SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 37
SECTION A
JUNE 16, 2017
$1.00
McNary grads
take the walk
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
SALEM — When David
Holcomb told his high school
friends he wanted to be a
teacher, they laughed.
Standing on stage, 11
years later, as McNary High
School's keynote speaker for
the 2017 commencement, the
joke was on them.
Holcomb, an AP geography
teacher at McNary, told the
2017 graduating class on
Friday, June 9 not to listen to
critics.
“My friends knew who
I was up until that point,”
Holcomb said. “They knew
that I failed every class my
freshman year. They knew as
a sophomore I wasn't doing
much better. I couldn't play
sports because my grades
weren't good enough. In their
eyes I was never going to
become a teacher.”
Holcomb also grew up in
a broken home with parents
that were in and out of jail.
“I was depressed. I was
embarrassed and honestly I
wanted to give up but deep
down I had a dream,” Holcomb
said. “I had a dream that one
day the pain of my youth and
the lessons that I had learned
outside of the classroom
would help reach students in a
way unimaginable. I wanted to
be a teacher. I wanted to be a
world changer. I wanted to be
a mentor that spoke truth and
life into the minds of students.
I made a choice to follow
Please see GREDS, Page E7
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Members of the McNary High School Class of 2017 toss their caps in the air to celebrate
graduating on Friday, June 9.
PAGE A12
BY E R I C A. HOWALD
A
Keizer kid under
the age of 18 has about
a 50/50 chance of walking into
a River Road business and walking out
with a pack of cigarettes they paid for.
That’s accord-
ing to numbers
provided based on Or-
egon Health Authority in-
spections in 2015. According
to 2016 fi gures, the success-
ful purchase of tobacco by
minors was down to about
14 percent, but it’s diffi cult
to compare year-over-year,
said Inga Suneson, a health
educator with the Marion
County Health Department
(MCHD).
“Because the teams don’t
go to the same locations
at the same times, there’s
no real control number,”
Suneson said.
The numbers themselves
are alarming, Keizer has one of
the worst rates of tobacco sales
to minors in all of Marion
County – Salem averages
about a 13 percent rate with
exponentially more outlets –
and there are no inspections
of vaping shops that now line
River Road.
To
arrive
at
the
aforementioned
numbers,
OHA sends 16-year-olds
paired with retired Oregon
State Police offi cers to
tobacco-selling retailers and
successful sales are logged.
The teens are even look-
tested by others to make sure
they appear underage.
Suneson and MCHD
Prevention Program Supervisor
Kerryann Bouska set out last
year to take the temperature
of local jurisdictions’ openness
to
increasing
regulation
of tobacco products in all
forms. The process included
interviewing as many city
councilors and mayors as they
could regarding the potential
support for new policies and
regulations.
Suneson and Bouska are
concerned about tobacco
use by youth in all forms, but
especially given an onslaught
of new products seemingly
aimed at the youth market.
Record-
setting in
Seattle
Photo Illustration
Few barriers
for Keizer
youth wanting
tobacco
Life for
convict in
murder
PAGE A2
Keizer cop
honored
PAGE A3
D E S I G N B Y A N D R E W J A C KS O N
Federal
rules
banned
fl avored cigarettes in 2009, but
new products quickly took
their place.
“Cigarettes
have
a
minimum pack price, but
you can roll fl avored tobacco
in brown paper and sell them
two for $1.29,” Suneson said.
“A lot of parents don’t go into
the gas station when they are
getting their fi ll-ups, we have
to remind them that this is part
of their world.”
The new products, dubbed
“little cigars” and often in
brightly-colored
packages,
sidestep the federal rules.
“It’s constantly evolving
and we’re chasing them all
the time trying to keep up,”
Suneson said.
Current penalties for selling
to underage users are also less-
than-helpful. The clerk selling
the tobacco is the one cited
not the retailer.
“That means the owner can
put the blame on individual
clerks rather than establishing
better policies for the whole
store,” Bouska said.
Please see TOBECCO, Page E11
$
4 monthly police fee advances
concern voiced for any aspect
By ERIC A. HOWALD
of the fee (see related story).
Of the Keizertimes
The $4 fee would be
The Keizer City Council
unanimously approved moving charged to each commercial
forward with a $4-per-month and residential utility custom-
fee to create dedicated fund- er in Keizer, but there was no
mention of how
ing for new po-
the fee would be
lice offi cers at a
collected during
special session
the meeting. If
Monday, June
the fee proceeds
12.
at that amount,
The
vote
the city would
does not en-
collect
about
act the fee – an
— Mayor Cathy Clark
$630,000.
ordinance will
The money
come back to
the council for fi nal approval will be used to hire fi ve ad-
at a future meeting – but there ditional offi cers in a variety
didn’t appear to be many road- of specifi c roles. Two offi cers
blocks standing in its way dur- would be added to the night
patrol shifts, and one offi cer
ing the meeting.
Public testimony offered by each would be added to the
about a dozen residents resem- Community Response Unit,
bled a lovefest for Keizer cops the detective unit and the traf-
with only a limited amount of fi c unit.
“This has
waited
too long.”
A lack of resources has
affected the department in
a variety of ways. In recent
months, a lack of offi cers on the
night patrol has resulted in the
delay of some responses
and arrests. Property
crimes have also
taken a back burner
to more pressing
persons crimes.
“Too often, only
with property crimes,
investigations grow
stale because of lack
of resources,” said KPD
Police Chief John Teague.
The proposed fee is
slightly more than what Teague
requested – $3.66 per month
– but the additional funds
could be put toward start-up
costs like purchasing additional
Please see FEE, Page E11
Keizer cops get glowing
reviews, strong fee support
If there was any question regarding support for
a fee to fund additional Keizer police offi cers, all
one had to do was take a drive down River Road
North Monday, June 12.
Nearly every business with an available reader
board had some sort of message notifying residents
of a city council meeting to talk about a proposed
fee to hire additional offi cers (see related story) .
That support was echoed by attendees at
the actual meeting who lavished praise upon
the Keizer Police Department and its offi cers in
addition to supporting a $4-per-month fee.
“This past week, the fi rst inkling I had about this
meeting was all the reader boards. I felt compelled to tell you
I wholeheartedly support this,” said resident Jeannie White, a
Keizer resident for 27 years.
Former Keizer Police chief Marc Adams provided
something of a history lesson.
Please see SUPPORT, Page E11
Richards
refl ects on
MHS years
PAGE A12