Most Recommended Stories
Sun. February 25, 2007
1. Adult ATVs kill children
2. Firefighters revive terrier after house fire
3. Fairgrounds makeover sought
4. Cold sufferers suffer under anti-meth law
5. Ducks sweep Washington teams
6. Crew helps Camp Kilowan recover from storms
7. Family fights eviction from manufactured-home park
To review any of stories simply use the link provided to the "Statesman Journal" found in the "Blog Archive" section and click onto the "Most Recomended Stories" link.
Of these "Most Recommended Stories" the one that struck closest to home was the "Family fights eviction from manufactured-home park".This article reminded me that all of us are only one "pen stroke" away from losing our homes. Recent court decisions favoring the use of "emminent domain" for corporate owned real estate development concerns, makes me wonder what the future holds for many hard working, tax paying citizens here in America.The "American Dream" of owning ones home without the fear of it being taken away, so the rich can become richer, is truly frightening. Wake up America, you could be next!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Board Fails To Budge On Recycling Mandates
Link
www.deq.state.or.us/lq/sw/recovery/rpc.htm
Board won't budge on recycling mandates
Manufacturers take issue with new rules for plastic
BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal
February 25, 2007
The state's environmental commission rejected a request Friday by manufacturers to change recycling rules for plastic containers.
The rules are triggered when statewide plastic recycling rates drop below 25 percent. Last year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality estimated that 24.3 percent of plastic containers were recycled.
The rules would require manufacturers to increase recycled content in their containers; use bottles made of materials that are recycled at a rate of more than 25 percent; or use bottles that can be refilled at least five times.
"We have been flirting with the 25 percent thing since the year the rule was adopted (in 1991)," said Environmental Quality Commissioner Bill Blosser. "If I was a manufacturer, I would have been worried right away, not just in the last three months."
Pat McCormick, a representative for the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Products Association, said manufacturers will likely turn to the legislature to ensure the rules are not enforced.
McCormick said that the main problem is in separating the plastics from the rest of recyclables. Right now, one in every five plastic containers do not get recycled even though it was placed in a recycling bin. The problem occurs at the sorting facilities that deal with huge quantities of recycled plastics, paper and metal.
"For us, (figuring out how to capture all of the plastics) is the highest priority," he said. "We can't have it ending up in landfills. That is unacceptable."
In the Legislature, state Rep. Vicki Berger of Salem is sponsoring a bill to expand Oregon's bottle bill to cover water, a move expected to be opposed by grocers who don't want to spend more time and space handling bottle returns.
Rob Guttridge of the nonprofit Recycling Advocates said the manufacturers should do more to prevent so much plastic from being trashed -- not only because they use so much of it to package products, but also because the 25 percent figure is not ambitious enough.
"The standard of 25 percent is horribly low," he said. "It's the bottom floor -- not a worthy or hard-to-reach goal."
Loretta Pickerell of DEQ said it has been obvious that plastics recycling would not meet the goal.
bcasper@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6994
www.deq.state.or.us/lq/sw/recovery/rpc.htm
Board won't budge on recycling mandates
Manufacturers take issue with new rules for plastic
BETH CASPER
Statesman Journal
February 25, 2007
The state's environmental commission rejected a request Friday by manufacturers to change recycling rules for plastic containers.
The rules are triggered when statewide plastic recycling rates drop below 25 percent. Last year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality estimated that 24.3 percent of plastic containers were recycled.
The rules would require manufacturers to increase recycled content in their containers; use bottles made of materials that are recycled at a rate of more than 25 percent; or use bottles that can be refilled at least five times.
"We have been flirting with the 25 percent thing since the year the rule was adopted (in 1991)," said Environmental Quality Commissioner Bill Blosser. "If I was a manufacturer, I would have been worried right away, not just in the last three months."
Pat McCormick, a representative for the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Products Association, said manufacturers will likely turn to the legislature to ensure the rules are not enforced.
McCormick said that the main problem is in separating the plastics from the rest of recyclables. Right now, one in every five plastic containers do not get recycled even though it was placed in a recycling bin. The problem occurs at the sorting facilities that deal with huge quantities of recycled plastics, paper and metal.
"For us, (figuring out how to capture all of the plastics) is the highest priority," he said. "We can't have it ending up in landfills. That is unacceptable."
