By Stephanie South
Old worn carpet with mold
growth and riddled with insect holes will be replaced at Knight Elementary School, if the
proposed $30.8 million maintenance bond meets voter approval on May 16.
"Parents have been asking me when the carpet will be replaced since I started here
three years ago," said Knight Principal Dennis Colvin.
The linoleum floors in the school's kitchen and cafeteria also need repair or replacement,
Colvin said.
Loose tile corners are currently covered up with duct tape, which can create a tripping
safety hazard for students, Colvin said.
Not only would the bond money replace the flooring, but it would also be used to remove
asbestos used in original construction.
Canby School District Business Manager Don Staehely said approximately $2 million of the
$30.8 million bond would be used for maintenance repairs at Knight school.
There also is concern about water that pools into a light fixture in the cafeteria during
rain storms, Colvin said.
Some classrooms also have roof and wall damage due to leaks.
In one second-grade classroom, a piece of plaster fell from the ceiling last year after
being worn down from rain storms.
"It really affects kids when part of the sky starts to fall," Colvin said.
"It's an interference to class time when we have leaks."
Knight School did receive two partial pieces of a new roof last year for the cafeteria and
library, though no cosmetic repairs have been made.
"At least we don't have to use many buckets anymore," said Colvin, adding that
the library is one of the worst places in the school for leaks.
The maintenance bond would also provide funds to remodel the library's service counter
that was initially made for middle school students.
Colvin said other maintenance needs at Knight are the replacement of the worn gym floor
and the replacement of the computer station set up.
The bond money also would cover a glass enclosure of the school's front office to make it
sound proof and more professional.
"There's a lot of traffic around the area in the beginning and middle of the
day," Colvin said.
"It will make it more businesslike to have it enclosed."
Other maintenance needs include replacing heating and ventilation systems based on
schedule, upgrading technology: data and electrical wiring, integrating bell, clock,
alarm, public address, telephone and media delivery systems, improving acoustics in the
halls, adding storage in classrooms, extending the south wall to roof in covered play
area, adding storm water trench and grate around covered play area, adding a shared
irrigation well for Knight and Eccles schools, removing underground storage tanks, adding
electronic door locking system for student safety and building security.
No gas is necessary to
ride this superhighway
By David Howell
Get out the scissors.
The red ribbon, too.
The Canby Telecommunity Center will officially open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 10
a.m. to noon, Saturday, April 1.
The new 184 N. Grant St. center is equipped with 12 state-of-the-art wireless laptop
computers, three workstations, high-speed cable Internet access, a classroom/conference
room for meetings, classes and training, and an office area with fax, copier, laser
printer and telephones.
The public is invited to attend the upcoming opening ceremony, and attendees will learn
more about the center, and its uses, equipment, programs and hours during the two-hour
event.
"The more, the merrier," said Canby Community Development Director Jerry Pineau,
hoping the telecommunity center's opening would attract interested local residents.
"We want people to come and complete our survey, so we can design and organize the
center to meet their needs."
And there's a freebie on offer, too.
"If they fill out the survey, they will get a free hour of Internet access,"
Pineau added.
Completed surveys will also help determine whether Canby will receive local access
connection to state and county services.
If big user demand can be proven, personnel with various agencies may hold office hours,
or offer programs and aid.
"That's why the survey is very important," Pineau said.
After April 1, surveys will also be available for citizens to fill out at City Hall.
The Canby Telecommunity Center will open to customers on Monday, April 3. Its phone number
is 263-2424.
The downtown center's hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. The center will be
staffed by the Canby Community School's Carol Meeuwsen and Linda Martin, whose office is
relocating from its current Canby High School site.
"The center will be closed at the weekend, at this time, until we see what demands
are, which is a part of the survey," Pineau said.
The Canby Community School's phone number will continue to be 266-2086. "I see it as
a K-through-14 education center and telecommunity center," Meeuwsen said. "I
think it's very exciting to think about the community college jointly putting things
together out here, especially with the involvement of Canby schools and the community
school.
