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FASY R E IJ
1 can whole green c
34 cup shredded A
cheese
Won Ton skins
Salsa sauce
Elementary school district seeks first ‘B’ ballot
by DAN DILLON
Although the March election w ill
m ark the firs t tune the Sandy
Elem entary School D istrict has been
forced to pursue a ‘B ’ Ballot, district
superintendent Clark Lund is optim istic
that voters w ill approve it.
Although there is an association that
*B’ Ballot items are “ fr ills ,” Lund said
Tuesday, “ Our *B’ Ballot is not. In my
estimation, the programs and services
on our B’ Ballot are essential.”
The $333,094 B Ballot is in addition to
a $1.59 m illion request the d istrict w ill
make on its A ’ Ballot proposal.
Lund SMid the reason for the *B’ Ballot
is not an increase in services, with the
exception of a new kindergarten
proposal, but rather, is due to a cur
tailm ent in funding. “ The big cur
tailm ent comes in the form of state
Basic School Support,” he said.
“ Oregon Board of Education officials
have advised that for the current time,
state revenues be budgeted at current
year levels,” Lund said in his Budget
Message. “ The final level of funding
from state sources w ill be determined
at a later tim e by the 1981 le gislature.
“ The D istrict experienced an actual
loss of $71,956 in state revenues from
those budgeted for the current year .”
The 1980-81 tax levy called for
$1,438,555 It is lim ited to a 12.64 percent
increase for 1981-82, representing a
gain of $152,278. “ This increase in itself
is insufficient for providing all of the
operations,” he said.
That made it necessary to pursue the
B’ Ballot proposal. If the state had
continued w ith its anticipated Basic
School Support, the district would not
have had to pursue the second ballot.
“ I feel that when people see what is in
is a question that should be put before
the community at large,” Ixirxl said.
That decision came after a 10-month
study by a ste e rin g co m m itte e
examined the feelings of the school
d is tric t’s parents and asked the School
Board to consider adding kindergarten.
Sandy is one of only four districts in
the Multnomah-North Clackamas area
that does not offer kindergarten.
Lund disagreed w ith the idea that
items were placed on the ‘B ’ Ballot
because they are expendable.
“ I just don't look at a school bus as
expendable,” he said. The school is
the *B’ Ballot, they w ill see that as
appropriate program ,” Lund said.
Included in the ‘B ’ Ballot is a
proposed kindergarten program and its
transportation bill, $148,313; two school
buses and a grounds maintenance
tractor, $65,500; Talented and Gifted
p ro g ra m ,
$32,161;
c o -c u rrjc u la r
athletics
and
activities,
$33,672;
elementary level counseling program,
$21,490; outdoor school, grade 6,
$11,658; Sandy Community School,
$14,300, and exterior painting at the
Aquatic Center, $6,000.
“ I feel that the kindergarten decision
Sandy postmaster steps down after 26 years on job
by DAN DILLON
When John Metsger went to work
for the Sandy post office, stamps
were 3 cents and zip codes hadn't
even been dreamed up.
When he retired last Friday, after
25 years of service, stamps were 15
cents on their way to as high as 20,
and zip codes were steaming fu ll
speed ahead toward nine digits.
“ When I came here, we had four
clerks, one rural route and one star
route,” Metsgar said. “ Now, we s till
have four clerks, but we have five
ru ra l routes and two star routes.”
He became Sandy s postmaster in
June, 1954, “ back in the days of the
presidential appointment.” He had
been an accountant w ith a small
office in Sandy while he worked for a
Portland certified public accountant
firm .
At that time, the post office was
located where Tina’s Brass King
Resale Clothing is now — on Proctor
Boulevard next to the theater
“ We moved here (to the present
location on Ihoneer Boulevard) in
1959, and outgrew it in 1968 and
we re still waiting for a new post
office,” Metsger said.
A new one has been promised for
Sandy for a number of years, he
said. In fact, the postmaster’s office
already has supplies for the new post
office stacked around in it. The only
problem is that the U.S. Postal
Service has not even purchased any
land in the Sandy area to build the
new fa cility Metsger said.
“ We re supposed to be scheduled
for 1981,” he said.
Also in the works for Sandy is a
new system of local delivery and the
addition of two new rural routes The
ru ra l routes undoubtedly w ill come
first.
