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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2015)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 22 SECTION A MAY 1, 2015 $1.00 Vet wants park saved for memorials By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes A long-standing project was fi nally completed in the form of a kiosk in the Pfc. Ryan J. Hill Memorial Park in Keizer Station. A veteran wants to see the kiosk removed. Rev. Matthew Price, a chaplain and American Le- gion member, previously suc- ceeded in getting fl ag poles at the park. That dedication cer- emony took place last year on Memorial Day and came after the park was named for Ryan Hill, the only Keizer to die in combat. Hill was killed in Iraq in 2007. The fl ag poles are a few yards from a kiosk honoring Marie Dorion, an early settler in the Keizer area. Recently, the other side of the kiosk was updated to honor Japanese history in the Willamette Val- ley. Price has been calling for the kiosk to be removed. He fi rst spoke about the topic at the April 6 Keizer City Coun- cil meeting. Since the kiosk in question was a Keizer Points of Interest Committee (KPIC) project, Price was invited to attend the April 21 KPIC meeting. “I want to express concern about the kiosk at Pfc. Ryan J. Hill Park,” Price said. “I un- derstand it predates the nam- ing of the park, but it has also been amended since then. The dedication to a fallen soldier eliminates anything else in there that might be a point of interest. The sole purpose of that property now is to honor the life and sacrifi ce of Pfc. Effective today, May 1st, the price of a single copy of the Keizertimes has increased to $1. An annual subscription to the Keizertimes will remain $25. KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy A kiosk honoring Marie Dorion and Japanese farmers sits behind trees at Pfc. Ryan J. Hill Memorial Park in Keizer Station. Veteran Matthew Price wants the kiosks moved to another park. n i ' t a b r e a n b d e i h t f I 're just pret end n ' i u o y MHS teacher sets powerlift world record n' Ryan J. Hill. I would suggest a plaque of the names of all Or- egon soldiers who have fallen since 9/11.” Price emphasized he doesn’t have an issue with the subjects of the kiosk, just the location. “Marie Dorion can be honored anywhere, but not in a war memorial,” he said. “It’s just not done.” Price noted he led efforts to get fl ag poles at the park and “had the privilege and duty” of escorting Hill’s body from the funeral home in Al- bany to the church in Keizer for the services and later to the cemetery. KPIC member Sherrie Gottfried expressed her ap- preciation to Price and the American Legion for what has already been done at the park. “We need to discuss this further as a group,” Gottfried said. “I don’t necessarily agree. I have to sit down and get all the information in front of me. I don’t think we can make a decision tonight.” Gottfried noted the Japa- nese history project was fi rst taken on in 2008 and was just completed. The Marie Dorion project was also worked on for several years. Please see PARK, Page A14 Students dedicate new tree at KRP KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Vince Suetos makes a world record-breaking squat lift at the Elite Performance Spring Classic in April. He shattered the previous record by 99 kilos. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Vince Suetos was six inches from setting a new powerlifting squat record when he was fairly certain he’d gotten some unwanted help. “It was probably was the hardest lift I’ve ever done in my life. I went down and I started back up and I thought I got stuck. There were 300 people going crazy but I couldn’t hear it,” Sue- tos said. “I had about six inches to go. I made it up, but I thought the spotter behind me was helping me get the weights back on the rack. I turned around and thanked the spotter for helping me and he said he didn’t touch the bar. I got three white lights telling me I’d had a clean lift.” The 66-year-old McNary High School English and health teacher had just lifted 501 kilos, beating the previous world record in the American Powerlifting Association by 99 ki- los. By the end of the tournament, the Elite Performance Spring Classic, he’d lifted a total of 1,178 kilos between the squat, deadlift and bench press. Suetos is no stranger to breaking records, in his heyday he had several of them in the books. He started lifting in 1970 and was the national champion by 1973. “I had no expectations in that national meet. I was in the top three going into the deadlift and the Brigham Young University guy was the favorite. He just didn’t