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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2017)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 22 SECTION A MARCH 3, 2017 $1.00 Keizer’s long road to HEALing A seemingly simple decision takes nearly four months to gain approval By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes You might think joining a network of cities promoting healthy living would be an easy decision for a city council to make. Welcome to Keizer. A proposal for the city to join the Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Cities Campaign spanned a total of four months and just as many meetings before fi nally gaining approval of the Keizer City Council – after another lengthy discussion – at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 21. The HEAL Cities Campaign is a joint effort of the Oregon Public Health Institute and the League of Oregon Cities with fi nancial backing from Kaiser Permanente. The foundation of the campaign is to promote social, mental and physical health with a combination of public policy choices and creation of healthy options that are “accessible, affordable, attractive and convenient.” How that is achieved can run the gamut from putting exercise stations in parks to deciding where to place public transit stations and everything in between. Member cities will also eventually be able to apply for grants to complete HEAL-related projects with a 50-percent match. The idea was put forth at a meeting of the Keizer Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee in November. Deputy City Recorder Debbie Lockhart found out about the program at a conference, and knowing the budget issues facing Keizer parks, suggested talking about enrollment in HEAL as a new potential source of revenue for grants to improve Keizer’s parks. Parks board members took the matter under consideration and forwarded a recommendation to join in the program to the city council. The council Upgrades, not new school, says task force By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Since December, a task force assembled by the Sa- lem-Keizer School District has been meeting to come up with recommendations for how to deal with school over- crowding. On Monday, Feb. 27, the Long Range Facilities Plan- ning Task Force held its fi nal meeting and assigned a dollar fi gure to the work that needs to be done to increase capac- ity at the district’s overfl owing schools: about $550 million. It will now be up to the Salem-Keizer School Board members to decide whether to pursue the full amount – or some portion of it – with a general obligation bond mea- sure that will be put to voters. The overcrowding issues are most concerning at two district high schools, McKay took up the issue at its fi rst meeting in February, where the simple step of proclaiming Keizer a HEAL City hit a wall. After fi elding questions about whether becoming a HEAL member city would cost anything (Answer: no), councilors picked apart some of the fi ner details of the effort. Councilor Bruce Ander- son raised concerns about whether Keizer would be required to enact policies that might be tailored to- ward other communities – including topics like dedicated pathways for bicycles and pedestrians, transit-oriented zoning controls and land use and transportation. Celts one win from PDX PAGE A8 Please see HEAL, Page A6 Cabaret dazzles KRP camping rates set PAGE A2 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Rian Canini and Sydney Gates perform A Whole New World from Aladdin during the Whiteaker Middle School Cabaret at Salem Alliance Church Thursday, Feb. 23. For more photos, see Page A5. Please see UPGRADE, Page A7 Drug kingpin Girl seeks diabetes dog out on release back in jail By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes A Keizer man arrested on multiple drug-related charges less than two weeks ago was released from jail due to over- crowding and ended up back in cuffs with new charges less than eight hours later. Salem police arrested 36-year-old Casey Miser on Feb. 16 after serving search warrants on his Keizer home and a Portland Road business where he worked. The searches resulted in the seizure of 40 pounds of mari- juana, 17 pounds of meth- amphetamine, fi ve pounds of cocaine, a quarter-pound of heroin, 10,000 oxycodone pills, $40,000 in cash, fi ve fi re- arms and two sets of body ar- mor. Miser was charged with delivery of methamphetamine, delivery of cocaine and deliv- ery of heroin. He was being held at the Marion County Cor- rectional Fa- cility on $1.5 million bail after his ar- C. Miser rest, but over- crowding led to a forced re- lease just before midnight on Monday, Feb. 27. About 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28, Salem Police served another search warrant at a residence owned by Miser in the 4700 block of Dorrance Loop Northeast in Salem. Police found Miser and two accomplices at the house along with fi ve pounds of methamphetamine and an il- legal marijuana grow. Miser was taken back to Marion County Correctional Facility where his new charges Please see KINGPIN, Page A3 KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald Keizerite Lauren Sims, 8, is raising awareness about type 1 diabetes and money for a diabetic alert dog. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Eight-year-old Lauren Sims wants a dog. But not just any dog, one that could very well save her life. Two years ago, Lauren was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Now she’s working as an ambassador to Service Dogs by Warren Retriev- ers (SDWR) to amass the $25,000 needed to cover the costs of the pairing her up with a diabetic alert dog. “They will have a trainer come up from California and spend four days with us to help us get to know each other and work together. It costs a lot,” said Lauren. When Lauren was 6 years old, just after starting kin- dergarten, she began acting different than she had up to that point in her life, said Tania Sims, her mother. “For a couple of days, Lauren woke up four or fi ve times a night and go to the bathroom, then she would immediately want some- thing to drink. That wasn’t something she typically did. On top of that I would be taking her to school and we’d be talking like we usually did and she would suddenly get hungry and demand something to eat,” Tania said. After just a few days, Tania turned to the internet and began looking up the symptoms Lauren was expe- riencing. Every clickpath led to type 1 diabetes. Tania took Lauren to the doctor and a blood test showed Lauren’s glucose levels at 500. For the average person, the number should be around 100. She was checked into Doernbecher 3 arrested on drug charges PAGE A3 Bowlers second in state PAGE A9 Please see DOG, Page A7 come see our 4101 River Rd N (former Knecht’s) 503.390.0161 amazing kitchen appliances MARCH 17 –19 AT THE STATE FAIRGROUNDS