SEPTEMBER 18, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
BETHELL,
continued from Page 1
those challenges, and I am the
only candidate with the skills,
education, experience and re-
lationships to hit the ground
running.
KT: Whoever wins this
election is going to have to
help lead the entire coun-
try through a devastating
recovery effort at a time
when revenues are going to
be shredded. Where will you
begin and how can Mari-
on County Commission-
ers guide the process in a
meaningful way?
DB: Our community has
been through so much this
week, and while hard decisions
will no doubt need to be made
in the future, the strength, gen-
erosity and courage of Marion
County neighbors was in full
display. I am confi dent that if
we can keep focused on our
shared priorities, we will come
through this stronger for it.
We must rebuild, and as
commissioner, I will do every-
thing I can from a regulatory
standpoint to ensure that we
rebuild our damaged infra-
structure as soon as possible so
our neighbors can rebuild their
homes and businesses quick-
ly. From planning, permitting,
ESCAPE,
continued from Page A1
his buddy was packing up his
belongings or had already fallen
asleep.
“I wasn’t that worried about
it at the time. I didn’t think
there was any way the fi re had
already gotten there,” Guile said.
By 11 p.m. the area was dark
and smoky, but fi re was not yet
visible. By midnight, the Beach-
ie Creek Fire was scorching
down the French Creek drain-
age.
A local sheriff was knock-
ing on doors in the community
around midnight, telling resi-
dents to evacuate their homes.
Unfortunately Torgeson didn’t
wake up until around 2:30 a.m.
when he heard propane tanks
exploding at his neighbor’s
house — which was engulfed
in fl ames.
With no time to spare,
Torgeson wasn’t able to grab
any belongings. He just jumped
in his Toyota RAV4 and at-
tempted to fl ee from danger.
Torgeson started driving to-
wards Highway 22, but didn’t
make it far. With awful visibil-
ity, he ran into a large tree that
fell into the street. The car got
stuck and Torgeson was unable
to maneuver the vehicle out
of harm’s way. Wearing just a
t-shirt, shorts and Wal-Mart
crocs, Torgeson elected to make
zoning, land use, infrastructure,
as well as working with state
and federal partners, I will be
boots on the ground, advocat-
ing for solutions every step of
the way.
As far as setting budgets,
they are all about priorities. We
will need to engage Marion
County residents in a mean-
ingful conversation about what
revenues we have and the cost
of our programs. From there,
we will need to prioritize. We
probably won’t be able to fund
everything but it is the job of
Marion County Commission-
ers to work with residents to
fund what is most important to
them. For programs that don’t
get funded, are their partners
we can bring in to help? For
example, the Keizer Cham-
ber and United Way recently
did a great job helping with
wildfi re relief. Others, like the
Mid-Valley Homeless Initiative,
have been great partners on the
homelessness issue.
I look forward to doing the
hard work to get our county
back in our homes and back to
work
KT: What practical steps
can the commission take to
ensure we have housing for
all the people who live here
and would like to live here?
DB: We need to drastically
increase the supply of housing
in our county. We have un-
derbuilt for decades, leaving
our most vulnerable neighbors
housing burdened and with lit-
tle hope of ever buying a home
and beginning to build wealth.
As commissioner, I will look
for ways that the county can re-
duce barriers and cost to hous-
ing development, as well as help
cities across the county fi nd
creative solutions to incentiv-
ize the housing our neighbors
desperately need. Whether it
is land banking, using current-
ly vacant county property, or
working with religious institu-
tions to utilize land they have
available to build on, we must
think outside the box and cre-
ate more housing on all levels.
All of this must be done with
an eye to protecting the world-
class agriculture land we have.
I want to reiterate, home
ownership matters – it is one
of the surest ways of building
wealth across race and class. I
am committed to creating more
pathways in Marion County to
home ownership.
KT: What do you see as a
commissioner’s role in eco-
nomic development?
DB: I have been the exec-
utive director for the Keizer
Chamber of Commerce four-
and-a-half years. In that role,
I have been the advocate and
cheerleader for our business
community, and I believe these
skills immediately transfer over
to the role of commissioner. As
a county, we need to position
ourselves not only as the entity
that helps reinforce the positive
business climate we have, but
actively recruit other businesses
to move here.
