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If you were to visit The Newberg Graphic Web site
and click through the archived news stories, you would see that some
stories took up more space on the newspaper’s server than others.
This is a reflection of the nature of news. Some stories garner
more attention than others, some because they are simply more
important, others because they are notable in other ways.
In collecting the top 10 stories of 2004, the news staff at The
Graphic tried to keep the focus as local as possible. This wasn’t
always easy.
There were many things happening at the state, national and
international levels that have a local impact: A Dundee man put to
use Measure 37, the measure passed in Oregon in November that
empowers property owners to seek compensation when land-use laws
decrease property value. The presidential race brought out the worst
in some locals, with backers of both candidates trashing the other
candidates’ campaign signs under the cover of darkness. And the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted local groups to organize care
packages to send to soldiers overseas. The war in Iraq also touched
home when a Newberg High School graduate returned home intact
following a potentially lethal wound to the head.
But these stories were by no means exclusive to The Graphic’s
coverage area, and so we left those stories to larger outfits to
list in their top stories of the year.
Other stories that didn’t make the cut, but are worth mentioning,
include: The Chehalem Park and Recreation District made much
progress this year on its golf course. The Newberg Area Chamber of
Commerce has gone through a lot in 2004, moving into a new location
at Central School, longtime director Ann Dolan retiring, and her
replacement coming on and, just this month, stepping down.
With the exception of the first two, The Graphic’s top 10 stories
of 2004 appear in a rough chronological order. The order implies no
importance given.
Deaths
The deaths of several men and women were felt throughout the city
during the course of 2004.
Former Dundee Police Chief James “Pete” Peterson died of cancer in
April. A police motorcade laced through the streets of Dundee and
Newberg before his funeral service at Newberg Christian Church,
where hundreds mourned his passing. A member of the Dundee Police
Department since 1980, he earned a reputation for being easy to work
with, likable and a good officer.
Former Yamhill County planning director and commissioner David
Bishop, who left the employ of the county for a job with the Oregon
Department of Transportation, succumbed to cancer in May. Friends
and colleagues said Bishop was instrumental in resurrecting the
effort to construct a Newberg-Dundee bypass and was tearfully
recognized by colleague Leslie Lewis, a current county commissioner,
when the Board of Commissioners adopted goal exceptions during the
summer, a move that may pave the way for eventual construction of
the bypass.
George
Fox University mourned two of its students and a longtime benefactor
in 2004. In November students and faculty mourned the loss of
Karissa Edwards, a junior who drowned south of Lincoln City.
Edwards, a junior, went missing from a resident assistant retreat
near the town of Taft. Police reports said Edwards appeared to have
gone wading near the mouth of the Siletz River. An Oregon Coast
Guard helicopter crew found her body the next morning north of Depoe
Bay. More than 1,000 friends, family and faculty turned out for her
memorial service at George Fox.
In December the university lost longtime volunteer and benefactor
Esther Klages. The 100-year-old spent the final fifth of her life
living in a retirement community in Newberg, despite her wealth. Her
passion was helping George Fox. The Centennial Tower, built with her
donations, lives on in the centenarian’s memory.
Eight days later, George Fox lost a second student. Patrick Kibler,
21, was driving in Lake Oswego when an oncoming vehicle crossed the
center lane. He died early the next morning. The other driver, a
26-year-old woman, has been charged with driving under the influence
of intoxicants and manslaughter. Hundreds turned out for a
celebration of his life ceremony at George Fox.
School construction
The bulk of construction paid for by a $46.3 million bond was
either begun or completed in 2004.
After years of abuse and neglect, and needing more elementary
classrooms, the Newberg School District asked its patrons for the
multi-million dollar bond. In September 2002 the patrons voted for
the bond, which funneled money to nearly every school in the
district.
The district built a new school, Joan Austin Elementary, christened
this summer; gave facelifts to the district office, its maintenance
building, Mountain View and Chehalem Valley middle schools, as well
as Edwards, Antonia Crater and Dundee elementary schools.
Construction included the building of new sections at Newberg High
School and Ewing Young and Mabel Rush elementary schools.
Construction should be completed by this summer.
The year also saw the board undertake an exhaustive debate over
boundary changes that Joan Austin Elementary would bring.
The school board is also looking to the future. It plans to
purchase property for a future high school, and is searching for
plots of land suitable for building another elementary school and a
middle school sometime before 2020.
