Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current, March 13, 2020, Image 8

Historic Oregon Newspapers

Keizertimes., March 13, 2020, Page 8, Image 8

Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR

About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2020)

Prev Page of 14 Next Prev Issue Next Text PDF JP2 (1.4 MB) Clip/Print Image

Return to Top

Prev Page of 14 Next Prev Issue Next

Newspaper Page TextPAGE A8, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 13, 2020 Today in History The Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps.” Over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. — March 13, 1942 Food 4 Thought “As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.” — Clarence Darrow, famed attorney (Scopes Monkey trial) died March 13, 1938 The Weeks Ahead Through Sunday, March 15 Enlightened Theatrics present First Date, the Musical, about the uncomfortable and embarrassing nature of blind dating. For show times and tickets visit enlightenedtheatrics.org or call 503-585-3427, extension 1. Through Wednesday, April 1 Keizer Art Association’s Enid Joy Mount Gallery presents its March show: Art Found in Wood. Exhibit comprised of wood carving and burned wood art. Artists’ reception is 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29. keizerarts.com. Saturday, March 14 Keizer Community Center clean-up, 9 a.m.-noon. Sponsored by the City of Keizer and Lakepoint Community Church. Public is encouraged to volunteer to help. Dress for March weather. Contact Mark Caillier at 503-930-7481. Willamette Valley Genealogical Society meets 12 noon to 1 p.m. at VFW Building, 630 Hood St NE, Salem. Carol Zolkoske will speak about the Saint Boniface Community Archives and Museum in Sublimity. Night dance and potluck featuring music by Buckskin Jones from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors Center. Admission is $5 Tuesday, March 17 St. Patrick’s Day Tea at Deepwood Estate, 2-4 p.m. Tickets are $28 per person, gluten free options are an additional $8. For tickets visit deepwoodmuseum.org or call 503-363-1825. Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700 State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 18 Bingo at the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors Center from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission is $5.50. There will be prizes, free game cards and Daubers. Friday, March 20 – Saturday, March 21 Plant sale at Deeepwood Estate from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. There will be over four plant vendors with free admission to the sale. Friday, March 20 – Sunday, March 22 Mid-Valley Yard, Garden and Home Show, Jackman-Long and Columbia Hall buildings at Oregon State Fairgrounds. Hours are Friday, 11 a.m-6 p.m; Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m.- 5p.m. Free admission and parking. Friday, March 20 – Sunday, April 5 Keizer Homegrown Theatre presents Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias, Keizer Cultural Center, 980 Chemawa Rd. NE. Performances are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. on Sundays. Visit keizerhomegrowntheatre.org for tickets. Saturday, March 21 Night dance and potluck featuring music by Jeﬀ erson parks from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors Center. Admission is $5. Wednesday, March 25 G.I. Wilson will be reading from his book, Bear Crushes Dad, at the Keizer Community Library, 980 Chemawa Rd N.E., at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are appreciated. Keizer Community Dinner, 4-5:30 p.m., St. Edward Catholic Church, 5303 River Rd. N. Free. Bingo at the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors Center from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission is $5.50. There will be prizes, free game cards and Daubers. Saturday, March 28 Night dance and potluck featuring music by Charles and The Angels from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Keizer/Salem Area Seniors Center. Admission is $5. Thursday, April 2 – Tuesday, April 28 Keizer Art Association presents its annual Color Show. This year the color is orange. Artists’ reception is 2-4 p.m. Saturday, April 4. Friday, April 10 – Good Friday Saturday, April 11 Deepwood Estate annual Easter Eggstravaganza, ages toddler through 10. Pre-registration is required, $5 per child, $1 per adult. Purchase tickets deepwoodmuseum.org/event- calendar/event/550/2020-04-11/ or (503)-363-1825. Sunday, April 12 – Easter Sunday Saturday, May 9 Dinner at the Captain’s Table 15th Annual Beneﬁ t Auction at St. Edwards Catholic Church, 5303 River Rd. N. For more information visit www.sainteds.com or contact Lyn Walsh at (760)-728-9687. ESCALATE, continued from Page A1 approaches its work. “We could do without the other ﬁ ve cops, but our policing wouldn’t be the same,” Teague said. “Our policing style would have to be more reactive. It might be more fun for the guys on patrol, but it would be less rewarding and not a good thing for the community.” Teague added that it took about three years to move to a proactive policing stance and he would hate to see it go backward. To help make the case for the fee increases, Teague said police department employees are beginning a conversation about what services the department could add. One example is the Citizen’s Academy already underway, but Teague said another option under consideration is offering ﬁ ngerprinting services at the Keizer police station rather than sending individuals to the Oregon State Police. “I don’t think people should just acquiesce to the higher fees,” Teague said. “We should prove that we are deserving.” The parks fee is projected to remain at $4 per for the foreseeable future, but it is up for review each year. That fee has paid for widened pathways throughout Keizer’s 19 parks, a new playground at Meadows Park, a portion of the bathrooms at Keizer Rapids Park, the rehabilitation of Carlson Skate Park, a new sports court at Willamette Manor Park, two new employees and new equipment among thousands of other dollars in improvements. Councilor Kim Freeman neighborhood organizations with presentations. By going out and asking residents now, the charter review group is hoping to narrow down the number of questions it has during the public forum during the intervening month. One of the largest- looming questions is whether councilors should continue to be elected “at large” or selected by speciﬁ c wards or districts. Some of considerations for the at-large option found in a report by the National League of Cities, include: • An at-large system can be more impartial, rise above the limited perspective of a single district and concern themselves with the problems of the whole community. • Vote trading between council members may be minimized in at-large bodies. • There tend to be more candidates in at-large elections. For district- or ward- based voting: • District elections give all legitimate groups, especially those with a geographic base, a better chance of being represented on the city council, especially communities of color. • District council members are more attuned to the unique problems of their constituents, such as crime levels, small lot development, trash pick-up, potholes and recreation programs. • District elections may improve citizen participation overall. If the city continues to use at-large voting, the question becomes whether to implement a different voting method. For example, instead of selecting single candidates, ranked-choice voting might be an alternative. In the latter system, voters would rank candidates in order of preference with the top picks ﬁ lling the vacancies. Proponents of ranked-choice voting say it more accurately reﬂ ects the full spectrum of voters. A third question is whether to change city councilor terms to two years rather than four years. Members of the charter review committee didn’t pick sides, but the possibility sparked enough of a conversation for them to seek out additional input. Keizer’s mayor already serves two-year terms. The last question is whether to change the process for replacing a vacancy on the city council. The current process involves the sitting councilors interviewing candidates and appointing a replacement with a vote of the council. Alternately, the council could send the matter back to voters in a special election. Salem’s city council requires a special election if the remaining term of the vacating councilor is more than a year. The public forum, and chance for residents to chime in on any of those questions, will be April 21 at 6 p.m. at the Keizer Civic Center. Fiscal Year Increase Police fee from prior revenue ($) year ($) Clark then turned to work being done in the city’s parks, a result of a parks services fee attached to utility bills in late 2017. Aside from the ﬁ rst ﬂ ushing toilets in a city park, Clark highlighted how im- provements increased usage at Carlson Skate Park. “The kids stormed the fences the day it was ready and it’s been busy ever since,” she said. Clark is also anticipating a rework of the master plan for Keizer parks. The current plan is nearing a decade old. “Part of that revision will be making sure the parks are meeting our current needs and wants,” Clark said. Clark thanked residents of CRIMP, continued from Page A1 increases, Keizer will still have some of the lowest wa- ter rates in the region be- tween Albany and