Why are you running for city councilor, what do you bring to the table that your opponents do not?
I have always sought to serve my community. I have been fulfilling that desire by serving as Vice-Chair of the Tualatin Parks Advisory Committee and by serving on the Tualatin Parks and Recreation Master Plan Advisory Committee, Tualatin Veterans Memorial Stakeholders Advisory Committee, Tualatin Bee City USA Committee, and as a Tualatin Tree City USA Board Member.
Over the last few years, we have seen an extreme divide in our country. I could not be a bystander and witness our citizens drift farther apart without getting involved. Tualatin is stronger when we stand together.
In my career, I have been entrusted with leadership roles for 17 years. I am currently a Director. To be a successful leader one must be transparent, have empathy, be passionate, and have an open mind. I bring those qualities to the table. As a Millennial, I will bring fresh ideas with an emphasis on technology, environmental and social responsibility.
What is the #1 issue facing Tualatin and what do you propose we do about it?
There are many hot topics in Tualatin today: transportation, affordable housing, and funding. We must ensure every community member is able to participate in order to address these issues equitably. Over 17% of Tualatin’s population speaks a language other than English at their home. City Council meetings need to be broadcasted with closed captioning. The city needs to invest in translation earpieces so residents can communicate freely during meetings, with all members of the council and committees. The City of Tualatin website needs to be fully translated, including committee meeting times, locations, and documents.
In the past few years, the City of Tualatin has made improvements to become more inclusive. We still have work to do. Our community will not be complete until every member can be heard. City leaders cannot serve the people of Tualatin until they have the ability to serve all the people of Tualatin.
Why are you running for city councilor, what do you bring to the table that your opponents do not?
I am running to bring a prevention lens to the City Council. I will listen to everyone in the community and ensure they feel seen, heard and represented. I will always bring the heart of families who live and recreate in our city with me as I make decisions. Having the unique opportunity to serve with our K-12 students and families, I have proven my commitment to working behind the scenes to bring parties together, to move organizations forward and to do it all while keeping focus on the health and welfare of our students and families.
City council is a volunteer position and I have a history of volunteering for various causes, ranging from supporting and leading parent organizations in our school community, board and officer positions with Tualatin City Softball, working on the Parks and Recreation Plan and Tualatin 2040 Visioning Committee, and finally being a member of and then chairing the Tualatin Budget Committee. These experiences have given me a unique perspective about families, on what motives and drives them, and on what they may be hesitant to speak out on. Tualatin is not simply a place where I live and work, it is a place where my heart’s work is. I believe this makes me uniquely qualified to represent the city. I will find a way to hear and learn from all corners of our community and respond accordingly.
What is the #1 issue facing Tualatin and what do you propose we do about it?
It would be easy to say that high profile items such as local traffic and I-205 tolling are the central issues facing the city and no doubt they are important matters. Certainly, there will be time spent on these issues no matter who is on the council. In my passion for our youth, I am committed to addressing the needs of that community. From my work on the budget committee I believe there is room to partner with the county, for profit and not for profit businesses to create a youth center in the community. Especially with the onset of the COVID pandemic, our youth need a place to gain coping skills and have trusted adults to help guide them. I vision a place youth and families can gather, have fun while building emotional skills to cope in these hectic times.
As a 22-year resident of Tualatin and a wife and parent of two children who graduated from Tualatin schools, I would be honored to bring my years of volunteer service to the city council. I humbly ask for your vote.
Why are you running for city councilor, what do you bring to the table that your opponents do not?
I am running for city councilor as I believe Tualatin is facing some fundamental issues which will determine our quality of life for many years to come. The theme of my campaign is “Tolling, Transit and Traffic” and I believe the decisions made on these key issues will shape the future of Tualatin. Should I-205, and then I-5, have tolls? What transit options should be supported, busses, light-rail or other? How are we going to expand the housing stock in Tualatin, so key to affordability, and yet not worsen the already terrible traffic situation? I have 20+ years of senior business experience which has taught me key complex negotiation skills in a multi-cultural environment. I learned that listening is critical and if elected, I would have regular “office hours” to ensure that any constituent has a chance to discuss issues of the day. I also founded and grew a business in Portland and understand the challenges facing small business owners. I believe that these skills will be critical as we work with our neighboring cities, Metro and our surrounding counties, and Salem. I grew up in a family dedicated to public service and I am looking forward to the opportunity to bring my business and personal skills to the challenges we are facing.
