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
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