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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2016)
PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 8, 2016 Low cost housing a topic at meeting presented by DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH! 3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM Lights, Comedy, Laughs! UFC197 - Sat, Apr 23 Cormier v. Jones 2 LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE 9 FIGHTS IN ALL ON THE HUGE SCREEN Live Fights at 5:00 (21 & Over) - Tickets $12 Reserved Seating Available Now Online. LIVE STAND-UP COMEDY! SATURDAY, MAY 7 Heath Harmison & Aaron Woodhall 7 pm & 9 pm (21 & Over) Admission only $10. Info and tickets at our website. Saturday, APRIL 16, at 11:00 am MOVIE: K UNG F U P ANDA 3 [ PG ] Sensory Sensitive Show ONLY $3 Special showing for kids and adults with Autism or other sensory sensitivities. Today in History Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth’s legendary record of 714 homers. A crowd of 53,775 people, the largest in the history of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, was with Aaron that night to cheer when he hit a fourth inning pitch. — April 8, 1974 Food 4 Thought “The search for human freedom can never be complete without freedom for women.” – Betty Ford, former First Lady, born April 8, 1918 The Month Ahead Continuing Through Saturday, April 30 Colored Pencil Show at Keizer Art Association’s Enid Joy Mount Gallery at Keizer Heritage Center. Gallery hours are 1-4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays. keizerarts.com. Friday, April 8 Oregon Symphony at Willamette University-Smith Auditorium 8 p.m. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture. Tickets range from $5 to $50. For more information contact dtrevett@willamette.edu Tickets are available online at orsymphonysalem.org. An evening with three-time Super Bowl champ, NFL Hall of Famer, all-time leading rusher and Dancing with the Stars champion Emmitt Smith at 6:30 p.m. at The Historic Elsinore Theatre 170 High St. SE, Salem. A benefi t presented by the Medical Foundation of Marion & Polk Counties to support its programs. Tickets $20-$40. For more info 503-375-3574. www.elsinoretheatre.com Saturday, April 9 Public mural painting class, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Keizer Art Association classroom at Keizer Heritage Center, 980 Chemawa Road NE. Nancy Ericksen-Ward will be teaching about image development and transfer. Free. Willamette Valley Genealogical Society meets at 10:30 a.m. in the Heritage Room of the Salem Public Library (585 Liberty St, SE). Helen Wand will speak about German Immigrants to Oregon. By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes There has been plenty of housing construction around Keizer recently. Between multiple senior living centers, the project in Keizer Station Area C and the new subdivision in the north part of town, new housing op- tions are plentiful. None of them, however, are envisioned as low-cost op- tions. At the Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative meeting March 29 at the Keizer Civic Center, lower cost housing was discussed. Rob Justus, the founder of Home First Development who has been working in the homeless services business for 25 years, recalled sharing his frustrations about a lack of affordable housing with Port- land General Electric (PGE) board member Dave Carbo- neau. “I saw a lot of big talk, but I saw very few units being pro- duced,” Justus said. Justus came up with a for- mula to build apartment units for $70,000 including land costs. “I thought it was a bril- liant idea,” he said. “I went to the Portland City Council because I thought the model could be replicated. Their re- sponse was you couldn’t sell to the affordable housing in- dustry, which was a surprise to me.” Justus did fi nd a partner in Pacifi c Continental Bank and moved forward with his plans. “For Dave and I, our goal was not to build housing for ourselves,” Justus said. “There’s a long-term commitment to that affordability. We want to do turn-key projects for non-profi ts and churches. We shared the model with the Portland Habilitation Cen- ter. We were able to engage them and worked with them to hone the specifi cations. We look at affordability in three ways: to build, to operate and affordable rents.” Justus said fi ve projects have been built, with an average cost of $75,000. “We have had people from Salem look at our projects,” Justus said. “People assume it must be crap for that cost. We have given one state agency 12 hours. Their director is one of our champions. We have de- veloped a model for affordable housing. Part of that is having new conversations about how to bring rents down.” Justus noted he has had conversations with Portland mayor Charlie Hales about af- fordable housing. “Bottom line, we have way too many people on our streets,” Justus said. “Way too many people are spending 80 percent of their paycheck just to keep a roof over their heads. That’s why I’m excited to see this conversation happening. We’ve had private investors say to us ‘We like your model, we’re happy to invest in your project’ for no or maybe 2 percent return.” Justus said his company will break ground on 241 units this year and close to 375 units next year. “If we’re going to be about ending homelessness, the af- KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy The Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative task force met at Keizer Civic Center March 29. fordable units have to be there,” he said. “Then we have to work with mental health providers and have people who help them fi nd jobs. If we can create sustainability, they can get their stuff togeth- er. I’m pretty excited.” Eric Olsen with Olsen De- sign and Development said regulations can make it hard to do affordable projects. “A great struggle for a de- veloper to doing affordable projects is the lack of fl ex- ibility in zoning codes,” Ol- sen said. “We just fi nished a project in Salem for a subdi- vision. The range of afford- ability skewed to the high side. The whole process took three years. That makes it hard to do an affordable project. There has to be some way to generate income, but the lack of fl exibility makes it diffi cult. Often you can’t do something outside of the box. You have a building code that forces that, which makes