''I think it's really going to be a great opportunity for all ages and, of course, for
businesses and, hopefully, downtown Canby . . . It is only going to be limited by our
imagination and (office) space."
The stated purpose of the telecommunity center is six-fold:
- To foster computer, telecommuting, and
telecommunication skills.
- To offer working space for telecommuters.
- To make available high-speed cable Internet access.
- To provide a business environment.
- To secure local access connection to state and county services.
- To reduce commuter vehicle trips.
Federal efforts to reduce gridlock and auto pollution have intensified in recent years,
and gas prices continue to soar, so the center may prove appealing to those Canby
white-collar workers whose companies or jobs allow them to work from a near-home site.
Future options at the center include: video conferencing; access to cable television
programming and production through OCTS Channel 5, which shares the DirectLink of
Oregon-owned building; and distant learning links to Clackamas Community College.
The community college will initially offer classes in computers and business at its new
Canby satellite site. Its course offerings at the telecommunity center will likely be
included in future Canby Community School brochures. Guest speakers at the April 1
ceremony will include Clackamas County Commissioner Mike Jordan, Canby Mayor Scott Taylor,
Clackamas Community College President John Keyser, Canby School District Superintendent
Deborah Sommer, and DirectLink of Oregon President Richard Ares.
The Canby Telecommunity Center's sponsors include the Mount Hood Economic Alliance, the
city of Canby, DirectLink of Oregon, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
through the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Division.
The partners in the project are: the city of Canby; Canby Telecommunity Center Task Force;
Canby Community School; Canby School District; Clackamas Community College; Clackamas
County Telecommunity Center Project Team; and the Oregon Office of Energy.
For more information on the telecommunity center and its official opening, call Pineau at
266-4021, or send email to: pineauj@ci.canby.or.us
Casa Verde project
close to completion,
seeks tenants
By David Howell
A new apartment development for low-income migrant farmworker families
will soon begin taking tenant applications as the Township Road buildings near completion.
The Casa Verde Apartments are scheduled to be finished by May 31, said Joe Dow, the work
site superintendent for Seabold Construction Co. Inc. of Beaverton.
About 25 workers a day have been working on the 26-unit subsidized housing project since
ground was broken on Oct. 16, and as many as 50 workers helped frame the buildings.
Applications for apartments will be available April 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the El
Programa Hispano Centro de Canby office, located at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 422
N.W. Ninth St.
Apartment rents will range from $400 to $500 per month, depending on the size of the
apartment.
Twenty-two townhouses, including two-, three-, and four-bedroom units will be available,
and four apartments are being constructed, plus on-site coin-operated laundry facilities,
play areas and a community meeting room.
"We're in a pretty good state," Dow said on Monday morning. "Eighteen of
the buildings are right where I want them in terms of being close to finished . . . The
main portion of our work right now is exterior. The interior's going fine."
To qualify for an apartment, a family must meet income requirements, and at least one
member of the family must be employed in farm labor. Cannery and food processing workers
do not meet the farm labor requirement.
Applicants will be asked to provide verification of income and proof of employment.
The $3.1 million Casa Verde affordable housing project is an undertaking of Catholic
Charities of Western Oregon.
The project's owner, Caritas Housing Initiative, is a subsidiary of Catholic Charities.
The nonprofit agency is the project's sponsor and owner, and CASA of Oregon is the
project's consulting developer.
Cascade Properties, a Wilsonville property management company, will manage the new housing
complex.
An outreach effort to market the project to potential local tenants is under way, and
printed materials are being distributed as Catholic Charities seeks to determine which
Latino and Hispanic farmworkers and families meet the low-income eligibility requirements.
Once eligible tenants have been determined, Catholic Charities hopes to quickly help them
settle into their new homes.
The Casa Verde project attracted opposition from some Township Road residents and other
Canby citizens during the lengthy Canby Planning Commission process. The Canby City
Council later denied an appeal of the commission's decision to recommend approval of Casa
Verde.
Catholic Charities later made a planning application for Redwood Inn, a self-described
motel for low-income farmworker families to be cited in Canby's industrial park. The
application was rejected by planning commissioners for a variety of reasons.
