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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 1982)
Vol. 72 No. 30 Single Copy 25« Fire district eyes change in dispatching Tax cut looms for budgeters by DAN DILLO N Local officials are taking a “wait and see*' attitude about a proposed 1 5 percent property tax limitation that some observers say could wreak havoc with local budgeting “ I've heard that it would have a devastating impact,'* said Sandy Elementary District Superintendent Clark Lund, “ but before I get excited and start issuing statements about gloom and doom, I'm going to see what happens ** State Attorney General Dave Krohnmayer is expected to issue an opinion this Monday. Aug 2, about the effects on cities, schools and special districts if the measure is ap proved by voters in November City Manager Roger Jordan said he is waiting for the attorney general's interpretation before he analyzes the possible effect the pro perty tax limitation could have on the city of Sandy If there are cuts, smaller com munities could be severely affected “ With small towns like Sandy, where there are one-person depart ments. it raises some questions.” Jordan said He is also concerned that larger departments, like the police depart ment. would face cutbacks while the smaller departments would take on added duties This marks the third time in five years that Oregonians will be asked to vote on a property tax limitation Earlier proposals, in 1978 and i960, were turned down at the polls. The latest effort, introduced by Ray Phillips and the Oregon T ax payers U n ion —sponsors of the e a rlie r u ns u c ce ssfu l in itiatives—would limit property taxes to 1.5 percent of assessed valuation. That is 815 per 81.000 of assessed valuation In addition, the measure would roll back assessments to 1979 levels, lim it future assessment increases to 2 per cent annually and would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature and of the voters to boost property tax rates by DAN DILLON Statewide, local government and school officials are saying the measure, if passed, would have a devastating impact on local services They claim that any mov«; away from property tax financing df public schools, which now provides about two-thirds of the funds for public education, would shift the school finance burden from business and commercial property tax to personal income tax payers Please turn to Page 2. Schools revise busing plan by DAN DILLO N Some Sandy Elementary District students may find getting to school a little different this year, although the changes are expected to be minor The school district's board of direc tor's recently approved a plan that will make pick-up and delivery of students more uniform throughout the district and save time and mileage in the daily schedules “ We're trying to be consistent in our practice of pick-up and delivery of children,'* explained Superinten dent Clark Lund “ Some had prac tically front door service, while others had to walk up to a half mile.** Under the new plan, children who live less than one half mile from a main route will have to walk to that main route Children who live more than a half mile will still be provided the old service The district extended its route past Sandy Farms on Highway 211, where buses used to turn around, to Tickle Creek Road because of the danger to students walking along the shoulder of the highway. In the Colorado Road area, off 362nd Drive, four families at the end of Moonbeam Lane will have pick-up That is nearly one mile from Col orado Road, Lund said H ow ever, in snowy and icy weather, those students will have to meet the bus on Colorado Road because of th e d if f ic u lt y of maneuvering the bus The net result of the modifications will be a savings of about four hours bus time per day and 44 miles of travel per day, Lund said “ I t ’ll be more cost-effective for us,” he said “ As much or more than fuel costs, what we considered is con sistency in practice ” While buses will be on the road less, the district will have an agree ment for maintenance. For the first time, the district has signed a three- y e a r a g re e m e n t w ith H e n ry Reckman for lease of bus shop space In the past, the district had operated on a year-to-year basis with Reckman The Sandy Elementary District also signed a three-year agreement with the classified employees that will run through 1965. Please turn to Page 2. Photo by ban billon Bing Beckman, of the Barlow Trail Ixrng Rifles struck a spark with Scouts in Mcinig Park last week as he demonstrated fire starting with a flint and steel for participants in the annual Day Camp. Story on page 2. County sends Hood plan to LCDC by M IC H A E L P. JONES Post Correspondent The Board of Clackamas County Commissioners has approved revi sions recommended by the planning commission to the M t Hood Com munity Plan, with some modifica tions Planning Director Dominic Man cini said the commissioners' action “ was to voice their intent to approve the proposed plan and to adopt the zoning ordinance as recommended by the planning commission.