PGE survives PUD push
Portland General Electric is still providing power to Newberg,
Dundee and most of Yamhill County, despite efforts to replace it
with a public utility district (PUD) that climaxed with the March
2004 ballot. Yamhill County votes shot the proposal down by a margin
of 3-1.
Dundee resident Mike Caruso led the charge for the PUD, forming a
political action committee to get out his message: that a PUD could
provide electricity cheaper.
PGE insisted it would be the best provider of electricity in the
area. PUD proponents disagreed, pointing out that the private entity
was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, and vowed to put the
decision to the voters.
PGE backed the anti-PUD fight with more than $250,000. PUD
supporters raised a little less then $20,000.
Mirroring a similar case being argued in Multnomah County
that was also voted down 3-1, the PUD supporters in fall 2003
gathered enough signatures — mostly from voters in Newberg and
Dundee — to put the formation of a PUD on the March 9 ballot.
Yamhill County called for the PUD supporters to pay for the expense
of putting the measure on the ballot. PUD proponents sued — and won
more than $14,000 in damages — over language found in the ballot.
Proponents vowed to continue the fight.
Changes at hospital
Providence Newberg Hospital went through a myriad changes this
year. In March 18-year chief executive Mark Meinert announced his
retirement. He had suffered a mild heart attack in February 2002 and
cited health concerns at the time of his retirement, saying he felt
“beat up on the inside.”
Providence
tapped one of its own in selecting Larry Bowe to succeed Meinert.
Bowe came to Newberg in June from Sisters of Providence’s Columbia
Gorge Service District, where he was the executive director for
since 1998.
Providence’s plan for a new medical center became real in
July when construction of the new building began in earnest. Initial
bids came in higher than expected, at about $10 million more than
the $58 million originally expected, delaying the start of the
project for a month. As of December, the steal skeleton of the
new facility was coming together. Providence hopes to open the
center in early 2006.
Providence also found a new owner for its current facility.
George Fox University in April announced that it had agreed to buy
the hospital and take the building over once Providence had
completed its move. The selling price was for $3 million. GFU
President David Brandt said the building would likely be razed to
make way for new university facilities.
McDonald’s Fire
A fire in March destroyed the Newberg McDonald’s restaurant,
causing more than a $1 million in damage. The restaurant reopened
for business in December.
To add insult to injury, sometime during the night after the fire,
the Ronald McDonald statue was stolen. It was returned to the front
step of a nearby church, and it, along with an American flag that
survived the fire, are on display in the new location as a reminder
of the fire.
The cause of the fire was ultimately placed on a worker working on
the roof with a blow torch.
Meantime, Izzy’s pizza and salad bar in Newberg had a fire in June.
It reopened for business in November.
The smoke caused some $500,000, estimated co-owner Richard Graff.
Most all of the interior and kitchen has been replaced.
Panty thief
A case against the alleged panty thief that started in Newberg in
May has led to statewide media interest.
Sung
Koo Kim was first arrested in May at his parents’ residence in
Tigard, following a tip from a George Fox University student. Police
allege to have recovered more than 3,400 pairs of women’s underwear
from the Newberg house and other locations, and these have been the
basis for numerous charges of theft and burglary in four counties —
Yamhill, Washington, Multnomah and Benton. He faces more than $16
million total bail.
Kim was also named a suspect in the disappearance of Brook
Wilberger, the 19-year-old Brigham Young University student who went
missing in May from an apartment complex in Corvallis. Kim was out
on bail at the time, and police, in an affidavit for a search
warrant, wrote that the theft of thousands of panties amounted to
fetish burglary, and that “in many circumstances the fetish burglary
is a prelude to a sexual assault or lust murder.” Police also found
on a computer confiscated from Kim’s residence a document detailing
the rape and torture of a woman.
The Kim family has threatened to file a lawsuit against several
police agencies, including Newberg, for allegedly being treated with
excessive force while police served a second search warrant on Kim’s
residence.
This story will continue to play out in 2005.
Dundee police
The face of Dundee police services underwent drastic changes in
2004.
The climax of a rough year within the police department came in
June, when Dundee City Administrator Eve Foote fired then-Police
Chief Dan Hess. Foote cited an allegation that Hess used a racial
slur as the impetus for his firing.
This complaint and another were forwarded to Dundee by the city of
Newberg. Two employees of Newberg’s dispatch, which serviced Dundee
police, accused Hess of calling the owner of the Dundee Arco gas
station, a Pakistani national, a nice guy “for a rag head.”
Hess in August filed a tort claim — a threat of a lawsuit — against
the city of Dundee, saying the city fired him without due process.
