SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 17 Enrichment Academy at Whiteaker SEE PG. A5 Wrestler not defi ned by being second at state SEE PG. A10 SECTION A MARCH 6, 2015 Roundabout spun off to 2016 By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes In between Groundhog’s Day and April Fool’s Day comes this update: a major construction project involving Chemawa Road in Keizer has been delayed. Previously, the Chemawa Road Reconstruction Project from River Road to Keizer Rapids Park was delayed mul- tiple times before fi nally being completed late last year. Now, it’s the roundabout at Chemawa and Verda Lane be- ing delayed yet again. The roundabout was origi- nally going to be constructed last summer. That timeline was pushed back until this sum- mer, but last week got pushed back another year. Bill Lawyer, Public Works director for Keizer, announced the news via a faxed press re- lease Friday evening, Feb. 27. The release was not posted on social media by the city. The issue was not brought up at Monday’s Keizer City Coun- cil meeting. Lawyer said the decision was jointly made between project leaders with the Or- egon Department of Trans- portation, the city and the project’s consultant. The bid opening date is now Nov. 19. “Offi cially it changed the end of the week last week,” Lawyer told the Keizertimes on Monday. “There have been concerns about keeping the project timeline. We’ve been working hard to stay on the schedule. It just became very clear the original schedule, while it may have been pos- sible, was becoming more and more unrealistic.” Prior to the delay, the most recent schedule had called for bids for the approximately $2 million project to be opened on May 21, with construction starting in early July and be- ing completed in about three months. In light of the most recent delay, Lawyer said the hope is to get the project started sometime next spring. “The goal is to have it done by the time school starts,” he said. “Construction next year will most likely begin in June but we are a little early in refi ning the start date right now.” In January, a date change for an Intergovernmental Agree- ment for ODOT’s property acquisition for right-of-way acquisition and transfer to the city pushed the date back from the end of that month to the end of 2017. Despite that change, Lawyer said in Feb- ruary the project was still on track for this year. “They are looking at Sep- tember or early October for the project to be complete,” 50 CENTS in side Eruption in recent Big Toy activity (Page A2) Two garage sales, one day (Page A3) MHS boys go to next round (Page A10) Submitted The roundabout at Chemawa Road and Verda Lane, shown here in a draft engineering version, has been pushed back to 2016, after originally being planned for last year. Lawyer said at the time. Lawyer said on Monday more meetings led to the de- cision for the delay. “Things have changed for this project,” he said. “The team diligently worked to keep the project on schedule for construction this summer and as of three weeks ago the team thought that would be realistic.” Big Toy site gets cleared Please see DELAY, Page A8 Auvinen new football coach At a team meeting Monday, March 2, Jeff Auvinen was an- nounced as the Celtic football program’s new head coach. Auvinen, 48, has taught at McNary High School for 25 years and coached at some level in many sports for 23 of them. In football, Auvinen has served as varsity defensive coordinator, defensive back coach, head junior varsity coach, junior varsity offen- sive coordina- tor, freshman offensive co- ordinator and freshman head coach. He also led the Lady Celt Auvinen softball team for six years, assistant coached the junior varsity basketball team for four years and was head coach of the Lynnwood High School baseball program for a year. McNary administrators re- ceived applications from as far away as Montana and Nevada before selecting Auvinen. “From that we found a candidate that we felt strongly about and it was a unanimous decision by the interviewing committee,” said Erik Jesper- son, McNary principal. For more on the new coach and player reaction, please see the full story on Page A10. KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Jerry Nuttbrock grabs a tree and moves it out of the way Feb. 26 while clearing the site in the orchard at Keizer Rapids Park for the Big Toy community build playground project. Knight of Arts Photo courtesy Clint Holland After four days of volunteer effort, much of the work was done and a sign was erected to denote the Big Toy location. KEIZERTIMES fi le/Eric A. Howald Shyleen Johnson kisses a boar's head held by Erik Gabarda at McNary's Knight of Arts 2014. The event returns Saturday, March 7. BY ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes When it comes to sports, any number of teams take videos of games and races to allow students to tweak their techniques. The McNary High School Fine Arts Department is hop- ing to do the same with per- formances using proceeds from Knight of Arts Saturday, March 7. The department hopes to install up to fi ve closed circuit cameras in the Ken Collins Theatre. “If we had those cameras we can get almost instant feedback where students can see what they are doing and come back to class the next day with a critique of their work,” said Jim Taylor, choir director. “Their feedback now is all based on what instructors see and what we say.” Knight of Arts, which fea- tures student performances Please see KNIGHT, Page A9 By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Even while taking down 198 trees last week, Jerry Nuttbrock could see what the orchards would soon look like. Nuttbrock was recruited by Clint Holland to help clear out space in the orchards at Keizer Rapids Park, where community volunteers are expected to build the Big Toy play structure over a fi ve-day period in June. Though the construction itself won’t be happening for another three months, the area has to be prepped for the work. Holland long ago pledged a team of volunteers to help get the ground ready. “Whatever Clint tells me to do, I do,” Nuttbrock said with a grin on Feb. 26. “I’m removing the trees for the Big Toy. I will later bring in an- other machine. For the trees that are close together, I can carry two at a time.” While the machine Nutt- brock used last Thursday morning – rented from Hertz Equipment Rental in Keizer – picked up the trees like they were Lincoln Logs, he brought in a different Caterpillar ma- chine later to push all items toward a big pile. Cutting nearly 200 trees may sound like a lot, but the orchard has far more trees than that. Mark Caillier, general co- ordinator for the Big Toy proj- ect, marked all the trees for Nuttbrock to cut while Tony Weathers trimmed the trees, following a suggestion from Robert Johnson, parks super- visor for the city. “Trimming of the trees was done in the last three weeks,” Caillier said later in the morn- ing. “They made a special ef- fort to make sure our area was done for this. This phase is Clint’s baby.” Nuttbrock said volun- teers from the Salem Alliance Church’s Royal Order of the Red Suspenders were on tap to cut the trees up for fi re- wood. “They will chop it and haul it out,” Nuttbrock said. “It’s a win-win deal.” Holland has nothing but praise for the work Nuttbrock does. “Jerry has the brain to see things other people just can’t see,” Holland said. “He brought the dirt in for the am- phitheater to get that project going. I bring in the best guys for projects.” Nuttbrock enjoys doing such work. Please see BIG TOY, Page A8 We see what’s on the inside So you get back in the game 1165 Union St. NE #100 – Salem 503-588-2674 • www.salemimaging.com/keizer.php