January
Sen. Yih stumps
for police academy; Willamette not for sale
In January, city crews went to work cleaning the Main Street median strip planters to make way for the efforts of a local committee dedicated to planting them and improving the look of Sweet Home.
The controversial Linn County Affordable Housing Brookside Development was appealed to the state Land Use Board of Appeals after a December approval by the City Council. The development will provide low-cost housing purchases for qualifying families and rentals for qualifying seniors and disabled persons.
The City Council recently approved a contract to begin infrastructure improvements for the development through a state grant. The development is located at the south end of Sunnyside Street.
Sen. Mae Yih pitched Sweet Home as a potential site for the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training’s proposed police and firefighter academy. The City of Sweet Home began pursuing the opportunity in 2000. DPSST had listed Monmouth and Salem as its top sites in January.
Throughout the process, Sweet Home was eventually listed as second choice for siting the new academy. Recently, DPSST recommended the academy be sited in Salem. A local committee has attempted to address concerns about siting the academy in Sweet Home, but DPSST prefers the Salem site, citing concerns about environmental cleanup and liability and the size of the Sweet Home site.
Peter LaPonte, who had taken a job as event manager for da Vinci Days in Corvallis, returned to Sweet Home and his position as event manager for the Oregon Jamboree, an annual three-day country music and camping festival held in August.
Willamette Industries continued to remain “not for sale” in an attempted Weyerhaeuser takeover. School District 55 school report cards improved, with Foster School receiving an exceptional rating, the highest possible.
February
Turkeys invade;
Habitat home completed
Turkeys invaded Sweet Home. A group of turkeys continued to hang out on the streets of Sweet Home. They had been living in the downtown area most of the winter and continued living there well into the spring. Turkeys generally head for higher elevations after weather starts warming up.
At the annual Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet, Mitch Johnson received the Business of the Year award for Les Schwab Tire Center. Todd Gestrin was named Junior First Citizen. Glenda Hopkins was named BPW Woman of the Year. Carla Healy was recognized as Distinguished Citizen, and Mollie Andrews was selected First Citizen.
The South Santiam Four-Wheeler’s Association won approval from the Linn County Board of Commissioners for its new Santiam Mountain Mud Festival to be held near Berlin Road. The new festival replaced the cancellation of the traditional Foster Mud Flat Races on the bottom of Foster Lake, where it had been for roughly 30 years. Tickets were sold for the March event. Ticketbuyers were curious about the new festival.
Habitat for Humanity completed its fifth home and the family of Jeri Anlauf moved in following a dedication ceremony. Habitat’s sixth Sweet Home house should be complete this month for the family of Terry Lowen.
Calvin Brown was named the Boys and Girls Club of Sweet Home Youth of the Year.
Summer baseball was turned over to the Boys and Girls Club by the Sweet Home Youth League.
Sweet Home High School wrestlers finished second at state following two championship years at the 3A level.
March
Mud flies; Kropf to run for Senate; Weather extremely dry
Mud flew as the Four-Wheelers’ new event took off. The group unveiled rougher terrain and steep hills at the first Santiam Mountain Mud Festival held near Berlin Road on Mark’s Ridge. The event drew a mostly positive responses from mudders as volunteers fought dry weather, trucking water up to the site to make mud.
Dist. 37 Rep. Jeff Kropf, R-Halsey, announced his intent to run for the state Senate, to succeed Sen. Mae Yih in Dist. 19. His plans would change later in the year following the completion of new district lines by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. Kropf will have served six years as Dist. 37 and Sweet Home’s representative after the 2002 election.
Brian Koehne was named firefighter of the year, an honor bestowed by his fellow firefighters. Koehne, 1988 graduate of Sweet Home High School, is a volunteer firefighter.
Low rainfall for the winter began causing concerns among communities and public agencies that water levels would remain low in local lakes over the summer. While anticipating that Foster would likely be full or near full, the Corps of Engineers said other Willamette projects would likely have low water levels as a result of the second driest year in 73 years.
Sweet Home Fire Chief Dean Gray resigned with a medical retirement.
Plans for a new fire station in Cascadia were started and land located. The property, 1.75 acres near Triple T Studs was donated by Cascade Timber Consulting, representing Hill Timber. Plans were started for the new building. The new building was part of the promises made in the formation of the new Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District.
Sweet Home High School dropout rates, released in March, decreased from 9.84 percent in 1999 to 6.49 percent in 2000.
April
Local wins on game show; Peverieri convicted for shooting at police officer
The City of Sweet Home announced new sewer and water rates, going up slightly, 85 cents, for average users and down for low-volume users.
