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.