subdivisions all look the same.” Ron Hays, president of Mountain West Investment subsidiary Department of More displays set for city hall By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Members of the Keiz- er Public Arts Commis- sion (KPAC) have been busy working out details regarding the upcoming public mural at Town & Country Lanes, but that’s not the only public art they are dealing with. KPAC members are also in charge of setting the schedule for the gallery display inside the Keizer Civic Center. The all-student/Salem-Keizer Ed- ucation Foundation art show is taking place in April and May, with June being set aside for building maintenance. Things resume in July and Au- gust with Red Raven Gallery Co-op work, with Columbia Fiber Arts doing a display for November and December. As for September and Oc- tober? There were no interest- ed parties for months, but now two artists have come forward to offer their wares. Nate Brown, the direc- tor of Community Develop- ment who works with KPAC members, said at the March 22 KPAC meeting artist Randy Jones and photographer Mi- chael Burkhardt contacted him recently. The two con- tacted Brown within hours of each other. In an e-mail to Brown dat- ed March 18, Jones acknowl- edged his art is “a little differ- ent than most, but that’s what makes it so unique and eye Mission Advancement, has been studying homelessness for two months. He recently put out a report on the topic for Mountain West. “Homelessness is one of the biggest social issues we’re facing in the community,” Hays said. “It has impacts on other social issues.” Hays said he found poverty numbers in Marion and Polk counties are higher than both state and national averages. Marion County Com- missioner Janet Carlson said a strategic plan needs to be put together by the homeless initiative task force that takes into account several areas such as housing supply, support ser- vices and transitional housing. “I want to take this frame- work, develop goals and ob- jectives for each of these,” Carlson said. “We need you to look at this, to say if something is missing or is not worded correctly. Then we’ll come up with a draft version. We’ll come back with goals and ob- jectives at the next meeting. I want to hear how you want to move forward. We don’t want to just have the conversation, we want to do something.” The next meeting for the task force is May 2 at 4 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Please see DISPLAY, Page A6 public hearings Keizer Planning Com- mission will hold public hearings on Wednesday, April 13 at 6 p.m. to consider pro- posed revisions to procedures looking back in the KT of the Keizer Development Code, for proposed revisions to single family residential and for proposed revisions to the city’s fee scheduling. The hearings take place in coun- cil chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Keizer City Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, April 18 for a li- cense change for the liquor license at Growl Movement. The hearing starts at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Council will also hold a hearing on April 18 to assess street lighting improvements for the Bowden Meadows subdivision. Monday, April 11 Long Range Planning Task Force meeting, 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Tuesday, April 12 Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo at Willamette University Hudson Concert Hall, Tuesday April 12, 7:30 p.m. Tickets available at boxoffi cetickets.com. Adults $23, Willamette faculty/staff $18, Willamette students with ID $5, students with children $8, Willamette ICL students $12, Oregon Trail Card $5 (at box offi ce only the night of the performance). Wednesday, April 13 Keizer Planning Commission meeting, 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Thursday, April 14 Keizer Traffi c Safety/Bikeways/Pedestrian Committee meeting, 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. West Keizer Neighborhood Association meeting, 7 p.m. at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Saturday, April 16 Mr & Miss Olympian Pageant @ 7 p.m. Presented by Sprague High School at The Historic Elsinore Theatre 7:30 p.m. 170 High St. SE Salem. For ticket information contact 503-375- 3574. www.elsinoretheatre.com Monday, April 18 Keizer City Council meeting, 7 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Filing deadline for 2015 IRS tax returns and State of Oregon tax returns. Tuesday, April 19 Keizer Points of Interest Committee meeting, 5:30 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Thursday, April 21 Volunteer Coordinating Committee meeting, 6 p.m. in council chambers at Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Road NE. Greater Gubser Neighborhood Association meeting, 7 p.m. at Gubser Elementary School, 6610 14th Avenue NE. Add your event by e-mailing neis@keizertimes.com. sudoku 5 YEARS AGO Major crimes strain police budget Lesser offenses may start falling through the cracks. The police department has held two town halls recently asking the public what they want out of Keizer Police. More everyday crimes could see less scrutiny if current budget trends continue the way they are. 10 YEARS AGO River Road: Main street or highiay? Local scholar Alan Town, a history and geology teacher at Whiteaker Middle School, has spent time collecting old photographs of River Road and then taking recent photographs at the same location. He says with its large signs and bright lights River Road resembles a highway more than a small town. Enter digits from 1-9 into the blank spaces. Every roi must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. KEIZERTIMES.COM Web Poll Results 15 YEARS AGO Plan iould shift park costs to iater bills The Keizer Parks Advisory Board wants to take parks out of the city budget and create a special per household fee for parks and recreation that Keizer residents would see on their water bills. 20 YEARS AGO City examines major overhaul for Cherry Cherry Avenue, long the ugly backporch to Keizer, would get completely rebuilt and spruced up under a plan unveiled last week. local ieather At ihat age did you stop participating in April Fool’s Day tricks? 60% – Doesn’t everyone still do April Fool’s Day jokes like I still do? 27% – High school 5% – College 8% – Once I started my oin family Vote in a new poll every Thursday! GO TO KEIZERTIMES.COM
