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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 21, 2020 Opinion Keizer kids come fi rst After more than a year of meet- ings the Keizer Little League Park Long Range Planning Task Force presented its report to the Keizer City Council. The task force, in- cluding a lot of input from city staff, suggested the council choose one of three options for the future use of the park. The council voted on Tuesday, Feb. 18, to approve the option of developing a a long-term lease with an outside group to operate, maintain and upkeep the little league complex. The option of the city itself taking over those same duties was passionate- ly supported by some. While that option has positive aspects, the possi- bility is remote due to the city’s fi - nancial hamstrings. The best choice is the one the council opted for this week. As the city staff starts working on a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Qualifi cations (RFQ), the city council should assure that any resulting document maintains the status of Keizer kids. Yes, youth baseball has changed since Keizer Little League Park was built in 1976. With other pursuits, fewer of today’s kids are involved in youth baseball. Playership dropped off for a time when part of Lit- tle League split off to form Keizer Youth Baseball (now McNary Youth Baseball). On any spring weekend 40 years ago, the park was teeming with excited players and dozens of volun- teers, both coaching and working conces- sions. It doesn’t matter if many fewer kids play baseball these days. It can’t be disputed that enough kids want to play and since we have a wonderful complex for that, we should main- tain the Little League Park now and into the future. With short terms leases switching between Keizer Little League and McNary Youth Baseball it is diffi - cult to assure the complex will be maintained at the highest level year editorial after year. To that end a RFP/RFQ needs to stipulate that the needs of Keizer kids are paramount. Outside oper- ators will concentrate on regional weekend tournaments. Keizer kids will have the complex at which to play Monday through Thursday evenings. That’s win-win situation for both Keizer kids and operators seeking large tournaments. Having an outside operator signed to oversee the park doesn’t mean that local donations and vol- unteer hours will be a thing of the past. Any RFP/RFQ needs to man- date that Keizer volunteers have the same opportunity they have always had. Signing a long-term lease will make on-going debates about the future of Keizer Little League Park go away—for awhile. We see an outside operator signing a long- term lease as a opportunity for breathing room. Let us sign a lease but it should be very specifi c re- garding how Keizer kids will not be left out in the cold. —LAZ The four lawmen of the Apocalypse By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS President Donald Trump is turn- ing his base into hardcore civil lib- ertarians and turning the left into brutal authoritarians. Although, to be fair, he’s not doing it alone. Over- zealous federal prosecutors are the big drivers. Exhibit A: Roger Stone, the GOP bad boy found guilty in November on seven counts of lying to Con- gress, tampering with a witness and obstructing a House investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The big news of last week is that four federal prosecutors told the judge he should go to prison for up to nine years, Trump had the cheek to call the sentence “ridiculous” and the Department of Justice recom- mended less time. So the four feds quit the case and were hailed as Watergate-esque he- roes. I won’t defend Stone’s actions— an avid self-promoter, he built his career on his contempt for election rules, and that rarely ends well. That said, Stone was convicted for nonviolent crimes. So it made no sense that four federal prosecu- tors recommended that a man with no criminal history serve the sort of time that should be reserved for vio- lent or repeat offenders. It was impossible to watch the breathless reports of each prosecutor exiting and not suspect that the four feds recommended draconian time precisely because they wanted the administration to override their rec- ommendation, seemingly in response to Trump’s rhetorical pressure. The bait was taken—and that opened the door for overzealous prosecutors to pose as crusading un- derdogs who stood up to Trump’s attorney general, bad Bill Barr. (On Thursday, Barr told ABC News that he decided to recommend less time for Stone before Trump weighed in, which Barr wishes Trump would not do.) Somehow it hasn’t mattered that Judge Amy Berman Jackson will rule this week based on her own crite- ria. To question the authority of the four prosecutors’ recommendation was considered so offensive that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., among others, proposed impeachment hear- ings against Barr. But as long as we are question- ing the four prosecutors, allow me to ask: Did the Justice Department really need four prosecutors to argue this case? Didn’t they have anything better to do? No wonder they argued for seven to nine years. They couldn’t spend all that time and