1 Custodians at
WES receive
thank you notes
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Spring festival
draws crowd to
Sheridan school
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Dayton upsets
top-ranked !
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Serving Sheridan, Willamina and Grand Ronde www. smalltownpapers, com/listSHS, htm
VOLUME 107, NO. 18 WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2007 75 CENTS PER COPY
Photo by George Robertson
River bank inspection
Tom Sample, left, owner of Sheridan Pizza Co looks over the debris left along the bank of
theSouth Yamhill River where the back of the historic Huntley Building crashed into the
river on Feb. 21. Also checking out the debris are the building's owner, Milan Miller, and Bob
Slyh, an engineer. Estimates to remodel the building top $750,000, according to Miller.
By Marguerite Alexander With estimates for restoring the "The city has been extremely
Correspondent, The Sun building coming in at $750,000, cooperative," said Miller
In the seven decades that the Miller admits that repairing the According to Miller, he should
Huntley Building has stood along 1935 brick building might be im- reach a final decision soon. In
the bank of the South Yamhill possible for him financially. March the city had given him a
River, it has played an important That has him looking at other month to come to a decision.
role in Sheridan history, options which include selling the Due to the hazards posed by the
But whether or not it will be building, doing the work himself, unstable building, the city would
included in future chapters has yet or demolishing the building, like to see the building repaired or
to be determined. The estimated cost of demolish- torn down within six months.
"It's a heritage of the town." said ing the building is $40,000. That, however, is a matter of
Milan Miller, owner of the East Whatever option he chooses, he discussionbetweenthecityandthe
Main Street building whose back must take into consideration the property owner, said City Manger
end toppled into the river Feb. 21. impact on the river and the wildlife Frank Sheridan.
Over the past weeks as Miller that live along its banks. Two businesses -- Sheridan
has been at the site contemplating "The river is the big problem," Pizza Company and Across the
his options, local residents have Miller said. Street tavern -- were forced to close
stopped by to share their stories of Because of the location of the when the back of the building
the building and its history, property -- between a state highway toppled into the river.
"That place has many stories," and a state controlled waterway -- Tom Sample, owner of Sheridan
said Miller. any-plans must meet the approval Pizza Company, plans to reopen his
Miller would like to see the of a number of state agencies in- business in the former Sunshine
building saved if at all possible, cluding Department of State Lands, Cafe on South Bridge Street in
The last thing he wants is to see the Department of Fish and Wild- about a month.
the building tom down, he said. But life and the Oregon Department of Sample said he plans to serve
demolishing the historic structure Transportation. breakfast in his new restaurant, us-
is one of the optiqns he has had to Miller has been working closely ing the same menu from the old
consider, with the City of Sheridan. Sunshine Care.
By Jo Mclntyre housing market is slow and pro- ket is oversupplied, a lot of curtail-
Correspondent, The Sun jected to get worse, ments are happening.
Willamina Hampton Lumber "It's as bad as it's been in 20 to Hamptonowns 167,000 acres of
mill is taking some down time be- 25 years," Zika said.With the over- timberland and five sawmills in
ginning this week, citing market all market being poor and the Oregon and Washington with pro-
conditions. Northeast and Midwestern storms duction capacity of 1.5 billion board
"I can pretty much guarantee that dried UP demand for lumber, feet. including its top-producing
you that we'll be up and running California is the only market left mill in Willamina. which turns out
next week," said Hampton CEO for the mill's products. Hampton about 486 million board feet a year.
Steve Zika. in a phone intervtew has not shut down its Tillamook Equipment modernization at
Monday: mill. Willamina has continued apace,
According to an announcement "Nothing's changed in terms of "although a new automated grader
from the company published on an long-term plans," Zika said. scanner is still not operational. Au-
industry website, the nfill will con- But, he added, the poor market tomatic lumber grading is a big
tinue to ship products through May "could last a couple of years. Some departure for lumber mills and the
2. estimates say two to three years, technology has not advanced as
The entire plant has shut down We're still planning to be up and much as managers had hoped.
this week. About 350 employees running, but it is an extra challeng- There have been a few other
work at the mill whefi~ it is up and ing right now." Northwest mills announcing simi-
running at full steam. Most mills, especially those like lar curtailments. Stimson Lumber,
A Skeleton staff doing mainte- Hampton's, are not making money basedin Forest Grove, for example,
nance and shipping will stay on and right now. They are only buying has been taking some downtime.
the mill may run the planers for part minimal amounts to keep the mills Many mills take downtime and
of the week, but the company won't running and still have enough wood don't announce it.
take any logs into the Log,yard and to fulfill commitments. Mso. the On a positive note, Cascade
the sawmills will be shut down. mills have certain minimum orders Structural Laminators at Fort Hill
Management will review mar-they must fill, so they have to keep is "gOing hot and heavy," said Jim
ket conditions each week. but Zika running, just to maintain those mar- Weber, general manager. "We have
said he was as confident as he could kets. more production now thanever and
be, given those conditions, about The term "indefinite period,'.' is we have 22 employees now," he
returning to full production next common language. It's telling the added.
week. market that supply is goiog to be Cascade took over the Fort Hill
That's not surprising given the tight on the lumber side and they Lumber plant earlier this year after
state of the industry right now. The better order now. Because the mar- it had been closed for several years.
