Image provided by: The Willamina Museum; Willamina, OR
About The times of Willamina. (Willamina, Oregon) 1972-1974 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1973)
10* h ie 55LLAMINA TIMES. Willamina, Oregon, Wednesday, March 21, 1973 of Willamina-Sheridan Four-Plexes draw opposition Despite opposition from area residents to the plan, a proposed i eight-plex will evidently be cpn- structed at 350 NW Willamina Drive. The site will house two1 four-plex units. Willamina Drive residents had voiced some opposition to the plan. Many of the fears in re gards to the construction of the units were dismissed by one of the builders of the unit, Mr. Buller from Dallas. Contacted on Friday by the Times, Buller stressed that the units were being built for whole some people to reside in. He said that rents would run $135 a month for the two bedroom carpeted units. Buller said that the $80,000 project would be completely land scaped with grass planted around them. The exterior would be brick and wood on the two level structures and according to Bul ler will look as nice as any of the homes in the area. Some residents of the area have expressed their concern over the possibility of hippies and what they termedother unsavory char acters moving into the units. Buller pointed out that they had nothing to worry about in that respect because they want nothing to do with that type of person. Buller also said that pets will not be allowed in the apartments. Buller and his partner Fried mann, also of Dallas, have been granted a building permit and are scheduled to begin construction within the next couple of weeks. Resident of the area recently voiced some opposition to the buildings at a recent city coun cilman. When queried by the Times the residents did express opposition to the plan, but many also said that while they were against the apartments they would not really do anything to stop the construc tion of the units. One reason they admitted to saying this was because it was too late to do anything. , Most of the fears the people expresed were dismissed by the contractors as nonexistent. Some of the opposition to the plan could be easily understood though as some of the residents pointed out that Willamina Drive needs to be widened to handle the increased flow of traffic. Other residents said that they -wouldn’t be opposed to a duplex, but they felt an eight-plex was too large for the size of the lots. While other residents just Pictured is Elmer Werth ready to load a scoop of debris from what is left; of the 'fromer Gillespies- Restaurant^at Valley Junc^jn,j^= The restaurant^ which burned last September, is destined soon to be only a memory as clean-up operations continue. Plans are ’ pending as to what will be built on the property according to Walter W. Werth, owner. couldn’t bear the thought of having such a structure next door to them. According to Willamina zoning laws the structure is entirely within the law. There are only three zoning classifications in Willamina, residential, commer cial and industrial. In the residential category there is no distinction made as far as where anything iri that cate gory can be constructed. Several top ics heard by Sherida n council A report by Mr. W. J. Kvar sten, Director of Mid-Valley Council of Governments, was presented to the Sheridan City Council at their meeting on March 13th. This was in r e gard to aid in planning for Sher idan’s water supply system. Mr. Kvarsten said aid to com munities looks bleak. HUD is temporarily out of funds arid is in the process of being phased out. He suggested Sheridan pur sue the possibility of a from Farm ers Housing Admin istration. They have no grant money available but make long term loans at 5% interest. Mak ing joint plans with Willamina would strengthen the position. Bishop Richard Sellers of the Church of Latter Day Saints made an offer of $35,900 for the city- owned Flowers property,a four story and about thirteen acres of land. He said the house would be used as a chapel for the con gregation which now meets at Mill Creek School. Eventually they would build a new chapel. Councilman Firestone said the sewer committee is recommend ing a price of $49,900 on the property. There are many prob lems regarding water, sewage and easements, so the matter was tabled to the meeting on March 27th. Bob Hendricks, city adminis trator, announced there were five applicants to be interviewed for the position of public works sup erintendent. Councilman Stork reported Sheridan Road is number one priority on street repairs. Res toration and paving would run between 512,000 and $13,000. Widening the street five feet would cost an extra $13,000. An alternative to widening the street would be to eliminate on street parking. Mr. Nelson of Amusement Ser vices, owner of Que N Cushion, has requested not to be required to pay the city amusement li cense tax on coin-operated ma chines. This matter was tabled until the March 27th meeting. There w as,a first reading on an ordinance on automobile a- bandonment and dismantling on private property. Fred Simonson was appointed civil defense director. Glen Lochner has been hired as m et er