What is the #1 issue facing Tualatin and what do you propose we do about it?
As I mentioned in the previous answer, Tualatin is facing a complex series of decisions which will determine future livability. Housing prices in Tualatin are quickly becoming (or have already become) unaffordable for many of our residents. This requires adding “inventory” to stabilize and reduce prices. However, many of our roads are currently gridlocked during the day (I live off Boones Ferry Road and experience this often!) and residents despair that the new developments already planned will only worsen this situation. In addition, more than 90% of the people working in Tualatin do not live here and commute daily, also exacerbating the traffic situation.
We need to insist that additional road capacity is added along with the new housing. We need to ensure that we provide “east-west” transit service, and not just rides into Portland. With the workers coming into Tualatin, and the need for many Tualatin residents to get to service providers in Oregon City, we must be more creative when it comes to transit services. We also must focus on the reality of having a Tri-Met light-rail service terminate in Tualatin. How exactly are we going to deal with the extra traffic and parking in an area that already suffers from lack of parking and high levels of congestion.
I believe my business experience in dealing with large, complex projects across many cultures will support my ability to help negotiate these complex projects and ensure that our needs are heard and taken into account. If you elect me to the Tualatin City Council, I will work for what matters most to the people who live, work, learn and play here. I will put our community values first, working together with residents, businesses and local, regional and state governments for the future of Tualatin.
Member of a 1900s Tualatin immigrant family. Wife of Jim Addington, mother of Maxine and Randy and grandmother of Leah, Audrey and Preston. The first City of Tualatin city manager and a municipal court judge. The Washington County and State of Oregon employee who was instrumental in economic and infrastructure development. Promoter of Tualatin’s unique history, including the Ice Age floods and a certain mastodon.
The City of Tualatin was incorporated in 1913, and Yvonne was a big part of the shape it took starting with her first job as city treasurer.
“I-5 had been built, Tualatin was in the next ring of growth but had no public works to accommodate growth. Mayor Lee Gensman, followed by Mayor Jim Brock opened City Hall in 1967, and I became the first city manager,” said Yvonne, who served in that role until 1982.
Yvonne was asked to become the Municipal Court judge, although she didn’t have a law degree. “I was told, ‘You don’t need to be a lawyer, you need to have common sense,’” she said.
“I held court every Tuesday, and I am proud of the decisions I made. When a 16-year-old got a driving ticket, I would make him go to the new Meridian Park Hospital and work in the emergency room for eight hours to see accident victims come in. If he had no more infractions for six months, his record was expunged. It became a nationally known program.”
Yvonne went on to serve as president of the Oregon Municipal Judges Association and was a board member of the Oregon Judicial College.
As a teenager, one of Yvonne’s jobs had been working at Fred Meyer’s Yamhill cafeteria, and 20 years later Fred Meyer bought land in Tualatin for his future store and came into City Hall.
“I told him as a teen he taught me how to carefully put Jello on plates of lettuce to be attractive to buyers,” Yvonne said. “Fred Meyer went to the site of the new Tualatin store every day during construction to inspect progress and would drop by City Hall occasionally to say hello. He was a first mentor.”
Yvonne as a teen in front of family onion barn, where McDonald’s is today. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Addington.
As the city manager working with professional planners, “I led the development of the city’s Comprehensive Plan to lay the groundwork to transform Tualatin from a population of about 300 to a city of 20,000 by the year 2000 and also created the downtown Urban Renewal Plan to eliminate blight,” Yvonne said. “Very capable city staff were later responsible for implementing the plans.”
