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.