reader and dog control offi cer. Lewis Tatom was voted by the Sheridan City Council to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna tion of"Wayne Potter earlier in the year. Mr. Tatom has lived in the Sheridan-Willamina area all his life. He ‘ operated a slaughter house in Willamina for 14 years and now is employed by Sheridan Pressure Treated Lumber. Ta tom served five years on the school board and on the school budget board. Mrs. Tatom is employed by the local bank and they have two daughters. Mary is a 7th' grader at Chapman school and Jennifer is a high school sophomore. At the meeting on March 12th the Sheridan City Planning Com mission decided to review the ex- 1 isting city Zoning ordinance and then make recorrimendations for bringing it up to date. Areas needing attention are: an offi cial zoning map, provisions for variances, and better definitions. It was felt that Sheridan has a fairly good ordinance, just need ing a few changes and additions. They are meeting again on April 2nd and 9th at 7:30 p.m. Considered residential under the laws are such things as schools, churches, nursing homes, single family dwellings and multiple family dwellings. Currently the planning commis sion is studying some possible changes in the zoning laws to differentiate between the various structures, but at the present ■ time no distinction is made and the structure is entirely within the confines of the law. VOLUME 6 4 NUMBER 35 Willamina high tries liberalized conduct and dress code by Berneiece Soules A liberalized student conduct code for the Willamina School District will be tried on a trial basis until the School Board meets April 19, it was unof ficially decided Wednesday night. A student conduct committee presented the proposed code at a special meeting at the high school but since only three board mem bers were present, formal action on the code was put off. The dress and grooming sec tion had been of biggest concern. Hair length rules for boys were lifted as long as there is no in terference with the learning pro cess and present no health haz ard. The health hazard rule also applies to the girls. In some classes both boys and girls may be asked to tie their hair back or wear it in a net for safety. The new code provides that special rules concerning hair lengths may be applied, such as the sports program which has their own code that states sim ply, “ If you want to be an athlete, cut your hair.” Boys will be allowed sideburns to the cut of the jaw and hair line mustaches. Hot pants will be allowed on girls if not dis ruptive to.the class. Student hacking is limited to in the presence of an adminis trative official. The Board thanked the students for their well behaved and man nerly presentation and for their patience in the matter. Student Body representatives thanked the Board for an understanding atti tude. No arguments were raised at the meeting. Willamina School Board Chair man Elsie Werth criticized the district’s reading program dur ing a meeting in Grand Ronde Monday night. Her criticism followed a presentation' of the reading achievement test results by the district’s reading special ist Alice Rasmussen. Mrs. Werth expressed dissat isfaction with the nature of the tests which rate each student in relation to the national, aver age. Mrs. Rasmussen stated “ nobody failed in the achieve ment tests, not even at the bot tom because they, may be doing better than last year.” Mrs. Werth reminded her that on September 24, 1970 the Board adopted a policy whereby read ing levels were to be established grades 1-8, and a record kept of each individual students’ pro gress. She said what she asked for was a Simple test that would determine what a student was reading and how much of it he or she was getting. Mrs. Werth said, “ We are not getting the tests we asked for and I feel we are right back where we start ed about three years ago.” She said she will call a special open meeting to discuss the situation. In other business the board: Denied a request by high school principal Eugene Mack that he be allowed to hire onhisown, assis tant coaches from the teaching staff if more students turned out than the regular staff could handle. Heard a request by Pep Club President Lori Schmitz asking that the Pep Club be allowed custody of the old Grand Ronde Elementary School bell to be rung at the high school sports events to help school spirit. Supt. Mitchell thought the Board should hear the feelings of th e Grand Ronde community before taking defínate action. The Board voted to retain ownership of the bell and that it cannot be sold. Granted the Sheridan Rodeo Assn, permission to use District portable bleachers the week of Phil Sheridan Days. Granted Supt. Mitchel! perm is sion to call for bids for a new bus. Granted Supt. Mitchell perm is sion to staff the District for 1973- 74 school year. Retained the architectural firm of Broome, Selig, Oringdulph and Partners, Portland, to develop plans for a district building pro gram to include a new elemen tary school at Grand Ronde and remodeling at Willamina High School. Heard about a volunteer teach er aide program under which five grandmothers