Another issue she tackled was Tualatin’s lack of a reliable water source. A well “that went dry every summer” was the source of Tualatin’s water until the signing of a contract with the Portland Water Bureau, whose primary source is the Bull Run Watershed.
“The City Council limited water service to inside the city limits to control growth,” Yvonne said. “Bringing in water service was the best thing that ever happened in Tualatin.”
At the time, Tualatin residents relied on leaking septic tanks for sewage disposal until a modern three-stage treatment plant was opened behind the Hervin Pet Food cannery. “Only Las Vegas had one at the time,” Yvonne said. Later, in 1970, Tualatin was one of 10 cities and 16 sanitary districts that combined to form the Unified Sewerage Agency and eliminate the need for Tualatin’s own treatment plant.
Yvonne is most proud of fighting opposition to bring Meridian Park Hospital to Tualatin, with planning starting in 1968, and today Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center has grown to become the city’s second-largest employer with 800 employees.
Under Yvonne’s tenure, the city purchased and developed park lands, including part of Tualatin Community Park, and built streets and other infrastructure. Harvey Van Raden donated the land next to the first city park for the first community center and the first library after the city allowed his company to annex and develop Peerless Trailer on north side of Tualatin River.
“We got approval to annex the Bridgeport area north of the Tualatin river, which Rivergrove also wanted,” Yvonne said. “We went to the Supreme Court and won since the petitions to annex it to Tualatin connected by the I-5/Tualatin River Bridge were filed five days before Rivergrove filed its petition to annex the land. This became known as the Bridgeport Village area.
“My last project was securing financing for the Tualatin Senior Center,” she said.
Yvonne had long been fascinated by the discovery of ancient mastodon bones just south of the current Fred Meyer store. Two Portland State University students dug up about half of a mastodon skeleton in 1962, which was first displayed at PSU.
(Left to right) Paul Hennon, City Parks; Linda Moholt, Tualatin Chamber; Yvonne Addington; Mark Buser, Ice Age Floods Institute and Scott Burns, PSU geology professor present a bronze plaque on Tualatin Greenway Trail in her honor. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Addington.
It was donated to the city in the 1970s after Yvonne saw the skeleton labeled “Tigard Mastodon” on display at PSU, and when she asked if the name could be corrected, they asked her if the city wanted it because they had run out of room for it. After several years in storage, the Tualatin Historical Society and city residents raised money to restore the bones and put them on display at the library. The skeleton was radio carbon-dated and determined to be a female in her 20s that died about 14,000 years ago. The original tusk and molar are on display at the Tualatin Heritage Center.
Before mastodons roamed the area, many Ice Age floods covered the Willamette Valley 15,000 to 18,000 years ago, leaving behind two huge boulders – 10 ½ tons and 8 ½ tons – in Gaston along with rich soil that attracted settlers. One of Yvonne’s really “big” projects was getting the boulders moved to the Tualatin Historical Society property in 2014 after learning a farmer was going to blow them up.
Yvonne is a member of several Ice Age-related organizations and is currently working on implementing the Tualatin Ice Age Floods Tourism Plan with the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce, Portland State University and several geological/ancient-animal organizations. “Our objective is to raise money to build an interpretive center and involve the business community,” she said.
Yvonne represents the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age Floods on the Board of Directors of the Willamette Falls and Landings Heritage Coalition. A thorn in the side of many is that the Willamette Meteorite is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City instead of in Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in North America and the sixth largest in the world.
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which includes the Atfalati/Tualatin band of Kalapuyas, have long held the meteorite sacred. It was found on land owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company near West Linn, and in 1905 William E. Dodge purchased it for $26,000, displayed it at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition and donated it to the New York museum, where it has been on display since 1906. The Grand Ronde Tribe has first rights to the meteorite if New York museum fails to display it, and tribal members visit it each year.
Yvonne is a board member of the Tualatin Historical Society and joined when “we moved the church,” she said. In 2006 the organization raised $250,000 to preserve and move the 1926 Methodist Church from Boones Ferry Road to Sweek Drive, where the building serves as the Tualatin Heritage Center and is run cooperatively with the city.