By George Robertson
Editor, The Sun
Former Willamina City Re-
corder Loreli Wright has been
awarded $165,000 by a Yamhill
County jury for being fired by the
city council in January 2006.
Wright may also get her job
back after a hearing in June before
Yamhill County Circuit Judge Ca|
Tichenor. Her job has since been
divided between Sam Sasaki, the
city's part-time city manager, and
cny accountant, Michelle Fanucchi.
"If she gets reinstated, one of the
office staff will be laid off,"
Fanucchi said. There are only two
staff in city hall -- Fanucchi, who
was hired six months ago after
working through an employment
agency, and Chris Ann Harris, of-
rice coordinator, who handles util-
ity bills and shares clerical chores.
Fanucchi said Wright waited
until just before the trial to add her
request to be rehired by the city.
Wright lost one part of the law-
suit, according to Fanucchi. She
asked for $250,000 in damages,
claiming she was harassed by the
city council.
The city's insurance carrier --
City County Insurance Services
(CCIS) -- will pay the lawsuit,
Fanucchi said. The city switched
to CCIS during the dispute over
Wright's contract.
Mayor Curtis Grubbs said he
hopes the lawsuit will not under-
n'fine the city's goals for the year.
Those goals include moving the li-
brary, paving streets and cleaning
up the town.
"We need to get on with it,"
Grubbs said, "If we keep stirring
up the old pot, it's going to stink."
Grubbs is the only member left
on the council
who was on the. i
council when
Wright was
fired on a 3-2
vote. He voted
against firing
her.
Th at vote
came at the end Loreli Wright
of a special council meeting in the
VFW hail that was dominated by
demands the council overmm a de-
cision to evict Agie, the city
library's cat.
Ironically, Wright was fired af-
ter the council approved a new two-
year contract for her that included
a 4.2 percent pay hike, boosting her
annual salary to $37,200.
But it was clear that several
councilors were unhappy with
Wright and she received an unsat-
isfactory job evaluation. Wright
complained the council wanted to
micro-manage her job.
There was no question about her
financial skills, however. The city
received strong audits during her
two-year tenure and Wright was
credited for cleaning up a financial
mess she inherited from a former
city recorder and city manager.
Things came to a head after the
city council, led by then-mayor Rita
Bailer, held an illegal closed-door
meeting to discuss Wright while she
was on vacation.
When she learned about the
meeting Wright filed a complaint
with the state ethics commission
which ruled that the council's se-
cret session violated the Oregon
Public Meetings law.
The jury awarded Wright
$110,000 for lost wages and
$55,000 for emotional harm.
cop
By Marguerite Alexander
Correspondent, The Sun"
The Sheridan school budget
committee approved a $12.7 mil-
lion budget last week without any
funds for a school resource officer
despite a pledge from the city to
share the expense.
City Manager Frank Sheridan
said he was interested in the city
and school district jointly sharing
the $100,000 cost of placing a Yam-
hill County sheriff's deputy back
in the local schools.
"'It helps us too." pointed out
Sheridan:
"I think it benefits kids before
school hours and after school.
hours," Sheridan added. The school
resource officer also gets to know
the students and families, and that
helps later on, he said.
Despite the city's willingness to
consider sharing the cost of fund-
ing the school cop, Superintendent
Roy Williams said he did not see
the position as a priority. With the
state pushing reading, writing and
math in the school report cards.
Williartrs said he was reluctant to
carve $50,000 out of the budget for
the position.
Not everyone agreed with
William's conclusion that a school
cop would not help with the
district's report card. In the long run
not having an officer in the schools
affects the school report card, said
budget chair Harry Cooley. Not
only does the officer keep students
in school and on track, but without
that position, administrators arid
staff are forced to deal with prob-
lems the officer dealt with in the
past, he added.
See DEPUTY, Page 7
People and Protection you've been
0 0c unting on since 1961.
--"-'*" 5 0 3- 8 4 3- 2 38 4
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WEST VALI COMING EVENTS I
PLEASE ATTEND A MEETING sponsored by the Sheridan Home I
Extension Group, 10 a.m. May 3, at the Rebekah Lodge, 143 S. Men- |
roe St. Guest speaker Barbara Baker of Grand Sheramina will talk |
about services available in our community. Bring a friend. Refresh- |
ments will be served. |
SHERIDAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING: May 3, noon |
at Deer Meadow. ' |
SHERIDAN HISTORY MUSEUM COMMITTEE MEETING: Thurs |
May 3 at the Green Frog. Dinner (buy your own) 5 p.m. Meeting 6 |
p,m. All are welcome to attend. ]
Visit the WlLLAMINA MUSEUM OF LOCAL HISTORY, 188 D Street. |
Willamina. Open 1-4 p.m. Saturday & Sunday. |
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First Federal .1
~MB~. FDIC3 1 |
