Dosey-do
District meet
pg. 4, sec. 1
pg. 1, sec. II
Voters support SUHS, city levies; nix grade school
Qannv
r* »nlu
Sandy school districts go, a
split deci
sion from voters in Tuesday's special
election as the Sandy Union High School
D istrict's ‘A ’ ballot was approved, and
the Sandy Elem entary School D is tric t’s
‘ B’ ballot was defeated
The city of Sandy's levy was narrow
ly approved
The SUHS operating levy of $1,865,826
was approved 1.645-1.006 It w ill provide
operating funds needed to balance the
general fund budget of $4 6 m illion for
the 15)81-82 school year
The state w ill pay 30 percent of the
property taxes in re lie f for an 'A' ballot
_ ___ _ * ■ .
... •
_
The estimated tax rate w ill be $4 39 per
$1,000 assessed valuation
The Sandy Elem entary D istrict's 'B'
ballot was turned down by a 614-508
The $197,716 proposal would have pro
vided funds for school buses and a
grounds maintenance tractor. Talented
and Gifted program, athletics and ac
tivities, an elementary counseling com
ponent, Outdoor School, Community
School and painting for the Aquatic
Center
Under the state’s relief program, the
‘ B ballot items are not elegible for
state compensation The B ballot may
1 m * submitted twice after the governing
body's 'A ballot has been approved by
voters This marked the d is tric t’s first
attempt since the A ’ ballot was approv
ed .March 30
The city's one-year operating levy,
$319,869 96, was n a rro w ly passed,
199-185
The funds w ill be used to balance the
city s $5)68,880 budget It w ill require an
estimated tax rate of $4 50 per $1,600
assessed valuation Coupled with an
estimated $2 46 per $1,000 assessed
valuation for general obligation bonds
already on the Ixtoks, the property
taxes on a $50,000 home w ill be approx
im atelv $348
Other results from around the area in
clude:
Bull Run School D istrict
Yes
No
51
89
Welches School ‘A' l.evx
Yes
No
318
213
Welches School ' I f l.evv
Yes
568
614
No
1,045
1,000
297
232
No
Sandy Elem entary ‘ I f Levy
Yes
Yes
No
City of Sandy ‘A’ Levy
Yes
Sandy High School ‘ A‘ L e w
199
185
No
Shooting spree
nets attempted
murder charge
A Sandy man and Portland woman
are being held on charges of attem p
ted m urder following an early morn
ing incident last Friday after two
persons forced their way into an
apartment at gunpoint and then shot
at another person when he drove up
In custody are Charles Peter Vet
ter, 38, of Sandy, and Elizabeth
Louise Ery, 46, of Portland He also
faces ch a rg e s of f ir s t degree
burglary and ex-convict in posses
sion of a firearm She faces those
same charges as well as a driving
while suspended charge.
According to the Sandy police, a
burglary was reported shortly after
midnight May 15 A man and woman
went to a Gary Street residence look
ing for a juvenile When he was not
there, the two held those in the
residence at gunpoint.
The youth the couple was hxiking
for drove up a bit later but was not
hit in the subsequent g unfire,
although his passenger window was
shot out in the incident.
A fter police responded to the
scene of the shooting, they were
given a description of the suspect.
They subsequently located the
suspect at the in te rse ctio n of
Pioneer B oulevard and Scales
Street He was carrying a box of
clothing
SANDY
P repared
by
' i C
RIVER BASIN MAP*’.
0 IV IS I0 N O T STATE LANDS,
Jonuary
1900
j c T hooo
As police approached, the suspect
dropped the clothing and attempted
to draw a gun from his belt It fell to
the ground and a round discharged
-,
___________ _
The state of Oregon is investigating the navigability of the Sandy Itiv e r from its mouth to mile post 36.5 to determine ownership of the rive r s bed
Battle
lines
drawn
over
Sandy
River
navigability
hi mi i ns.
... ... ...
w m DILLON
by i l>AN
S te e lh e a d e rs and Sandy R iv e r
residents agree Both groups want to
keep the riv e r as it is
without re s tric
tions.