Yvonne also was involved in the development of the Tualatin River Greenway Trail, a 12-foot-wide multi-use pedestrian and bicycle trail, convincing CenterCal property owners to donate land for the project; Mr. and Mrs. Fred Bruning, the co-company owners, also donated a $220,000 bronze sculpture of the Tualatin mastodon. In 2015 the Tualatin City Council honored Yvonne with a bronze plaque placed at the trail.
Yvonne’s public service efforts extend far beyond the Tualatin area. As the manager of the 1982-83 Washington County Urban Comprehensive Plan, she led the planning and development of county urban areas through 2000, winning approval for projects from the state Land Conservation and Development Commission.
In 1983, Yvonne was hired by Gov. Victor Atiyeh as the first Oregon Community Development Program manager to administer and award federal Community Development Block Grant funds to local governments. “Many jobs were created, and it is still providing millions of dollars for infrastructure today,” Yvonne said. “That point in my career was wonderful. In Oregon there were 220 non-conforming water systems.”
At Gov. Atiyeh’s direction, Yvonne went to the Oregon Legislature and acquired dedicated lottery funds for job-creating infrastructure projects that now total $3 billion, according to the Oregon Lottery. She went on to serve Govs. Goldschmidt, Roberts, Kitzhaber and Kulongoski as she worked on projects around the state.
Yvonne Addington served five Oregon governors after initially being hired in 1983 by Gov. Vic Atiyeh as the first Oregon Community Development Manager. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Addington.
“I got a call from the Prineville City Council that Les Schwab Tires was planning to move its headquarters to California,” Yvonne said. “One reason was that there was no water service to the Prineville airport where Les Schwab wanted to expand, and the city could not afford to build the line. Les Schwab himself flew to Salem to meet with us. The night before the meeting with him, I was at his Sherwood store and purchased his new autobiography, ‘Les Schwab-Pride in Performance-Keep it Going!’
“I agreed to finance a water line to the airport, and when we met the next day, I asked Les Schwab to autograph the book, and he did so, saying, ‘Well, boys, we’re staying in Oregon.’ Later, he and Mrs. Schwab invited me to dinner in Prineville to celebrate their decision to stay in Oregon.”
Yvonne also served eight years as president of the national Washington, D.C., Council of States Community Development Agencies, representing 50 state governors’ offices before she retired in 2003, two years before her husband Jim died.
Sen. Mark Hatfield and Congressman Les AuCoin were key supporters in getting more federal funds for community development and jobs in Oregon, according to Yvonne. Among the many famous people she met was current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying, “I introduced him at one of our conferences. He was director of Housing and Development at the time.”
Why does Yvonne do it all? “I led the developments, but key elected and volunteer people plus important staff implemented those plans years after I had moved on,” she said. “I traveled to many areas of the country and states and even found my family in other countries but could find no better place than Tualatin to continue helping in my retirement. Tualatin is my hometown, and I want to contribute back to it.”
Students of the Tigard-Tualatin School District (TTSD) won’t be returning to a physical school building for quite some time.
Following Governor Kate Brown’s guidance, TTSD Superintendent Dr. Sue Rieke-Smith announced that the school district would start the 2020-2021 school year online in comprehensive distance learning.
“As educators, we are painfully aware of the importance of in-person instruction and relationship building, and all of us cannot wait for the day when we can welcome our students back into our buildings,” Rieke-Smith said. “This decision was made by weighing evidence-based data from our county and state health officials alongside my obligation to protect the safety and well-being of all our students, teachers and staff.”
Rieke-Smith identified that the main reasons for the preemptive closure were due to the continued spread of COVID-19 in the metropolitan area and the mandated health and safety measures to keep school facilities open. There would also be a significant disruption to schools and learning caused by a 14-day quarantining of staff and students with the shutting down of classrooms and buildings when positive cases are reported.
With the district’s new calendar, the first online school day for students will be Monday, Sept. 14, and this form of instruction will continue for the first nine weeks at minimum.