In the Legislature, state Rep. Vicki Berger of Salem is sponsoring a bill to expand Oregon's bottle bill to cover water, a move expected to be opposed by grocers who don't want to spend more time and space handling bottle returns.
Rob Guttridge of the nonprofit Recycling Advocates said the manufacturers should do more to prevent so much plastic from being trashed -- not only because they use so much of it to package products, but also because the 25 percent figure is not ambitious enough.
"The standard of 25 percent is horribly low," he said. "It's the bottom floor -- not a worthy or hard-to-reach goal."
Loretta Pickerell of DEQ said it has been obvious that plastics recycling would not meet the goal.
bcasper@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6994
New LegislationWould Aid Mobile-Home Owners
STEVE LAW
Statesman Journal
February 25, 2007
When Terra and Gary Stull bought their first home in Keizer's Berkshire Estates in 1998, it was a dream come true.
For $1,500 down, they moved into a new manufactured home with three bedrooms, two baths, oak kitchen cabinets and 1,420 square feet of living space. But like many who live in manufactured-home parks, Berkshire residents owned their homes but rented the land beneath them.
For the Stulls, rent was $320 per month plus payments on their $80,000 mortgage.
"It was a nice community to live in. They kept it real quiet," Terra Stull said.
The dream soured in April, when a neighbor spotted a city land-use notice on a nearby utility pole. Word quickly spread that Berkshire Estates was being redeveloped into a subdivision of "stick-built" homes.
By June, the Stulls and about 100 other homeowners were notified they had to move by Feb. 4 of this year.
Vacancies in other parks, often called mobile home parks, were scarce. So the homes' values fell. Homes at Berkshire that were newer and nicer than the Stulls' were selling for $25,000, the Stulls said, and relocating theirs would cost $15,000.
"We couldn't afford to move our home, so we ended up letting it go back to the bank, and we're going through bankruptcy," Terra Stull said. "We didn't have any choice. We owed almost $80,000 on the house."
The Stulls are luckier than many Berkshire Estates residents because they're still working, she said. Many are retirees, who find it harder to start anew. The Stulls, resettled in a Keizer apartment, said they would never buy another manufactured home.
"What keeps it from happening again?" Stull said. "It's happening all over the state of Oregon because there's no legislation to prevent it."
Closures abound
As real estate sizzles in Oregon, converting manufactured home parks into traditional subdivisions or other uses is tempting. Park owners have gotten cold calls from Seattle developers waving "gobs of money" to sell their sites, said John VanLandingham, a Legal Aid lawyer who helps coordinate the Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition.
Thunderbird Mobile Club in Wilsonville is the latest. Last week, the landlord notified 270 homeowners that they must move by March 2008.
Thirty-one home parks have closed in Oregon the past two years, displacing 1,500 households, according to State Rep. Jerry Krummel, R-Wilsonville.
Krummel helped pass a $10,000 tax credit for evicted homeowners in the 2005 legislative session. He's championing the issue again with other lawmakers and the landlord/tenant coalition.
No one is contending that Berkshire is doing anything illegal, and proposed bills would not prevent closures. But they could ease the financial pain for displaced homeowners such as the Stulls.
Bills in the works
One of Krummel's bills would renew the $10,000 tax credit and eliminate the $60,000 income cap for qualifying, as well as the $110,000 cap on the value of the home. The Stulls couldn't get the tax credit because they earn a combined $64,000.
Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, is sponsoring a bill to require cities and counties to mail land-use notices to manufactured home owners in the affected area.
Now the owners are ignored because they are classified as renters -- they do not own the spaces on which their homes sit.
Some bills would make it easier for homeowners to buy the land under their homes. In New Hampshire, 70 parks have been purchased by manufactured home owners, said Dawn Phillips, an aide to Krummel and Thatcher.
The main legislation, House Bill 2735, incorporates Krummel's tax-credit provisions and proposals fashioned by the landlord/tenant coalition.
Coalition members have learned they must forge compromises to get the votes of Democrats and Republicans, VanLandingham said.
HB 2735 requires owners to pay displaced home owners $5,000 to $9,000, based on the size of their unit. Owners must give at least one year's notice before evictions. Tenants would no longer be charged for abandoning their homes on site, a common practice that often costs them several thousand dollars, VanLandingham said.
