PAGE A14, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 5, 2015
BIG
TOY,
continued from Page A1
Lawyer believes it’s safe to
conclude there are no safety
concerns at the Big Toy site
due to pesticides. He points to
another reason why Weathers
wants out of the lease.
“It is the fear of a litigious
society,” Lawyer said. “It’s
the fear of being sued when
you’re doing nothing wrong.
The Big Toy area is shown as
non-detected for all the par-
ticles.”
The issue of pesticides in
relation to the Big Toy site was
brought up a couple of times
last year. For example, last
spring Jim Taylor addressed
the topic.
“When (Weathers) sprays,
he would let us know,” the
former councilor said at the
time. “We would just close
it for a couple of hours. We
would do it early in the morn-
ing so it won’t be an issue. I’ve
never heard of complaints
about spraying by the house
out there. It’s not an issue.”
Richard Walsh, who lives
right by the orchard, men-
tioned the topic at a meeting
last fall.
“No one has spent more
hours in the orchard area than
I have,” Walsh said at a Keizer
Parks and Recreation Advi-
sory Board meeting. “I haven’t
seen it be a problem. I’ve been
out there most every night
the last couple of years. The
play structure will probably
be closed the days they do the
spraying.”
Mark Caillier, general co-
ordinator for the Big Toy
project, said there will be a
40-foot buffer around the play
structure and a sprinkler sys-
tem in the center of the toy
just for that reason.
“We did include the sprin-
kler system to wash away any
fungicides,” Caillier said. “If
they need to close the toy for
a couple of days (at spraying
time), they will do that. But
once the stuff dries, from what
I’ve been told it’s not going
anywhere.”
For Caillier and other proj-
ect leaders, the bigger concern
has been getting enough peo-
ple signed up for the fi ve days
of building. Volunteers can
sign up at www.keizerbigtoy.
org or they can show up be-
tween 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. dur-
ing any of the fi ve days (see
related story, pg. A2).
“We still need volunteers,
especially for Wednesday
through Friday,” Caillier said.
“That really sets the tone for
the last two days. There will
be a lot of staining, painting,
priming and clearcoating to
do. We’ll get a lot of the ma-
terial prep work done in the
early days. It’s an assembly line
manufacturing environment.
Each group of three volun-
teers will have their parts to
put together. We will have
three shifts. People can come
anytime they want.”
Three semi trucks of mate-
rial were delivered to the site
on Monday, with 52 saw hors-
es made last Saturday to help
the process. A parking area
will be clearly marked along
the Walsh Way entrance to the
park, the road that leads to the
boat ramp.
Caillier echoed Ron and
Kim Freeman, who are in
charge of volunteers, in pre-
dicting many people will sim-
ply show up without signing
up in advance.
“The term used for that
is spontaneous volunteerism,
where people just show up
and volunteer,” Caillier said.
“That has been the trend in
volunteer projects. We’ve seen
it in Claggett Creek Water-
shed projects.”
Teen moved to rehab center
The Keizer teenager criti-
cally injured in a May 22 crash
continues to improve.
Austin Verboort, 16, was in-
jured when his 1995 Jeep was
t-boned by a 1986 Chevrolet
Blazer shortly after McNary
High School was released
for Memorial Day weekend.
Verboort’s injuries were de-
scribed as critical and he was
in a coma at Salem Hospital.
The two other 16-year-
olds in the accident were
both released by the following
morning.
A GoFundMe account
(www.gofundme.com/vaeees)
has raised more than $22,000
in funds for the family as of
Wednesday morning. The
page was started by MHS stu-
dent Wade Gilmour, who then
turned the page over to Paula
Keller-Phelps.
Another update to the page
was posted on Tuesday eve-
ning.
“We got Austin moved
this morning to Randall’s
Children’s Hospital at Lega-
cy Emanuel,” the post stated.
“He has already started rehab
and physical therapy as of this
morning. This hospital is more
specifi c to his current needs
and he is surrounded by pa-
tients closer to his age. He is
in about the same condition
as before, in a coma, but still
moving around in his bed. We
are very excited to begin this
phase here at Randall’s.”
The Verboorts released a
statement on Monday eve-
ning.
“Austin remains medically
stable and we are encouraged
by his progress each day,” the
statement said in part. “We are
very thankful for the won-
derful care he has received
at Salem Hospital. We feel so
blessed and thankful for the
tremendous outpouring of
love, emotional and spiritual
support and fi nancial gener-
osity we continue to receive
each and every day on behalf
of our Austin Verboort. Our
community is truly amazing.
Please keep the prayers com-
ing.”
Salem Hospital upgraded
Verboort’s condition from
critical to fair on Monday.
Dutch Bros. Coffee in
Keizer donated all sales from
Wednesday, June 3 to the fam-
ily to help with medical ex-
penses.
Last Wednesday, May 27,
more than 100 family mem-
bers and friends attended a
prayer vigil for Verboort at
Dayspring Fellowship Church.
Verboort
PAYTON,
continued from Page A1
“The support was huge for
us. Even a text or comment on
the post made to Facebook or
Twitter made a big difference
for me. It was a huge battle,
and we had a full community
in this fi ght,” said Kim Wil-
liams, Payton’s mother. “The
sheer number of people pitch-
ing in was overwhelming.”
Being at the center of such
attention was “weird and sur-
real” for Payton.
“You don’t expect some-
thing like this to happen, and
then you don’t expect people
you don’t even know wanting
to do whatever they can,” he
said.
Payton was fortunate he
had most of the credits needed
to graduate before his senior
year began, especially since his
recovery has been diffi cult.
“I know my mind still isn’t
where it was, and my body
defi nitely isn’t, but I also know
it will get there. Attitude really
changes everything. When I
was diagnosed, I knew I could
either shut down or live life
and I did whatever I could to
maximize my time,” he said.
Kim said the family simply
tried to follow Payton’s lead.
“It was hard knowing when
he was pretending, but he was
such a rock through all of it
that it made us stand behind
him and be strong,” she said.
In a week, Payton and his
family will leave for Hawaii as
his Make-A-Wish gift for sur-
viving his battle. He also got
the chance to meet his sports
idol Marcus Mariota as part
of the whole package, which
included a VIP spot on the
Make-A-Wish fl oat during
the Rose Festival Parade.
“I was still kind of out of
Submitted
Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Payton Williams got to
meet his sports idol, Oregon’s Heisman Trophy winner Marcus
Mariota, last season.
it after chemotherapy the day
we met Mariota, but he was
a really nice guy and he gave
me his number. I got to see
him try out for the Rams and
throw a ball around with him
for a bit,” Payton said.
After graduation, Payton
said he plans to sleep a lot
before starting up as a bioen-
gineering major at Oregon
State University this fall. He
knows that will be hard for a
variety of reasons, not the least
of which is missing almost a
year’s worth of school, but he’s
not interested in excuses.
“I know next year is going
to be tough and a lot of strug-
gle. But whatever it is, I’m go-
ing to get through it. It can’t
be any harder than what I’ve
already been through,” Payton
said.
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