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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 2015)
PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 19, 2015 Stitt happy to see Big Toy happen presented by DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH! 3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM Summer Movie Programs $1 - Throwback Thursday Night Movies TUE / WED / THU JUNE 23 – AUGUST 13 EVERY THURSDAY JUNE 25 – AUGUST 13 8 MOVIES FOR $5 Kid’s Movies at 11:30 am Throwback Movies at 11:15 am SEE WEB SITE for complete list of movies and showtimes Your favorite classics for $1 Goonies, Top Gun, Karate Kid, Ferris Bueler’s Day Off, Breakfast Club, The Princess Bride, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles Start times to be scheduled 8:00 - 8:45pm Today in History Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. — June 19, 1953 Food 4 Thought “No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” — Edward R. Murrow The Month Ahead Friday, June 19 106th annual Sangerfest Grand Concert, 7 p.m., West Salem High School Auditorium. Pacifi c Coast Norwegian Singers and the Thorsmen Norwegian Male Chorus of Salem. Tickets are $10, available at Music! Music! on Market Street and at the door. pcnsa.org. Saturday, June 20 Oregon Forest Fair, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. Expo and educational event is free and open to the public. www.oswa.org Bark for Life, 8 a.m.-noon, Keizer Rapids Park. One mile and 5K fun walk/run event for dogs and their owners to raise money for the American Cancer Society. After the walk/run, there will be demonstrations, silent auction, doggie fashion show, games and food. bfl ofsalemkeizer.com. Tuesday, June 23 Public Services Fair hosted by Keizer Public Works, noon to 5 p.m. at Keizer Rapids Park. Free, food for fi rst 300 attendees. Music and exhibits. Keizer Public Arts Commission meeting, 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center. Saturday, June 27 The Oregon Spirit Chorus presents two performances of Barbershop & Bluegrass in the auditorium at Chemeketa Community College. Show are at 2 p.m. (tickets are $15) and 7 p.m. (tickets are $20 for the evening show). For tickets visit www.oregonspirit.org or email tickets@oregonspirit.org. Kimberly Hall and Friends, concert at Keizer Rotary Amphitheatre at Keizer Rapids Park, 6 p.m. Free. The evening is a thank you to the Big Toy volunteers, donors and sponsors. kraorg.com. Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28 The 18th annual World Beat at Salem’s Riverfront Park. Monday, July 1 Claggett Creek Watershed Council meeting, 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Keizer Civic Center. Saturday, July 11 He’s back! Patrick Lamb in concert at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 6 p.m. Free. kraorg.com. Friday, July 17 Loafers, all-city class reunion open to public, at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 6:30 p.m. Free. kraorg.com. Saturday, July 18 Johnny Limbo & the Lugnuts at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 6:30 p.m. Free. kraorg.com. Saturday, July 18 – Sunday, July 19 Canterbury Renaissance Faire, 6118 Mt. Angel Highway. A two-weekend festival celebrating the Elizabethan Era. Event includes knights jousting and battling, period costumes and events, dances, shopping and more. Admission ranges from $11 to $24. Free parking. Continues following weekend, July 25-26. For information and advance tickets visit canterburyfaire.com. Thursday, July 23 – Saturday, July 25 Shakespeare in the Park: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 6:30 p.m. Free. kraorg.com. Saturday, August 1 Magical Mystery Four, Beatles cover band, at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 6:30 p.m. Free. kraorg.com. Saturday, August 8 RIVERfair featuring Brady Goss at Keizer Rotary Amphitheater at Keizer Rapids Park, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with Goss concert starting at 6:00 p.m. Free. riverfairkeizer.com. Add your event by e-mailing news@keizertimes.com. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Will Stitt’s son had to wait nearly a year. Before Liam Stitt turned 6 last September, dad fi gured he had the perfect present: a new playground at Keizer Rapids Park called the Big Toy. While such a structure was already in the park’s master plan, it was Will Stitt who pushed the idea forward in late 2012. He presented some ideas to Bill Lawyer, Public Works director for Keizer. Lawyer encouraged Stitt to attend a Keizer Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting in November 2012. Stitt did and proposed some ideas, including research he had done. The following spring, it was decided the Big Toy would be built in September 2014. Lat- er, a new site within the park was selected, necessitating a delay to this month. “It was very disappoint- ing because we could have had this done last September, which would have been right around my son’s birthday,” Stitt said June 12. “I had told him, ‘It looks like you’re getting a new playground for your birthday.’ But I think this is a great site and it will work real- ly well. Yeah, it’s disappointing, but now that’s all gone and it’s just the excitement about how close we really are.” Stitt was part of a group of volunteers that showed up each day to build the 15,000 square foot play structure. When the building actually started June 10, the plan was to have 150 volunteers per shift, three shifts per day, get- ting done in time for a soft opening at 5 p.m. Sunday, June 14. A delay pushed the open- ing back to June 20. Last Friday, Stitt talked about getting the project start- ed. He has been credited as the person who truly helped get the project going. What’s tell- ing is how he started his re- sponse. “First of all, if I hadn’t, someone would have come up with the idea so I don’t know if I can take much credit for this,” he said. A look at the history, how- ever, shows why Stitt gets the credit. With the birth of his fi rst son (now 6, while his younger son is 4), Stitt looked around for big play structures. “I had looked at other cit- ies like Lincoln City and As- toria that had really cool big play structures,” he said as the sounds of construction fi lled the background. “I really liked those. I was looking around Salem/Keizer for those and we really