SEE PG A2
SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 40, NO. 27
SECTION A
APRIL 5, 2019
$1.00
HEADS OF THE CLASS
Two McNary grads chart new paths in college
Submitted
McNary grads Crystal Llanos and Samuel Hernandez recently
reunited at a leadership conference at Harvard University.
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
It seemed that both Samuel
Hernandez and Crystal Llanos
had the cards stacked against
them while growing up in
Keizer, but that didn’t stop
them from achieving their
goals.
Despite coming from
low-income
households,
Hernandez and Llanos were
two of several valedictorians
at McNary High School in
2018 and are now wrapping
Hearing on shooting
range begins Tuesday
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
A lawsuit spawned from a stray bullet that
penetrated a Keizer home heads to court for
the fi rst time next week.
Judge J. Channing Bennett, a Marion
County circuit court judge, will begin
hearing arguments regarding a preliminary
injunction at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9. If
the testimony cannot be completed, the
hearing will continue on Wednesday, April
10.
At 10:06 a.m., on June 2, 2018, Keizer
police responded to a home in the 1300 block
of Raphael Street North. Offi cer Jeremie
Fletcher recovered a bullet, believed to have
been fi red from a Polk County recreational
shooting range, after it penetrated the home
exterior wall and stopped only after hitting a
granite backsplash.
The home belongs to Keizerites Tom
and Sheryl Bauer and the recreational
shooting range is on the property of Lance
Davis, owner of Northwest Rock, Inc. The
Bauers are suing Davis for $2.7 million, but
also seeking a permanent halt – through a
court-issued injunction – to shooting on his
property.
The city of Keizer has joined the request
to stop the shooting as an intervenor. As
an intervenor in the injunction portion of
the lawsuit, the city will not be entitled to
monetary awards lawsuit, but it is an act of
solidarity with the plaintiffs.
Four men, including members of Davis’
family, were cited for fi ring the shot that
ended up in the Bauers’ home, but the
charges were later dropped by the Polk
County District Attorney’s Offi ce.
The Bauers, their neighbors and the other
residents of west Keizer have spoken out
repeatedly asking for some sort of action
either by the Keizer City Council or the Polk
County Board of Commissioners. Keizer
offi cials have been hamstrung by issues of
jurisdiction while pleas to Polk County
Commissioners appear to fall on deaf ears.
Please see RANGE, Page A5
up their freshman years and a
pair of prestigious California
universities.
Llanos
is
attending
Stanford University where
she is majoring in biology
engineering and minoring
in Latino studies. Hernandez,
on the other hand, got a full-
ride scholarship to Pomona
College, one of the top liberal
arts schools in the country, and
is majoring in public policy
analysis with a concentration
in economics.
As of 2018, Stanford had
a 4.3 percent, acceptance
rate — which is lower than
Ivy League Schools such as
Harvard, Yale and Princeton
— so when Llanos got the call
that she had been accepted,
she didn’t even believe that it
was real at fi rst.
“When I opened it and saw
the word ‘congrats’ I was in
shock,” Llanos said. “I literally
didn’t believe it. I asked my
sister to read it to me because
I was in complete shock.”
“It wasn’t until I got
accepted that I realized that I
Please see COLLEGE, Page A5
PAGE A14
As of 2018, Stanford had a
4.3 percent,
acceptance rate —
which is lower than Ivy
League Schools like
Harvard, Yale and Princeton
Keizer activist,
tribal leader honored
by Sen. Merkley
residents who are designated
as extremely low income,
very low income, low income
and for those in the middle
income brackets. However, it’s
the lack of high end housing
that has had the effect of
driving up housing prices for
middle income homes. High-
end buyers end up purchasing
below their ability to secure
Keizer addresses.
This article is not meant to
be a comprehensive look at all
the options, but to highlight the
ones with the biggest potential
impacts.
ADJUSTING
RESIDENTIAL
LOT SIZES
Keizer already allows lots as
Mentor
honored
PAGE A3
Delores
“Dee”
Pigsley
The name and accomplish-
ments of Keizer woman and
longtime leader of the Siletz
Tribe are now inscribed forev-
er in the records of the Unit-
ed States Congress thanks to
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Merkley submitted a writ-
ten statement about Delores
“Dee” Pigsley into the records
as part of recognizing extraor-
dinary women during Wom-
en’s History Month in March.
Pigsley bore witness to the
termination of her tribe, the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians, in 1954. Two decades
later, she was driving force
behind having the tribe’s
sovereign rights restored – it
was only the second time in
Please see ACTIVIST, Page A5
Policy options run
the gamut for
dealing with growth
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
In its most recent meeting,
the task force looking at
housing needs in Keizer ran
out of time to discuss the last
part of its agenda: policies that
might alleviate rent burdens
and ensure that housing of all
types are available in city limits.
While the task force has yet
to offer comment, a draft of
potential actions the city might
take is available on the city’s
website, www.keizer.org.
The report outlines some
of the avenues the city could
pursue through development
code and policy changes
to increase the amount of
affordable housing available in
Keizer. Keizer lacks capacity for
Lady Celts
3-1 in tourney
No Adults
Allowed:
Tales of Oregon
Cryptids
PAGE A4
A motocross
legend
PAGE A14
KEIZERTIMES/File
small as 4,000 square feet, but
some cities have adopted sizes
as small a 3,000 square feet.
Frequently these small lot sizes
are intermixed with larger lot
sizes.
Another option would
be putting a cap on all new
residential lots. Keizer does not
have a cap currently, but a cap
could reduce sprawl and allow
the city to chart the course of
residential areas as new spaces
come online or older ones are
redeveloped.
ENCOURAGING
HIGHER DENSITY
The city currently requires
construction of four dwellings
units per acre in low density
residential areas. However,
the city could double that
amount to absorb some of the
expected growth. Increases
to medium and high density
could also be increased.
RECOUPING SPACE
BY DISCOURAGING
CAR TRAVEL
Throughout the country, the
design of cities has catered
Please see GROWTH, Page X