Industry benefits
Park owners, who prefer to call them manufactured-housing communities, won some concessions in the compromise bill. Their property value would be frozen for five years after they redevelop the site. The legislation also would pre-empt municipalities from enacting stricter ordinances. That would nullify pro-tenant ordinances in Wilsonville, Eugene, Bend and Oregon City.
Wilsonville requires landowners to reimburse tenants for all costs, find them a new location or buy the unit from them. A Clackamas County judge recently found the ordinance unconstitutional.
Chuck Carpenter, a former lawmaker who runs an industry group called the Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon, said HB 2735 is a fair compromise.
The $10,000 tax credit, combined with direct payments to mobile home owners, means "some of their basic expenses will be met," Carpenter said. "We do know this is the most generous package that tenants are getting anywhere in the United States," he said.
State Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, the co-chairman of the Legislature's budget-writing committee, said Krummel's proposal to create a multimillion-dollar loan fund to aid mobile home owners is a stretch.
But he said HB 2735 has better prospects.
"I think it's smart for us to go with the deal that the owners and tenants have bought off on," Schrader said. "I'm very supportive of trying to find the money there."
slaw@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6615
Statesman Journal
February 25, 2007
When Terra and Gary Stull bought their first home in Keizer's Berkshire Estates in 1998, it was a dream come true.
For $1,500 down, they moved into a new manufactured home with three bedrooms, two baths, oak kitchen cabinets and 1,420 square feet of living space. But like many who live in manufactured-home parks, Berkshire residents owned their homes but rented the land beneath them.
For the Stulls, rent was $320 per month plus payments on their $80,000 mortgage.
"It was a nice community to live in. They kept it real quiet," Terra Stull said.
The dream soured in April, when a neighbor spotted a city land-use notice on a nearby utility pole. Word quickly spread that Berkshire Estates was being redeveloped into a subdivision of "stick-built" homes.
By June, the Stulls and about 100 other homeowners were notified they had to move by Feb. 4 of this year.
Vacancies in other parks, often called mobile home parks, were scarce. So the homes' values fell. Homes at Berkshire that were newer and nicer than the Stulls' were selling for $25,000, the Stulls said, and relocating theirs would cost $15,000.
"We couldn't afford to move our home, so we ended up letting it go back to the bank, and we're going through bankruptcy," Terra Stull said. "We didn't have any choice. We owed almost $80,000 on the house."
The Stulls are luckier than many Berkshire Estates residents because they're still working, she said. Many are retirees, who find it harder to start anew. The Stulls, resettled in a Keizer apartment, said they would never buy another manufactured home.
"What keeps it from happening again?" Stull said. "It's happening all over the state of Oregon because there's no legislation to prevent it."
Closures abound
As real estate sizzles in Oregon, converting manufactured home parks into traditional subdivisions or other uses is tempting. Park owners have gotten cold calls from Seattle developers waving "gobs of money" to sell their sites, said John VanLandingham, a Legal Aid lawyer who helps coordinate the Manufactured Housing Landlord/Tenant Coalition.
Thunderbird Mobile Club in Wilsonville is the latest. Last week, the landlord notified 270 homeowners that they must move by March 2008.
Thirty-one home parks have closed in Oregon the past two years, displacing 1,500 households, according to State Rep. Jerry Krummel, R-Wilsonville.
Krummel helped pass a $10,000 tax credit for evicted homeowners in the 2005 legislative session. He's championing the issue again with other lawmakers and the landlord/tenant coalition.
No one is contending that Berkshire is doing anything illegal, and proposed bills would not prevent closures. But they could ease the financial pain for displaced homeowners such as the Stulls.
Bills in the works
One of Krummel's bills would renew the $10,000 tax credit and eliminate the $60,000 income cap for qualifying, as well as the $110,000 cap on the value of the home. The Stulls couldn't get the tax credit because they earn a combined $64,000.
Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, is sponsoring a bill to require cities and counties to mail land-use notices to manufactured home owners in the affected area.
Now the owners are ignored because they are classified as renters -- they do not own the spaces on which their homes sit.
Some bills would make it easier for homeowners to buy the land under their homes. In New Hampshire, 70 parks have been purchased by manufactured home owners, said Dawn Phillips, an aide to Krummel and Thatcher.
The main legislation, House Bill 2735, incorporates Krummel's tax-credit provisions and proposals fashioned by the landlord/tenant coalition.
Coalition members have learned they must forge compromises to get the votes of Democrats and Republicans, VanLandingham said.