didn’t have anything like that.” Stitt looked around at more big structures and noticed a similar style. Then he visited a friend in Oak Harbor, Wash., a city that had just put in a play structure with help from consultant Leathers and Asso- ciates. “They went into the schools, the got a lot of in- put from the community and (my friend) was telling me it sounded like a great idea,” Stitt said. “It seemed like a really good fi t for Keizer Rapids. If we were going to put in a big playground in, this was the place we were going to do it.” Stitt got some information from Oak Harbor and called up Leathers for some infor- mation. He then contacted Lawyer. Stitt emphasized while that research may have helped get the warm response, there was more. “I think what’s more im- portant is there was already KEIZERTIMES fi le/Craig Murphy Will Stitt (left) introduces his sons to Meredith Coy’s daughters after the Big Toy design day in November 2013 at Keizer Civic Center. Stitt brought the idea to the city a year earlier. the desire to do something re- ally unique and special here,” he said. “That didn’t come from me. That was there from Rich Walsh and a lot of other people on the board that re- ally wanted to do something unique. Rich said that he had seen a playground (in Lincoln City) and he knew he wanted to do something like that. That just happened to be a Leathers project.” In late 2013, Leathers de- signer picked the “Big Tree” site near the boat ramp and more than 3,000 Keizer stu- dents submitted design ideas. In January 2014, then-mayor Lore Christopher suggested a move to the fi lbert orchards in KRP, which were not in the city’s Urban Growth Bound- ary at the time of the sug- gestion. Going through that process meant delaying the project nine months. Stitt, whose family com- mitments forced him to leave the Community Build Task Force last year, was just happy for the build dates to fi nally arrive. “It’s incredible,” he said of the building process. “You’re assigned to a little team and you’re working. I’ve been working with a group of six to eight guys and we’re work- ing in our little area. You get focused on working on that. You’ve got your head down for two or three hours. Then you look up and you look around and things are chang- ing all around you. It’s incred- ible how fast things are really changing. It’s really exciting just to see everything change so fast.” Stitt noted his sons missed being able to help dad build like they do at home, but they were at the daycare run by Shelly Paddock while the vol- unteers build the Big Toy. Given his involvement with the start of the project, did Stitt expect his sons to be among the fi rst on the play- ground once complete? “I expect me to be one of the fi rst on the playground when it opens,” Stitt said with a laugh. “But yeah, I’m sure they will be, yeah.” Mural design to feature parade By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes The upcoming mural at Town and County Lanes keeps being revised. Recently it was announced the original design of various aspects of the Willamette Valley was just a possibility. In the last couple Keizer Public Arts Commission meet- ings, a new design idea has emerged: a collage of the Keizer Iris Festival Parade. The idea was discussed again at the May 26 KPAC meeting. “We took photos of the pa- rade,” Jill Hagen said. “I’m go- ing to gather some cards and bring them in. I’m wondering and requesting if we could then review them at the next meet- ing (June 23) and everyone can choose their favorites. I don’t want to be responsible for se- lecting the favorite fl oats. We have 140 feet to work with.” Hagen said a request from the bowling alley was to include a river and a silhouette of owner Don Lebold throwing a fi shing fl y into the water. “I’m thinking 12 images at 10 feet each,” Hagen said. Others wondered if that would be too much. “I think that might be too busy,” Beth Melendy said. KPAC chair Lore Christo- pher had the same thought. “I agree, I’m thinking fi ve or six things,” Christopher said. “Someone had the idea of do- ing a ribbon or banner with a round piece saying the Keizer Iris Parade, a banner that makes it look nostalgic. The irises would be on the bottom, done by kids. There would be impres- sionistic crowd scenes. We could do that and paint over our fi ve or six things.” Melendy suggested the Mc- Nary High School band, a horse group and the Keizer Fire District’s old fi re truck could be among the images. Christopher liked the idea of looking at pictures. “We could take the images and line them up like a parade, then dot (the ones we want),” she said. Christopher noted the evolving nature of the project isn’t unique. “Community projects are in a state of evolution all the time,” she said. “I like the idea of having six to eight things. We can have six to eight artists do them.” Melendy wondered if the delay in coming up with a fi - nalized design would push the project back. “Do we still plan to do this in September?” she asked. Christopher responded that is indeed still the timeline. local weather sudoku looking back in the KT 5 YEARS AGO Garbage rate increase on council agenda A residential garbage rate increase will be on the Keizer City Council agenda for next week, debating a seven percent increase the Mid- Valley Garbage and Recycling Association seeks. 10 YEARS AGO Enter digits from 1-9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. Councilor wants to revamp neighborhood associations City Councilor David McKane wants to give new life to the neighborhood association situa- tion in the city. 15 YEARS AGO Jenniches faces Grand Jury indictment Jody F. Jenniches, suspected to be a prolifi c Keizer thief, was expected to enter the courtroom and plead guilty to nine counts of theft and head to prison; Jenniches changed his plans last minute and is now in jail awaiting what is to come. 20 YEARS AGO Interchange plan gets mixed reaction The Keizer City Council got a look at the fi rst draft of the Chemawa Activity Center plan Monday night, only to be informed that the project could not be legally built. 3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE KEIZERTIMES.COM Web Poll Results Would you approve of the city selling under utilized park land? 52% - No 48% - Yes Vote in a new poll every Thursday! 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