As confusion and complications plagued the temporary online education system in spring after the abrupt switch from in-person learning, a planning committee of more than 100 district educators worked on this year’s schedules and curriculum choices.
“There was really an attempt to get some balance in the schedule. We were thinking ‘How do we balance active instruction with independent practice?’ and ‘How do we balance providing structure and rigor versus flexibility for some of our students and families that have different schedules?’” Principal of Bridgeport Elementary, Jordan Mills, said. “We also had to make sure that we fitted the Oregon Department of Education’s requirements while making sure that the schedules are a good fit for our students.”
Many community members found that the most substantial issues with the previous system stemmed from a lack of consistency and predictability in student work throughout the district. Thus, TTSD decided to purchase the online curriculum, Florida Virtual School (FLVS), for grades K-12.
FLVS contains pre-made lessons across all core subjects (math, science, language arts, social studies and PE) to give teachers a foundation that they could supplement while also providing a smoother transition to in-person schooling if/when that is possible.
TTSD also decided to use the online learning management system, Canvas, for students to use as a one-stop-shop when accessing content, assignments, quizzes, etc. Canvas would also replace the use of the other platforms, Google Classroom and Seesaw, as it provides a more robust multilingual interface.
“Our adults in the building are going to be able to hop into those classes, support our learners, see where they are in their progressions, and that is the same thing that will be happening on the home front,” Fowler Middle School Principal Andrew Van Fleet said. “Parents will very easily be able to get in and see [their student’s] progress.”
To prepare for the sudden switch to new systems and platforms, educators will be given a two-week in-service before Sept. 14 with training available to students and their families.
Another issue through the middle schools was that students needed to keep track of seven or eight teachers a day while at home. In the coming year, they will now only have four to five teachers per week, including two core subject teachers (math/science and English language arts/social studies), one elective teacher and one PE instructor.
Although on most weekdays, students will be in and out of classes until 2:30 p.m. for elementary school students and 3:30 p.m. for middle and high school students, the district reserved Wednesday as an independent workday across all grade levels. Since teachers will be teaching more classes per day in the new system, they will be able to use this day for planning and collaboration while students can have more self-paced learning.
The district has also been in constant discussion with the community about what should happen after the first nine weeks of school. The options were a 100% online education for the school year or a hybrid model where groups of students would attend in-person school on some days and online school for others. The voting finished on Aug. 13, and the hybrid model was agreed upon for first semester — but whether the district will meet state metrics by then is still up in the air.
The school district had to adapt without much preparation to follow state mandates. Online school wasn’t even a consideration before last February. With much unpredictability over the spread of COVID-19, time will only tell if returning to school will even be a possibility. Should no return be available, this plan will remain in effect for the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year.
Jerry Turner, Co-Owner of Ancestry Brewing, sat down, shed his mask — his brow dripping with sweat after hours of lifting and sorting kegs. We clinked glasses, his quaff a Belgian Tripel, mine, Experimental IPA #9, and took slugs of our respective refreshing brews. “We wanted to build a place for the whole family,” he explained. Build it they did, and Family they are. Jerry and son, Jeremy founded their passion project in fall of 2015, and by May of 2016 they had settled into their new home in the heavily industrial section along Tualatin-Sherwood Rd, housing both the restaurant and state-of-the-art brewing facility under the same roof. Factor in daughter, Suzanne Long (Marketing Manager) and her husband, Mel (Cellar Manager) and Ancestry truly is a family affair.
“I was in the Navy for years. One tour of Vietnam. Operations Specialist.” Jerry added. The Ancestry logo, a sextant brandishing an “A” in its center, is a nod to his and son-in-law, Mel’s, naval service. The menu proudly bears the names of the two ships on which Jerry served, on two delicious menu items- the USS Canberra Burger, dripping with smoked gouda, mushrooms, bacon and house-made sauce; and the USS Bagley Fish and Chips, perfectly crispy, yet tender pieces of Ono in an Ancestry beer batter, of course. “If you’re hungry, get the fish and chips,” our adept server, Paul, chimed in, “It’s huge.”
