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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 8, 2015)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 23 SECTION A MAY 8, 2015 $1.00 Fire Board candidates sound off By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Voters will have choices for two Keizer Fire District Fire Board seats this month. In Position 3, James Mulhern, a 21-year veteran of Marion County Fire District No. 1, is running against Chet Patterson, one of the city founders and a former city councilor. In Posi- tion 5, voters will choose be- tween Jim Taylor, who recently stepped away from his role as a city councilor, and Betty Hart, the wife of Mike Hart, a former Fire Board director. Mike Bauer is running uncontested for Posi- tion 4 on the Fire Board. Keizertimes sent out a ques- tionnaire to the candidates ask- ing them about the issues they expect to face if successful. Tay- lor did not respond to the in- quiry. How would you like to see KFD adapt to the increased services required for the ever-increasing number of retirement and care facilities within Keizer? MB: It is imperative that KFD be proactive in respond- ing to the increasing number of retirement and care facili- ties within the district. These facilities, while an integral part of the community, are putting a strain on the current fi re/ EMS resources. In order to be proactive, a data-driven deploy- ment plan must be developed. Gathering information on the calls units are responding on is an important part of this plan. Some of the factors that need to be considered are the number of calls, peak call volume times and nature of calls. Based on the data obtained, the district can make an informed decision on how to change its deploy- ment plan to meet the increased needs. This may include adding a medic unit during peak hours. Another way to combat the in- crease in calls is to work coop- eratively with the staff at these facilities to develop a care plan. This may include follow up care with the primary care physician as opposed to ambulance trans- port. BH: Besides the increase in facilities serving people who are retired and/or disabled, the population itself is aging also creating a greater demand for service. It is time to start re- placing the aging fi re equip- ment for which a plan has been prepared. A combination of the levy passed in 2013 and grants allow the fi re district to provide Is Iris Fest set for long term? KEIZERTIMES fi le/Craig Murphy Mulhern Hart Patterson Bauer the staffi ng needed to meet the demand for service. JM: Additional EMS per- sonnel and adding a Commu- nity EMS program. A Com- munity EMS program is a new concept being developed to use EMS personnel to provide non-emergency medical care outside the hospital or doctor’s offi ce. An ambulance can drive to a patient’s residence to do routine examinations and post operative evaluations after re- turning home from the hospi- tal. This concept is designed to reduce the overall medical sys- tem costs by preventing patients from returning to the hospi- tal while at the same time this could provide Keizer Fire Dis- trict a new revenue stream to fund this new service. These additional personnel would also be available to run emergency calls to cover when the two current ambulances are busy. CP: Having worked in this industry for more than 22 years, I am very aware of the staffi ng issues that confront facilities that provide services to the se- nior population. What do you do when an issue with a resident exceeds the ability of the facility staff to deal with it? The answer is to call 911. In many cases, the staffi ng level at the facility isn’t suffi cient to handle the is- sue, or the assistance of emer- gency personnel is required for the safety and welfare of the resident, facility staff and emer- gency responders. Emergency services staff are then used to augment the facility staff. As ad- ditional facilities providing care to the senior population open in the KFD service area, more demands will be placed on KFD staff. How should the cost of providing services to these facilities be paid for? I would propose a tiered fee structure where--either through a con- tract to provide services or through KFD policy--the facil- ity would be billed for services provided after exceeding a set number of calls in a specifi ed calendar period. Your thoughts on the bond measure KFD expects to put on the fall ballot? MB: I think placing a bond on the fall ballot is absolutely necessary. Living within Keizer Fire District provides us with Love Love opens in Keizer PAGE A2 Lemonade Day recap PAGE A3 Please see FIRE, Page A10 Walsh asks for parks money Rotary raffl e winners PAGE A6 Carnival rides lit up downtown Keizer last year during the annual Keizer Iris Festival. After several years at Keizer Station, the festival moved back to the heart of the city last year, taking over part of Cherry Avenue. The festival is in the same location this year. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes After years of moving around, the Keizer Iris Festi- val is back downtown for the foreseeable future. Keizer’s biggest annual event kicked off May 7 with the Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast and continues this weekend with Sunday’s Mother’s Day Breakfast at Keizer Fire Dis- trict. But the festival kicks into high gear next Thursday, May 14 and winds up Sunday, May 17. Once again, the Keizertimes has produced this year’s offi - cial guide to the Iris Festival, which has been mailed out to 13,000 Keizer households. Extra copies are available at the Keizertimes offi ce, at 142 Chemawa Road North. The festival was moved around Keizer Station seem- ingly every year before being moved back to downtown in 2014. Joe Egli, chair of the Iris Festival the past two years, noted Keizer’s signature event has moved seven times in 10 years. Events are now centered around the Keizer Elks and Keizer Lions on Cherry Ave- nue. This is the second year of a fi ve-year contract between festival organizers and the two clubs. So does it feel like the Iris Festival has found its perma- nent home? “Not yet,” said Egli, Keiz- er’s Merchant of the Year for 2014. “I feel like we’re close. I feel like we have a great spot. The biggest problem is we can’t grow there. We have to use what we have. It’s a tight fi t. But the businesses around there have been buying in. They’re letting us use their parking. I hope it’s our home. It feels right to be back down- town. Are we done moving? I wish I could say yes. “The plan with the Elks and the Lions is a fi ve-year deal,” Egli added. “We have a commitment from both of them for fi ve years to work out the kinks. It will take that long to really fi gure it out. We are so much better off than last year and it was great last year.” Christine Dieker is the longtime executive director of the Keizer Chamber of Com- merce, which puts on the festival. As such, Dieker can remember all of the moves dating back to the days at St. Edward Catholic Church and Schoolhouse Square in the late 1990s. There was the time at Volcanoes Stadium by Interstate 5, then a return downtown until that space Please see IRIS, Page A9 Hitting a euphoric note By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Earlier this year, McNary High School senior Tom Jans- sen had a T-shirt printed with one of the euphonium masters riding the instrument and the words “Be Euphonius” print- ed underneath. Given that sort of dedica- tion, and one state title play- ing the instrument already in the rearview, it would be easy to think Janssen would have little anxiety about repeating as state champ, but that wasn’t the case last weekend in the state solo competitions. “I have had friends not re- peat wins due to either nerves or tougher competition,” Jans- sen said. Fortunately, Janssen wasn’t one of them. For the second consecutive year, he claimed a state title. Janssen wasn’t resting on his laurels, either. The piece he played last year, Pantomime, was one he’d seen others win with, but he wanted something new this time around. He went with Concerto for Euphonium Movement 1 by Philip Wilby, but he didn’t stop there. “Besides an added chal- lenge I decided to play this memorized which adds a KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Keizer City Manager Chris Eppley (left) gives his budget message Tuesday. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes A former Keizer City Councilor helped get the budget season off to a rousing start Tuesday. Richard Walsh, the for- mer councilor who has been on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board since leav- ing council in 2011, was one of several people asking for funding during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s Budget Committee meeting, the fi rst of three scheduled such meetings. Walsh was easily the most passionate. The Parks Board started a matching grant program for the 2014-15 fi scal year, with $14,000 in the fund. All of the money has been allocated to projects, with the match at Celt softball gets revenge PAGE A8 Please see PARKS, Page A9 It was spine-tingling McNary baseball still leads PAGE A8 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald McNary High School senior Tom Janssen displays the award he won for winning a state music title on the euphonium. whole level of complications and forced me to musically communicate with my audi- ence,” Janssen said. He stumbled across the piece on YouTube and un- knowingly plowed ahead without realizing it was one of the hardest pieces composed for the instrument. He was most proud to see the last nine months of hard work pay off, he added. Please see NOTE, Page A9 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Malia Harris, as Spider-Gwen, and Austin Haver, as Spider- Man, turned out in full costume for Free Comic Book Day at Tony's Kingdom of Comics Saturday, May 2. More photos, page A5.