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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1982)
Section SANDY OREGON THURSDAY JANUARY 21 1982 The SSndy Post Area News People Home & Garden Features Mt. Hood Meadows avalanche ‘media event by M IC H A EL P. JONES Post Correspondent The avalanche that swept through an isolated section of Mt. Hood Meadows Sunday was blown out of proportion by the news media, accor ding to a spokesperson of the resort M ic h a e l C la rk , d ir e c to r o f marketing and sales for the resort, was reluctant to call a section of snow that moved 150 feet down a slope in Four Bowl an avalanche Four Bowl is a steep area used p rim arily by expert skiers just south of the Blue chairlift “ We call what happened up here a ‘Bluff,” ’ said Clark, “ a minor slide,” Clark said that at 3 a m that same morning, before the area was opened up for skiing, patrols were sent out to look for potential build-ups. or cor nices This is a routine procedure. When potential hazards are iden tified they are knocked down by dynamite or by trained personnel on skis The area where the slide occurr- red. a cco rd in g to C la rk , was dynamited early in the morning and slid down the hill. However, 18 inches of new snow fell by noon, forcing the snow to slide down through some trees The avalanche was discovered by a skier at 12:55. “ When we first learned about the avalanche, we augmented a search im m ediately.” said Clark, “ Our reaction time was faster than recom mended We had 30 people there w ithin 20 minutes “If you can get people to an avalan che area in 30 minutes you are doing w ell.” Ski patrolers and ski instructors probed the area. 40 feet wide ( ’’ -by w hat) and three to five foot deep, un til 3:30 p m looking for anyone who might have been trapped Clark said they probed every inch of the area with 12-foot poles, and no victims were discovered "A t no time were we alarmed at all, said Clark " I t was not a crisis situation, but it quickly became one to the media.” Someone monitoring the airwaves with a citizens band radio heard about the avalanche, and within five minutes a television crew was on the scene Later the resort received calls from CBS News in Los Angeles, as well as from United Press Interna tional and the Associated Press in Chicago, wanting to find out about the incident Bruce Haynes, a U S. Forest Ser vice snow ranger with the Zigzag Ranger district, and Rick Ragen, a snow ranger with the Hood River Ranger district, both agree that the avalanche was a “ media event” more than anything else They said the incident was blown out of propor tion. A large avalanche at Multorpor Ski Bowl the day before, however, went relatively unnoticed An avalanche moved a timing shack on the resort's racing hill an estimated 30 feet down hill A tim er inside the shack was buried up to his waist. At 3:30 p m., high winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, forced the closure of the Mt Hood Meadows for skiing At the time of the closure, ac cording to Clark, 3,000 people were skiing. He said, “ they were refunded their money on a calibrated basis,” according to how long they had been skiing that day. “ One of the big problems on a mountain like this, is when a storm comes in and there are 50 mile per hour winds," said Clark. “ It's just too dangerous to risk operating the lifts. Clark said that it was just a coin-’ cidence that there was an avalanche the same day as the high winds, and said that it had nothing to do with the early closure Ragen said that the avalanche may have been considered in the closure but it was p rim a rily “ due to the un safe situation of the lifts during high winds ” Two out of five of the resort’s ski lifts did not open that day due to weather conditions, according to Ragen. The Texas lift, Meadow's highest, located about the tim berline exten ding up between 6,000 and 7,00 feet, had high winds and no visibility. The Hood River Meadows lift, which is located between the 4,500 and 5,900 foot level, was not opened, said Ragen, due to ice on the lift. Approval sought for hydro study by M IC H A EL P. JONES :Hi*g socr Post Correspondent CEDAR PARK GARDENS The Clackamas County Planning Commission w ill decide upon a pro *or ser-CT citizens posed amendment which would allow :ect jtm ntzac-f hydroelectric projects to be con structed on slopes greater than 35 '■ X . * * 9°r°e"s percent. . . c- c= On Monday, the commission w ill -- -Ws bye hear testimony on this amendment to the county’s zoning and development ordinance, which would allow water impoundments and hydro facilities to P hoto by Scott New ton be developed on slopes greater than Workers put up a wall at the senior center apartment complex on McCor provide living quarters for 20 senior citizens by next summer. 