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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1987)
The Vol 77 No 33 SANDY OREGON THURSDAY A u g u st 13 1987 Single Copy 2S< «l'SHS «Ml-IttOi Timber sale foes want scenie area W ill cam paign to stop all logging W EIA’HES — Opponents to the proposed Enola H ill tim ber sale near Rhododendron announced Saturday a campaign (or an end to all logging through form ation of a Mount Hood National Scenic Area The setting for the announcement by "F riends of Enola H ill" was a public meeting they organized to a ir final concerns over a tim ber sale of 144 parceled acres proposed for 1989 Up to 40 persons turned out to have their views tape-recorded as part of public comment on the plan, said organizer Michael Jones, one of the F rie n d s o f E nola H ill and a Rhododendron resident The com ment period ended Wednesday . Those a tte n d in g w e re in unanimous opposition to the sale. Jones said. Several Zig Zag Ranger D istrict personnel attended but did not speak The Mount Hood National Forest supervisor is expected to decide a m o n g fiv e a lt e r n a tiv e s in November, said Maureen M cB rienof the Zig Zag district. laist month, the d istrict held public hearings on alternatives proposed in the sale’s environm ental assess ment. C om plaining about inadequate tim e for public comment and that documents were not available in tim e for study before the hearings, sale opponents succeeded in having the deadline extended and decided to sponsor their own meeting. " I t's not very usual that we have this intensity of public involvem ent," McBnen acknowledged Preservation of Enola H ill means enough to the group Jones represents that it w ill appeal a decision to cut any tim ber there as high up as the Forest Service headquarters, he said The group would prefer to see the Mount Hood corridor from Alder Creek to the mountain's eastern side and to Hood River approved by Con gress as a national scenic area. Jones said. The idea for the scenic area was the last of four proposals Jone presented to the Forest Service. He also proposed that Enola H ill be rem oved fro m the c o m m e rc ia l tim ber base and be placed inside the Mount Hood Wilderness bordering it to the north His third recommendation was that all Mount Hood National Forest land w ithin sight of Highway '26 be managed for tourism and not logg ing Jones suspects that the federal agency w ill select the alternative that he said calls for 6 34 m illion board feet to be removed. In that case, his group w ill demand Turn to ENOLA H IL I.. Page 6A. Commission changes stance on ordinance The Sandy Planning Commission has joined other concerned parties in w riting to the Sandy City Council about a new zoning ordinance facing possible adoption Monday The commission voted unanimous ly Aug. 5 to change its earlier deci sion allowing conditional uses of w a re h o u se s and d is t r ib u t io n facilities in Sandy’s downtown, said Chairwoman Kim berley Nelson. It decided last week to recommend that the council allow warehousing only by small manufacturers who could operate downtown under the proposed zoning ordinance change “ If you can’t warehouse, you have to be shipping out every day," Nelson said about combining the two uses. The commission stated in a letter to the council its new position, which opposes warehousing or distribution as a separate use but otherwise sup ports the change, Nelson said That letter was among five a rriv ing at Sandy City Hall by the council- imposed deadline of Aug. 11, Reber said The w riters may address the council on the issue before the or dinance has its second and possibly last reading Monday The ordinance would amend San dy's city code to allow in the downtown area the assembly or m anufacturing of small items or food products if done indoors and if com patible with core area businesses It also would perm it development, research, experimental or testing fa c ilitie s , and w areh o using or d istribution businesses to locate downtown if approved by the com mission and council The commission was too late to make its change of heart a form al recom m endation to the council. Nelson said. “ We already approved th a t," she said of the pending ordinance " I t is up to the council in o w i to reject, adopt or change.” Nelson changed her opinion, she said, after learning from Sandy City Manager Tom Reber that a retail chain could site its warehouse here under the proposed ordinance Issues raised by Dale Nicholls pro mpted Nelson to study the m atter further, she said Yet, she contends that the new or dinance overall w ill benefit Sandy. Sandy must broaden its idea of economic