PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 13, 2017
Council drills down on parks issues
presented by
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Valentine’s Romantic
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Saturday, January 14
RYAN REAVES & DAN GABRIEL will
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watching a romantic movie. Nominated for 3
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includes movie, 4 course dinner and drinks.
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UFC208 - Sat, Jan 21
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Live Fights at 5:00 (21 & Over) - Tickets $13
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Today in History
An Air Florida Boeing 727 plunges into the Potomac River in
Washington, D.C., killing 78 people. The crash, caused by bad
weather, took place only two miles from the White House.
— January 13, 1982
Food 4 Thought
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember
that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
— Henry Ford
The Month Ahead
Friday, January 13-Sunday, January 15
2017 Mid-Valley Home Show, hundreds of exhibits. Oregon
State Fairgrounds. Free admission and parking. Hours are
Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Sunday,
10 a.m.-5 p.m. homebuildersassociation.org.
Saturday, January 14
Millstream Knitting Guild meets at Arrowhead Mobile Park
Community Center, 5422 Portland Road N.E. in Salem,10
a.m. to noon. New members welcome, $24 membership
per year. For more information, visit millstreamknitting.
wordpress.com.
Keizer Homegrown Theater auditions, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
Keizer Civic Center, 930 Chemawa Rd. NE.
Willamette Valley Genealogical Society meets at 10:30 a.m.
in Anderson room A and B of the Salem Public Library
(585 Liberty St SE). Pam Vestal will be speaking about
Voting Records: Genealogy’s Best Kept Secret.” For more
information, call (503)363-0880.
Monday, January 16
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Government offi ces closed.
Tuesday, January 17
Keizer City Council meeting, 7 p.m., 930 Chemawa Road N.E.
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday, January 20
Inauguration Day.
Keizer’s own Inaugural Ball, 7 p.m., Keizer Civic Center,
sponsored by Marion County and Polk County GOP. Tickets
are $10, $15 at door. Come as you are. For tickets visit
marioncountygop.org/events.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Keizer’s newest city councilor wasted
little time jumping into the fray facing
Keizer parks at a joint city council and
parks advisory board work session Mon-
day, Jan. 9.
Councilor Laura Reid kickstarted
a discussion of the parks survey, which
is now available at keizer.org, with two
pointed questions.
“Do we have legal obligations to
maintain parks?” she asked.
Bill Lawyer, director of Keizer Pub-
lic Works, said the city’s only obligation
was to knock down grass and weeds.
“We have to maintain them to be
compliant with city ordinance, but we
do not have to maintain things like play
structures. One of the problems is that if
we have to turn off irrigation systems it
will lead to weeds and not grass,” Lawyer
said.
Reid followed up questioning
whether there was a minimum amount
of parks space the city was required to
have.
City Manager Chris Eppley respond-
ed saying that there was no minimum,
but there was a maximum amount of
space the city was allowed based on zon-
ing codes. While the city is approaching
the maximum allowable amount of park
space, Lawyer pointed out that west and
northwest Keizer are considered under-
served in terms of park space available.
Eppley added that regulations set
outside of Keizer also affect the parks.
“If we have a path it has to be ADA-
compliant (Americans with Disabilities
Act), the parks also have to be safe to be
covered by insurance,” Eppley said.
The parks survey, in addition to ask-
ing about parks priorities, asks whether
residents would support a fee to create a
dedicated fund for Keizer parks. Option
range from no fee to $8 per month with
a variety of benefi ts at each level $2 or
more.
Councilor Amy Ryan said even the
largest fee on the survey was under the
average amount paid for parks in com-
parable cities. However, she said what
swayed her on the issue was the cost of
deferred maintenance.
“The costs of waiting had the biggest
impact on my view of where we are and
what’s needed,” Ryan said.
Parks fee collection
method takes fi re
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
A Keizer City Council
work session to launch the
parks survey Monday, Jan. 9,
turned contentious when one
Keizer resident voiced ada-
mant opposition to the idea
of attaching a fee to water and
sewer bills to create a dedicat-
ed parks fund.
“I would rather you close
three or four parks than try
to collect this fee the way you
are trying to do it,” said Judy
DeSpain.
