Vol 72 No 50
Single Copy 25t
Local bank
approved
for merger
Landowners say ‘no’
to parking lot bills
Independent Bank of Sandy, conti
nuing on the road to recovery from
financial problems reported by a
nationally-syndicated columnist, will
be part of a new bank after Jan I
The property owners adjacent to
Heritage Square parking lot told the
city of Sandy Monday they don't want
to pay for the project.
Without a means to pay for the
63-space lot in the heart of downtown,
the Sandy City Council took steps to
declare the area surplus city proper
ty and begin investigating ways to
realize the 9141,449.49 still to be col
lected for the lot.
After all adjacent property owners
told the city they do not want to par
ticipate in the project, Cuy Attorney
Jack Hammond told the council,
"You don’t have any choice but to
abandon the Local Improvement
District as it's now proposed ”
The council did that unanimously
and instructed City Manager Tom
Reber to study possible alternatives
for the lot that has been a point of
contention for the past five years
by DAN DILLON
The United Bank of Oregon, fo rm
ed by the m erger of three Oregon
community banks, w ill operate bran
ches at the Sandy site, and the sites of
Metropolitan Bank of M ilw aukie and
W illam ette Falls State Bank in
Oregon City
The merger announcement follows
a positive vote of a ll involved
shareholders which took place Sept
28, approval of the m erger by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corpora
tion Oct 12. and final approval of the
boards of directors of all three banks
Nov 17
Headquarters for the new bank w ill
be in M ilw aukie at the current offices
of the Metropolitan Bank
Under the merger agreement. E x
ecutive Vice President Jim Flaherty
w ill serve as vice president and
manager of the Sandy branch of The
United Bank of Oregon
James Chester, president of the
new bank, was hired in January to
run the merged banks
"The successful completion of this
merger represents many months of
hard w ork," Chester said " It would
never have come to fruition without
the determination of our directors
"The fact that new capital in ex
cess of the $1 million, required as a
condition of F D IC approval of the
merger, was raised is a tremendous
demonstration of the confidence of
the shareholders and directors in the
three banks and their respective
communities.”
All three banks were founded ir
1979 The board of directors for The
United Bank of Oregon w ill be made
up of representatives from each of
the three merged banks Chairm an of
the Board for the Sandy bank is John
Rowell
The Sandy bank and Metropolitan
Bank were named in a recent
nationally-syndicated business col
umn as financially strapped institu
tions That is w ater under the bridge
now. however, according to Frank
Reynolds, president of Minute M aid
D i s t r ib u t o r s
o f O re g o n
an d
Metropolitan Bank board chairman.
"O ur problem is not a problem un
common in the banking indstry today
and not totally unique, in light of
Oregon's current economic condi
tion," he said recently
“ What we feel is unique is that we
have been able to strengthen three
troubled banks, maintaining as our
top priority, the protection of our
depositors
"W e were willing to make a strong
comm itm ent and a substantial dollar
investment to keep faith with our
customers We have great confidence
in them, in our communities, and in
the new management in place to
shepherd what we believe is a very
promising new bank ”
The Sandy branch will open Jan 3
with the same staff and services it
has had as Independent Bank of San
dy, Flaherty said
Man escapes
injury when
van overturns
K Boring man escaped injury late
Monday evening when the 1972 Dodge
van he was driving went out of con
trol and rolled over just north of San
dy. according to Clackamas County
sheriff's deputies
Wade Presley. 61, was traveling
north at 10 40 p m when his van
struck a fence and flipped over near
14065 SE Bluff Road
Sandy firefighters, first on the
scene, pried open the back door of the
vehicle to release Presley who was
not hurt in the crash
He was the only person in the van
at the tim e of the accident
Presley was taken to Sandy Police
Department where he was issued a
citation for driving under the in
fluence of intoxicants and released
E a r ly M o n d a y , p ersonnel a t
W arner Amex Cable, 39670 Pleasant
St , told Sandy police that someone
had taken equipment valued at
91,966.
According to police investigation,
someone kicked open the bock door
of the firm and took an P M Motorola
base station valued at 91.300, and a
13-voH power supply valued at 9906.
Investigation is continuing
)
ALTERNATIVE USES
P h o to
by Von Braschler
Old Man W inter seems to have bent this once-fluffy roadside plume into the shape of a question m ark on East
Brightwood Loop Road.
Reber will exam ine two options:
• Should the city sell the lot as a
single parcel? That could allow the
city to recoup some money it has
already poured into the parking lot
an d w o u ld re d u c e th e c ity 's
maintenance responsibilities
At the same time, however, city of
ficials fear it could not meet legal
and cost ramifications
• Should the city retain the lot for
public parking with user fees9 That
would require either the public or ad
ja c e n t businesses to pay fo r
customer use of the project.
Reber estimates that it would cost
ap p ro xim ately 9381 per parking
space per year to pay for the project
over a lft-year period at 11 percent
annual interest.
“ No m atter which way we go,”
said M ayor Ruth Loundree, "there's
going to be opposition." Possible op
ponents, she numbered, include tax
payers, the people who originally
asked for the parking lot and the peo
ple who use the lot for parking.
"The staff is prepared to develop,
in some detail, one or more of the
alternatives
and report back to
the council,” Reber said "Consider
ing that we w ill be starting on budget
work late in December, and in order
to do adequate research on the
possibilities for the parcel, we could
be ready to report back to the council
about m id-February."
The city manager, however, does
not affect the remonstrance to have
an affect on the budgeting process.