HB 2735 requires owners to pay displaced home owners $5,000 to $9,000, based on the size of their unit. Owners must give at least one year's notice before evictions. Tenants would no longer be charged for abandoning their homes on site, a common practice that often costs them several thousand dollars, VanLandingham said.
Industry benefits
Park owners, who prefer to call them manufactured-housing communities, won some concessions in the compromise bill. Their property value would be frozen for five years after they redevelop the site. The legislation also would pre-empt municipalities from enacting stricter ordinances. That would nullify pro-tenant ordinances in Wilsonville, Eugene, Bend and Oregon City.
Wilsonville requires landowners to reimburse tenants for all costs, find them a new location or buy the unit from them. A Clackamas County judge recently found the ordinance unconstitutional.
Chuck Carpenter, a former lawmaker who runs an industry group called the Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon, said HB 2735 is a fair compromise.
The $10,000 tax credit, combined with direct payments to mobile home owners, means "some of their basic expenses will be met," Carpenter said. "We do know this is the most generous package that tenants are getting anywhere in the United States," he said.
State Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, the co-chairman of the Legislature's budget-writing committee, said Krummel's proposal to create a multimillion-dollar loan fund to aid mobile home owners is a stretch.
But he said HB 2735 has better prospects.
"I think it's smart for us to go with the deal that the owners and tenants have bought off on," Schrader said. "I'm very supportive of trying to find the money there."
slaw@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6615
Monday, February 19, 2007
Editorial: By Mark Young
The Price We Pay For Graffiti:
The senseless waste of our private and tax dollars to repair the needless destruction of property by these graffiti “artists” (I use this term in the lightest sense) bears concern. What is this segment of our society trying to achieve through their mindless destruction of private property? Often the primary culprits in this supposed form of communication are the so called "street" gangs. Apparently, their lack of ambition and self-esteem directly correlates to the need for this destructive form of self expression. On a recent television broadcast a local entrepreneur was being interviewed about the impact that “graffiti” was having on her business. “If this continues I might have to close down”. This local entrepreneur wanted to promote her business by placing a sign on her property, but was afraid to do so because of its possible destruction. Hard working individuals such as this should not have to put up with this blatant disregard for their property. Wake up America and take a stand! Something must be done to stop these gangs from destroying our way of life. If we continue to allow these degenerates to control our cities how can we expect our children to prosper?
The senseless waste of our private and tax dollars to repair the needless destruction of property by these graffiti “artists” (I use this term in the lightest sense) bears concern. What is this segment of our society trying to achieve through their mindless destruction of private property? Often the primary culprits in this supposed form of communication are the so called "street" gangs. Apparently, their lack of ambition and self-esteem directly correlates to the need for this destructive form of self expression. On a recent television broadcast a local entrepreneur was being interviewed about the impact that “graffiti” was having on her business. “If this continues I might have to close down”. This local entrepreneur wanted to promote her business by placing a sign on her property, but was afraid to do so because of its possible destruction. Hard working individuals such as this should not have to put up with this blatant disregard for their property. Wake up America and take a stand! Something must be done to stop these gangs from destroying our way of life. If we continue to allow these degenerates to control our cities how can we expect our children to prosper?
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Neighborhood Groups Address Homelessness
WEST SALEM
Neighborhood group targets homelessness, other issues
BY EUNICE KIM
Statesman Journal
February 18, 2007
The West Salem Neighborhood Association has developed four goals that members want to start tackling this year to improve their community.
The goals include addressing the issue of homeless people living in Wallace Marine Park, upgrading West Salem Park, developing a list of places where sidewalks are needed and creating a community garden, association member Don Homuth said.
The goal regarding the homeless comes in response to problems West Salem residents have faced because of people living in Wallace Marine Park. They say problems include bicycle thefts, drug use and unsanitary conditions in the park.
It is not enough, association members say, for the city of Salem to sweep through the park a couple of times per year, rousting the homeless and cleaning up the area.
"You can't do anything today to fix it," Homuth said. "It has to be a long-term solution. It may be beyond the reach and capability of the neighborhood association."
Association members, though, can start generating ideas for solving the problem, he said, and work with the city, county and social-service agencies to take action.