growth, said Nelson The freeway changed the flavor of the to w n as d id th e iS a n d y l M arketplace." Jim Wasson made three of the state’s best wines, the Hinot Noir, blai kberry and loganberry. Wasson Bros, wine wins rare award by CHRISTINE BIERMAN for The Host Award-winning win« maker Jim Wasson was on the job Tuesday in Sandy consoling yet another disappointed caller as news of his w in e ry ’s latest achiev inent continued to spread. Unlike others, this caller was one of the fo r tunate few who w ill taste the Wasson Bros Winery 1975 W illamette Valley Pinot Noir that earned a rare gold medal at the recent State I air Conunercial Wine Competition The caller was Mary Ross of Chicago, one of the judges at that very competition and the wine master for The 95th and Atwater s restaurants in the Windy City. But like all others longing to drink the dry red winner, Ross is lim ited to two bottles Word of the Wasson’s 1975 Pinot Noir, which earned both a gold medal and Best of Show in the state competition last week, has whittled sup plies to 51 cases and prompted Wasson to raise the price by $4 “ Everyone in the U.S. wants it, Wasson, a form er Gresham resident, says. He is thinking about dropping the lim it to one bottle so more people can enjoy the wine The wine that sells easily for $19.95 u txittle now was $8 95 a bottle when 287 cases were released in February. Conversely, loganberry and blackberry wines that claimed another two gold medals for Wasson remain in far less demand, in plentiful supply and at $6 a bottle. The Hinot Noir enjoys more prestige among wine lovers and means more to the industry statewide, Wasson says In winning the awards, Wasson’s I’ inot Noir was rated superior in its class as well as among all gold medal-winners in the vim fera division J im accepted from Nell Goldschmidt Aug ti the two Governor’s Trophies for Best of Show in the viniferas for the l ’inot Noir, and in the fru it and blackberry division for a non-vintage blackberry wine The third of five gold medals awarded went to Wasson’s non-vintage loganberry wine. Wasson's success "is a hell of an honor say s Wasson, one of 62 wine makers entering 190 wines for judging. I don't like to toot my own horn and say we re the best winery in the state, but the awards speak for themselves," he says. Like David in the Old Testament, the winery has slam its Goliath, he adds A tiny producer such as Wasson Bros., run full-tim e by Jim who learned commercial wine making at Clackamas Community College, has outdone wineries hiring doctorate holders in wine making and bottling 10 times as much wine a year Wasson produces superior wine without a keen taste of sense or smell Suffering from hayfever much of the year, he turns to his wife, Mildred, and sales clerks at Janz Berryland next door in Sandy, to judge when a wine is of age Jim shares the credit with his neighbor in Oregon City, Bruce Weber, whose Lealand Vineyards produced the award-winning Hinot Noir grape*. The grapes were taken to the Wasson Winery at 41901 Highway 26 in Sandy where they were made into wine and bottled "The wine maker can’t take a ll the credit You have to have superior grapes," Wasson says. The blackberries and loganberries come from Townsend Farm s, Troutdale, and the raspber ries. from Music Camp Ranch in Sandy. Jim 's equal partner is his brother, John, also of Oregon City. Project manager at the W illam ette Falls Ixtcks, John relieves Jim at the winery on Sundays. Awards are almost routine for the pair, whose ',’ 4 state medals decorat* the wall behind the counter of their tasting room at the winery They captured three gold medals in the 1984 state fa ir contest Jim Wasson says he wished the awards could 1 m * translated into profits. The winery is trapped between being too small to boost production from 6,000 gallons a year and too poor to buy equipment needed to do more. We have less im oney) than what we came in w ith " in 1982, he says. " I ’m going broke making the best wine in the state." Wasson says he would rather replace his 1973 pickup truck than spend $8,000 on 20 more French oak wine barrels M ildred earns three tunes more than Jim as m edia specialist for H ollydale and West Gresham elementary schools the last 23 years. Wasson worked as a plumber until 1981 when he left to raise blackberries and, the next year, to start the vineyard. Wine making had been his hobby. Living in remote areas, the Wassons chose Sandy as the site for their w inery sine«' they liked the area, have relatives there and once lived in Gresham "T h is country was ripe for a w in e ry ," Wass«»n said. Business unproved after the winery moved east of Sandy during