money on a case that ended with a senior citizen being put on probation. This is how overblown the four feds’ recommendation was. They asked for a sentencing enhance- ment based on Stone’s “threatening to cause physical injury” to asso- ciate Randy Credico, who has said he never felt a genuine threat from Stone. Extra years in prison for an empty threat? This is justice? “They’ve been ‘frenemies’ for years,” ex-wife Ann Stone, a Repub- lican strategist, told me. That’s the way they communicated with each other. As far as Ann Stone is concerned, “There was no crime except that he was showing off.” Her ex-husband liked to brag, she said, and those who heard him say he had an in with WikiLeaks surely “knew he was stretching the truth.” For that, she added, he should not go to prison. Ann Stone is appalled at the government’s behavior from the moment heavily armed FBI agents showed up with guns drawn outside her former husband’s Fort Lauder- dale home in February 2019. There’s been a lot of talk about Trump inappropriately inserting himself in a federal sentencing ques- tion better left to professionals. Barr is right; Trump should keep more of his opinions to himself. It’s sad that Trump’s tweets have served to make Barr’s reasonable ap- proach to Stone’s sentencing appear as if the department is caving in to Oval Offi ce tweets. And it is a shame that Democrats are ready to frame Barr’s humane check on prosecu- torial overreach as if it is pandering, not principle. In a better world, more justice of- fi cials would curb prosecutors’ zeal to put away nonviolent low-level of- fenders for years. In this world, Democrats are apo- plectic because Barr doesn’t want to put a fi rst-time nonviolent offender away for up to nine years. Question authority, the left preaches, unless the left abuses it. (Creators Syndicate) KLL Park mgmt to be outsourced By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes More than a year of talk about the future of Keizer Little League Park culminated at a meeting of the Keizer City Council Tuesday, Feb. 18. Keizer City councilors voted unan- imously to outsource the operations, management and maintenance of the park through a long-term lease during the meeting. The decision deviated from a recommendation by a task force that investigated possible options in one crucial way. The task force want- ed there to be a “dead man’s switch” that kicked in if no suitable operator to take over the park was found and, instead, put the park operations under the purview of the city. The council’s motion that met with unanimous ap- proval had no such provision. “Personally, I am in favor of (city management), but I know it’s not fea- sible from a fi nancial standpoint,” said Councilor Kim Freeman. “I also think it has to turn into a facility beyond baseball and softball.” Councilor Marlene Parsons, who served on the task force, said her role as a city offi cial responsible for spend- ing tax dollars was taking precedence over her role as a mother and grand- mother as she cast her vote. Councilor Dan Kohler, another member of the council who pulled double duty on the task force, said it was a diffi cult decision and one that made him nervous. “All of the people who have man- aged the park have really good in- tentions, but I don’t see sustainability. I don’t know what to do other than have the city take it over, but I don’t know how to do that,” Kohler said. Testimony from residents with an interest in the issue was mixed at best. Rob Tavares, vice president of Mc- Nary Youth Baseball, read a scathing statement regarding the recommenda- tion of the task force to seek a third party to run the park operations. “It’s purpose and mission is still in- complete. Neither program has been able to operate the complex to its full potential,” Tavares said. “It boils down to convenience. The city does not want to be inconvenienced and in- stead placed the burden on the shoul- ders of men and women who have already had their hands full.” Tavares said the City of Salem experienced complications when it sought to outsource operations at the Wallace Marine Park softball fi elds but did not elaborate on what those were. A longtime volunteer at the park and, frequently, the concessions man- ager Clint Holland said an estimate of how much it would cost the city to take over the operations was low by at least six fi gures, but said the low fees charged to use fi elds is at the heart of the problem. “We can’t even cover the normal wear and tear with the fees that we charge,” Holland said. KLL Park’s slot fees are typically some of the cheapest along Interstate 5. Matt Lawyer, a representative of the Keizer Parks Advisory Board who sat on the task force, reluctantly of- fered his support for seeking an long- term lease. Lawyer voted against the option as a member of the task force. “I support the RFP process, but we have to maintain the legacy of volun- teers that made the complex what it is today,” Lawyer said. “We had good conversation, but the recommenda- tion is lacking.” Just prior to the casting of votes, Mayor Cathy Clark tried to reassure the sizable audience in attendance that the city would take that legacy into consideration. “You built programs to