I, however, went rogue and chose the Pulled Pork Belly Hoagie, as I had indulged Ancestry burgers and the amazing fish and chips on previous visits to this location, as well as the newer locations, in Sellwood and on Hawthorne Blvd in SE Portland. My wife, and partner in crime, Kristen, opted for the Bridge City Chicken “Philly,” because she doesn’t eat “red meat” (spoiler alert: she doesn’t drink beer either). “I’ll let you in on a secret,” Jerry hinted, “We might be working on a cider side project.”
Pulled Pork Belly Hoagie.
With 34 beers made in house — 22 on tap at Tualatin, the possibilities are endless… and enticing. I asked Paul to design a flight of his favorites. Then, a surprise. “A little something we just added to the menu,” Suzanne boasted, “a play on the age-old Chicken/Egg question.” Behold, the “Which Came First Sandwich”- although it didn’t solve the riddle, the Brown-Sugar-Buffalo dipped fried chicken adorned with a fried egg, Tillamook cheddar and bleu cheese dressing on brioche, did beg another question, “Where’ve you been my whole life?”
Which Came First Sandwich.
Finally, my “main event”- the Pulled Pork…divine — a heaping mound of succulent pork, carefully treated with a Carolina mustard sauce, with hints of green curry, melted cheddar, spicy horseradish-dill slaw, rounded out by the crisp acidity of house-made pickles. Warning: this is NOT your run of the mill, slapdash, over-sauced, sickeningly sweet pulled pork sandwich- it is Balance, Complexity and Deliciousness, all on a toasted hoagie roll. Throw in some Bacon Beer Cheese Potato Twisters, a masterfully curated six-beer flight, headlined by Craft Beer Award winners: the Piney IPA (Silver Medal, 2019) and Irish Red (Gold Medal, 2019) and you have a perfect lunch, dinner…or late breakfast.
As Kristen finished the last bite of her “Philly,” while staring out past the “sail shades” to the bucolic view from the kid-friendly, dog-friendly patio, she smiled- “It’s a step above your normal pub grub!” I couldn’t have put it any better. So, let the sextant atop the logo navigate your way to Ancestry Brewery, and guide you out of the depths of hunger and thirst…deliciously.
Gone are the days of 5¢ Tabasco smothered “drummies” in a desperate effort to sell more beer- thankfully, now the Wing is the Thing. Enter Wingstop to the Tualatin area, nearly two months ago- a veteran chain in the “wing game,” founded in Garland, Texas in 1994. Now, I must admit, I am not a wing purist, so when I spied the “boneless” option, I knew I was in the right place. Service was friendly, as I imagined there was a smile beneath the counterperson’s mask when I asked her for her two favorite wings. Collectively we agreed upon Lemon Pepper and tangy Spicy Korean Q, but flavors range from the mild, yet flavorful Garlic Parmesan to the maniacally hot Atomic– spicy enough to garner five “fire emojis” on the menu board. From the six-wing small order, to 50 in the Party Pack, Wingstop has wings for any and all occasions, however I strongly suggest ordering ahead to avoid the 20-minute ticket time during the lunch rush.
(Wingstop, 7684 SW Nyberg St, Tualatin 97062. Sun-Thurs 11-11, Fri-Sat 11-midnight. Online, phone and walk-in orders available for carryout.)
News that In-N-Out Burger is eyeing the site of the former Village Inn for a new restaurant has caused a flurry of excitement among fans of the California-based burger chain coupled with concerns from locals who worry that the addition of a store will worsen traffic congestion in the area.
During a virtual neighborhood meeting, attended by nearly 70 people, In-N-Out Project Manager Cassie Yee said that the project was just getting underway and it could be well over a year before a store is opened at the site located at 17070 SW 72nd Avenue.