35 percent, which is now a violation mick Drive, adjacent to Meinig Park. The 1675.000 Cedar Park Gardens w ill under existing ordinances. If approv ed, the amendment w ill go before the Board of County Commissioners on Feb 22. The proposed zoning change originated after Paul Sanders of Zigzag, was denied a conditional use by M IC H A EL P. JONES project would im pair or be detrim en Citizens division of the Environmen structure to be location at the 1,420 perm it for a mini-hydro project on Post Correspondent tal to the public interest.” tal Committee on Suitability (ECOS), foot elevation in the steep basin, Minikahda Creek just off of Lolo Pass The mini-hydro is being proposed and the Columbia Group of the would be detrimental to fish Road. The project was denied on The proposed B oulder Creek by Steven Sweitzer of Wemme, who Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, Nov. 5 of last year by a hearings of Francis N. Diack who owns a cabin h y d r o e le c tr ic p ro je c t near underwent a series of hearings questioned the generating capacity ficer because it was to be constructed Brightwood has been recommended before the board last summer, seek of the project, arguing that there in the scenic waterway area of the in an area with slopes that exceed 35 Sandy River, wrote the board in op for approval by the State Water ing approval for the prelim inary per were not historical flow records percent. Sanders argued that slope is Resources department staff. m it in order to study the stream fu r a v a ila b le on the stream . The position to the hydro, raising the necessary to create enough drop to Steve Brutscher of the department, ther. Having met head-on with oppos hydrologic correlation for the project same concerns. produce energy. said that they w ill recommend F ri ing factions, the project’s fate was was based off of F ir Creek, which is “ Since the Sandy River, including At the project’s appeal before the day morning to the Water Policy placed tem porarily on hold, until fur located in the Bull Run area. its tributaries (and that means Clackamas County Commissioners Review B oard, to accept the ther measurement of the stream's Boulder Creek ) is the great spawning on Jan. 6, Edward Sullivan, a Dr. John Beschta, a hydrologist for prelim inary perm it application for a flow could be conducted ground for 20 percent of all Columbia Portland attorney representing the the Oregon State University in Cor hydroelectric project on Boulder The hydro application stated that River steelhead taken on the Oregon Mt. Hood Water Resources Coalition Creek, a tributary to the Salmon the project would divert up to 60 v a llis , te stifie d that the flows side (fish ladders are not 100 percent which is opposing the project, argued available for power generation, may River . cubic feet per second (cfs) of water be 33 percent less than what Sweitzer safe for fish), why would you want to for a dismissal because the hydro In a memorandum to the Board from the creek and theorectically cut out this food resource from our in was in violation of the ordinance. dated Dec 18, 1981, Brutscher wrote c o u ld g e n e ra te up to 1,956 has estimated He said that such a creasing population?” wrote Ms The commissioners concurred but reduction could make the project that “ the application and hearing horsepower, producing an estimated Diack “ I hate to think of the day agreed to let Sanders refile another record indicate that there are some 3,400,000 kilow att (kw) hours of elec economically unfeasible. when there are no cans of salmon on conditional use perm it application, at issues of concern which could be ap tric ity annually. Portland General Edward Sullivan, a Portland at the grocery shelves, thanks to the no charge, if the zone amendment is p ro p ria te ly addressed under a E lectric has indicated a willingness torney representing the project’s op Water Policy Review Board for approved. prelim inary perm it.” By approving to purchase the power. ponents, also challenged that the pro allowing small dams on the many H e n ry M a rk u s , a la n d use the perm it “ it is not apparent that the The M ountain Area C o rrid o r posed three to five foot high diversion tributaries of Oregon’s watersheds.” specialist for the Oregon Department State gets involved in county zoning proposal of Energy, said that his office is assisting the county’s planning staff from a legal standpoint because a s im ila r p ro b le m c o u ld o c c u r elsewhere in the state. He said that “ the more small hydro projects that are proposed, the more the issue w ill keep coming up.’ ’ “ We were aware of the problem with the zoning ordinance and the development of a lte rn a tive and renewable resources like hydros,” said Markus, “ so we decided to get involved by drawing the county’s a t tention to their policy problems.” “ It was clear in the language of the existing development code,” said Markus, “ that it was not written with hydro in m ind.” Markus said that most counties around the state are not aware of the siting problems for small hydros and with reasonable ordinances and plan ning, the conflicts can be resolved. The proposed conflict between the zoning ordinance w ill be eliminated by the addition of a sentence which reads: “ Facilities which satisfy this provision shall not be denied on the basis of slope-related development standards .” Carolyn Smith of the coalition said that her organization is currently speaking with other interested par ties in opposing the ordinance change and said that it would have statewide ram ifications, if approved Sullivan said in an interview Tues day that he did not know if the coali tion would be at the hearing to legally combat the amendment. The proposed zone change w ill go