Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2016)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 20 SECTION A APRIL 29, 2016 $1.00 NOW ARRIVING: Holiday Inn Express at Keizer Station By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Perhaps you've heard this one before: a hotel is coming to Keizer Station. Yes, such talk is running rampant again. This time, however, there are some differences. Jack Yarbrough confi rmed this week he recently sold his vacant hotel lot at Keizer Station – between Panera Bread and Outback Steakhouse – to an experienced hotel operator, Cheo Tzeo. Tzeo and his family worked with Yarbrough and realtor Pam Rushing from Coldwell Banker Commercial Mountain West Real Estate to “ I would like to start it in June. It will be nine or 10 months for construction.” — Cheo Tzeo, Developer purchase the property. Though county records as of Monday still showed the most recent transaction being Yarbrough's purchase of the property for $1,361,605 in March 2014, Rushing said a sale to Tzeo went through last week for $1.25 million. “I sold the property,” Yarbrough said. “They're pretty experienced operators. They are decent people. He's experienced. I think he'll be able to build a nice hotel. I got paid off last week.” Rushing said Tzeo, a Vietnamese refuge who came to the United States in the 1970s, fi rst contacted her in January about the property. “I'm excited for Keizer Station,” Rushing told the Keizertimes. “He is going to put in a Holiday Inn Express. He's getting it all approved. He has everything lined up. Young grappler has star potential He's an existing franchisee. He's going to put one in here. It's pretty exciting. He's been working with the city. He's really super nice.” Tzeo said he has sold the Holiday Inn Express he used to operate in Canyonville and is focused on his upcoming Keizer project. “I plan to build a hotel, a Holiday Inn Express,” he told the Keizertimes on Monday. “It is an excellent location. I've been looking for a location along I-5. This is the location I'm interested in.” The hotel pad in Keizer Station, shown to be on a map as 42,000 square feet, has been Republican Congress debate PAGE A2 Please see HOTEL, Page A7 By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes At age 11, wrestler Destiny Rodriguez is racking up awards and trophies that would make a senior high school wrestler green with envy. In recent months, Destiny has won state championships in the collegiate, freestyle and Greco wrestling – also known as the Oregon Wrestling Association Triple Crown. She also traveled to the Reno World Championships earlier this month where she won her weight class in the girls division and took second in the boys division. “Reno is different because there are a lot more elite wrestlers. It's not too different wrestling boys or girls because you have to wrestle hard with everybody,” Destiny said. She has been wrestling since she was fi ve years old and was inspired by relatives. “My dad (Isrrael Rodriguez) wrestled and I knew I wanted to do it after seeing my cousin wrestle,” Destiny said. While she started with McNary's Mat Club, she's since moved on to club wrestling with All-Phase and success hasn't eluded her. This year marks the second time Romeo and Juliet at McNary PAGE A5 Iris Festival update PAGE A3 Please see STAR, Page A7 Stories We Like Saluting the people that make us proud of our community KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald capitolauto.com Keizer Elementary School fi fth grader and wrestler Destiny Rodriguez with some of the recent trophies and medals she's won. Wood ready Portraits for Keizer’s next public mural selling well for a busy budget time By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Tim Wood hasn’t found this fi rst budget season to be too bad. Wood was named Keizer’s Finance Director in March following the retirement of Susan Gahlsdorf in January. While this is Wood’s fi rst year in charge of the budget process, he was Gahlsdorf ’s right hand man the previous six years. In other words, he was ready for the process. “Susan did a good job getting ev- erything lined up,” Wood said on Tues- day, the day before the preliminary T. Wood 2016-17 fi scal year budget was re- leased. “There are not a lot of changes with the process this year. Oregon budget law dictates a lot of the process. Please see BUDGET, Page A11 By CRAIG MURPHY Of the Keizertimes Portraits for Keizer’s next public mural have proven to be popular. As for getting people to paint those portraits? That’s a different story. Jill Hagen, mural project manager, gave an update dur- ing the April 26 Keizer Pub- lic Arts Commission (KPAC) meeting. Before the meeting, Hagen laid out a one-fourth scale pa- per replica of the mural, which depicts various scenes from the Keizer Iris Festival Parade. The replica showed where the various images will be lined up when the mural gets put on the north wall of Town & KEIZERTIMES/Craig Murphy Jill Hagen points out some features of the upcoming mural to fellow Keizer Public Arts Commission members April 26. Country Lanes this summer. KPAC members liked what they saw. “This is spectacular,” Lore Christopher said. Hagen began accepting requests to purchase portraits to be put on the mural at the start of April, at $200 each. Please see KPAC, Page A11 Mixed week for baseball PAGE A8
