 to 40 percent. Most of the
volunteer departments fund
themselves through taxes to
pay for essential costs, such as
lights, rent and food. If these
cuts happen, it’ll mean closing
the door to some of these
places,” he said. “You can’t
cut a volunteer’s pay, so the
money has to come out of the
level of service.”
In Oregon, 85 percent of
all fire service is voluntary. Ac
cording to the State Accident
Insurance Fund, more than
10,000 Oregonians are
volunteer firefighters.
Jeudes also spoke up for
the fire departments, saying
that the majority of calls a fire
department responds to are
from seniors.
Other speakers at the con
ference included Emma
Espinal,
the
College’s
Associated Student Govern
ment Assistant to the Presi
dent; a staff writer for The
Print, Shelley Ball; Charley
Williams, a businessman from
Molalla; Chuck Clemens, the
superintendent of schools for
Oregon City; Officer Al Vetter
from the 'Oregon City police
department; and Brett Arm
field and Terry Donahue, the
student body presidents from
Oregon City and West Linn
High Schools, respectively.
I’m concerned about the
education from kindergarten to
high school,” Armfield said.
“The people who support ‘3’
are saying ‘Hey, education isn’t
important’.”
“If this bill passes, 38 per
cent of the district’s money will
be lost,” Donahue said.
“Students at my school are ac
tively seeking the defeat of ‘3’.”
Harry
Christianson,
newsman from KYXI radiò and
a member of the Clackamas
County Library Board helped
organize the rally. “When our
(the library system) current
three-year levy runs out next
June, we wouldn’t be able to
ask for another one,” Chris
tianson said. “We might have
to create a users fee and
separate cards for each
library.”
Currently, a library card is
good for any facility in the
county,
including
the
College’s.
Rev. Jim Tomlin from the
Milwaukie United Church of
Christ, attended the con
ference to express his fears. “I
realize a need for property tax
restraints,” he said. “But the
present proposal creates vic
tims of sehiors, children and
the poor. There has to be a bet
ter way.”