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
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EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Lyndon Zaitz
publisher@keizertimes.com
2019-2020 President
Oregon Newspaper Publishers
Association
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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