" N o , ” he said, " t h a t ’s not
something that we're counting on for
this ye ar." However, he cautioned, if
the proceedings to dispose of it drags
on. the city w ill have to do something
for fiscal 1983-84's budget
OWNERS' OBJECTIONS
Jam es
J e n n in g s ,
a tto rn e y
representing Bolster and Scales Co.,
sent the council a letter stating his
clients "suggest it vould be inap
propriate to consider any a lte r
natives restricting access to the
parking facility when most property
owners built with the promise that
such a facility would be available."
The Bolster and Scales Co. owns
the building housing professional of
fices at the southwest corner of the
parking lot.
W illia- Herzog and Bette A rm
strong, owners of T J ’s Fireside D in
ing, told the council that their
original assessment was estimated
at 92.000 The latest assessment, bas
ed on the new engineer's report, is
911.494 80
Carroll and Phyllis Rader said the
lot has provided them no benefit.
Prior to its construction, they said,
they had sufficient parking.
King Chiu Lau, owner of the Double
Dragon Restaurant, claimed the lot
had not benefited his business and
that assessments were not determ in
ed fairly.
In his letter of remonstrance, he
told the council that his portion of the
parking lot is filled with cars of
employees of adjacent businesses
and patrons of businesses that are
not being assessed for the project.
Local ordinance says that if the
owners representing more than two-
thirds of the property remonstrate
against the project, then the L ID is
abandoned for at least three months
and the city may go ahead arid deal
with it as an ordinary parcel of city
property, rather than as a proposed
L ID
Monday night, the remonstrance
against the property was unanimous
SUHS clarifies end-of-year schedule
by SCOTT NEWTON
Sandy Union High School seniors
w ill graduate M ay 25. maintaining
the “ tra d itio n a l” end-of-the-year
schedule. At least in part
A half dozen seniors attended the
board of directors meeting Monday
night, where the issue was address
ed
Senior Kathie George said class
members "w eren ’t really happy"
when they learned about proposed
changes in the "tradition al" gradua
tion schedule If they had been told at
the end of last year they might have
been more receptive to the idea, she
said
"W e weren’t really expecting it (a
change*,” she said
She said teachers are used to the
traditional schedule, and that a
change also could interfere with the
vacation plans of some fam ilies
Five proposals were given to the
board by principal John McMahan.
One had graduation M ay 27. and
another had b a cc alau re ate and
graduation M ay 29. a Saturday.
Disadvantages to those proposals
were that they would interfere with
M em orial Day weekend and the state
track meet
Proposal number three had bac
calaureate and graduation June 4,
with senior finals to be held M ay 31,
and June 1 and 2. This proposal would
have kept seniors in school the
longest amount of tim e and also
would have created a conflict with
the state track meet.
Proposal number four set gradua
tion for June 1, with senior finals M ay
25 and 26
When asked why the board was
considering changing the date of
graduation Wayne Johnson, board
chairm an, said “ for continuity in the
school program ."
The seniors apparently prefered
proposal number five, which had the
earliest dates for senior finals. May
19 and 20 Though the board agreed
unanimously on M ay 25 for gradua
tion, the dates for finals haven't been
determined
Also discussed was w h e th e r
students three credit hours short of
graduation requirements should be
allowed to "w a lk " with their class at
graduation, or if a new one credit
hour minimum should be adopted.
McMahan explained it is more
reasonable to expect a student to
make up one credit hour
A topic of considerable discussion
was whether the senior awards
assembly should be held at night,
when more parents could attend, or
during a school assembly, where it’s
assumed underclassmen are in
flu e n c ed w a tc h in g th e ir peers
receive these honors.
Board Mem ber Bob Boring ap
parently agreed with George about
changing the date of graduation this
late in the school year He said the
board discussed the issue in June
"T h a t’s when the change should have
been made,” he said.
A compromise suggested by patron
Dan MacDonald was adopted concer
ning the awards assembly. An a fte r
noon assembly w ill be held for all
students, with a reception to honor
the seniors to be held in the evening
for parents and others
The board w ill consider the re
quirements for walking with one's
class (when short credit hours) at its
January meeting
In other business, th board was
made aware that revenues are down
for the district Joan Hay, deputy
clerk, estimated that Clackamas
County will be short 9200,000 on the
collection of taxes Money from in
vestments is expected to be down
925.000, and basic school support may
be down 955,000
Hay said, "We are watching expen
ditures, but we want the board to
know of the shortfalls."
Superintendent Jack Peters said.
"We are going to live with whatever
revenues we collect."
Johnson said he would like to know
where the 9275,000 would come from
"T h a t’s what we're looking a t," he
said. "We want everyone to know "
Sandy home damaged
by midmorning blaze
A midmorning fire Monday gutted
the home of a Sandy couple on SE
Colorado Road, causing extensive
damage in the living room and k it
chen area.
Sandy and Boring firefighters were
palled to the home of Diane and
L arry Zim m erm an. 33440 SE Col
orado Road, at 9:57 a m in answer to
a report of smoke coming from a
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home
Mrs Zim m erm an was returning
home from an errand when she
discovered the fire
When firefighters arrived at the
scene they discovered the living
room in the back of the house was
burning
“ We got it soon enough, said Fire
Chief Bob Rathke, “ The guys made a
good attack and there was no pro
blem with extinguishing it.”
Cause of the fire is still under in
vestigation, he said "W e re pretty
sure it was an accidental fire, we just
have to pin it down.”
Sandy F ire Marshal Jim Gallagher
estimated the loss to the building and
contents at 915,000 The Zim m er
mans had no insurance
Tuesday afternoon, friends and
relatives of the fam ily were at the
house working to get it in shape so the
Zim m erm ans could move back in
Seventeen Sandy firefighters were
on the scene for two hours Monday
morning extinguishing the fire and
mopping up
Mandy firefighter Sieve Mackey vents the roof above the living room to allow smoke to escape from the attic Monday at
a house fire on SE Colorado Road.