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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2018)
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 39, NO. 42 SECTION A JULY 20, 2018 $1.00 KLL walks off $ 13K in debt City council shrugs By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Withholding nearly $30,000 in payments to Keizer Little League complex proved to be nearly a break-even proposition for the organization running it during a meeting of the Keizer City Council July 16. Two months ago, it was revealed that Keizer Little League (KLL), the organiza- tion charged with the main- tenance and management of the park fi elds, kept $13,434 of concession sales it was con- tractually obligated to reinvest in the facility itself. During the past eight weeks, the city’s fi nance director assisted the league president and secretary, OWED FORGIVEN SLOT & TOURNAMENT FEES $ 15 , 0 3 0 FORGIVEN DEBT ( CONCESSION REVENUE ) 13 , 4 3 4 $ CONCESSION REVENUE $ TO PAY 13 , 4 3 4 TOTAL OWED $ DELINQUENT SLOT FEES 28 , 4 6 4 Brad Arnsmeier and Lisa Buik, respectively, with compiling complete fi nancial data on the group’s activities. When the re- port was released last week, it turned out KLL owed more than double the initial amount. KLL also kept $15,030 in slot fees and tournament revenues amassed in 2017. According $ 13 , 5 5 0 to the contract, those revenues should also have been put into the account of the park com- plex. Offering no apologies, Arn- meier told city councilors that the KLL board concluded that a 50/50 sharing of concession revenues was “an equitable split. I hope that when we fi nish the process tonight that you agree.” Arnsmeier said he told City Manager Chris Eppley in Janu- ary of the plan to keep the con- cession revenues while waiting to see if the city would retroac- tively amend the park manage- ment contract to include con- cession revenue sharing with the management group. Arnsmeier did relatively lit- tle talking during the meeting, but city staff made that easier. Before getting into the detailed review City Finance Direc- tor Tim Wood heaped effusive praise on Arnsmeier and Buik. Eppley also stepped in to de- fend the KLL organization. “When we fi rst started looking at this, I asked (Wood and City Attorney Shannon Johnson) the ugly question: does anyone think that KLL was embezzling money?” said Eppley. “Tim was able to say, ‘no.’ None of us believed that it was the case. This is an issue of transitory boards who are not professional bookkeepers. If kids weren’t playing baseball and the fi elds weren’t in great shape, I would be a lot more concerned.” In exchange for the retro- active change to the contract splitting concession sales and permitting the managing or- ganization to keep tournament Vandals to Junior Olympics PAGE B1 Please see KLL, Page A7 ‘It’s the hardest, best thing we’ve ever done’ ONE YEAR GONE KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley Lou Sumetz, left, with Cynthia Martinez Perez's mother Angelica and step father Cesar Castillo, talks about their faith during the last year at a candlelight vigil on Monday, July 16. Vigil gathers community to support search for mother By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes One year after Cynthia Martinez Perez of Woodburn went missing from a Keizer night club, family friends and complete strangers gathered on Monday, July 16 at Chalmers Jones Park for a candlelight vigil. “She’s always in our hearts and minds and prayers,” said Angelica Castillo, Cynthia’s mother. “We miss her, we love her, we need her back. We want to keep Cynthia’s name going to where she does not get forgotten and knows how much we love her.” The vigil was planned by a Keizer woman who never met Martinez Perez but related to her story. “I live in Keizer and I’m a single mom of three,” Rebecca said. “I can’t imagine my three children laying their head (down) every night not knowing where I was. I want to give her children those answers. I want to fi nd their mother and what happened to her. I’m her voice. She’s still out there somewhere and we need to let her children know where she is.” Martinez Perez’s family and close friends were blown away by the comfort they’ve received from strangers like Rebecca. “I just really want to thank the community for coming together and doing all of this for people that you guys didn’t even know to begin with,” Cielo Larios said. “I would like to thank the Hispanic community as well, just thousands of people have come together with Please see GONE, Page A6 By CASEY CHAFFIN Keizertimes Intern Jessica Ratliff had fi ve kids in her home: four of her own, and one foster baby. Then The foster care system in Marion a Department of Hu- County is struggling to meet demand. man Services (DHS) This is the fourth part of a worker called: Can you continuing series in the Keizertimes take a foster sibling set, investigating the state of local two kids under the age foster care and shedding light on of two? ways to get involved. “How many peo- Check back next week for ple have you called?” another installment. Ratliff asked. Twenty-four people. no one wants to go get in- Ratliff was the twenty- volved with it. When all you fi fth. Ratliff said yes, for the see in the headlines around it are scandals and abuse, people meantime. “When you tell me you’ve don’t want to sign up and do called 24 other homes, I can that,” Ratliff said. But that’s do it, but I can’t do it for not the mindset the commu- long,” she said. Foster families nity needs. “If people don’t like what often have to provide short- term care while DHS work- they see on TV about fos- ers fi nd suitable long-term ter homes, they need to step placements, often outside of up and be the good foster Marion County. Ideally, there homes. We just need people would be open foster homes to step into that role and give available for immediate long- these little children what they term care, but that’s just not need,” she said. Ratliff and her husband the case. There are too few foster families and too many opened up their home to foster youth just under four kids in foster care. Foster parents usually show years ago and have generally up in the news for the wrong fostered kids under the age of reasons: abuse, mismanage- four. They’ve taken in about ment of the foster stipend, and eight long-term placements so forth. But the cameras don’t and many more short-term show up to document the fos- placements over that time. “It’s the hardest, best thing ter parents working hard and doing the best they can for the we’ve ever done,” she said. But foster parenting isn’t a kids that come into their care. “I think because there’s task to be taken on lightly. Foster such negativity in the press Please see FOSTER, Page A10 around foster care lately that Solar greenhouse? PAGE A2 Roberson retires PAGE A3 Council requests halt to recreational shooting By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes The largest contingent yet of west Keizer neighbors turned out at the Keizer City Council meeting Monday, July 16, to request a halt to recre- ational shooting at a quarry in West Salem. About 40 neighbors were in attendance while about a half-dozen pleaded with city councilors to do something. For the fi rst time, Sheryl Bauer, who was in her kitch- en on June 2 when a bullet from the quarry penetrated her home exterior walls and stopped two feet away from her, offered public comment on the incident. Bauer was holding back tears as she spoke, saying, “We’re are doing this for our- selves, but we are also doing this for our neighbors. We got to know them a lot faster than we expected and they are wonderful, wonderful people and everybody is scared to death.” Bauer and her husband, Tom, moved to their home on Raphael Drive North not long before the bullet came through the wall. Tom added the couple was most fearful for the lives of their grandchildren who have been lifted up and set on the File Please see SHOOT, Page A7 This quarry across the Willamette River in Polk Country is where shots are originating from. 7-on-7 football PAGE B1