Catholic Charities manages two other low-income housing projects in Oregon, and assists
low-income migrant workers and refugees with a variety of programs.
Last July, the agency bought Rondel Court, a federal Housing and Urban Development
preservation project built in 1973. The 30-unit low-income housing development in Molalla,
which is home to elderly, disabled and low-income working family tenants, was remodeled in
August and completed at the end of December.
Catholic Charities recently bought a 24-unit low-income HUD housing complex in Sutherlin,
about 10 miles north of Roseburg. The complex, which also caters to low-income individuals
and families, is being remodeled.
Last fall, the agency helped at least 63 people in 11 Kosovar families, who fled the war
in their European homeland, to relocate to parts of Portland, east Multnomah County and
Gresham.
For more information on Casa Verde apartment applications, call El Programa Hispano Centro
de Canby at 263-4944.
Centro de Canby will host an open house April 25 at its St. Patrick's Catholic Church
office.
Francisco Lopez was hired last month as the center's director of Hispanic services, and
Irma Llanes, who fulfilled the role on an interim basis, now concentrates on counseling
clients.
Catholic Charities holds its annual fund-raiser from mid-April to mid-May, and donations
fund Centro de Canby, Caritas Housing Initiative and other programs serving needy migrant
families in Oregon. Donations will be accepted at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Canby.
Think big at seed seminar
By Cam Sivesind
Want to grow the biggest pumpkin on the block, in the city, in the state,
or in the world?
If so, you'd better attend a free giant gourd-growing seminar April 1 at the Clackamas
County Fairgrounds, and be ready to start planting soon after.
Hoffman's Dairy Garden is sponsoring a seminar taught by members of the Pacific Northwest
Giant Pumpkin Growers Association. The 127-member group has grown eight world champion
pumpkins since 1978 and has set five world records.
"We're expecting all the giant growers (from the PNGPGA)," said Julie Hoffman of
Hoffman Family Farms. "We'll have six growers up from Northern California."
The seminar will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., lunch break included, inside Horning Hall at
the fairgrounds, 694 N.E. 4th Ave. in Canby.
Hoffman Farms, along with local giant vegetable grower Brett Hester, have helped put Canby
on the gigantic gourd-growing map. The family's Knights Bridge Road business, Hoffman's
Dairy Garden, has hosted the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off the last two years, and it is busy
planning another weigh-off on Oct. 7 this year.
Growers compete for $10,000 in prize money. Last year's winning pumpkin - tipping the
scales at 859 pounds - earned grower Kirk Mombert of Harrisburg the $3,000 top prize.
Hester's larger, but not heavier (793 pounds), pumpkin earned him fifth place.
The winning pumpkin at the 1998 Hoffman weigh-off was a not-so-dainty 918 pounds.
This year's event will be even more special and more competitive.
"This year we are a commonwealth weigh-off site," Hoffman said. "Our
weigh-off will coincide with other weigh-offs all over that day, and we will fax our
results in at a certain time."
The Hoffman's event has been an independent weigh-off site the past two years. Even so,
the event drew 30 competitors in 1998 and 40 competitors in 1999.
"It's just exploded," Hoffman said. "This year, we're hoping for more
competitors and more local interest. That's the reason for the seminar."
She's hoping to get even more prize money ponied up for the competition to encourage some
record-breaking entries.
"I'm telling the contestants I want the first 1,000-pound pumpkin on the West
Coast," Hoffman said. "We'd like to offer an incentive to anyone who breaks the
world record, too."
The largest pumpkin ever weighed pushed the scale's needle to 1,136 pounds. That occurred
last year in Ontario, Canada.
This is the second year for the seminar. One hundred people attended the learn-to-grow
session a year ago at the Dairy Garden. This year's event, and subsequent years, will be
held at the fairgrounds - where attendees can be inside, and out of the elements.
Along with the winning growers from past year's weigh-offs, Don Horneck, an agronomist for
Agri-Check Soil Testing Labs in Umatilla, will speak about soil reports and related topics
for growing gargantuan gourds.
For more information about the seminar, call Hoffman's Dairy Garden at 266-4703.