before the planning commission at 7:30 p.m., Jan 25, at the Department of E nvironm ental Services, »02 Abernethy Road, in Oregon City. SUHS programs rated by public, assigned budget priority by SCOTT NEWTON The unedited comments may have been the most interesting thing about about a recent Sandy Union High School survey “ I personally know of a student , who graduated from Sandy Union Hi School who can’t either read or wright This type of schooling goes on all the time at Sandy,” wrote one respondent Some respondents said th a t teachers are overpaid, while others feel they should receive better pay. A few said that the administration might be top-heavy. One wrote, “ It is generally con sidered that we have a discipline pro blem at Sandy H S. This problem should be cured by removing those who are unwilling to learn and con fo rm .” Many, when commenting about physical education and extracur ricu la r activities, brought up sports Although many supported athletic programs, others did not. " I get angry when my students come home w ith new practice uniforms whenever they turn out for a sport,” wrote one Another said that physical educa tion classes “ should be taught with health and fitness in mind Not many people can participate in football through ( -out) life It should not be overly stressed ” One respondent wrote, " I get angry w ith the sex education th a t's taught ” One thought that was echoed often was the fact that these are tough times, and that the private sector wants the job of education done with efficiency. “ I commend you for seeking input from patrons and wish you strength in meeting the challenge of m aintain ing good programs while battling the ever tightening financial re stric tions,” wrote one The survey was a random sample of 440 patrons from two groups, registered voters and parents of SUHS students. About 40 questionnaires were undeliverable, through the m ail, resulting in a sample of 400 The school had 190 surveys return ed, of which 187 could be tabulated. The overall response rate was 47 per cent. A post card, and then a first-class follow-up letter, with another survey enclosed, may have had something to do with the high response rate Although parents were only 40 per cent of the sampling, 56 percent responded Approximately 63 per cent said they voted in the last school board election, while 73 percent said they voted in the last budget election If the data is accurate, it indicates that parents vote in budget elections at a higher rate than do non parent registered voters “ We did not have any pro gram —and this is what we were pleased about p rim a rily —that did not have a better than average patron support factor,” said Dennis Crow, assistant principal, Respondents rated programs in two contexts There was the patron support factor, and the budget p rio ri ty factor. Therefore, it was possible for respondents to approve of a pro gram, while giving that program a low rating as a budget priority. That was the situation in art educa tion On a scale of one to five, with five being the best a program could do, art was given a 3.676 approval ra tin g . As a budget p rio r ity , however, again on a scale of one to five, art was given a 2 676 Vocational education received the highest patron support rating Also doing well was counseling and guidance, mathematics, science and homemaking As fa r as budget p rio ritie s , mathematics, language education, science and vocational education were at the top of the list “ I think the public is telling us that math, language and science are very high priority factors, and they're high here We re a basic skills institu tion We’ll continue to be quite ac countable in those areas,” Crow said. “ Ia m very pleased that we had the response rate we did, and it has real ly helped up in our budget prepara tions.” Crow said that the results of this survey are sim ila r to a survey published in 1976. Forty-five percent of those respon ding to the survey said that the goal of the people at SUHS should be to provide students with a general education. they w ill be guided in that direction. Or, a balance between vocational and general education can be planned A sim ilar survey has also been sent to patrons as a special section in The Sandy Post. The results of that s u rv e y a re c u r r e n tly be in g tabulated Vocational education was perceiv ed as the most important goal of 39 percent of the respondents, while col lege preparatory work was perceived as the most important goal of 16 per cent. “ The philosophy at Sandy High School is you develop a program to meet the needs of a specific in dividual.” Crow said, explaining that counselors work with students, their parents and teachers, to make educa tional plans for freshmen If students want college preparatory classes, Survey results Program BPF PSF BPF PSF Mathematics language education Science Vocational ed Social science Counseling Health education Homemaking ed. Physical education Support services Student activities Special services A rt education 4 733 4 327 4 209 3 982 3 808 3 602 3 575 3 145 3 115 2 939 2 832 2 792 2676 4 163 3 762 4.107 4 606 3.710 4 254 3 933 4.195 3 896 3640 3 767 3 535 3 676 4-0.570 +0 565 +0.102 4)624 +0 094 4)652 -0 358 •1 05 -0.781 -0 701 4)935 -0.743 -1 00 Dennis Crow