The county commission has
many tools in their toolbox to
work on the broad spectrum of
economic development, from
incentives to marketing. I want
to use all tools available to make
sure that the jobs that are creat-
ed here are good, family wage
jobs.
Another role for the com-
missioners is investment in in-
frastructure to make us com-
petitive. Whether it’s helping
smaller cities pool resources to
create a sewer or lobbying at
the federal level for transporta-
tion dollars, the commissioners’
vision and energy is vital in our
continued economic success.
KT: Lean times are like-
ly ahead for the county and
all the cities and towns it
supports. Where would you
look to make ends meet?
DB: COVID-19 will test
our county like so many oth-
ers across the nation. As Com-
missioner, I will work towards
ensuring that the county pri-
oritizes the core services our
most vulnerable rely on. We
must also prioritize effi ciencies
and make sure that voters’ hard-
earned tax dollars are best spent.
In this process it will be vital for
the commission to listen to all
voices across the county, to un-
derstand the values and prior-
ities of the community and to
be responsive to funding those
programs fi rst.
KT: Given that funding
available for new programs
and efforts is uncertain, are
their policy changes you
feel the commission should
support to start laying the
groundwork for future
changes?
DB: Marion County has a
history of being fi scally respon-
sible. Our county has the least
amount of debt among the
largest fi ve counties in the state.
While we don’t have a large
reserve fund, each department
keeps about 25% of budget
on-hand, to manage cash fl ow.
Because of the low debt ratio,
we have lots of fl exibility mov-
ing forward to choose what we
want to invest in, versus just
paying down debt. Additional-
ly, our position should be rel-
atively more stable in the next
year because the county’s fund-
ing stream is based on property
taxes.
One thing that does con-
cern me is areas where the
State funds programs they ex-
pect the county to administer.
The legislature currently funds
three departments in Marion
County: Economic develop-
ment, Parole and Probation and
the Health Department. When
the state cuts funding, like they
recently did with Parole and
Probation, we have an issue. If
elected, I will be proactive in
educating the legislature on the
critical nature of these funds to
all Marion County residents.
KT: Voters often tend to
overlook down-ballot rac-
es, what would you say to
a Keizer voter who ques-
tioned the impact of the
board of commissioners on
our city?
DB: You are right, everyone
gets fi xated on national issues,
while the items that actual-
ly impact our daily lives most,
happen at the local level. Just
recently the county submitted
paperwork to the federal gov-
ernment to apply for grants.
Keizer is committed to partic-
ipating in the distribution of
those funds from the county.
Another very important
connection between Keizer and
the county is public safety. Any-
one who gets arrested in Keizer
is actually taken to the county
jail. Any public safety funding
or administrative decisions at
the county could dramatically
impact Keizer residents.
a run for it.
Even though he has been re-
tired for 15 years, Torgeson has
continued to stay active. Years
of playing basketball and going
on hikes, among other activities,
had unknowingly prepared him
for survival.
“He’s a really athletic guy.
If anyone could have made it
through, it was Scott,” Guile
said.
With fi re blazing on both
sides of the road and heavy
winds blowing in his face,
Torgeson had to hold his breath
during parts of the run, hoping
for gusts of clean air.
Near Mile Post 4, he came
across a woman, Angela Mosso,
on the side of the road, telling
Torgeson that she couldn’t go
on. Mosso was at her home
with her son and mother when
the fl ames hit their house.
Without the ability to drive out
of danger, Mosso told her son
to run for his life along with the
family dog.
Mosso had been her moth-
er’s caretaker for almost a de-
cade. In order to survive, she
was forced to leave her behind.
When Torgeson came across
Mosso, he told her that he
would send help if he could.
After continuing to run away
from the fi re, Torgeson fl agged
down a driver with a fl atbed
truck around 4 a.m. At that
point, Torgeson’s arm was se-
verely burned.
Torgeson begged for a ride
from the man, but then refused
when he learned the man was
going deeper into the fl ames.
The man happened to be Mos-
so’s husband, Chris Tofte.
Tofte was able to fi nd his
wife, who was in critical con-
dition, then picked up Torgeson
on his way back down the
highway. Tofte stopped the car
at the intersection of Highway
22 and North Fork Rd., where
they waited for ambulances to
arrive.