"I think it's really exciting that the neighborhood association doesn't just come to the meetings and talk about complaints," association chairman Scott Erickson said. "We're actually looking to see what's broken and see what we can do to fix it. We actually focus on stuff to help the community be better."
ekim@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6721
Neighborhood group targets homelessness, other issues
BY EUNICE KIM
Statesman Journal
February 18, 2007
The West Salem Neighborhood Association has developed four goals that members want to start tackling this year to improve their community.
The goals include addressing the issue of homeless people living in Wallace Marine Park, upgrading West Salem Park, developing a list of places where sidewalks are needed and creating a community garden, association member Don Homuth said.
The goal regarding the homeless comes in response to problems West Salem residents have faced because of people living in Wallace Marine Park. They say problems include bicycle thefts, drug use and unsanitary conditions in the park.
It is not enough, association members say, for the city of Salem to sweep through the park a couple of times per year, rousting the homeless and cleaning up the area.
"You can't do anything today to fix it," Homuth said. "It has to be a long-term solution. It may be beyond the reach and capability of the neighborhood association."
Association members, though, can start generating ideas for solving the problem, he said, and work with the city, county and social-service agencies to take action.
"I think it's really exciting that the neighborhood association doesn't just come to the meetings and talk about complaints," association chairman Scott Erickson said. "We're actually looking to see what's broken and see what we can do to fix it. We actually focus on stuff to help the community be better."
ekim@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6721
Inmates Work to Remove Graffiti
BY RUTH LIAO
Statesman Journal
February 18, 2007
Salem native Ken McPherson hates seeing graffiti in his community. As an inmate, he can do something about it.
"I'm glad to be out here doing something for the community," he said.
McPherson was a member of an inmate work crew checking for graffiti under the Center Street bridge in Salem recently. The effort is a result of a partnership between the Oregon Department of Corrections and Salem Police Department.
The work crews handle any graffiti reported on state and city-owned property, said Kim Nelson of the police department's Graffiti Abatement program. Interstate 5 sound walls, freeway overpasses, bridges -- all are concrete spaces usually tagged by spray paint and needing constant painting, she said. Nelson keeps a list of 15 to 20 most-targeted locations.
The program originally began three years ago, but has been on hold for the past few months, Nelson said. It was relaunched with inmate work crews out of the Santiam Correctional Institution.
When the program was at a standstill, the response time to clean up graffiti on Nelson's hot list was about two weeks, she said. Now the response time is down to a day or two. If graffiti reoccurs in the same spot, which often happens, the crews are available for touch-ups.
"For the community, it's an obvious benefit," Hodgin said. "It's costly for the city or anyone else to pay for it to have it done."
The crew's labor is a volunteer service to the city, said Dan Bielenberg, an inmate work program coordinator. To be assigned to a work crew is an earned privilege, but it also gives inmates benefits, such as learning work skills and the ability to reintegrate back into the community, he said.
"These are community service dollars working," Bielenberg said.
rliao@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6941
Statesman Journal
February 18, 2007
Salem native Ken McPherson hates seeing graffiti in his community. As an inmate, he can do something about it.
"I'm glad to be out here doing something for the community," he said.
McPherson was a member of an inmate work crew checking for graffiti under the Center Street bridge in Salem recently. The effort is a result of a partnership between the Oregon Department of Corrections and Salem Police Department.
The work crews handle any graffiti reported on state and city-owned property, said Kim Nelson of the police department's Graffiti Abatement program. Interstate 5 sound walls, freeway overpasses, bridges -- all are concrete spaces usually tagged by spray paint and needing constant painting, she said. Nelson keeps a list of 15 to 20 most-targeted locations.
The program originally began three years ago, but has been on hold for the past few months, Nelson said. It was relaunched with inmate work crews out of the Santiam Correctional Institution.
When the program was at a standstill, the response time to clean up graffiti on Nelson's hot list was about two weeks, she said. Now the response time is down to a day or two. If graffiti reoccurs in the same spot, which often happens, the crews are available for touch-ups.
"For the community, it's an obvious benefit," Hodgin said. "It's costly for the city or anyone else to pay for it to have it done."
The crew's labor is a volunteer service to the city, said Dan Bielenberg, an inmate work program coordinator. To be assigned to a work crew is an earned privilege, but it also gives inmates benefits, such as learning work skills and the ability to reintegrate back into the community, he said.
"These are community service dollars working," Bielenberg said.
rliao@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6941
Sunday, February 11, 2007
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