Page 10
The INDEPENDENT, July 6, 2011
Carpenter retired after 22 years with Col. County Sheriff’s Office
From page 9
Captain Carpenter began
his career with the Sheriff’s Of-
fice under Sheriff Bruce Oester.
He started as a part-time
deputy after working for many
years in muffler repairs. He
owned Jim’s Muffler and More
in Scappoose and was very ac-
tive in the Scappoose City Club
before Sheriff Oester hired him.
In 1990, Carpenter became
a full-time deputy in the Correc-
tions Division, and in 1997,
Sheriff Phil Derby promoted
him to sergeant. Carpenter
oversaw the planning and con-
struction of the new jail facility
in 1999 after the old jail be-
came unusable. Carpenter
spent an equal amount of time
(11 years) in both facilities. He
said that when the Sheriff’s Of-
fice moved from the old facility
at the courthouse, they had
nearly twice the number of in-
mates as they had authorized
beds. “The old jail had a capac-
ity of 38 beds,” Carpenter said,
“but when we moved to the
present facility in 2000, we
moved with 75 inmates.”
Prior to the move, Carpenter
was instrumental in beginning
the Sheriff’s work crew to help
ease jail overcrowding at the
old jail. Afterward, Sheriff Der-
by put Carpenter in charge of
jail programs, where he be-
came well known for his ability
to work with inmates and the
community in finding jobs for
inmates to help keep them out
of jail.
Sheriff Derby later promoted
him to administrative First
Sergeant, where Carpenter ex-
panded his services to the
Sheriff on both the Corrections
and Enforcement side of the
house. Sheriff Dickerson later
promoted him to captain and
made him the Jail Commander
in 2009.
Though he is retiring from
the Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff
says he still expects Carpenter
to remain active in the commu-
nity, where in recent years he
has organized the “Cop Walk
for Life”, benefitting the Ameri-
can Cancer Society and other
philanthropic events. He was
instrumental years ago (as a
member of the Scappoose City
Club) in securing the property
from the state and designing
the Welcome to Scappoose
sign and totem pole. He and
Kelly also were the driving
force behind the development
of the Scappoose Sauerkraut
Festival.
“Jim Carpenter has been a
mainstay for Columbia County
for many years,” Sheriff Dicker-
son said. “Sheriff Oester, Sher-
iff Derby and I all recognized
him for his talents and connec-
tion to the community, and now
he will have even more time to
devote to his favorite causes.
He will be greatly missed.”
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From page 2
finicky way the crappie were taking the lure,
most times you never felt a strike.
The commercial fishermen were present
again, fishing day and night trying to fill coolers
with crappie. The fishing was tougher, though
their numbers were greatly reduced from the
near mob of people that we were told had de-
scended upon the reservoir in May. This is real-
ly becoming a several-pronged problem. First, it
is illegal to sell wildlife in Oregon and most oth-
er states; the law is clear, but enforcement is
simply lacking. Other issues are more social in
nature; commercial fishermen are trespassing
on private property, getting these lands closed to
locals, which in turn is making the locals mad.
Being that these commercial fishermen are a mi-
nority, rarely speak English, are abusing our
fishery and are becoming more pushy and
brazen, it will most likely end up with tragic re-
sults. State officials seem unwilling to curtail this
problem, which has only enraged the locals and
will precipitate predictable results.
Donna joined Dad and me for a day of fishing,
catching her first crappie and a bunch more. Her
motive for showing up though was not to go fish-
ing, oh no, she had far better plans for me! We
helped Dad pack up the camp and boat, then we
headed to Moab, Utah. We spent two nights tent
camping and a full day of hiking in Arches Na-
tional Park. Definitely put this on your list of
places to visit, the country in this region is beau-
tiful and quite different than here at home. We
hiked the primitive trail around Devils Garden
and were glad that we did, that was a fun and
exciting hike. The Colorado River was running
high and muddy and we drove up the river for a
long way as we headed to our next destination,
Estes Park, Colorado.
We flat landers are definitely at a disadvan-
tage when we start getting so high up in the
mountains. Donna and I camped at Elk Mead-
ows RV Park, which sits at 7500 feet in eleva-
tion. Oh, but that is nothing…the next day we
drove up into Rocky Mountain National Park and
attained an altitude of 12,200 feet! Later in the
day we hiked in to a couple of lakes (with a few
hundred other people), to an altitude of 9,900
feet, I believe that is the highest I have ever
hiked. Donna, I believe. was starting to suffer
from altitude sickness and as soon as we
dropped back down to camp her headache went
away.
Donna for years has wanted to see a moose,
and in several trips through Yellowstone Park
has been disappointed. Well, we finally did it on
this trip. While returning from Grand Lake on the
western end of the Ridge Trail road in Rocky
Mountain National Park, we saw the telltale clus-
ter of vehicles along the shoulder of the road,
and I saw a moose standing out in the willows as
we drove by. A quick turn-around later, we were
ringside to a cow moose with twin calves. We
ended up driving down the road a couple hun-
dred yards to a picnic site and ate our lunch
while still watching the moose. Later, as we
drove back up on the Ridge Trail road, we
stopped on an overlook of the basin where we
had seen the moose. I grabbed my binoculars
and jokingly muttered whether I could find anoth-
er moose. The first place I looked, there was a
big old moose standing broadside! Taking the
glasses down and even being at least a mile
away, I could still see the moose. Soon I was
playing park ranger pointing out the moose to
the ever revolving people who stopped at the
overlook. Soon though, I got the look, and it was
time to leave!
Our next destination was Milnor, North Dako-
ta, where we had a family reunion with my rela-
tives on my grandmother’s side of the family.
We spent two wonderful days getting acquainted
with relatives, some whom I had never met. The
Costain brothers, of course, had to take us for a
tour of the countryside they grew up in. We vis-
ited all the old home sites and marveled along
with the brothers at all the water that was flow-
ing from the land. In recent years there has been
so much water that some of the fields are better
at growing muskrats than corn. In fact, the
muskrat problem has become so huge that state
trapping regulations have been suspended and
it is open season on muskrats. Needless to say,
we tried to help the cause as we drove around.
Donna and I had a wonderful trip; we saw a
beautifully diverse mixture of landscapes. For
the most part, the countryside was lush and
green and everywhere you looked there was wa-
ter, lots and lots of water.
Izaak Walton League,
Nehalem Valley Chapter
meets monthly on the 3rd Thursday at 7:00
p.m. Call 503-429-7193 for location.