“ The modifications of the planning commissions recommendations are related to the comprehensive plann ing map, the zoning map and in wetland designations, in and out of the Hoodland Service District. Natural resource planner Gary Naylor said the wetland changes oc curred in the Cedar Ridge area near Brightwood, where the 345-unit Brightwood Glen subdivision is pro posed Boundaries have been reduc ed from 19 to nine acres. On Rutledge Lane in Welches, Naylor said, a 35-acre wetland area was designated Commission approval eliminated the 1976 Mt Hood Community Plan as the prim ary planning document for the corridor Senior Planner Doug McClain said the commissioners made the decision after two work sessions Along with the planning staff, they evaluated written testimonies and evidence which had been presented at public hearings M c C la in sa id th e p r im a r y modifications to the area's plan focus on two areas outside the Hoodland Service District. McClain said the commissioners elected to retain most of the 1976 land-use designations which is recreational-residential (R R ). RR zoning allows one unit on two acres with no public water and no public sewer services available With only public water available, one unit could be constructed on one acre With both sewer and water available, four units could be constructed on one acre. The planning staff, however, had sought to have this area down-zoned and the land re-zoned to agriculture and forest That would have allowed only one unit to be developed on 20 or 40 acre parcel After the comprehensive plan was rejected three times by the state Land Conservation and Development Commission, county officials feared it would meet the same fate unless this zoning change was made LCDC would not acknowledge the plan on the basis the county had not shown an exception for lands not zon ed agriculture or forest outside of the urban growth boundary This proposal met heavy opposition fro m a ffe c te d la n d o w n e rs , developers and real estate agents, who claimed the re-zoning would seriously affect the corridor as a tourist and recreational area Some of these down-zoning op ponents formed together into the Sane E c o n o m ic D e v e lo p m e n t Association and retained attorney, Diane Spies of Portland, to combat the zoning change Spies had told commissioners she was having a consortium of experts conduct an analysis of all the land which would be affected if the down zoning were to go into effect She estimated her team of experts, which were to include real estate ap praisers, attorneys and economists, would be examining the properties of 2.000 owners Tuesday afternoon, Mancini said the SEDA data has never been made part of the record He said the com missioners decision to retain the 1976 plan's application of the rural and recreational-residential zoning, was based solely on the oral and written evidence which had been submitted Mancini said after the commis- sioners spent an estimated seven hours in work sessions evaluating the d ire c tio n th ey c o m m is sio n e rs wanted to see the cornodor go, they elected "to retain the recreational- residential zoning for the major part of the valley floor.” Inside the service district boun daries, Mancini said the RR zoning has been changed to “ hoodland residential," which still allows for four units to be constructed on one acre. “ In effect,’’ said Mancini, “ it is the same zoning except updated.” The revised plan will be sent to the LCDC by August 13 and a hearing is expected to be held sometime in Oc tober Water Authority charts course by M ICHA EL P. JONES Post C o rre s p o n d e n t The five special water districts recently organized from the Alder Creek W ater Company w ill be cooperatively operated by the Alder Creek Water Authority. The Water Authority is made up of a 10-person board of governors that Bandy firefighters move la extinguish a fir* aa K m patio * Pleasant Street apartm ent. According to investigator«, the Are was set. Sandy paHaa are tanking Mr a teenage male, six feet tall, wearing blue pants and a red shirt who was seen latke are^ fast prior le the 3:11 p.n. alarm Tuesday. ► will oversee the operation and ad m in is tra tio n of d is tricts when Federal District Court Magistrate George E. Juba transfers reciever- ship of the company Aug 1 from Gene Ginther who has been the com pany’s receiver since Sept 26, i960 Coordinating the activities of the Water Authority are two board members nominated from each of the five water districts who were selected by the boards each of their respective districts Representing the Sleepy Hollow district is Jeffery K ShacLleford and Charles Peterson. Frank Fraijo and John Anderson represent the Wildwood area From Country Club district is Robert Pomeroy and Jackie Yates, who is serving as the Water Authori ty’s secretary M argo Dempster and O rville Thompson, from A ld er C reek- Barlow, are serving on the board From the Riverside District is the Water Authority’s President, Jock Stewart, and Nan Slenning. the organization's record keeper Over the past few weeks, according to Slenning, the Water Authority has taken a number of actions that will allow transfer of the company's operations to go smoothly Jerry Schmidt, of Oregon Water Consultants, is the project manager for the five districts. He will operate the districts, do maintenance on the systems, coor dinate engineering studies related