Vol. 69
NO. 48
SANDY, OREGON. THURSDAY, NOV. 29. 1979
Single Copy 20‘
tUSPS 481-180)
Santa to land Saturday
Santa Claus is coming to town.
The jolly, old gentleman w ill set down
in Heritage Square in Sandy at 10 a.m.,
Saturday.
He plans the trip by helicopter, but
vows to make his stop here by alter
native transportations should con
ditions prohibit arrival by copter.
He w ill distribute free candy and
good cheer to all children who greet
him and listen to their Christmas
wishes.
In other community C’hristmas
preparations, Sandy Area Merchants
report plans to decorate a living tree at
city hall.
The merchants, headed by Ned Dyal
of Sandy, also plan to decorate the
chamber of Commerce office at Meinig
and Pioneer.
They also w ill proceed with an ex
perimental hanging of newly designed
Noel windchimes fashioned from
durable plastic and (petal chimes by
high school shop students.
If the large street signs prove sturdy
in the wind when mounted on comer
street poles, then at least four wind-
chimes w ill be mounted downtown.
In Sandy E lem entary School,
youngsters in grades one, two and three
are drawing original Christmas cards
that w ill be published in a Christmas
edition of the Sandy Post.
Cereal company plans
to open Sandy plant
by DAN DILLON
While the City of Sandy waits for its
updated comprehensive plan and the
formation of an Economic Develop
ment Commission to begin its full-scale
sales pitch for new industry, a new
business is opening on its own volition.
Futrell Cereals, Inc., a breakfast-
food manufacturer, has announced that
it w ill begin operation by Jan. 1, 1980.
John Futrell, who w ill act as plant
manager, said the firm w ill produce
puffed wheat, puffed rice and whole
wheat flour for its own line, Golden
Harvest, and the Fred Meyer and Nu
Vita brands.
The firm w ill be located in buildings
being constructed by Don Obrist near
Sandy Truck Line and w ill start with
one gun and five employees. Futrell is
confident the plant w ill expand with a
second gun and additional operators in
the near future.
The company w ill use its own brand
of hybridized wheat which, Futrell said,
is twice the size of normal wheat. The
pioduct was developed by his *ather in
Washington, l>ut Futrell said the
company hopes to raise the wheat near
Hood River when land is available.
According to Futrell, the wheat,
called R-75, has fewer calories, more
protein and less carbohydrates than the
wheat used by Quaker Oats or Nabisco.
The wheat, he said, is generally 12
percent protein when it comes from the
field.
The company w ill be able to convert
400 bushels of grain per day into the
puffed wheat. That happens when the
grain is fed into a cylinder 30 inches
long with a bottom burner. It is
steamed with 250 pounds of pressure
until the lid blows off the cylinder
shooting the wheat into a storage bin.
It is then packaged under the stores’
label and ready for shipping.
Sandy was chosen because of its
“ good general location.” M ajor ship
ping points for Futrell Cereals w ill be
Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.
The nearest sim ilar plant is located in
Stockton, C alif.
The location is only 15 miles from the
general warehouses of Fred Meyer and
Safeway.
The rice w ill be shipped into the plant
which helped in the site selection
decision.
The whole wheat flo tr w ill not be
available initially until production can
begin near Hood River.
Futrell has been a partner with his
father for the past five years in
ranching. He has run his own ranch
near Prineville for the past two years,
but this is his first venture into the
cereal production business. He and his
wife are househunting in the Sandy
area.
They w ill be joined by two more
families who are currently living in
Washington.
Accident mystifies police
Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies
remain mystified by a freak auto ac
cident Saturday afternoon that killed an
80-year-old Hood River woman.
Ruth Durland died Sunday morning
of injuries sustained in the accident in
southeast i*ortland, deputies say.
Thirteen u tility poles and a light post
were toppled in the accident at
Southeast 96th Avenue and Main Street.
Durland’s 18-year-old granddaughter,
Pamela Lyons, also was injured when a
power pole crushed their station wagon
about 1:10 p.m.
Witnesses told deputies an unusually
stiong gust of wind may have sent a
pole crashing down on top of the
Durland auto, which then struck
another pole, causing a chain reaction.
Four vehicles were damaged and
several other autos were trapped by the
poles, according to Bart Whalen,
sheriff’s department spokesman.
Businessman claims
Sprinklers could scat away new industry
by DAN DILLON
If Sandy gets too tough with its
proposed sprinkler ordinance, business
may stay away.
That was the sentiment of Hal Nip-
pert who is proposing to build a metal
fabrication plant in Sandy’s Industrial
Park. He told a public hearing Monday
the ordinance could run business out of
the city because they can not afford to
build or expand their existing plants.
The average cost of installation is
approximately $50,000 and the proposed
ordinance would require installation in
any m ajor remodeling project.
That could be prohibitive for some
prospective industries.
According to Fire Chief Bob Rathke,
the district is effective in battling
blazes in one and two-family homes.
"In larger buildings, we’re not ef
fective,” he said.
“ Rather than grow in the size of the
department, why not stay the same
size? The public won’t have to pay for
the extra manpower. ”
Tlie m ajority of fires occur in
residential occupancies. “ You can’t
just build your fire department for
residential occupancies,” Rathke said.
“ Fire protection is public business
just like planning and police protection.
Their laws are regulated for the
community’s good. You have to look at
fire protection the same way.”
Rathke said the sprinklers have a
three-fold benefit. "They’ll give you
better protection than I can give you.
The whole community doesn’t have to
pay for the protection and you’ll get
your money back in insurance
savings.”
Rathke said that a fire in a building
over 12,000 square feet is “ physically
beyond” the capabilities of the fire
district because of a manpower short
age and an inadequate water supply.
Sprinklers would even out the odds.