“We are so preliminary in our process, I cannot tell you that this is a done deal,” Yee said in response to a question submitted during the meeting. “We have a lot of work to do. We’ve done some work, but we definitely have a lot of work to do. We definitely need to work through that traffic impact analysis. So calling it a done deal I don’t think is an accurate way to describe where we are in the process.”
In-N-Out is also looking at opening other stores in the Portland metro area, Yee mentioned Beaverton, Happy Valley, Hillsboro, Oregon City and Vancouver as other possible locations.
“It would be really premature to guess or presume if Tualatin or any of our other hoped-for Portland area locations would be the next up to open or the first to open,” she said. “It is extremely unlikely that a Tualatin opening would be the only opening for area. We often execute the strategy of opening more than one restaurant at a time when we first enter a new metropolitan area in order to diffuse the opening demand.”
A prototype rendering of what the eventual In-N-Out building might look like.
Much of the reaction to the proposed restaurant has been concern about the traffic it could generate in the already busy area near I-5.
“I can’t imagine any scenario where that’s a good thing at that location. That corridor is already struggling to manage traffic flow,” one person wrote on the Tualatin Life Facebook page, summing up the sentiment expressed by many other commenters – even those who, at the same time, speak fondly of In-N-Out in general.
Many people point to the Keizer Station In-N-Out as confirmation of their concerns. When that restaurant opened in December, there were stories about long lines, and traffic blocking roads and backing up onto I-5.
Yee sought to ease those worries, saying of Keizer Station that “even with the amazing crowds we saw that first week, over the next several weeks and months and up until today, we did not block any entrances to any adjoining businesses.”
As for fears that traffic would back up onto I-5 and people would park on the freeway shoulder to jump a fence to access the Keizer restaurant, she said, “that never happened. None of that ever happened.”
“Our traffic management plan truly met the demand that we saw over the course of our opening,” Yee said. “That same thoughtful and proactive approach to traffic control management will be undertaken for Tualatin. There’s no doubt about that. We are committed to making sure any of our opening plans go as smoothly as possible.”
A traffic analysis will be completed and submitted to the city for the proposed Tualatin location, she said,” adding, “The analysis will study all of the typical things: how the development may affect local traffic, how we can mitigate it and how to minimize it.”
Some of those things are part of the design of the proposed Tualatin location. It would have a 480-foot-long, double drive-thru lane that can accommodate 23 cars, which Yee said is three times as long as city guidelines call for. And the parking lot would have 51 spaces, which also exceeds the number that the city code would require. Also, the only access to the restaurant would be via Jean Road, rather than the busier SW 72nd Avenue or Lower Boones Ferry Road.
“Creating or causing traffic problems in a community is not our intention at any location,” Yee said.
The coronavirus has caused Winona Grange to postpone its 125th anniversary party originally scheduled for the date of its first meeting in 1895. The Grange still plans to celebrate and invite former members and their descendants to attend when large gatherings are deemed safe.
Tualatin’s oldest community organization was founded long before Tualatin was incorporated in 1913. Twenty-four-farm family members met with State Grange Deputy Dr. Joseph Casto on Sept. 19, 1895 to organize the Grange, elect officers and choose a name.
Since Tualatin Grange, now Frogpond, already existed, they chose the name Winona, to honor the deceased eldest daughter of J. R. C. Thompson. Winona Cemetery is also named after her. Thirteen of Winona Grange’s first members are buried there.
Nationally, the Grange was founded in 1867 to bring isolated farmers together to share what they had learned about farming methods from their own experimentation.
Winona Grange Hall, 8340 SW Seneca, with Peace Pole planted by Tualatin Rotary. Left to right: Michelle Schnabel, 2018 Rotary President; Jasmine Romero Abarca, 2018 Winona Grange scholarship recipient; Winona members Sam Keator, Marilyn Reiher, Loyce Martinazzi, and Dinah Larsen.
The Grange was the first American organization to give women an equal voice and vote with men. Twelve of Winona’s first members were women and 12 were men. They ranged in age from 17 to 68 with an average of 38.