Portland. “The biggest driver of our rates is not having to treat it,” said Bill Lawyer, Keizer Public Works director. “We pump out of the aquifer, add a bit of ﬂ uoride and send it to the homes.” Keizer Finance Director Tom Wood said property tax revenues are expected to drop by about $60,000 in the coming year. The city is out of large spaces to devel- op and small, inﬁ ll develop- ments will not make up for the losses. The city had to absorb more than $123,000 in ac- crued time off payments for retiring employees during the past year and expect to pay out another $91,000 in accrued time off payment next year. “One of the reasons we are Monthly fee ($) Monthly increase ($) Annual fee ($) 2019-20 680,000 -- 4.00 -- 48.00 2020-21 906,000 +226,000 5.33 +1.33 63.95 2021-22 1,256,000 +350,000 7.39 +2.06 88.66 2022-23 1,464,000 +208,000 8.61 +1.22 103.34 2023-24 1,791,000 +327,000 10.54 +1.92 126.42 2024-25 2,028,400 +237,000 11.93 +1.40 143.18 Source: City of Keizer asked that both police and parks ofﬁ cials prepare a one- sheet report showing what the fees have accomplished so far. CITY: ‘The kids stormed the fences’ (Continued from Page A1) FORUM, continued from Page A1 Police Fee Increase Proposal west Keizer for rising up to keep Keizer a safer place by standing up to the owner of a quarry across the Willamette River where unsafe shooting had taken place. “I have to thank everybody involved in that who made sure the safety of our com- munity was paramount,” Clark said. She lauded several business- es that chose to invest in Keiz- er during the past year and applauded the arrival of “ham- burger travel and tourism,” and took the time to laud the efforts of city staff to make it easier to redevelop properties of River Road North. “What we are saying to those property owners is come and make those spaces more “I would also like to see a report on what would happen if the parks fee was decreased to make up for the increase in the police fee,” Freeman said. productive for you and the community,” Clark said. Up next, Clark said, is con- vincing Major League Baseball that they are wrong in trying to shrink the number of minor league teams. “Major League Baseball doesn’t seem to get the impor- tance of Minor League Base- ball to our communities,” she said. Even with additional chal- lenges on the horizon in terms of meeting needs for the city’s homeless residents and con- tinuing to pay for the climbing cost of police services, Clark said the city would continue to rise up. “We are up to the challenge of providing the resources for Keizer to continue to be a pre- mier place to live and work. There is no doubt that what- ever comes our way, we are up for the challenge,” she said. seeing this happen is that we ute to the Public Employees have a lot of employees who Retirement System. “It could be a $250,000 were hired around the same hit,” Wood time and said. who have In bet- spent the ter news, majority of Wood said their careers the project- with us,” ed budget said Chris for the Keiz- E p p l e y. er’s 2020-21 Such pay- year will be ments have the ﬁ rst since ranged from the 1990s to $14,273 a have it ex- year (2014- p e n d i t u re s 15) when and revenues two employ- in alignment. ees retired to Ty p i c a l l y, $123,000 last the city has year when budgeted for 11 employ- more than it ees retired. With the — Chris Eppley takes in and stock mar- City manager makes cuts throughout ket on a the year. This rollercoaster, is the ﬁ rst Wood said there is also reason to be year, city employees won’t be wary of how much the city asked to make those cuts on will be expected to contrib- the ﬂ y. “We have a lot of employees who were hired around the same time and who have spent the majority of their careers with us.” maze looking back 5 YEARS AGO Keizer PD uses old Roth’s for training Last week KPD ofﬁ cers went through some training scenarios in the vacant building. 10 YEARS AGO Funds for River Road upgrades used to buy land at Keizer Station About $637,000 set aside for River Road improvements and other urban renewal projects will instead be used to buy land at Keizer Station. Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer 15 YEARS AGO sudoku Chemawa bridge gets green light The Keizer City Council has authorized city staff to enter into an agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation to complete the preliminary engineering of the new Chemawa Road bridge across Claggett Creek. 20 YEARS AGO Public gets shot at school names The Salem-Keizer School District is trying to settle on a name for the new elementary and middle schools soon to be built in south Keizer. Enter digits from 1-9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.