The five current routes are called
"K routes.” That means they are
"overburdened," Metsger said. “ As
soon as we get the routes split, the
folks on those routes who have to
drive over to another road to pick up
tlw ir mail w ill get service. I hope
something s done by next month "
The new delivery system would be
a park and loop The postal service
has eliminated creating any new
door-to-door routes. Instead, the
ca rrie r delivers from a small van,
parks it periodically and makes a
small loop for delivery But, like the
new post office. Metsger isn’t sure
Grand jury
clears man
in shooting
John Metsger posed in front of the post office when it opened in 1959. F rid a y. as he readied for retirement, he posed a final time.
when it w ill begin.
“ We’ve been fighting that battle
for two years It needs it , ” he said.
“ We just don’t have adequate boxes
for the business area, i t ’s been
grow ing so much.”
The whole area served by the
Sandy post office — from 362nd
Avenue to Brightwood and from
Wildcat Mountain Drive north to
Aims has grown.
In 1954 Metsger said there were
500 persons in the city lim its getting
mail. Now, it's more than 2,800 In
the entire area, there were 3,000
persons in 1954 Now, it ’s grown to
more than 18,000
As the population has grown
everywhere, the postal service in
troduced zip codes. Now with talk of
nine-digit zips, Sandy faces the
possibility of having more than
seven zip codes just to itself.
The nine-digit code is designed to
bring the m ail right down to the
individual carriers, Metsger said,
and the city w ill probably have more
than one zip code number per rural
route, with the star routes and
potential park-and-loop
The whole idea of zip codes is
eliminating labor and increasing
reliance on machines to sort the
m ail. Metsger, who has heard his
share of post office jokes, pointed
out, “ You’ve got to punch the right
key. Machines are only as good as
the operator."
But late mail and misplaced
parcels w ill be the responsibility of
another now Metsger plans to enjoy
his retirem ent
There's a lot of things to do around
his C herryville home, he said. And
he’d like to play a little golf and do
some hunting, and then “ maybe
another job.”
Originally from New York, he
came west in the service, m arried in
California and migrated north to
Oregon, a move that, he said,
“ worked out pretty good ”
More than anything, Metsger said
he'll miss his fellow workers. "Most
of us have been together for quite
awhile.”
U ntil a permanent replacement is
named, Chuck Tropp of the Glad
stone post office w ill serve as
tem porary postmaster.
Council repeats stand against outside developments
by DAN D IU .O N
The Sandy City Council decided
Monday night that it w ill endorse no
commercial sites outside the city lim its
even if that business is already
established locally
At the same time it asked city staff to
look into the fees charged for sewer and
water hookups for motels in the
possibility that a Sandy site is pur
chased for such a development
B ill Trunble, who has owned Trimble
Construction for 10 years, asked the
council to remand his request to the
Clackamas County Commissioners
"w ithout prejudice.” The council voted
to take no action.
T rim b le ’s request is a comprehensive
plan change application that he has
filed w ith the County Commission that
would allow him to relocate his
storehouse and shop on land near Los
Amigos Restaurant, east of Sandy
currently in the third year of its three-
year cycle for school bus purchasing.
That means that this year the district
plans to buy two buses to m aintain its
fleet
He also disagreed that the Talented
and Gifted program is expendable.
“ Our TAG program is recognized as
an exemplary program throughout the
state,” he said, citing requests from
other districts for help in better im
plementing their own TAG programs.
The extracurricular athletics and
activities “ should be heartily endorsed
because of the numbers it serves,”
Lund said. He estimated that more than
half the student body participates in
these activities over the course of a
school year.
The ‘B’ Ballot items are “ sound,
fundamental programs that have
proven themselves and we want to
maintain them ," he concluded.
Turning to other support the district
enjoys, Lund agreed with comments
made last week by Sandy Union High
School superintendent Jack Peters that
approval of the Clackamas County
Education Service D istrict proposed
levy is essential.
“ The loss of their handicapped
services would put huge instant b u r
dens on any local district, ours in
cluded," he said. It would force the
Sandy district to assume a cost of
nearly $4,000 per child in the trainable
program, he said, if the ESI) levy fails.
Trim ble testified that he had been
unable to locate any usable land inside
the city lim its and had letters from
local realtors verifying his contention.