benefi t our youth and its the reason we are here saying how do we honor this work for the next generation and all future generations,” Clark said. The next step in the process is for city offi cials to determine precise- ly what it wants out of a third-par- ty contractor and what benchmarks can be established to make certain it meets the needs of the city. Potential contractors will then be asked to sub- mit proposals detailing how they plan to meet the desires of the city. cuffed in Keizer John Dale Bravo Arrested Feb. 11 for: DUII Previous convictions: DUII (twice), driving while suspended Gwenevere Naomi Smith Roberto Gutierrez-Barrera Arrested Feb. 11 for: Fugitive Arrested Feb. 13 for: Delivery of methamphetamine Previous convictions: Drug possession, resisting arrest, harrassment, theft Pending charges: Racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to commit a felony Radioactive waste in Oregon Radon gas has become a concern since its presence in quantity was fi rst detected and that’s because it can— and often does—result in cancers, sometimes fatal. Radon’s origin is the de- cay of radioactive elements found in soil and rock. Ra- don gas presents itself in human areas through the air we breathe as well as underground and surface water. Radon gas naturally occurs throughout the world and has been commonly found in Oregon, including where we live, here in the mid-Willamette Valley. Additionally, we now learn that Oilfi eld Waste Logistic of Culbertson, Mont., has delivered to Arlington, Oregon, illegally dumped disposal of radioactive fracking waste at a chem- ical landfi ll there. And to date, with possibly more on the way, they’ve been unloading their toxic brew by misrepresenting it to the depths of 2 million pounds of radioactive waste. The documentation submitted reads that such material cannot legally be disposed of in Oregon, say offi cials with the nuclear safety division at the Oregon Department of Energy. However, according to reports on the violation, the landfi ll operator in Gilliam County, Chem- ical Waste Management, is not facing any conse- quences by penalty of fi ne or otherwise. The 2 million pounds of ra- dioactive material from Bakken oil fi elds in Canada’s Manitoba and Saskatchewan prov- inces as well as Montana and North Dakota, includes highly contaminat- ed fi lters, tank sludge and slurry from drilling pipes transported to Oregon aboard unmarked railcars over the last three years with the “door open” apparently for more to come without the imposition of consequences or immediate removal of what’s already been delivered. The Chemical Waste people re- port that Oilfi eld Waste Logistics did not truthfully describe the waste shipped to Oregon along with the disturbing fact that Chemical Waste also did not send samples to an inde- pendent technical expert for analysis prior to accepting it. Chemical Waste gene h. mcintyre Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com 2019-2020 President Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $35 in Marion County, $43 outside Marion County, $55 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 says they’ll work with the Oregon Department of Energy which sounds like a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short scenario as wimpy and irresponsible as anyone could dream up and expect publicly acceptable. Meanwhile, no one is being pun- ished or forced by law or contractu- al obligation to correct what’s been done and those persons, apparently, who are twiddling their thumbs and generally ignoring this abomination, including Gov. Kate Brown and our legislators who are busy again fi ght- ing over carcinogenic emissions by a cap and trade law by which the Re- publican, once again, are threatening to walk out of the capitol and hide away like a collection of over-stimu- lated kindergarteners protecting their no-controls, benefactor-provided “candy” supply. So this collection of toxins from the devil’s kitchen sits and rots, spew- ing its cancer-causing agents into Oregon’s air and ground/surface water throughout the state, includ- ing the Columbia River. Then, also, there’s the exposure to anyone living nearby, tourists, commercial trans- ports on I-84, general commerce, the dams and recreation. This huge dump of toxins and carcinogens is an example of the result of the removal of regulations by the current federal administra- tion. Regulations for safeguarding the public are going away. Business and industry are free to pollute and expose to health and life-threat- ening conditions, the lives of our children, our workers and the gen- eral citizenry. An opportunity to end the recklessness now underway rests with the American people in early November, 2020. (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keiz- er. He shares his opinion frequently in the Keizertimes.) Christopher George Beck Arrested Feb. 16 for: Possession of a stolen vehicle Previous convictions: Unlawful use of a weapon, menacing, theft Michael Wesley McDaniel Arrested Feb. 7 for: Failure to appear in court Previous convictions: DUII (twice), driving while suspended or revoked Brenton Campos Arrested Feb. 14 and Feb. 16 for: Disorderly conduct Previous convictions: None