DeSpain said the survey,
which does not include lan-
guage saying how a dedicated
parks fee would be collected, is
disingenuous.
“The issue is adding it to
people’s utility bills, and what
upsets me most is that you are
not having a vote,” DeSpain
said.
While neither the Keizer
Parks and Recreation Advisory
Board nor the city council are
recommending a fee yet – they
are waiting for results from the
parks survey in mid-March –
it is one of a slim number of
avenues for the city to pursue
in raising the funds needed to
maintain and improve Keiz-
er parks. To date, the most
commonly-discussed method
for collecting a fee would be
through the city-issued utility
bills, but it could also be set up
as an additional bill – with ad-
ditional costs – if a fee moves
forward.
“We’re in this situation be-
cause a governing body did
not take care of things. This fee
can be added to or raised at the
whim of a future city council,”
DeSpain said.
Mayor Cathy Clark coun-
tered DeSpain’s claim that the
city has failed in its duties.
“Our parks funds come
from the general fund and the
general fund has fl atlined and
our expenses have not,” Clark
said.
The city gets an annual 3
percent increase in property
taxes, but found out in Oc-
tober 2016 that an additional
Wine lecture Jan. 19
On Jan. 19 at 7 p.m., the Straub Environmental Center will
be presenting Straub Environmental Lecture: A Taste of the
Place – The Terroir of Willamette Valley Winemaking.
Dr. Scott Burns, professor of geology at Portland State Uni-
versity, will reveal why the Willamette Valley produces fi ne
wine. The lecture will be located in Loucks Auditorium at the
Salem Public Library, 585 Liberty Street S.E. The admissions
fee is $5.
sudoku
Salem Progressive Film Series screens We the People 2.0.
Grand Theatre, 191 High Street N.E. 7 p.m. Admission: $5.
Willamette University’s Paulus Lecture Hall hosts Prof. Roger
Hull on the art of Louis Bunce, kicking off the new exhibit at
the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. 5 p.m. 245 Winter Street S.E.
Saturday, January 21
Keizer First Citizen and Awards Banquet, Keizer Civic Center,
930 Chemawa Rd. NE. Theme is Total Eclipse of the Heart.
Drinks and dancing begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are $55 a person
or $400 for a table of eight. RSVP by Jan. 16.
Monday, January 23
Keizer Festival Advisory Board meeting, 6 p.m. 930 Chemawa
Road N.E.
Tuesday, January 24
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday, January 25
Community Dinner at St. Edward Catholic Church. Hosted
by Lakepoint Community Church. 5 to 7 p.m. Free, donations
gladly accepted.
Friday, January 27-Friday, January 28
First Taste of Oregon, the premier wine, spirits, cider and brews
tasting event, 4 p.m. at Oregon State Fairgrounds. Admission
is $10, $40 for VIP, $8 for seniors. fi rsttasteoregon.com.
Sunday, January 29
Fellini at the Circus. Salem Concert Band concert. Hudson
Hall Willamette University, 3 p.m.
Monday, February 6
Keizer City Council meeting, 7 p.m., 930 Chemawa Road N.E.
Tuesday. February 7
Keizer Economic Development Commission meeting, noon,
930 Chemawa Road N.E.
Wednesday, February 8
Keizer Planning Commission meeting, 6 p.m., 930 Chemawa
Road N.E.
PERS (Public Employee Re-
tirement System) payment
would likely consume the
lion’s share of this year’s prop-
erty tax increase. At the time,
City Finance Director Tim
Wood said the city could ex-
pect similar payments due for
the next couple of bienniums.
Without room to expand
the parks budget within the
existing general fund, mainte-
nance, even basics like regular
mowing, could suffer without
additional funds, said Public
Works Director Bill Lawyer
said during the work session.
The city is only obligated
to perform mowing in parks
which means other amenities
could be closed or removed
without repercussion beyond
resident dissatisfaction.
Both Clark and Councilor
Roland Herrera said the fo-
cus, for the time being, is on
whether residents would sup-
port a fee, not the mechanism
by which it would be collected.
“One of the options we put
on (the survey) is status quo.
If that is what the majority of
people want, then there’s not
much we will do to move it
forward,” Herrera said.
looking
back in
the KT
5 YEARS AGO
Renaissance Inn has
new owner
Menopause the Musical at the Elsinore Theatre. Starts at 7:30
p.m. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are between $29 and $55.