Hess in November threatened to sue the city of Newberg, as well,
filing a tort claim that said Newberg police officials lied to
Dundee officials in effort to get Hess fired. Hess has yet to file a
lawsuit.
Down to three full-time officers after the three-person reserve
officer program was suspended, the department dwindled to two
full-time officers when longtime officer Kenny Lyon took a job in
Sherwood. When Foote fired Hess, she declared the two-man department
in a state of emergency.
The Newberg Police Department stepped in to provide temporary
police services and is still providing it. The Dundee City Council
in October voted to draft a contract for full-time law enforcement
services with Newberg. The contract is expected to be hammered out
in early 2005.
Mountainview LID
Readers of The Graphic expanded their vocabulary when the story of
the Mountainview LID started making headlines.
The local improvement district issue was born when the city of
Newberg tried to make good on non-remonstrance agreements — a
contract a property owner signs saying that he or she will not
protest assessments on his or her property for improvements, such as
streets — that 27 homeowners in the area signed.
The city asked homeowners and
the St. Peter Catholic Church to help pay for an extension of
Mountainview Drive one block west of Main Street and for half street
improvements to two blocks of Crater Lane. The initial estimates put
the neighbors on the defensive, and protest ensued; curt letters to
the editor were submitted and printed, and neighbors made regular
appearances at city council meetings to point out the inequities
they saw in the assessment.
The city of Newberg and the neighbors have since come to a de facto
peace pact, the neighbors settling when an engineer’s report — with
more accurate, and lower, assessments on property owners — was
released and passed by the council.
But the effects of the LID opposition linger. As a way of defeating
the assessments, some neighbors drafted a pair of initiative
petitions and gathered enough signatures to place them on the March
ballot. One initiative is specific, asking Newberg voters whether
the city’s LID ordinance should be eliminated. The other is more
general, asking whether the city should retain its authority to
create special assessments of any kind.
City councilors are organizing a campaign to defeat the
initiatives, and anticipate the support of some of the neighbors
affected by the Mountainview LID.
School Board member censured
A longtime board member of the Newberg School District withstood
accusations of improper conduct throughout the year, and refused to
step down.
Doug Corder was repeatedly asked to resign by members of the school
board in 2004. Corder refused to step down from his elected position
in spite of disciplinary actions taken against him which included
removing him from committees he once presided over and barring him
from attending out-of-state conferences as a representative of the
board.
Corder was first censured in February for actions that “could be
constructed as sexual harassment” and was accused by the board in
November 2003 of unethical behavior. Accusations surrounding the
disciplinary action taken against Corder spilled into 2004 with
release of a tape of a private meeting held between employees of the
school district and Corder.
He has denied all charges.
The tape was released to the public in April 2004. In it members of
the school board accused Corder of unethical behavior; providing
incorrect confidential collective bargaining information to his
wife, a classified employee of the district, before negotiations
between the district and classified employees union were complete.
The first censure limited Corder’s authority to contact district
employees without another school board member present.
Corder is up for re-election in 2005.
Elections
While the face of the White House remained the same, the faces of
many local elected officials changed.
At the national level, Democrat David Wu won his fourth two-year
term as representative of Oregon’s 1st District. This despite a
story, brought to light by The Oregonian newspaper, that he attacked
a college girlfriend in the mid-1970s. Wu even carried historically
conservative Yamhill County by a roughly 1,000-vote margin over
Republican challenger Goli Ameri.
At the state level the Republicans prevailed in Yamhill County.
State Sen. Gary George, District 12, and State Rep. Donna
Nelson, District 24, both won their re-election campaigns. The race
for House District 25 was won handily by Republican Kim Thatcher, a
Keizer businesswoman. To get her name on the ballot she had the task
of edging out Vic Backlund in the March Republican primary.
The elected officials of Newberg remained the same after the
election. Mayor Bob Stewart crushed his challenger, local business
owner Ed Leffler, by a 2-1 margin. The only contested council spot
was retained by Councilor Roger Currier, who narrowly defeated
Planning Commissioner Dwayne Brittell.
The city of Dundee saw a little more of a shake-up. Councilor Diane
Ragsdale defeated Councilor Don Sundeen in the bid for mayor. Lame
duck Mayor Roger Worrall did not run, instead throwing his support
behind Ragsdale. The three vacancies on the city council were filled
by Councilors Dian Maybury and Jeannette Adlong and former Councilor
Ivon Miller. The council will appoint someone to fill the seat
created when Ragsdale takes the mayor’s chair.
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