But they don't agree on who owns the
rive r's lx*d and that has both groups
fearing that the way they enjoy the
riv e r could be altered
The state of Oregon is claim ing
ownership to 36.5 miles of riv e r lM*d
fro m
its m o u th u p s tre a m
to
BrightwiMMl That claim is based on a
federal act in 1859 granting th< state ti
tie to all land under navigable rivers
River residents think the riv e r bed
already has an owner
those who own
property along the bank
They claim they have title to the land
out to the m iddle of the riv e r and the
state s claim to the riv e r lx*d would
take what they say is theirs
ruesday, state hearings officer B ill
Brooks was in Sandy to take testimony
regarding the navigability of the riv e r
and he was surprised
“ I ve held 16 hearings on rivers
around the state and I find this
testimony kind of strange.'* he said
"I ve never had a person get up and
testily in favor of n a vig a b ility."
Doug Hobson, president of the Sandy
R iv e r c h a p te r of the N o rth w e st
Steelheaders, told the audience of 70 in
terested persons. "The fish in the riv e r
belong to everybody in the state of
Oregon If this riv e r is non navigable,
no one can drop .in anchor in the stream
where there is private property.”
Carl Berry, who lives on the riv e r at
B right wimm I. disagreed
As a real estate agent, he said that
each transfer of title had to be approved
by every subdivision of government
and that his deed said hi* owned the pro
perty to the m iddle of the Sandy River
" I don't believe anyone has the right
to take away what I ow n." he conclud
ed
A woman who lives on the rive r near
Dixlge Park said, "People come once
' to fish) and you say. O K.’ But the next
tim e they come they bring four friends
w ith them "
Attorney Vern Cook, who lives on the
Sandy River at Troutdale, served in the
Oregon Legislature in 1973 when it
directed the Division of State Ixinds to
determine which state rivers are in
deed navigable
" I think the question is not ‘Shall we
take from the people,’ but. Shall the
p<*ople ol the slat«* of Oregon take what
they think they own, when in fact they
do not," he said
The question of navigability is coni
mg up now, he said, because "u n til 36 ro
40 years ago. nolNwIy argued about who
owned beds of streams Now. the
population is doubling every It) to 20
years and there is a much heavier de
mand The rivers are worth a lot more
m oney."
Cook added that there is no "p lo t or
scheme" to take anybody's land and he
surmised that no property owner would
lose anything by the establishment of
the state's rights
Brooks seconded that opinion, "T o
my knowledge, the state has no plans
for any significant changes."
If the Sandy R iver is declared
navigable, the effect won't be very
In heliport controversy
noticeable for most property owners,
according to Jay Edwards of the D iv i
sion of State Kinds
The decision would pertain only to the
stream bed which is defined as from the
Sen. Mark Hatfield, R Ore., w ill be
ordinary high water mark on one side to the guest speaker at a special meeting
the high water mark on the other side
of the Sandy Chamber of Commerce
Diane Gregory, a property owner one next Thursday. May 28. at noon at the
m ile fro m
D odge P a rk , s a id
Tollgate Inn
trespassers have often made unplea
According to Dixie Whitmore, ex
sant scenes at her home She added that
only having rights to the high water ecutive secretary for the chamber, Hat
mark would hold little benefit in her field w ill address topics of general in
terest and answer questions from the
situation
"A t the edge of the high water mark, audience
they'd be at my front porch," she said
Hatfield last visited Sandy in 1978
Persons interested in the issue of the
when he attended a sim ila r chamber
Sandy R iver’s navigability who did not
attend Tuesday's hearings may still luncheon and in 1975, when he visited
testify in w riting, w ithin the next two Sandy Union High School
weeks, to Division of State Lands.
Hatfield w ill also visit .Salem, Red
mond, Portland Prinevile. I .a ke view,
Klam ath EalLs, Ashland. Medford and
Grants Pass.
Welches board casts support with opposition
by MICHAEL P. JONES
Eor The Post
The people who oppose the proposed
Zigzag heliport won a number of vic
tories this week as the Welches School
Board, the Mount Hood Pre-school Co
op and ne w ly-fo rm e d C om m unity
School Women's Group all voted to re
ject the proposed location for the Ian
ding fa cility
P rior to its May 14 meeting, a source
close to the Welches School Board in
dicated that the school d is tric t's stand
would be "no stand, because it didn't
d ire ctly affect the school "
Board member Ix*ah Behan agreed
and added that because the helicopter
pad was to be located off school proper
ty. the board would have no real
authority to take a stand either way
However, as public concern regar
ding the heliport's pro xim ity to the
school grew, the board was forred to
act The site is directly across the street
from the school,
The board members told the heliport
developers, who presented their pro
posal. they would w rite a letter to the
Clackamas County Commission oppos
mg the fa c ility 's location whenever
com m unity input was requested
Board member Ron Worrel echoed
other individuals' and groups’ concerns
raised since the proposal surfaced
Focusing on the issues of safety for
school children, distraction caused by
noise and the potential comm ercial
abuse, overuse and policing of the
heliport, Worrel told the developers
they w ere
"going up the r iv e r
backw ards."