will work with stu dents at Grand Ronde Elementary School who are having reading problems. The program is to start after spring vacation. Heard some of the pitfalls of the District’s absenteeism pol icy tftat includes the hardship on Grand Ronde residents having a toll call for previous permis sion excused absences; some stu dents are taking advantage of their two allowed unexcused ab sences to deliberately skip school; and some previous per mission calls to the high school have not been recorded thus giv ing the student an undeserved, unexcused absence. Councils consider ¡oint w a te r study by Berneiece Soules Willamina and Sheridan mayors and representatives of the two City councils agreed in Willamina Thursday flight to consider co sponsoring an area water study. Sheridan Water Commission Chairman Art Hebert said 1990 should be set as a target date for construction of a Buck Hollow dam which has been under study for 15 years. “ It is the ultimate ideal source of water supply and flood control,” he said. The current proposal under con sideration is to combine the two cities into one water , district which would also serve the area along the five-mile >highway con necting them. Willamina Creek is believed to be the best source of Water. Rough estimate is $1 million cost, the officials were told. Overall water rate for the “ av erage user” would be $7 to $8 , a month, it was estimated. The area now has about 1,220 water users. Five thousandper- sons are estimated in the area by 1990. The preliminary water study would cost about $1,500 with Wil lamina possibly paying less than half the cost as a study of their water system was completed two weeks ago. Each council must take official. action before the study will begin. Students,administrators clash over donuts While the full details were not available at press time it is known that a large group of stu dents at Sheridan high school were suspended last Friday, the final day of classes'before.spring break. The three day suspensions were reportedly dealth out to some 70 students. In addition'to those students a smaller group numbering approximately five or six were permanently suspended be cause of previous violations. The troubles alledgedly • began when the school administartion banned the sale of donuts and chocolate milk in the morning before school by the cafeteria , cooks. The cooks had begun selling the donuts and milk independently to the students, many of whom had znot eaten breakfast. The program was entirely self- supporting with the profit being used to buy things for the cafe teria. However school officials re portedly became disillusioned with the project because they felt it was cutting into the number of students who bought hot lunches from the school. Because of this they ordered the program to be stopped. The students then began to work to' get the program re-instated according to senior class presi dent Dick Hoover. According to Hoover and Mrs. Donald Cooley who’s two sons were suspended, the students ap proached Sheridan high school principal David Sears to ask him what the proper channels were. Sears advised a petition. The students then began to c ir culate a petition that was signed by 174 of the school’s 250 stu dents, Hoover said. The students had proposed us ing lunch counts to see how many students who were purchasing the donuts were also buying hot lunches. They also suggested that the cafeteria offer a menu to choose from. But according to Mrs. Cooley Sheridan School Superintendant William Hilton wouldn’t even talk to the students and did, in fact, laugh at them because they had not procured the proper forms from the school to circulate the petition. This is what then brought on the demonstration Mrs. Cooley said. At the demonstration the stu dents gathered inthe school lobby and cried out for donuts. When they were subsequently advised by school authorities to disperse or they would be sus-- pended. When they refused to move the school officials » made good their threat. According to Hoover the students are now attempting to get a group of parents in back of them so that they can have an emergency meeting of the school board. At the meeting they hope to get the matter resolved including the lifting of the suspension and per haps the donut issue also. If the school board fails to act Hoover indicated they would con sider further action via civil liberties. , According to Hoover ‘ ‘We didn t. want to cause trouble, but we felt we got pushed around enough and we decided to set our heels down.” Sheridan school officials were unavailable for comment. mi ma. aai From one demonstration to another . . i Harry Cooley, a Sheri dan High senior, shows Sheridan High freshman girl health class first aid basics with Larry Tenant of Superior Ambulance. The demonstration was on Thursday. On Friday Harry joined another group of students in a noon hour demonstration over the stopping of donut sales on campus. Harry, along with 70 other students whs suspended. Ironically enough on Saturday when the McMinn ville News Register came out Harry was honored in a front page story as that paper’s neighbor or citizen of the week.