to renovation and, if necessary, the rebuild the systems The engineering will also be done by Oregon Water Consultants As project manager, Schmidt said he will work on a tight compliance schedule to bring each of the systems into comformance with the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1976 The Water Authority also has been working with Rebecca Marshall, of Clements & Marshall, a Portland financing consulting firm She is cur rently studying sources of revenues and financing the Water Authority can apply for to fund the im provement*. The Sleepy Hollow system, which had a new system installed a few years ago, will need some rennova- tion work to prevent future problems. In addition the Water Authority will have to secure easement rights through lands administered by the Bureau of l,and Management, where the system’s source is located. Gerald “ Red” Bennett, the system's former operator, had reportedly tresspassed on BLM property and established a new water source. Index SECTION I Keeping Posted Senior Center News Obituaries ............ Editorial, Opinion ........... Sports, Recreation 3 3 5 7-8 SECTION II Area News.......................... Hoodland Happenings.... ..» .1 About People .................... . . . 3 SECTION III Classified Ads ......... Inside Tab J T V Revue................ Inside Tab When Sandy Fire District signed on with Clackamas County Communica tions (C-COM) for its dispatching services, district officials hoped they'd found a home Now, three and a half years later, the district is investigating a move to abandon C-COM and align its dispat ching with services offered at Clackamas Fire District No. l'a center—Station 400 “ We just never anticipated those problems,” Sandy Fire Chief Bob Rathke said T h e p roblem s inclu d ed the “auspicious start” when C-COM fail ed to have the telephone line strung by the start-up date. The signal from the C-COM center in Oregon City has repeatedly failed to activate the pagers that bring the local volunteers to the fire station in emergencies and County officials have dragged their feet trying to amend the situation For the past two years, the Sandy district has battled a problem where volunteers' pagers have not been ac tivated by C-COM’s signal. Rathke said the rate of failure is about 7 percent of the time. The results could be disastrous in a house fire or medical emergency “ W e’ve had several incidents where a delay in the alarm caused additional damage,” he said, “ but with people, you never know.” C-COM “ just isn’t a reliable system,” Rathke said "They’ve ad mitted it isn’t a reliable system, but it's a question of money” P a rt of the problem is the topography and size of Clackamas County That makes it difficult to place antennae to serve all the users with equal reliability C-COM recently established a task force among its users to work on the p ro b le m s and R a th k e hopes something can be done to alleviate the bugs that have plagued the system since Sandy left the Boring Fire District's dispatch for the Coun ty’s. " I honestly hope that the C-COM thing would work out,” he said. " I'm looking for the County to hire an engineer to say, 'Hey, you need to put your antennae here.'" Those improvements would come from part of the annual fee that users pay for C-COM’s dispatch services Coupled with money from the 911 emergency telephone system, the project would not be fiscally impossi ble If the Sandy district would transfer its dispatching to Station 400 - and their proposal won't be ready until late September—Rathke thinks the cost would be similar to C-COM He anticipates the district could stay on the 911 emergency line “The County has indicated, if we were to move, that they would cooperate so we could use 911,“ he said The move would require a telephone switch at C-COM to transfer incoming calls for Sandy assistance to Station 400 “ The unknown factor behind everything is the tax lim itation,” Rathke said “ We may have to go back to a primitive system with a phone at the station here" if the 1 4 property tax limitation passes in November The Sandy district’s board will review Station 400’s proposal in S ptember, give C-COM an oppor tunity to offer alternatives and act on the transfer in December, Rathke said “There's no question, in my mind, it could be fixed," he said. “They tell us they don’t want us to leave If we saw some positive action, we would have to give serious consideration to staying with the County." Irregardless. he said, it will cost between 825,000 and 835.000 for dispatching no matter where the district goes for the service Elsewhere in the district: —Two new pumper trucks will a r rive next Tuesday from Appleton, Wis , to replace pumpers at the Dover and Roslyn Lake substations. The old pumpers, which have both served about 20 years, are tentative ly scheduled for revamping for other service in the district. —The board of directors is review ing the Fire Prevention Program and analyzing fire-loss figures to see how well the program has met the goals established in 1976 They will analyze the program's ef fectiveness, see what areas need im provement and determine if it would be coet-effective to hire a full-time fire prevention officer as foreseen in the comprehensive plan.
