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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 2017)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 39, NO. 6 SECTION A NOVEMBER 10, 2017 $1.00 The light at the end Keizer man clean and sober two years after speaking about heroin addiction By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Curtis DeVoursney has felt more human lately. That might seem like a small accomplishment but, when we met for the fi rst time two years ago, Curtis was deep in the throes of heroin addic- tion. He had watched numer- ous friends and associates die of overdoses in the preced- ing months. At 24 years old, he was still standing and that made him feel invulnerable and godlike. The day after we talked, he was reporting to jail for vio- lating his last parole and even then the drug use didn't stop. “It's diffi cult to remember because the amount of drugs I was on. I went to jail and continued using. I was smok- ing meth and smoking weed. Everything I wasn't supposed to do,” Curtis said. He was let out shortly be- fore New Year's Day 2016. He was staying with his father, but that came to an abrupt end. On New Year's Eve he left his father's house with the clothes on his back, a pair of shoes on his feet and another pair in his hand in search of drugs. He walked fi ve miles into Salem in 30-degree weather in a last ditch effort and then began walking back to Keizer. “It's bad when you can't get drug dealers to answer the phone. I couldn't get any drugs because I had robbed every drug dealer I knew. I had Wyden talks taxes, Trump, more at Keizer town hall Two years ago, an interview with Curtis DeVoursney and his family kicked off Keizertimes ' award-winning series on the heroin epidemic called Chasing Dark. Our original story on DeVoursney, Lies Heroin Tells Him, can be found on our website, www.keizertimes.com. Sen. Ron Wyden detoxed on Mary's couch while waiting to check in at Pacifi c Ridge: Residential Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center. “It wasn't hard to get in. They knew me and this time I knew what I wanted. I just knew anything was better than what I was doing. I didn't know how to live life. I knew how to do narcotics and lie, cheat and steal. And, obvious- ly, get arrested,” Curtis said. By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) stopped by Keizer to host a town hall meeting on Saturday, Nov. 3. Talks were wide ranging, but Wyden repeatedly illustrated the ways in which disagreement in Washington, D.C., is not as bad as it might seem to the nightly cable news viewer. “TV media doesn't give any attention to anything that isn't a fi ght,” Wyden said. He talked briefl y about several bipartisan efforts he is actively involved in. He is engaged with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on two fronts. The fi rst is the Corporate Transparency Act that would prevent individuals from using anonymous shell corporations to engage in illicit activities like money laundering, sex traffi cking, fraud and terrorist fi nancing. Wyden, Rubio and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) have also authored the Student Please see LIGHT, Page A8 Please see WYDEN, Page A6 Curtis and Mary DeVoursney burnt every bridge possible. The only options were going back to jail or to be homeless and walk the streets,” Curtis said. He was walking on Cher- ry Avenue near his mother, Mary's, home when he sent her a text message because she wasn't picking up the phone. Curtis didn't blame her. Curtis told Mary he had no where to go. Mary asked if he was willing to go to treatment. Curtis said he would. The next time he called, Mary picked up the phone and told him to get to her house. “I wasn't going to put my- self out, I'd been there and done that. Once he was here, Mom kicked in and I was trying to feed him and get him to take a shower. Then I told him he needed to call the treatment center. I didn't call anyone,” Mary said. Curtis made the call and No shortage of drama on tap McNary drama remakes classic ‘Heaven can wait’ but only through Nov 19 absurdity of the situation far more specifi cally than it was recognized in the original,” director Linda Baker said. “The absurdity of it all is really the thing.” The play runs November 10-11, 17 and 18 at 7 p.m. and November 12 and 19 at 3 p.m. in the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center chapel. Tickets are $15 and available at the door or online By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Keizer Homegrown Theatre hopes to highlight the absurdity of Heaven Can Wait, the story of a boxer who arrives in the afterlife 60 years early and in order to return to earth must take up the body of a nefarious millionaire. “We are taking a 1930s play that was unabashedly sentimental and giving it a twist where we recognize the KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley ABOVE: McNary seniors Steven Cummings and Grace Con- dello star as the Scarecrow and Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, which opened Thursday. BELOW: Keizer Homegrown's Heav- en Can Wait, with Jeff Minden and Craig Will, debuts Friday. PAGE A12 Rotary digs deep PAGE A2 Black, White and Great Panthers top Wolverines on gridiron PAGE A12 Please see CLASSIC, Page A11 at www.brownpapertickets. com/event/3131857. Jeff Minden, a 1999 McNary graduate, plays the prizefi ghter, Joe Pendleton. Minden was in the play in high school as the overeager messenger who mistakenly picks up Pendleton and takes him to the afterlife to start the story. “It's kind of fun doing it again so many years later and Please see HEAVEN, Page A8 0 % APR 72 MONTHS EXCLUSIVE HOLIDAY OFFERS STARTING AT Keizer FOR PLUS $1,000 FORD CREDIT BONUS CASH 1 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463 - 4853 2017 F-150 * www.skylineforddirect.com By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes In preparing for Wizard of Oz, McNary drama director Tom Cavanaugh told his students not to re-watch the classic fi lm and make the iconic characters their own. That's been harder for some than others. “I watched it (the movie) as a kid and I would always hide behind the couch when the witch came out and now I’m playing it (Wicked Witch of the West),” McNary senior Camryn Ronnow said. 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