Mosso took the fi rst ambu-
lance while Torgeson waited
20 minutes for the next one to
arrive.
Tofte, however, was unable to
track down his 13-year old son,
Wyatt, who was found deceased
in a car on the family property
the following day. Family mem-
bers believe that Wyatt was at-
tempting to save his grandma.
Just after midnight on Tues-
day, Torgeson’s son, Erik re-
ceived a text from his friend
about the fi res near Detroit.
Erik began listening to the
police scanner and tried fran-
tically to call Torgeson’s cell
phone.
After Erik contacted the
sheriff to see if he could fi nd
any information on the where-
abouts of his father, his hope
began to dwindle.
“I didn’t know what to do.
With everything that had hap-
pened, I assumed that he had
died,” Erik said.
At 5:38 a.m., Erik got a
long awaited call from his dad’s
phone. It was a paramedic on
the other end, telling Erik that
his dad was alive and being tak-
en to the Emanuel Burn Cen-
ter at Legacy Emanuel Medical
Center in Portland.
Torgeson had burns on ap-
proximately 20% of his body,
with severe burns on both his
calves and one of his forearms.
He has had two skin graft sur-
geries so far and will have a
third one next week.
He will likely have to spend
weeks, if not months, in the
hospital recovering and will
need further rehab care in the
months to come.
While Erik is relived that
his father survived — especial-
ly after losing his mother just
months prior — he knew the
medical bills would take a toll
on his dad. Erik, along with his
friends Chris Wilhelm and Ja-
son Miles, created a GoFundMe
page to try to get some fi nancial
support.
In less than a week’s time,
Erik couldn’t believe the re-
sponse that the campaign re-
ceived.
When you spend more than
three decades in the classroom,
you have the opportunity to
have a substantial impact on a
multitude of people’s lives.
Torgeson took advantage of
that opportunity every day as an
instructor.
“He was one of those teach-
ers that enjoyed his job until his
last day. Student adored him,”
Forest Ridge teacher Sarah
Koenig said. “Not one person
would have a bad thing to say
about him. He has touched so
many lives in one way or an-
other.”
Torgeson worked as fi fth
grade teacher for more than 30
years at Clear Lake Elementa-
ry before spending his last four
years at Forest Ridge Elementa-
ry — he retired in 2005.
When some his former stu-
dents, and their parents, heard
about what happened, they im-
mediately wanted to help.
As of Tuesday, Sept. 15,
Torgeson’s GoFundMe page
had raised just under $20,000
and more than 200 people had
made donations.
“The page is blowing up. He
has impacted so many lives. It’s
unbelievable to see people who
had him as a teacher in the ‘80s
make huge donations and say
that he was their favorite teach-
er ever. I don’t even remember
my fi fth grade teacher,” Erik
said.
“He really knew how to in-
spire kids. Kids still wanted to
have a relationship with him
as adults. That is why the com-
munity is rallying around him,”
Guile added.
Koenig has been teaching at
Forest Ridge now for nearly 20
years. She credits Torgeson as
the reason she stuck with being
an educator.
“He was defi nitely my men-
tor. When he fi rst retired, I
had anxiety about returning
to school,” Koenig said. “He
knows what is best for kids
and he legitimately cares about
them. I know so many people
that have such fond memories
of him as a teacher.”
Over the years, Koenig got
close with Torgeson’s wife,
Vivienne, and described their
romance like something from
the movie The Notebook. On
the night when Torgeson was
fi ghting for his life, Koenig is
convinced that he wasn’t alone
in the battle.
“I believe that an angel was
watching over him,” Koenig
said.
puzzle answers
WorshipDirectory
These Salem-Keizer houses of worship invite you to visit. Call to list your church in our Worship Directory: (503) 390-1051
KEIZER COMMUNITY CHURCH
380 Churchdale Ave N (1 block West of Dutch Bros)
503 -393 - 0222 • KeizerCommunityChurch.com
SUNDAY:
Sermons can be found online at
www.keizercommunitychurch.com
WEDNESDAY:
6:30 pm Awana; Youth Group; Adults
www.KeizerChristian.org