construction of the Safeway grocery store. Sewer plant expansion to be costly Few Sandy residents see it or smell it, but they could face a bill of up to $2 5 m illion or more for additions to it in the 1990s, city officials say It is the city of Sandy’s sewage treatm ent plant and it is steadily reaching, and occasionally over reaching, its capacity The plant was built in 1972 two miles west of town, where few would see it or smell it and where treated sewage could be dumped easily into nearby Tickle Creek, said plant Superintendent Bob Hornsby. But the plant's favorable location in a gully off of J. Jarl Road could be its downfall should funding of im provements to the sewer system be decided by voters, Hornsby con cedes. “ That's rig ht I don’t think too m any people know we’ re down here," Hornsby said Slowing growth trends, though, could buy Sandy more tim e to study the problem than originally thought, said Hornsby and City Manager Tom Reber Adm inistrative assistant Ken Reinke could report to Sandy City Council members Aug 17 on Sandy's growth rate the past five years. Hornsby and Reber say that a pro jected deadline of 1990 for expanding the plant could be moved to as late as 1994 Sooner or later, the city must decide to build an additional plant costing up to $2.5 m illion or more, or to agree on a c o n s tru c tio n Possible replacem ent systems listed by Hornsby ar«' the S< hreiber activated sludge system, estimated to cost $1.53 m illion, or the Rotating Biological Contactor RB( pro« ess. which would total about $2 56 m illion in two phases Sandy's current activated sludge system can handle 500,000 gallons a day, the amount of sewage generateti by a town of 4,500 persons. Hornsby's report stated The s u m m e rtim e d a ily flow averages 350.000 gallons a day w ith Sandy's cu rre n t population of about 3,800 Photo b> Christine Biermun Plant Superintendent Bob Hornsby prepared a prelim inary report on replacement of Sandy ’s sewage treatment system. m oratorium , Hornsby said A 14-member citizens task force recently appointed to study city- g o a ls , in c lu d in g c a p ita l im provements and their financing, w ill be eyeing the plant. The council requested the growth study from Reinke and added the plant to the task force's assignments after hearing the results of a six- month-long study by Hornsby that was presented to th«* < Tty < ouncil last month The council also asked city staff to budget for a sewage facilities plan in the 1988-89 fiscal year, Hornsby said That plan could cost up to $50,000, he said Hornsby's report lists two a lter m illion, the other, costing $2 m illion to $2 5 m illion Both figures are based on 1986 dollars Those costs could more than double if the state Department of En vironmental Quality requires Sandy to divert treated sewage from Tickle Creek to land for irrigation or to the Sandy or Clackamas rivers for native systems, one costing $15 discharge But the plant already exceeds the sewage-creek water ratio in the sum mer allowed by DEQ. Hornsby and Reber said Wintertime rains another problem on the plant, one that is common to cities west of the Cascade Mountain range, they sani Storm water in filtra tin g the system through leaky pipes has amounted to as many as 3 m illion gallons and averaged 1 m illion gallons a «lay Excess w inter tim e flow is rout«*«) into a second but much larger pond for later treatm ent and discharge, Hornsby said The city has never been cited by the state for those slips, Reber said And, as long as Sandy regularly meets DEQ standards, the city w ill find few grant dollars available for expansion, Reber said DEQ tends to Turn to SEWAGE. Rage 6 A /tiffo p o r m ay have netc ow ner Hanna Car Wash of Portland could buy Multopor Ski Bowl before C laikam as County sells the assets at the ski area on Mount Hood for back taxes, said Jerry Norman of American Guaranty Life Insurance Co. in Portland T he sale of Multopor to Hanna Car Wash could be finalized this week. Norman said Tuesday lie works as the real property assets manager for the in surance company that is Ixith the chief « reditor and court- appointed receiver of Multopor K irk Hanna of Hanna Car Wash could not be reached for comment in tim e for The Post's deadline Multopor owned the M irro r Mountain ski area near Govern ment Camp until the county- s e ize d the p r o p e r ty la s t November because of unpaid taxes totaling about $200.000 The area stood idle during the 1986-87 ski season as negotia tions with a few potential pur chasers broke off Am erican G uaranty hopes th a t M ir r o r M ou n ta in can reopen this year, Norman said. I t previously attracted 70,000 skiers a season.
