July
n Sweet Home firefighters and the Sweet Home Elks lodge held a memorial for Ron Fogel, who died on May 30. Fogle had joined the lodge in 1949 and was a firefighter from 1956 to 1986. He served as assistant fire chief and fire marshal.
n Brandi Trewin signed to play volleyball at Umpqua Community College.
n Police investigated a series of reports of vandalism and later charged three teens in connection to two of them.
n After a wet spring, fire season started later than usual, on July 10.
n The District 55 School Board declared Billie Weber’s seat vacant after she missed four meetings due to illness and moved to Lake Oswego. The board later appointed Jan Sharp to fulfill the remainder of her term.
n The Sweet Home Alumni Foundation hosted an all-school reunion at Sweet Home High School to celebrate the school’s centennial.
n The Linn Forest Protective Association celebrated its 100th anniversary.
n The New Era won 20 awards in the annual Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers contest.
n Sweet Home sewer rates increased.
n Anne Marie Miller was crowned Sportsman’s Holiday Court queen. The court also included Candalynn Johnson, Kayla Mackenzie Wickline and Chancey Fuesler.
n Tyler Schilling and Caytlin Gillespie were named high school freshmen of the year.
n A 6-year-old boy, Christopher Tenbusch, saved his neighbor’s life when she suffered from a diabetic reaction by alerting adults.
n Ben Dahlenburg found and restored, with other alumni, a bell that once belonged to Sweet Home High School. They presented the bell to High School Principal Keith Winslow.
n Retired junior high teacher and longtime sports announcer/writer/coach Ken Roberts died.
August
n The Willamette National Forest celebrated its 100th anniversary at a celebration at Fish Lake.
n Paperwork problems prevented Josai University High School in Tokyo from sending its exchange students to Sweet Home this year.
n Rascal Flatts headlined a record crowd at the 20th anniversary of the Oregon Jamboree. Also headlining were Dierks Bentley and Wynonna Judd, who performed the first two years of the event. Neal McCoy emceed. Toby Keith was announced for the 2013 Jamboree.
n A Salem couple, Edmund Alexander Cote and Joan Root Cote, died in a crash on Highway 20 east of Sweet Home.
n The body of a missing fisherman, David Wade Lytle, 61, of Sweet Home was located in the South Santiam River. Linn County deputies had located his truck near the intersection of Pleasant Valley and McDowell Creek roads.
n A dry summer pushed fire danger to high by early August.
n The Girl Scouts of the Pacific Northwest celebrated their centennial at Sunnyside Park.
n Gretchen Daugherty was hired as aquatics director at the SHHS swimming pool. The position opened again after School District 55 voters approved a local option levy to fund the pool in May. Daugherty taught aquatics and related classes at Eastern Oregon University. She also coached a swim club.
n Colleen Henry and Terry Augustadt were preparing to start the new school year as the new principals at Oak Heights and Hawthorne respectively. They succeed Derek Barnhurst at Oak Heights and Ryan Beck at Hawthorne.
n Longtime Midway Market owner Bonnie Badgely died in a head-on crash on Highway 228 near Crawfordsville.
n Sweet Home wrestlers toured South Africa.
n Steve Brown went to work as the high school’s new athletic director. He came to Sweet Home from Grants Pass where he was a teacher in a residential facility for youngsters with behavioral problems.
n The Jamboree, Sweet Home Economic Development Group and Linn County Board of Commissioners announced plans to develop a permanent site for the Jamboree and other events and a county park on the former Knife River property that was most recently owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust, which lost the property to the county for failure to pay property taxes. SHEDG also announced that it was considering a new festival that focused on indie music.
n Former Sweet Home Police Officer Randy Gill was arrested for theft and official misconduct connected to police union funds. He later pleaded no contest to second-degree theft and official misconduct.
n Albany and Eastern Railroad repaired the crossing at Pleasant Valley Road.
September
n Nine candidates filed for four City Council positions, including incumbents Marybeth Angulo, Ron Rodgers and Jim Gourley and newcomers Bruce Hobbs, Andrew Allen, Dave Trask, Royce Cantrell, Anay Hausner and Gerrit Schaffer.
n The school year started with a four-day school week. Local organizations, including Little Promises, the Boys and Girls Club and the Public Library, started activities for children on Fridays.
n Highway 20 residents protested a bill by Albany and Eastern for crossings.
n Construction started on the Veterans Home in Lebanon.
n A horse died in an apparent cougar attack off Northside Drive.
n District 55 classified workers criticized the four-day week and its impact on children and effects on classified employees.
October
n The City Council dropped a proposed lighting ordinance.
n The South Santiam Watershed Council completed a new “natural” fish ladder at the mouth of Ames Creek, near the Pleasant Valley Boat Ramp.
n Jerry Ray Milligan, 66, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and unlawful use of a weapon for the 2011 killing of his son, Jerry Tyler Milligan, 41. He was sentenced to 7 years 3 months in prison.
n Sunshine Industries broke ground on its new headquarters on Clark Mill Road.
n Fire season ended on Oct. 16 following an extra dry summer, more than 100 days without rain.
n Kristen Peterson and Colton Schilling were named junior first citizens.
n James “Skip” Stock, 67, died. He was the public face of the Stock family’s timber company and former president of the Northwest Timber Trade Association.
n A cougar was shot near Pleasant Valley Road.
n Three patrol vehicles, two belonging to Sweet Home Police Department and one from Linn County Sheriff’s Office, were destroyed in a pursuit in the area of Third and Fourth avenues. Joe Williams was arrested in connection with the pursuit.
November and December
n Dan Desler, managing trustee of Western States Land Reliance Trust, was sentenced to five months of home detention and three years probation in an air pollution case stemming from the demolition of buildings on former Willamette Industries mill property off Tamarack Street. The buildings contained asbestos that was not properly abated.
n The Sweet Home Community Foundation received a $202,000 donation about doubling the organization’s long-term endowment fund.
n The Jamboree announced that Luke Bryan and Neal McCoy have been signed for 2013.
n The School Board approved raises for administrators.
n Bertha Malone celebrated her 100th birthday.
n Marybeth Angulo, Jim Gourley, Bruce Hobbs and Dave Trask were elected to the City Council. Ron Rodgers and Mike Hall completed their terms.
n The city’s old Water Treatment Plant was demolished.
n Oregon Shakespeare Festival actors visited SHHS, providing workshops for students and a public performance.
n Construction started on a new fish transfer facility that will move adult winter steelhead and Spring Chinook adults above Foster Dam.
n Dwight Yoakam was named as the third headliner for the 2013 Jamboree.
n Umpqua Bank was robbed. Two were arrested in connection with the robbery – John Cerruti and Melissa Avila.