Area C Map
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SECTION A
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 15
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RAILROAD
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RESIDENTIAL
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STA IZER
BLVD TION
RETAIL
SENIOR
LIVING
FACILITY
Area C
plans get
approved
A look at
McNary's
CNN
SEE PG. A8
SEE PG. A3
MULTI-FAMILY
PHASE 1
McLEOD LN
FEBRUARY 20, 2015
Keizer lawmakers react to resignation
MULTI-FAMILY
PHASE 2
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
As Gov. John Kitzhaber an-
nounced his resignation Feb.
13, state Sen. Kim Thatcher
(R-Keizer) had her hands full.
With her 2-year-old grand-
son, that is.
Yes, as an Oregon governor
resigned under pressure for
the fi rst time in state history,
Thatcher wasn’t at the capitol.
“I wasn’t here on Friday,”
said Thatcher, who moved
over to the Senate this year
after 10 years in the House of
Representatives. “The Sen-
ate doesn’t hold meetings on
Friday, so there was no reason
to be here. Plus I had agreed
to watch my grandson, so I
was up to my eyeballs start-
ing on Thursday night with a
2-year-old. I was not hanging
onto every Facebook post and
tweet.”
Thatcher didn’t know the
news until seeing a message
from her brother-in-law, at
which point she checked the
news.
Kitzhaber had come under
increasing pressure from lead-
ers on both sides of the aisle to
resign, due to issues surround-
ing how fi ancee Cylvia Hayes
got state contracts as well as
criminal investigations into
Kitzhaber’s actions.
“I have always had the
deepest respect for the re-
markable institution that is
the Oregon Legislature; and
for the offi ce of the governor,”
KEIZERTIMES/Andrew
Jackson
Kitzhaber’s statement
read in
part. “And I cannot in good
conscience continue to be the
element that undermines it.
I have always tried to do the
right thing and now the right
thing to do is to step aside.”
At the same time, Kitzhaber
displayed a defi ance.
“I must also say that it is
deeply troubling to me to
realize that we have come to
a place in the history of this
great state of ours where a
person can be charged, tried,
convicted and sentenced by
the media with no due pro-
cess and no independent veri-
fi cation of the allegations in-
volved,” Kitzhaber said later.
“But even more troubling –
and on a very personal level
as someone who has given
35 years of public service to
Oregon – is that so many of
my former allies in common
cause have been willing to
simply accept this judgment at
its face value.”
Secretary of State Kate
Brown was sworn in as Or-
egon’s new governor on
Wednesday morning at the
state capitol.
Rep. Bill Post (R-Keizer),
who took over Thatcher’s for-
mer seat, was in the capitol last
week when the resignation
news came out.
“Here’s what I was struck
by, being in this building: it
was historic fi rst of all,” Post
50 CENTS
in side
Egli discusses
being Merchant
of the Year
(Page A5)
Keizer Florist
to reopen soon
(Page A6)
Thatcher
Post
Kitzhaber
said. “Wednesday through Fri-
day the air was so thick you
could cut it with a knife. I kept
thinking, ‘This is the term I
was elected, when this event
takes place?’ Whether a person
likes or doesn’t like what the
governor did, it was without
a doubt a historic moment
and those of us in the build-
ing will be forever imprinted
on Oregon history. I am very
hopeful that Gov. Kate Brown
will be willing to work with
both sides of the aisle to make
Oregon a better place for all
of us.”
Thatcher noted things
were business as normal – as
much as could be, at least – last
Thursday.
“On Thursday, the Senate
president (Peter Courtney)
told us he requested Kitzha-
ber to resign,” Thatcher said.
“He told us he had done that.
There was a lengthy discus-
sion about how it was distract-
ing. It was sort of a distraction
and a distraction with the
media as well. Legislation like
automatic voter registration
was dwarfed, with concerns
not brought up in the media.
We’re still holding meetings,
but what’s happening there is
being put on the backburn-
er as far as letting the public
know what’s going on.”
Speaking
for
herself,
Thatcher said her nose was
buried in her job, not the
news.
MHS wrestlers
set for districts
(Page A10)
Please see REACT, Page A7
Jazzed up for change
Abbas a merit fi nalist
McNary High
School senior
Zach Abbas
was recently
named a
National Merit
Finalist, one
of just 15,000
such students
around the
country.
Submitted
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Of all the high school stu-
dents in the country, McNary
High School senior Zach Ab-
bas has an honor few others
can claim: National Merit Fi-
nalist.
“I wasn’t expecting to be a
semifi nalist. I was completely
blown away. Then hearing that
I was a fi nalist … it was just
crazy,” Abbas said.
Abbas qualifi ed as a semi-
fi nalist based on his PSAT
scores as a junior, then submit-
ted an application and essay to
achieve his fi nalist status. He’s
one of 15,000 fi nalists in the
U.S. – the only one from Mc-
Nary – and about half of those
will receive scholarships.
“Zack is not only very
intelligent, he is one of the
kindest, most compassion-
ate, hardworking young mn I
have ever worked with,” said
Stephanie Hanson, Abbas’s
counselor at McNary.
KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy
Jim Nardi (right) handed over control of Uptown Music to Paul Elliott (left) last year and is
preparing to leave the business at the end of the month.
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
You can tell Jim Nardi and
Paul Elliott have worked in a
music store a long time.
How? In normal conver-
sations, music-related words
just pop up, with no puns in-
tended.
For example, here is Nardi
talking about Elliott’s impact
on Uptown Music over the
years.
“He’s been instrumental to
our growth,” Nardi said.
Last year Nardi sold the
business he started in 1991 to
Elliott. How does Elliott feel
about that?
“I’m pretty jazzed about it,”
Elliott said.
Late last March Elliott took
over as president of the busi-
ness. Nardi stayed on board,
helping his longtime employ-
ee – Elliott worked for Nardi
for 17 years – get through the
transition.
Please see UPTOWN, Page A9
Moonrise, sunset...
Special People
Special Place
Saluting the stories that make
us proud of our community
capitolauto.com
Please see ABBAS, Page A7
Cheaper surface means
Big Toy budget trimmed
By CRAIG MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
Expenses for the Big Toy
have been chopped by a quar-
ter.
A motion was approved at
the Feb. 10 Keizer Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board
meeting to hold off on get-
ting a top-line surface for the
play structure at Keizer Rap-
ids Park.
A similar motion was ap-
proved the week before at the
Community Build Task Force
meeting.
Plans now call for a
poured-in rubber surface to
be pursued for later, if grants
can be secured. In place of the
poured-in surface, engineered
wood fi ber is now the choice.
The impact on the budget
is notable.
The Big Toy budget lists ex-
penses as being $416,509.80,
including $105,000 for rubber
surface materials.
Mark Caillier, general co-
ordinator for the project
scheduled to be built by com-
munity volunteers in a fi ve-
day span from June 10 to 14,
said the $105,000 was on top
of $45,000 already part of the
$191,119 listed for construc-
tion materials.
Please see BIG TOY, Page A7
KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy
On a recent sunny afternoon in Keizer, the moon was high in the sky over Keizer Station
while, at the same time, a beautiful sunset could be seen in the other direction.