The proposed sprinkler ordinance
would transfer the cost of fire
protection from the public to private
sector. Rather than forcing the district
to add additional paid personnel and
purchase new equipment at taxpayers’
expense, the people who need the
protection most, the large building
owners, would bear the brunt of the
cost.
The fire district proposed that
buildings over 5,000 square feet be
and it won’t have a sprinkler system.”
Councilm an
Vern
R ichards
questioned the remodeling from a
different point. He expressed concern
about interior redecoration that can
escalate the value of a building over
one-half its original value.
That is covered in the Uniform
Building Code which differentiates
between structural and non-structural
“Fire protection is public business just like
planning ajid police protection.”
— Fire Chief Bob Bathke
sprinklered. That figure is based on the
size of the department, Rathke said.
M ajor remodelings, over 50 percent
of the value of the existing building,
would be sprinklered. That proposal
has come under fire from City Coun
cilman Don Blair.
“ If someone remodeled just under 50
percent of their total value,” he said,
"and you have a $100,000 building, in
five years it w ill be worth $759,374.73,
remodeling.
From earlier public hearings, the
district found the public supports the
installation of sprinklers in new con
struction and remodelings, rather than
imposing them on existing buildings,
said Jim Gallagher, fire prevention
officer.
A second public hearing w ill be held
Wednesday, Dec. 12, at noon at City
Hall.
Clackamas commission to fight projected deficit
If Clackamas County’s expenditures
and revenues for the first quarter of
this fiscal year are repeated for the
next three quarters, the county w ill
have a $217,633 budget deficit, ac
cording to a budget staff report.
But the county board of com
missioners say they are certain that
w ill not happen because they w ill
change spending patterns as necessary
to prevent it. *
The commissioners said they w ill use
the report as a guideline to see where
spending cutbacks can be made. They
said they w ill meet with the county
budget committee and department
heads to discuss ways to save money in
some areas to cover losses in others.
“ We anticipate that we w ill finish the
year out even, or even a little ahead,”
Inside
the
Post
said budget officer Jerry Justice. “ I
think it w ill happen because that’s the
only thing the board w ill tolerate.”
The $217,633 projection assumes
spending and revenue for the rest of the
fiscal year would be identical to that in
the firs t quarter, Justice said.
But he and the commissioners em
phasized that is an unfair assumption,
because spending patterns and
revenues fluctuate and can be changed
through the year.
Justice said the projection merely
serves as a tool to identify "areas of
possible concern” and analyze how
money should be spent for the rest of
the year.
TH E REPORT id e n tifie s two
departments where most of the over
spending occurred in the firs t quarter:
the sheriff’s department and circuit
court.
If the sheriff’s department continues
to spend as it did during the first three
months of the fiscal year, it w ill show a
$218,000 deficit at the end of the year,
the projection shows.
Much of that overspending would be
in salaries Justice said.
The sheriff’s department came up
$42,500 short in the first quarter
because management salaries were
budgeted before negotiations con
cluded, he said. A 7 percent cost-of-
living increase was budgeted, but a 9
percent increase was adopted.
Justice said Sheriff John Renfro
should have worked with the county to
find ways to cover the shortage.
But Renfro said the county keeps
promising him additional money to
cover the 2 percent salary difference,
and has not appropriated it.
Justice said circuit court spent more
than one-fourth of its budget in the first
quarter largely because it had to handle
a capital murder case, which cost an
unanticipated $35,000.
In addition, tria l expenses are higher
than expected because more outside
experts are being called in, more at
tention is being given to defendants’
rights, and the volume and severity of
trials is increasing, Justice said.
He said the commissioners and
department heads need to look at the
county as a whole to see where savings
can be accomplished
“ In terms of substantial layoffs, I
don’t think we’ll see that. But there
may be some odd positions across the
county that department heads or the
board choose not to f ill,” Justice said.
He said vacant positions could also be
left unfilled for longer periods of time.
TH E COMMISSIONERS, a fte r
receiving the budget report Tuesday,
said they were pleased that the possible
deficit was so low.
Commissioner Stan Skoko said he has
seen far worse. “ With this projection,
I ’m elated with it,” he said.
Skoko said spending for the rest of the
year w ill differ from the first quarter,
because spending is always higher in
July and August, when the county
purchases materials for the entire
year.
In addition. Skoko said the county
clerk’s office has discovered an
unexpected $70,000 from interest on an
Sandy pins hopes
Everything wai
on strong
coming up roses
individual
for the Sandy
Wrestlers--
Garden C lub-
Sec. HI, pg. I
Sec. II, pg. I
escrow account, which would drop the
deficit projection to $147,000.
Commissioner Robert Schumacher
said he was happy with the budget
projections. "On a $17 m illion budget,
I ’d be happy to end up with that kind of
deficit,” he said.
“ We’re on notice that if we just go to
sleep, we could have a 2 percent
problem at the end of the year,”
Schumacher said. “ But I don’t see 1H
or 2 percent as much of a problem, nd
we have eight months to correct it.”
Commissioner Ralph Groener said
the report was “ not as bad as it could
be, but it ’s bad.”
“ This means the amount simply isn’t
there to provide the service level that
the public is asking us fo r,” Groener
said. “ The only way I ’d feel elated is if I
saw a $500,000 surplus.”
Menus...................................... Section I, Page 2
Keeping Posted...................... Section I, Page 2
Editorial, læ tters.................. Section I, Page 8
Area News............................ Section II, Page I
Around the County.............. Section II. Page 2
People.................................. . Section II. Page 3
Pioneer P o u t........................ Section II. Page 5
Home and G arden............... Section II. Page 8
Sports. Recreation........ Section II I, Pages 1-5
Television Directory . . . Section III. Pages 8-8