want to go the extra 15 or 20 pounds that I did and went for second place instead,” Suetos said. Please see BENDIN', Page A13 Smoking ban butted out By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Should there be a smoking ban for all Keizer parks? That was an idea brought forward during the most recent meeting of the Keizer Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. However, the Parks Board’s recommendation back to the Keizer City Council was to take no action. Currently, there are no bans on smoking in any of Keizer’s 19 parks. Darrell Richardson, who lives next to Sunset Park, brought up the idea during the April 6 council meeting. He was encouraged to bring the topic to the Parks Board meet- ing the following week, which he did. “I would like to see you propose an ordinance to ban all smoking in parks,” Richardson said. “I believe they do in Port- land and Salem, and Marion County as well.” Parks Board member Dylan Juran noted the topic had been brought up before and asked why a ban hadn’t been enacted at the time. “The primary reason is a lot of personal liberty issues,” Richard Walsh said. “It’s not illegal to smoke cigarettes. (Smokers) feel persecuted. The only safe place to smoke is in public areas, outside or in parks. I don’t smoke and I hate smoking. But it’s a little over- board to say you can’t smoke in a 128-acre park. It’s just a little bandwagonish. These guys are addicted and do need a place somewhere. Legislating moral- ity is not something I’m in fa- MAKE YOUR MOMMA PROUD vor of.” Walsh opined the bigger issue is littering and said the board had to “tailor laws to do the least amount of harm” to minorities, in this case smokers. Richardson said that was simply Walsh’s opinion. “How about we send it out to a vote?” Richardson asked. “How will you keep them from doing marijuana? If there’s no smoking at all, that covers ev- erything.” Board member William Cri- teser pointed to the strain a ban would place on law enforce- ment. “One won’t be able to en- force it,” Criteser said. “It’s not a good use of police time to call them and have them come down.” Please see SMOKING, Page A12 GET YOUR MAMMO KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Students from the Optimum Learning Environment charter school at Forest Ridge Elementary gather around a new white oak tree at Keizer Rapids Park April 24 as fi rst grade teacher Meredith White leads the dedication ceremony. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes There are few ways better to celebrate Arbor Day than with a new tree. Such was the case April 24 at Keizer Rapids Park as more than 100 students from the Op- timum Learning Environment (OLE), a charter school within Keizer’s Forest Ridge Elemen- tary, took a bus ride to the park to dedicate a tree that had been planted the day before. “Last year we planted seven trees on our school grounds,” said Kevin Pack, president of OLE. Mahonia Nursery donated the large native Oregon white oak worth nearly $1,500, while the city provided the space. R and R Tree Service picked up the tree and transported it to the site. Representatives from all three entities joined stu- dents and teachers for the Ar- bor Day activities. The students were among those contributing to the proj- ect, as they raised more than $400 for long-term care of the tree. Students teamed up to work on posters, which they showed off at the dedication event. Students also presented ABCs of oak trees, with 26 different facts about the trees. For example, one student found out the white oak is the nation- al tree. First grade teacher Meredith White helped lead the dedica- tion event and brought the mi- crophone for students to share their information. “The students have spent about two weeks on this now, reading articles about trees,” White said. “We planted trees at school last year, so this is a little different. We have gotten a lot of parent support for this project.” Laurie Aguirre, a second grade teacher as well as envi- ronmental coordinator at OLE, also helped lead the event last week. “We are planning to con- tinue it,” Aguirre said of doing such an event annually. “This is our way to donate to the com- munity. We saw some great evidence of learning by the stu- dents. They really learned the value of trees.” Please see TREE, Page A12 Stories We Like Saluting the people that make us proud of our community SPA WEEK 2015: MAY 4 – 8 SCHEDULE YOUR MAMMOGRAM: 503-588-2674 1165 Union St. NE #100 – Salem www.salemimaging.com/spaweeks capitolauto.com Meet the SB, transit candidates PAGE A2 Gustav’s, Haggen now open PAGE A3 Former Keizer intern now in NYC PAGE A5 McNary baseball leads GVC PAGE A10