V o i. 71
The Sandy Post
No. 34
___
SANDY OREGON THURSDAY AUGUST 20 1981
Welches school
faces problems
»tLSPS 4BI 180»
Sewage plant capacity
not as close as feared
PROPOSE 3 BOUNDARY FOR THE C IT Y Of WELCHES
with flooring
bv I)AN DII.I.DN
The Sandy sewage treatment plan, is
no, within one year of reaching capaci
ty, as an earlier engineering study
reported, it some steps can be taken to
give it the ‘‘fle x ib ility " its operator
needs to keep it going
"The operator doesn't have the
means to make things happen," Duane
Lee of Lee Engineering. Inc of Oregon
City told the Sandy City Council Mon
day evening Given those means, he
estimated, it w ill be three years tiefore
the system reaches capacity
That news prompted relief from city
officials "The city appears to have no
immediate crisis concerning sewage
treatment capacity, if we are able to
make the improvements Lee Engineer
ing is recommending," City Manager
Roger Jordan told the council
Those recommendations include pur
chase of a used tanker sludge truck, in
stalling new piping to carry treated
material directly to the chlorine con
tact basin, reinforcing a partition bet
ween the aeration tank and the aeration
digester, and modifying the headworks
to bypass peak flows to the pond
Estimated cos, of the recommended
improvements would be approximately
$60,000, according to Lee "That's cer
tainly a heck of a lot better than the
million, million and a half dollars you'd
be spending for a new plant," he said
The earlier study, conducted by-
Sprague Burdin of Cunningham and
Associates of Milwaukie, suggested
that the sewage treatment plan, could
service approximately 1,000 more
customers before expansion of the plan,
would be necessary He recommended
the best methtxl of expanding the plan,
would be to use a package plan, addi
tion, which is the type of plant the city
currently has
Package plants, according to Ix*e,
"fa il to have very good fle xib ility"
bv M id i \E I. p. J ()\E S
Post Correspondent
Since construction begun on the new
Welches School annex, it has been
plagued with a variety of problems
amid charges that improper excavation
and faulty workmanship caus«xl the
building to settle unevenly and quickly
As a result, the floors buckled and
cracks appeared
Last week another problem surfaced
with the construction which could
possibly delay the move into the
building by a couple of weeks, accor
ding to Superintendent Ken Blackburn
School officials had planned to occupy
the building by Sept. 8
Blackburn said the material, Vetonit
Pallano, used to level the uneven floors
cause by the rapid settling did not bond
properly in some places to the concrete
floors underneath, causing cracks
Fred Carlson of Estacada, the
district's clerk of the works who makes
sure the taxpayers get their money’s
worth and reports new problems to the
superintendent, said that when the
cracks were discovered, the tiles could
not be laid because water could get
underneath and cause greater pro
blems for the school later on
Construction superintendent Lloyd
Piper of Glenbrook Construction of
Salem said he could not explain what
caused the floors to crack
He said his workers applied the
Pallano the same way in every area of
the building and that cracks appeared
in some areas after it dried Although
he can't be sure, Piper felt that the
unusually hot weather could be a fac
tor, making the floors shrink too quick
ly
He said a representative of the pro
duct's distribution firm in Canada
made an inspection of the floors to
determine if the cracks were caused by
faulty workmanship or a bad mixture of
the self leveling compound.
Piper said he doesn’t think the crack
ed floors are the result of the foundation
settling, but can't "overlook that
possibility at all ’’
Earlier this year, in an attempt to
solve some of the new building's pro
blems. architect Richard Gessford of
Gessford and Associates, the building's
designer, recommended the use of
Pallano to correct the uneven floors'.
