EIZER times
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Vol. 43 • No. 10
DECEMBER 24, 2021
Year in Review
2021
BY MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
Whether it was an historic ice storm,
drama at city hall, or kids going back to
school after a year of distance learning,
there were no shortage of newsworthy
stories in Keizer.
Here were some of the top stories that
were featured in the Keizertimes in 2021.
The Chris Eppley saga
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On Thursday, March 4, then-Keizer
City Manager Chris Eppley discharged
a fi rearm in his offi ce inside the Keizer
Civic Center around noon. Eppley had
served as Keizer's city manager since
2000.
According to a press release, the
Keizer City Council had retained an out-
side investigator to investigate the acci-
dental discharge of a fi rearm by Eppley.
No one was injured in this incident.
Weeks later, allies of the embattled
city manager turned out in droves urging
the Keizer City Council to use restraint
as they determine what actions would be
taken next.
In a description of the incident, Eppley
said he was “preoccupied” when the dis-
charge happened. He stated that he
brought pieces of fi rearms into his offi ce
on previous occasions, but claimed it was
the fi rst time he ever carried a full, loaded
fi rearm into the Keizer Civic Center.
Doing so would appear to have been
a violation of ORS 166.370, which pro-
hibits “possession of fi rearm or danger-
ous weapon in public building or court
facility, states any person who intention-
ally possesses a loaded or unloaded fi re-
arm or any other instrument used as a
dangerous weapon, while in or on a pub-
lic building.”
Conviction on such a charge is a Class
C felony, but no police report appears
to have been made regarding the inci-
dent. Instead, Eppley contacted the city’s
human resources director, the chair of the
civic center’s safety committee and the
mayor.
On Monday, April 5, Eppley resigned
from his position. He was off ered six
months salary and a year of insurance
coverage after tendering his resignation.
Since his resignation after discharg-
ing a gun in his offi ce, Eppley has been
hired by Marion County as a community
development manager and appointed the
temporary city manager of Detroit.
Assistance requests surge in wake of
unprecedented storm
It was a stressful and exhausting
72-hour period for the fi rst responders at
Marion County Fire District #1 (MCFD1)
and Keizer Fire District (KFD) during
what was one of the worst ice storms in
recent history.
From Feb. 12 to Feb. 14, MCFD1
responded to 234 emergency calls, a 350%
increase in their daily average call vol-
ume — 79 calls were for emergency med-
ical services (EMS) and 155 calls were for
downed trees or power lines.
Due to the number of high priority
calls, limited on-duty staffi ng and a low
number of volunteers, dozens of lower pri-
ority calls went unanswered — fortunately
no personnel injuries were reported.
“It was absolute craziness, almost con-
trolled chaos. It was an overwhelming
number of calls, one after the other. There
was no break,” MCFD1 Fire Chief Kyle
McMann said. “There were instances of
wives bringing dinners to their husbands
on scene because they hadn’t stopped
working for 24 hours. But that’s what we
are trained to do. You just have to keep
going.”
Ann-Marie Storms, the KFD deputy
fi re marshal, reported that the district
responded to 152 calls over the same
72-hour period. Storms also said that on a
busy day, the district receives between 19
and 20 calls over a 24-hour period.
By 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, KFD
had already responded to more than 50
calls for downed power lines — KFD had
one engine and three medic units on-call,
full of a mix of career staff and volunteers.
McMann said that some people had
to wait anywhere between 30 minutes
to several hours to receive service and
that 911 dispatch had, at one time, had
hundreds of calls pending. KFD reported
similar issues with pending calls.
MCFD1 had three medic units on duty
during the 72-hour shift, but McMann
said two stations of volunteers played a
pivotal role in the process.
See 2021, page A6