He told the council that what he plans
is not “ a m ajor development and I don’t
really feel it's comparable to Carmel
Estates ”
The city had claimed that it would
jeopardize its long-standing litigation to
prevent
C arm el
Estates
fro m
developing a retail shopping center at
the Boring Interchange It feared en
dorsement would suggest to the county
that future comm ercial and industrial
expansion in the Sandy area outside the
urban growth boundary would be
“ possible and encoiraged by the city,
which is counter to the intent of o ir plan
and goal 14 of the statewide goals,”
according to a memorandum from City
Manager Roger Jordan to the mayor
and council
Trim ble said
his
establishment.
which would have no retail outlets, has
already been approved by the Firwood
Neighbors Association
“ It might be a storehouse today, but
tomorrow it might be a superm arket,"
said Councilman Don Blair.
The county has made provisions to
discourage strip commercial and in
dustrial development along Highway 26
from Sandy to the mountain That is
why Trim ble was asking the c ity ’s
support in his battle against the
county's plan.
Local realtor Jerry I^iwson asked the
council to reconsider the perm it fees
necessary for a motel because a
potential client “ could make or break
over $25,000 in fees. ”
He told the council that he has a
prospective client " who is interested
in building a 36-unit motel in Sandy but
that $800 per unit hookup fees could
prove prohibitive I .awson cited a
Department of Environmental Quality
pamphlet that said a single fam ily
residence dumps 150 gallons of sewage
per bedroom per day into a system.
Without any kitchenettes, as the
developer proposed, the DEQ said a
motel unit would dump 80 gallons per
bedroom per day
“ It doesn’t seem reasonable to m e,”
le w son said, for those two types of
units to have to pay the same hookup
fees
City ordinance says that a motel unit
shall be considered a “ dwelling u n it”
and w ill be subject to the same charges
In other action, the Sandy City
Council:
— Authorized the city manager to call
for bids on tim ber and land clearing of
property immediately adjacent to the
Sandy Sewage treatment plant. That
land w ill be used to develop a sludge
disposal and burial site
Bob
H ornsby, superin te n d e n t,
recommended to the city that a two or
three acre site be developed as an open
field planted with a m ixture of fescue
and clover grass to be used as a site for
sludge disposal
— Instructed city staff to initiate
through the Sandy Planning Com
mission and City Council a public
review of a proposal to reduce the
amount of off-street parking required
for a senior citizen apartment complex
sim ilar to the city of Milwaukie's.
Its standards call for variable
parking requirements, based on the
number of bedrooms per unit.
— Approved a request by Gordon
Markvardsen for temporary placement
of a mobile home to be used as
residence for his parents.
— Endorsed liquor license renewal
application for Ron's No Place, Dry
Dock, W illiam s Thriftw ay, Meats and
Treats Deli, I e Bon Petit, Weigh
Station and Toni’s.
The Clackamas County Grand Jury
last F riday decided that the Jan. 10
shooting death of Barlow High School
counselor Thomas
Johnson
was
“ legally justifiable.”
The grand ju ry declined to bring
crim inal charges against Micheál J.
Hendrix, 19, of Portland.
Hendrix fatally shot Johnson in the
chest w ith a .30-30 hunting rifle at the
Boring home of Johnson’s form er wife.
Hendrix worked at the same store as
Johnson’s former wife, Lou Ann, ac
cording to Clackamas County D istrict
Attorney James O’Leary. She had
asked Hendrix to come to her home to
protect her that evening, O’Leary said.
The grand ju ry learned that Johnson,
42, of Troutdale, had a “ longstanding
history of physical abuse" against his
form er wife, according to a statement
by the d istrict attorney. Johnson had
threatened her life and assaulted her
about a week earlier, the statement
said.
“ Investigation by the Clackamas
County sheriff’s office revealed that
Johnson in fact came to the home at
about 8 p in. and argued with his ex-
w ife,” O 'Leary’s statement said.
“ Hendrix confronted Johnson with a
rifle and asked him to leave. Johnson
declined to leave and instead attacked
his ex-wife, at which tune Hendrix fired
the fatal shot,” the statement said.
The grand ju ry heard the testimony
of eight witnesses before reaching its
conclusion, O’Leary said.
The Johnsons had been divorced
since 1976 Johnson had been at Barlow
High School since 1972.
He is survived Oy four children, two
of whom attend Barlow High School.
Index
SECTION I
Keeping Posted...........................2
O b itu a rie s ................................... 2
Senior Center News .................. 3
School M e n u s.............................. 4
Editorials, le t t e r s ................... 6
SECTION II
Area News .................................. 1
Around the C o u n ty...................... 2
Recipe Contest W in n e rs ....... 4,6
SECTION II I
Sports, R e cre a tio n ...................1-4
Classified A d ve rtisin g ........... 4-8
TV D ire c to ry .............. Tab Insert
I