SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 3
SECTION A
OCTOBER 14, 2016
$1.00
PERS increases mean more
status quo in Keizer budget
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Anyone holding their
breath in hope that the next
city budget will have room
for additional police offi cers
or parks employees should
probably stop now.
Based on increases to
the rates the city pays to the
Public Employees Retirement
System, Keizer will probably
have another status quo
budget in 2017-18. The city
will have to come up with
an additional $165,100 for
PERS, and it's likely to eat up
the lion's share of any property
tax increases, including any
additional revenues from new
construction.
“That is almost two offi cers
A chat
with the
council
candidates
A. Barker
L. Reid
The Keizertimes editorial
board met with the two com-
peting candidates for Position
1 on the Keizer City Council
last week.
We asked Allen Barker,
a retired Jack-of-all-trades,
and Laura Reid, a teacher at
McNary High School, about
some of the most pressing
topics and issues on the
horizon within city hall. We
are presenting their answers in
a question and answer format.
Keizertimes: What is
your position on current
talks regarding adding a fee to
utility bills that would create
dedicated funds for police and
parks?
Allen Barker: I like the
idea of dedicated funds for the
parks and each particular issue
that comes up. I wish we could
have created a means to do the
same thing they are talking
about but make it opt-in vs.
“There are few
expenses the
city has that
would ever see
an increase
like this.”
— Tim Wood,
Keizer Finance Director
for the police department or
at least two parks employees,”
said Tim Wood, Keizer's
fi nance director.
Wood lowered the boom
on the Keizer city council at
its meeting last week, but the
picture is somewhat more
rosy now. He anticipated
a $250,000 increase at the
meeting, but had the chance
to crunch the numbers since
then.
While the rates are
increasing at different rates for
the different types of PERS
recipients, the bulk, roughly
$107,000, will go toward
benefi ts for Keizer's 37 Tier 1
and Tier 2 PERS employees.
The rate for those employees
is increasing by 3.63 percent,
but that number is a little
deceiving, it's actually a nearly
26 percent increase over the
rates being paid this year.
Other categories of employees
like police and general services
(public works, for example)
are increasing by more than
17 percent over the previous
rates.
“That's the part that is a
little alarming. By comparison,
we're expecting a health
insurance increase of about
7 to 10 percent,” Wood said.
“There are few expenses the
city has that would ever see an
increase like this.”
The increase will have to be
folded into budget discussions
next spring.
“One of the big things
we've tried to put aside money
for is repair and maintenance
of (the Keizer Civic Center).
We've been here about seven
years and have already deferred
some projects, this will likely
mean we have less money to
put toward those,” Wood said.
Perhaps more worrying, is
that PERS offi cials are telling
employers to expect similar
payment hikes over the next
two two-year cycles. PERS
rates are adjusted biennially,
which means Keizer might
be in for another six years of
status quo budgets.
The increases come as
PERS adjusts its investment
outlook for the foreseeable
future.
Boys
ticketed for
clown scare
PAGE A2
Please see BUDGET, Page A6
Artist sows Combat Grass
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Before he headed to the
war front in Iraq in 2003,
Matthew Boulay's preferred
reading list was nonfi ction for
the most part.
When he returned home
and was trying to fi nd his
way back to civilian life, he
continued to read, but poetry,
specifi cally work by veterans,
took on new meaning.
“I began by reading the
poems of soldiers from 100
years ago who were expressing
emotions and thoughts that
were all in my head. It was
a different war and different
circumstances, but I would
have written exactly what
they wrote,” Boulay said. “It
struck me that there was a
universal element to being a
soldier at war.”
The poems inspired him
to try his hand at painting
and explore other mediums,
and his latest exhibit is the
centerpiece of a new military
history display at the Keizer
Heritage Center Museum.
One of the poems Boulay
encountered, Grass by Carl
Sandburg, spoke to him
unlike many others. The
poem juxtaposes scenes of the
war dead with the voice of
the grass that will cover the
their bodies and, eventually,
the memory of their deeds.
It inspired the exhibit at the
museum.
Boulay's exhibit, Combat
Grass 1916-2016, brings his
experiences, the poem and
death notices sent to families
during World War I into a
single space. It is contained in
a glass display case, and he has
to water and seed it regularly.
The exhibit starts with
combat paper. It's made in
San Francisco by a group
of veterans who mill their
military uniforms into paper.
“I aged it with coffee and
Please see ARTIST, Page A6
Adopt-a-
park goes
nowhere
PAGE A3
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
ABOVE: The Combat Grass exhibit, just after seeding.. LEFT:
Artist Matthew Boulay in front of Carl Sandburg's poem.
B-Boyz at
MHS
Please see CHAT, Page A7
Into the light
Writer’s note: At the
Out of the Darkness Walk
in Salem last weekend,
organizers handed out honor
beads for participants to
symbolize their loved ones and
friends. Purple signifi es loss of a
friend or relative. Teal signifi es
support for a friend who
struggles or has attempted
suicide. Green signifi es
personal struggle.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
PURPLE
Name: Herb Wester-
man. Age: 60s. Method:
Gunshot. Relationship:
Family friend. My age:
single digits.
Lessons learned:
Mr. Westerman taught
me that we don’t talk about
suicide the same way we talk
about other methods of dying.
Instead of brave battles, we talk
about suicide in hushed whispers,
and only when pressed. No one
presses hard.
Until his suicide, life was
$
PAGE A8
Why talking about
suicide matters
binary – living and dying – and I
assumed we didn’t get much of a say
in either one. Mr. Westerman showed
me a door I hadn’t seen when I
arrived. “Choice” is stenciled on the
glass. I’ve examined the typography
in all its fi ne detail nearly every day
since.
TEAL
Name: Mike. Age: 18. Method:
Overdose (revived four minutes after
heart stopped beating). Relationship:
Best friend. My age: 18.
Lessons learned:
By the time I learned of Mike’s
overdose, several weeks after the
event itself, calling us estranged
would have been generous. I hadn’t
seen him in months. I confronted
him about his drinking and drug use
on the stoop of his mother’s porch
almost a year prior, if memory serves.
I cried, he giggled. I was not ignorant
of his struggles, but I denied them for
a long time. To the point where I’d
convinced myself I wasn’t sitting in
my car waiting for him to make a buy
before taking him home.
Mike taught me I couldn’t love
someone enough to make them want
to stay.
PURPLE
Name: Billy Bohmie. Age: 38.
Method: Gunshot. Relationship:
Extended family. My age: 21.
Lessons learned:
Billy was my preteen cousin/
godchild’s uncle. I was 600 miles away
at college when he killed himself in
his bedroom at his parent’s home. I
drove home for the funeral because
I knew the effect Mr. Westerman’s
suicide had on me at a young age.
I needed to be sure my cousin had
someone who would listen if he
wanted to talk about it.
Billy’s suicide seemed to be proof
that my own battles with suicidal
ideation were not something I was
going to “grow out of.” I, and I
assumed others, were in it for the
long haul, and the ones that decided
to walk through Choice’s door
amounted to circumstances and a
coin fl ip.
Celts shock
Grizzlies
PAGE A10
Please see LIGHT, Page A9
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