Worrel added, " I don't know if you'd
meet w ith resistance if it was located
elsewhere You are dealing with an
emotional attitude in terms of the prox
im ity to the school.”
Joe Stein, who operated not only the
first com m ercial heliport in Oregon,
but in the United States as well,
responded that he didn't want to deal
w ith the heliport on an emotional level.
" It 's too slippery," he said
He contended that the proposed loca
tio n was im p o rta n t because the
Women's Club is only a few hundred
feet away and that building is essential
in providing emergency shelter for
p o te n tia l flood v ic tim s or o th e r
homeless people in the event of natural
disaster
Stein added that the helicopters
would cause little , if any, noise to
d is ru p t the co n ce n tra tio n of the
students because heliports are located
on the roofs of hospitals in Portland, as
well as elsewhere around the country.
Behan, a nurse at Emanuel Hospital
where Life F lig h t's rooftop heliport is
located, disagreed She said that the
helicopters are too noisy, disrupt con
venations and sleeping patients, and
that their fumes enter the ventilation
system
M arilyn lx»slie, a registered nurse
who lives in the Ixilo Pass area near
Zigzag, reaffirm ed Behan's opposition
Leslie. who worked at Woodland Park
Hospital in Portland, said, "E v e ry tim e
a helicopter landed on the hospital's
roof, it shook the whole building
Worrel called the public's concerns
" le g itim a te ’’ and added that the
heliport issue was being looked upon as
the parade of horribles’’ relative to
the policing of the facility.
Stein said it would be up to the county
to police the fa cility and another
developer, (»ale Peterson, added that a
heliport manager would have to be ap
pointed
Joe Redwing, of the Federal Aviation
A dm inistration, said he has been flood
ed w ith calls from Mount Hood area
residents the past two weeks His agen
cy, he said, would have no role in the en
forcement of the heliport's rules and
that it would lx* up to the State Police or
the County Sheriff's Department
" A ll they have to do is w rite a couple
of tickets and word would get around
pretty quick,” Redwing said
Redwing admitted that the callers
"w ho knew nothing about helicopters’’
were contacting his office w ith con
cerns that were not valid He said that
any issue w ith safety and comm ercial
uses of the proposed heliport would pro
bably not be a factor, adding that the
landing fa c ility "would serve a vital
function for the mountain ”
" I t would be better to have a known
location." Redwing said " It 's a lot
easier to do that than say ‘ I 'll meet you
at m ile post 45 on Highway 26 ’ Then
you h ave to m ake s p e c ia l a r
Hatfield due
for chamber
get-together
rangements w ith the state police to stop
tra ffic and rope it o ff.”
Meanwhile, the county Planning
Department is preparing a recommen
dation to the county commissioners
whether to allow the process for a con
ditional use perm it of the currently
vacan park land to begin
According to Dominic Mancini, ac
tin g
p la n n in g
d ir e c to r ,
th e
department's decision w ill be based
s tric tly on what the ordinances say and
that its recommendation should be
made w ithin the next week
He added that it would be up to the
commissioners whether or not to accept
the departm ent's recom m endation,
because it would be the commissioners
who would file the conditional use per
m it a p plication in behalf of the
heliport's developers, because it would
be located on public land
In an organizational meeting Mon
day, members of the Environmental
Committee on S uitability and splinter
groups opposing the heliport met to
unify their efforts and develop legal
tactics to fight the location of the Ian
ding area
The public is invited to attend the
special meeting, but seating is lim ited
so reservations w ill be on a first-come,
first served basis.
For reservations or inform ation, call
the chamber office. 668 4606
Index
SECTION 1
Keeping Posted
Senior Center News
Public Notices ............
School Menus .........
Editorials. le tte rs
Area Church Notes .
... 2
3
4-5
.. 5
.. 6
..7
SECTION II
Area News.......
1
Around the County ........... ...2
Hood land Happenings ....... . . . I
About People............
...3
Bits A Pieces
...4
SECTION III
Sports, Recreation .........
.1-3
Classified Advertising ....... 4-1
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