Kara Keenan won $32,000 competing on ABC’s “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Keenan traveled to New York to appear on the television show. After answering a series of questions correctly, Keenan was unable to name the part of a spider’s body that includes the organ that produces web-making silk. After using her “lifelines,” she was left with a choice between thorax and abdomen. She chose abdomen, which was wrong.
Michael Peverieri was convicted of attempting to murder former Sweet Home Police Officer Vic Clodfelter in 1999. Peverieri had taken shots at Officer Clodfelter after Clodfelter responded to a call about an altercation at Peverieri’s address.
Peverieri demanded that police withdraw. He was heard counting down on tape, swearing he would shoot Officer Clodfelter if he did not leave.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Sgt. George Dominy and Dispatcher Lisa Davis were awarded medals of valor for their work in the confrontation.
A report by the National Transportation Safety Board gave some closure to the parents of the victims and community over the Oct. 31, 1999 crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. Ralph and Bertha Erlandson are the parents of Dorene Beck. She and her husband, Dale Beck, were killed in the crash of Flight 990.
The report indicated the plane was probably driven into the ocean by co-pilot Gameel El-Batouty. Because there was no clear evidence, the NTSB did not rule the event a suicide, although Mr. Erlandson and others believe that’s exactly what it was.
May
SHPD building opened; School District passes $18.7 million bond
The Corps of Engineers officially announced that Foster Lake would be full for the summer but Green Peter would not because of dry weather.
Sweet Home Police Department opened its new $1.9 building. The department had been flooded out of the City Hall basement in February 1996. After that, it was housed in a temporary modular building behind City Hall. Voters passed a $950,000 bond to round out funding for the building.
School District 55 cut nearly $1 million in anticipation of declining enrollment and resultant declines in revenue. The cuts roughly 11 teachers, three specialists and four classified employees. Most of the cuts were achieved through retirements and resignations.
Willamette Industries, a local integrated forest products company, began a campaign, “No Wey,” against Weyerhaeuser’s attempted hostile takeover. Weyerhaeuser offered $50 per share.
School District 55 passed, by 19 votes, an $18.7 million bond to rebuild portions of the high school, build new classrooms to replace modulars at Hawthorne and make improvements throughout the district. A second $4 million bond failed by eight votes. It included the construction of new “community facilities,” including a new pool, a new track and new tennis courts.
A group of volunteers has since taken up the cause and is seeking funding alternatives for those community facilities.
At least four athletes, a coach and a bus driver were injured in a collission between the freshman baseball team’s bus and a Moo Lines milk tanker from Stayton. The two vehicles crashed on Hwy. 99W. The baseball team was on its way to Central High School for a game.
Developer Dan Desler announced his intent to develop a major resort, Inn at Salmon Run, along the south bank of the South Santiam River. The resort would include at least one, possibly two, championship level golf courses, high-end housing, a hotel and many other recreational opportunities.
Sweet Home Economic Development Group hired Karen Owen as economic development coordinator for Sweet Home.
Volunteers went to work planting flowers and trees in the Main Street median planters. They received $3,000 from the Sweet Home Community Foundation and more than $3,000 from community donors toward the beautification project. The effort continues. Volunteers plan to put up lamp posts in the median. The lamp posts would include bars for hanging flower baskets.
June
Keith Gabriel succumbs
Community activist and volunteer Keith Gabriel died from complications cause by cancer.
Gabriel was active in many areas of the community, most recently working with the Kiwanis Club on restoring Ames Creek, a project now in full swing with a number of participating agencies and individuals. The project includes the upcoming Sankey Pond phase.
Gabriel was a fire marshall with the Sweet Home Fire Department and served more than 31 years total as a volunteer there. He was involved in the annual Cleanup Day and much more.
During his funeral, the Fire Department honored Gabriel by leading the fueral procession with the department’s antique truck. Pall bearers placed his casket on the engine as a dispatcher rang out the last call for Gabriel. He was followed by fire engines and other apparatus and hundreds of mourners.
Samantha Updegrave, a three-year high school student, was graduated with a 171-member class at Sweet Home High School. A 71-year-old woman, Betty Smith, completed her GED.
Efforts began to make Highway 228 from Interstate 5 to Sweet Home and Highway 20 from Sweet Home to Highway 126 a scenic highway.
Rocky Eugene Morse of Cascadia was charged with attempting to murder his girlfriend. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of domestic assault.
In sports, Matt Kragness set a state record for the 200M in track with 22.16 beating the old mark of 22.19. He finished first in the 40M in 49.12 and was third place in the 100M in 10.7. Leah Proctor placed fifth in the javelin at 138-1 in the NCAA Division III track and field championships for Pacific Lutheran.