Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2015)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 37, NO. 46 SECTION A OCTOBER 16, 2015 $1.00 Councilor Ryan rips transit KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Allan Pollock, general manager of Salem-Keizer Transit, presents information about route changes at a Keizer City Council work session on Monday. However, information he presented later about funding drew the ire of councilor Amy Ryan. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes The intent of Monday’s Keizer City Council work session was to hear from Sa- lem Keizer Transit offi cials and board members about recent transit route changes and pos- sible future plans. Those items were indeed discussed. They were overshadowed, however, by criticisms about information regarding the proposed payroll tax on next month’s ballot being shared. Councilor Amy Ryan, a small business owner who has been vocal in her disagree- ment over the proposed .21 percent payroll tax, voiced repeated concerns about the process. Salem-Keizer Transit gen- eral manager Allan Pollock and Bob Krebs, president of the transit board, discussed what Phase 2 of the Moving Forward plan would bring if funded: week- end service, Ryan later week- night service and a student pass program for middle school and high school students. “It’s a program we had sev- eral years ago,” Pollock said. “When the funding went away, the program went away. But it was a highly successful program. We provided nearly one million rides a year to stu- dents in this program.” Krebs pointed out the .21 percent proposed payroll tax is much smaller than the .7 per- cent payroll tax in the Eugene area for Lane Transit District, which has the services Salem- Keizer Transit would like to have. The main funding for LTD is $31.5 million from the payroll tax. That discussion got Ryan going. “It was my understand- ing we would discuss phase 1 and changes made,” Ryan said. “We were told no de- cisions would be made, we would take no stand and we would not discuss the budget. I would like to express my frustration. I do feel after this presentation the opposition should get a chance to meet with us. They were not invited to the meeting.” Mayor Cathy Clark ac- knowledged some of the slides shown by transit leaders have been used to promote the bal- lot measure. An aging fl eet of vehicles has left KFD in the lurch more often than it would like in re- cent years. One of its ambu- lances, the newest one, spent nine months out of service in 2013, putting KFD offi cials in the position of borrowing equipment from Salem Fire Department to maintain ex- pected coverage. “We chose not to purchase the top-of-the-line vehicle when we purchased it in 2008, but we’ve also put more miles on it than we ever intended because it was the fi rst-out vehicle when the older two were in for maintenance,” said Jeff Cowan, Keizer fi re chief. The situation became so dire over the summer that the Fire Board opted to use some operational funds to order two new ambulances. The fi rst will be owned outright by the dis- trict. If the bond measure fails, the second one will be con- verted to a lease for $20,000 per year. Please see KFD, Page A12 KPD cop honored for Putnam case Submitted Chris Nelson (left) from the Keizer Police Department was honored last week for his work on the Laurin Putnam drug case. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes As far as he’s concerned, Chris Nelson and others were simply doing their jobs under less than ideal circumstances. Still, the Keizer Police De- partment detective and Garrett Roelof were recognized Oct. 8 with an award presentation ceremony at the United States Attorney’s Offi ce in Portland for their investigation in the Laurin Putnam case. Putnam, 21, died of heroin overdose in April 2012, but the investiga- tion led to 10 drug traffi ckers being arrested. Kathleen Bickers, the assis- tant U.S. Attorney who prose- cuted the case, presented Nel- son and Roelof their awards in a large conference room full of federal prosecutors. Bick- ers noted it was the most suc- cessful Len Bias investigation in the history of the Portland offi ce. Bias was the second pick in the 1986 National Basketball Association draft but died of a drug overdose shortly after. In 1988, Congress passed stricter drug laws known as the Len Bias Law. Please see NELSON, Page A7 PAGE A2 Please see RYAN, Page A6 Chief explains Taking the KFD bond the bump of brain injury By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes The Keizer Fire District is seeking to raise $6.2 million over the next 20 years to re- place aging equipment with a general obligation bond mea- sure on the ballot this Novem- ber. The measure, No. 24-389, is expected to have an estimated average rate of about 14 cents per $1,000 of assessed prop- erty value. For a home valued at $200,000, the homeowner would pay $28 per year. The bond will replace a 1996 measure approved by voters to pay for the Keizer Fire Station, which will be paid off in February 2016. The average rate on that bond was 16 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. “We very specifi cally didn’t want to add one bond on top of another so we timed this one to come online after the bond for the fi re station ex- pired,” said Joe Van Meter, president of the Keizer Fire Board. Transit tax discussion Trucker is a true diamond PAGE A5 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Keizerite Thomas Lucas was working toward a career in pro wrestling when a car-on-bike colli- sion left him with a traumatic brain injury. He's now pursuing his GED, and a job. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes There is one memory of his budding pro wrestling career that survived Thomas Lucas’ traumatic brain injury: getting a piledriver from the vertically-challenged Dink the Clown. “He showed up while I was in Portland and he was one of the main coaches for the pro wrestling school there. He was teaching us how to take a head bump like when someone’s piledriving you,” said Lucas, 25. A “bump” is pro wrestling parlance for a fall. Lucas’ path to this point in his life has had many twists and turns, but he’s got the type of persona you can see taking a mic and calling out his next opponent in front of television camera. Even battling with his memory problems, he can fi ll a room with his easy-going, open-to-it-all attitude. He credits WWE’s Mick Foley for his own calling to the squared-circle rope opera. “He sacrifi ced his body for the fans, and he proved you didn’t have to have six-pack abs or 24-inch pythons,” Lu- cas said. “It didn’t matter if he was the disturbed Mankind or the lovable, sweet hipster Dude Love, he always kept me watching.” Given the big personalities and shock-and-awe theatrics of pro wrestling, Lucas got a bit of a wake-up call when he went to wrestle with the Boys & Girls Club as a fi fth grader in Arkansas. The fi rst day of practice he learned no one would be going through a table. “I fi gured it was a start. Normally, a wrestler won’t win his fi rst year. What’s im- portant is learning the moves and building off that. I scored one victory my fi rst season and the adrenaline from that just kept me going. I went in and was undefeated for the next season and the four sea- sons after that,” Lucas said. It was while wrestling for Boys & Girls Club that Lu- cas had one of his more eye- opening matches. “I wrestled a match with a kid from the school for the blind. It was cool watching people with differing abili- ties and learning how to start matches and keep hand con- tact with him so he knew where I was at,” he said. For reasons he wouldn’t realize until much later, it was a match that had an indelible impact on him. Lucas moved back to the Pacifi c Northwest as a sopho- more in high school, but kept on wrestling. He learned in his junior year that he was likely to be held back and decided to drop out. “After I dropped out, I was going to go to JobCorps and study welding, but then I heard about a wrestling school in Portland. I learned how to sign up, but it was $100 a week,” Lucas said. He talked it over with his father, James, who he credits as his biggest role model in life, and decided together to give it a shot. Before starting, Lucas wanted to take a trip to visit family in Arkansas. While visiting, Lucas start- ed coaching other high school wrestlers and discovered an- other school offering lessons in pro wrestling for half the cost. Please see LUCAS, Page A7 Get 'em started young Mary Opra, left, helps her grandniece Charlotte Rae Bauer, 22 months, with lunch at the Keizer Chamber of Commerce luncheon Oct. 13 at Keizer Quality Suites. KEIZERTIMES/ Craig Murphy Celts notch big win PAGE A8 Homecoming Court at MHS PAGE A12