Superintendent Blackburn said that
Gessford told the school board last
Thursday that the problems in the new
school's main office, multi-purpose
room and hallways in C wing ‘‘was an
error in the bonding process "
He said the technician from Canada
agreed and did not feel it was a problem
with the product
Although Gessford felt there would be
only a four day delay in the project's
completion. Piper said it would be a
loss of at leas, two weeks before the
new building will be ready for occupa
Single Copy 2 0 ’
l ì g i MO
• ••
A R IA PROPOSE
N O I P R tS E U IL
SEWER D I S Ì R Ì
Developer studies Welches cityhood
tional
facilities,
services,
streets
and utilities could lx* generated
After incorporation, a long, ar
duous process, the plan proposes a
five-member council, with a weak
m ayo r form of g overnm ent,
enlisting a city manager
The proposed c ity has an
estimated population of 1.415 people
with 556 residential units
According to Bright s report, the
true cash value of property within
the proposed city is approximately
$54 7 million That would raise ap
posa Is
That prtK-ess will include projtetmg
the total sewage flow for the city in the
year 2000 and determining which com
ponents of the trunk lint* and sewage
treatment plant require expansion to
meet that demand. dt*termimng d th«“
preliminary recommendations are sul
ficent to achieve plant capacity and
refining the $60.000 estimate for these
improvements, and working with theci
ty to analyze problems which result
from the plant's design and the varying
flow conditions under w hich it operat«*s
In other action, the city council:
— Accept«*«, the $5.244 hid of .Inn
Turin and Son of Sandy to couiplct«*
work on the Meinig Avenue walkway It
will eventually run from Barker Court
all the way to Highway 2«. Part of that
work, however, will be completed by
stale Highway Department crews as
par, of an agreement reached by City
Engineer John l.ichtenheld.
— Decided to tackle vacant l«ds
overgrown with weeds in subdivisions
throughout the city. Jordan told the
council that he sen , le tters to
developers of four subdivisions, asking
them to clean their vacant lots of debris
and high we«*ds. Tw«> developers com
plied.
Now the city will give the others 10
days before it cleans them itself and
places a lien on the property for the cos,
of the clean-up.
— Accepted the public improvements
in the Tickle Creek subdivision, at the
recommendation of l.ichtenheld.
County leaders vote
themselves a pay raise
WELCHES AREA
H O O D LA N D SERVICE D ISTR IC T
Clackamas County. Oregon
There is a plan afloat to incor
porate the new city of Welches
Written by Carl Bright, developer
of Rippling River, the plan calls for
a self governing body which it says
would give residents a “greater con
trol over local affairs and their
destiny," and says 24 hour police
protection would be available to ,h«“
citizens of the area and financial
revenue's that would enable the city
to satisfy its needs for better recrea
which an operator needs With the ad
justments his firm is recommending,
he said, the operator would have th«“
means to make things happen
Because this was jus, the first ph.is«“
o, L«*e Engineering's study, the council
agreed to spend not more than $8. imhi to
allow the firm to "fine tooth'' its pro
proximately $246,143 in property
taxes, based on Sandy's current m ill
rate.
The proponents, however, are no,
recommending that any property
tax be impostd upon the property
owners within the boundary " It is
believed that this decision should be
made by the people within the city
and such recommendation should
originate from their elected council
members if it is- their desire,” the
report says
In the wake of the dispute over pay
for Portland city commissioners,
Clackamas County commissioners
have approved a raise for themselves
that gives them an IB 4 percent pay in
crease, county officials say
Portland officials have been con
sidering an IB 5 percent raise that was
highly criticized because the hike is
more than twice the percentage in
crease given to other city employees.
In Clackamas County, the commis
sioners approved an 8 6B percent pay
raise in July County Fiscal Analyst
Carole Berggren said las, week,
however, that th«* actual raise is much
higher
The raise is figured on the base com
missioners’ base salary, including a 9
percent increase that commissioners
approv«d for all county officials in 1980,
she said
Clackamas commissioners d«*cid«*d
later no, to accept the extra money in
an attempt to prevent a county general
fund deficit
The three commissioners are the
highest-paid county board members in
the state They received $36,575 in 1980,
bu, were supposed to get $39.860 W ith
the latest increase each commissioner
would earn $43,320, officials said
Commissioner Stan Skoko condemn
ed the raise, saying it was approx ed
while he was absent
Commissioner Rolx*rt Schumacher
said Skoko was told of the size of the in
crease, adding he believes the board
should have taken the responsibility of
explaining the true size of the icrease
tion
Blackburn stressed that the extra
costs associated with these recent
levelling-compound problems will not
t>e the responsibility of the district's
taxpayers Rather, he said, the contrac
tor will absorb the loss
Blackburn said he has no idea at this
time what ,h<* extra costs will be to tear
up the floors and re apply the leveling
compound
dam
bv M IC H A E L P. JONES
Post Correspondent
The second half of the Water Policy
Review Board hearing on the propostxl
Earlier this year, the school district
small-scale hydroelectric project on
hirtnl Portland attorney John Osborn to
Boulder Creek was held Aug 12 at
represent them in a possible arbitration
Welches Grade School
against the architectural firm and
It was the last opportunity for
Scappoose excavator. Havlik Construc
testimony on the issue before the board
tion Those firms are being held respon
d e c id e s w h e th e r to g r a n t th e
sible for the earlier floor problems
prelim inary application to allow the
which will cos, the taxpayers an
developer to study the stream and the
estimated $30»,< nm , to correct
project’s feasibility further
Robert L. Beschta. a forest hydrology
and water quality expert from the
school of forestry at Oregon State
University in Corvallis, was the sole
witness at the hearing.