Buy tickets online.
Noises Off, a comedy by Michael Frayn, opens at Pentacle
Theatre tonight at 7:30 p.m. Show continues through Feb. 11.
Visit pentacletheatre.org for dates and tickets.
For example, recently completed
repairs on the parking lot at the south
end of Claggett Creek park cost $7,000
more than an estimate the city received
a year prior.
Costs at other parks are also mounting
the longer repairs are delayed. Carlson
Skate Park was valued at about $360,000
when it was completed in 1999. Only
$20,000 of that came from city coffers,
the rest was donated time and materials.
Adjusted for infl ation, the initial value
of the park is more than $500,000 in to-
day’s money, which is how much it will
cost to resurface and redesign portions
of it after nearly two decades of use and
deterioration.
“We have to grow up as a city and
start paying the appropriate amount to
make parks functional, or we are going
to have to start shutting things down,”
said Jim Taylor, a former city councilor
and current member of the parks board.
The work session only drew a hand-
ful of residents. Some offered warm to
lukewarm support and one adamantly
opposed (see related story below).
The full meeting is available to watch
at keizertv.com.
A California based investment
company has purchased the
Keizer Renaissance Inn and
Conference Center. They
were attracted to the size of
the hotel, the revenue and the
town.
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.
10 YEARS AGO
KPD’s Offi cer
of the Year
Offi cer Gene Zuniga was
honored as the Keizer Police
Department’s Offi cer of the
Year. He will soon be taking
on a new assignment as part
of KPD’s motorcycle patrol.
15 YEARS AGO
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Web Poll
Results
Besides television, whats
your family’s primary
entertainment choice?
33% – Family game nights
32% – Movie theater
23% – Sporting events
7% – Concerts
5% – Live theater
Vote in a new poll every Thursday!
GO TO KEIZERTIMES.COM
Surprise gift gives lift
to fi re district
The district was remembered
in the will of a former Keizer
resident, and received a check
from the estate of Betty
Uglem for $26,311.42. The
will stipulated that all of the
money be used to maintain
and upgrade the district’s
ambulance service.
20 YEARS AGO
Residents fl ee in face
of rising water
A motor boat was the only
way to get around low lying
parts of Keizer as residents
waited out the surprising
fl ood. Homes were fl ooded
on Jakewood Court in the
Country Glen subdivision.
The Parkersville Dam, an
irrigation dam, about 10
miles east of Keizer, built
in 1962, may not operate
properly, causing fl ooding in
Keizer.
Get your
First Citizen
banquet tix
Tickets are now on sale for
the upcoming First Citizen
& Awards Banquet sponsored
by the Keizer Chamber of
Commerce.
The event is scheduled
Saturday, Jan. 21. Ticket cost
is $55 for individuals or $400
for table sponsorship. The
night begins at 6 p.m.
To purchase tickets, go to
www.keizerchamber.com.
In addition to naming
the city’s new First Citizen,
awards are presented for
Merchant of the Year, Service
to Education and a President’s
Award goes to a person
selected by the outgoing
president of the Chamber
board of directors.
The Keizer Civic Center,
930 Chemawa Road N.E.,
will host the event.
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE
THIS WEEK’S
MOVIE TIMES
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (PG-13)
Fri 4:30, 6:20, Sat 1:55, 9:20,
Sun 2:00, 4:25, 7:25
Sully (PG-13)
Sat 1:00, 6:40, Sun 12:00
Offi ce Christmas Party (R)
Fri 6:45, 8:55, Sat 7:20,
Sun 6:45, 8:45
Allied (R)
Fri 7:45, Sun 5:05
The Accountant (R)
Fri 8:40, Sat 4:55, 8:35,
Sun 6:05, 8:35
Miss Peregrine’s Home for
Peculiar Children (PG-13)
Fri 2:00, 3:30, Sat 4:10,
Sun 12:45
Trolls (PG)
Fri 2:20, 4:15, 5:55,
Sat 12:25, 2:30, 4:35,
Sun 12:20, 3:10, 4:10
Storks (PG)
Fri 1:40, Sat 12:00, 3:00,
Sun 2:15
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