Bestchta said that one of his m ajor
concerns is that the plant's construction
will make it strong enough to withstand
SECTIO N 1
the tons of logs, limbs, sand and sup
Keeping Posted
2
plemental m aterials such as silt and
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3
clay, which will make its way down the
Senior Center News
4
watershed to the dam
Obituaries
5
He said his research has shown that
Editorials, le tte rs
6
200 tons of debris is prtxluced in a
Sports, Recreation
. 7-8
square mile in a watershed like Boulder
Creek's.
SECTION II
Beschta estimated that 1,400 tons of
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1
debris would be produced in seven
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... 2
square miles of the creek's watershed
Around the County
2
during the high run-off times, which
About People
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would be when the plant would operate
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"One log can have a tremendous a f
fect on the whole system,” Beschta
SECTION I I I
said "A hydro plant constructed in
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such an area had better be able to
p le m e n t In s id e
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withstand the large quantities of debris
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and had better be anchored in to the
bedrock ”
Index
Beschta said tha, he is also concerned
about the effects of the organic debris
on the screening of the plant’s intake
facility He said that when the stream is
rising, someone must be available
seven days a week, 24 hours a day. to
check on the facility
Beschta said tha, there is more than
the normal amount of debris coming
through the stream due to the recent
logging operations in the area,
Beschta told the project’s developer,
Steven Sweitzer of Wemme, that the
stream s channel "could alter through
tim e ”
Beschta said, "When you pu, a per
m anent s tru c tu re into
m oving
streambed, you can have problems. No,
over a year or two, bu, over a 30-year
period ”
The hydrologist is concerned about
the p ro je ct’s economic feasibility
because he feels the plan, would no,
produce the amount of power the
developerexpects,
•
Betschta siad he feels the developer
is being ‘‘overly optimistic” with his
projected plant output because extreme
events, such as a drought, could alter
the plant's production
Sweitzer said his plant could add 2 3
million killowatt hours to the area's
energy needs, bu, Betscha contended
that his own calculations show the
potential power to be 37 percent less
Betscha added tha, a ve ir or two of low
runnoffs ‘ could pose financial d if
ficulties.”
The hydrologist admitted, however,
tha, because of the eleareu, in the bet
ter part of the area that there could be
increased streamflows
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Photo
r nrxn by
oy M
■Micnaei
ichael p
r Jones
Jone
The trade offs would be. depending
on how they do the job. that there would
be more organics in the stream ."
Betscha said "Only good engineering
and maintenance could offset the possi
ble problems ”
John Thompson, representing the
developer at the hearing, told the Water
Policy Board, One thing that always
gets lost is the tradeoffs involved
If this is the best fish resource in the
• t m ," he said, " It ’a news to the
residents ”
Thompson said that some of the
witnesses testified to the importance of
the stream in regards to the fish, but
add that others testified the area was
"also clearcut and raped ”
"You can't have it both w ays," he
said, since the effects of the erosion on
the streams from the clearcut would
have a m ajor adverse effect on them by
destroying their spawning grounds and
habitats
Thompson concluded that he found it
"unfortunate that it has to take so much
tim e and that someone has to go
through so much to study his own pro
perty and stream ”
The Water Policy Review Board will
make
its decision on the
project's
preliminary application by late Oc
tober