Who were these first members? Edward Byrom is a familiar name because the elementary school is named for him. He was elected Chaplain, an office he held until he died in 1911. Jurgens Park and Avenue are named for William Jurgens who served as Treasurer until his death in 1909.
Laura Thompson, a 19-year-old teacher, was the first Secretary. Later she served as Tualatin’s Postmistress.
Besides the Byrom, Jurgens and Thompson families, first members were Dora and Nellie Cummins, William and Weda Day, Ida Francis, George Galbreath and daughter Bertha, B. R. Henry, R. F. Potts, W. Sedlak, John L. Smith, and Dr. and Mrs. W. J. Taylor.
Initially Grange meetings were held upstairs over Thompson’s store on the third Saturday of each month. Minutes of those meetings survive. They began at 10 a.m., recessed for “dinner,” resumed at 2 p.m., and concluded with a program of music, recitations and discussion of a topic like what should be taught in school, the automobile, or women’s suffrage.
Members wanted their own meeting place, but proposals to buy the old red schoolhouse or add a room onto the school gymnasium were not accepted. So, they continued to rent.
Finally, in February 1939, members voted to build a two-story building on a lot donated by Grange Treasurer L. P. Johnson. Ground was broken May 22. Ethel Pennington was Master (President) and chief fundraiser while her husband, Merrell, and Archie Walker took charge of construction. Their biggest problem was having work lined up to keep the 58 members busy. The first meeting in the new hall was held on Feb. 26, 1940.
In 125 years, Winona Grange has had 37 Presidents. Many are familiar Tualatin names: Cimino, Sagert, Robbins, Pohl, Christensen and Martinazzi.
Past Presidents at the 100th Anniversary Celebration. Left to right: Helen Henrickson, 1960-4; Verne Prescott, 1986 &1992-6; Alton Robbins, 1935-6; Everett Furgason, 1958-9, 1985 & 1997-2003; Eleanor Larsen, 1976-9 & 1984; and Leonard Pohl, 1955, left early due to illness.
While the number of farmers in the Tualatin area declined, the number of Grange members steadily increased. The Grange had 100 members in 1944 and 200 in 1951 because Grange Insurance Association offered low-cost coverage.
However, Winona Grange did not lose its agricultural connection. Agriculture Committee Chair Mark Lafky and others reported at each meeting on victory gardens, backyard chickens, how to deal with moles, slugs and other pests, and even cautions on the use of chemicals. Today, Ag Chair Norm Parker reports at each meeting, often on what he has read in The Capital Press.
The Grange is non-partisan, meaning the organization does not support any candidate or party. But since the 1860s when Granger Laws regulated railroad and grain elevator pricing, the organization has advocated for and against legislation. Winona members wrote resolutions, got voters to sign petitions and testified at hearings. This year, Winona Grange has adopted resolutions opposing marijuana facilities in Tualatin and linking metro counties for COVID-19 re-opening.
For more than 30 years, Sears, Roebuck and Company sponsored a nationwide Community Service contest for Granges. In 1981 Winona won first place in Oregon over 272 other Granges. Members volunteered over 1,700 hours. Their primary project was designing the Tualatin-Durham Senior Center, now named after Juanita Pohl, one of the four Grangers on the seven-member committee. They visited 16 centers from Portland to Springfield to observe what worked. In addition, Winona Grange recycled 4.5 tons of newspaper; collected old eyeglasses; made toys for the Waverly Children’s Home; and donated $800 to charities.
In 2020, Winona’s primary project was sending 52 boxes of vegetable and herb seed packets to community gardens, Granges and other groups in the Northwest. In mid-April, the last two boxes were given to Neighbors Nourishing Communities gardeners and other Tualatin residents.
From 1947 through the 1950s, Tualatin needed social activities for highschool-aged teens. The Grange hall was the perfect place for dance lessons and dances that attracted more than 60 each week. Many became Grange members.
Traditional Grange ritual includes singing and marching. In 1897, Winona bought an organ, which many members played. Members shared their musical talents during programs. In 1908, the Grange bought instruments for the brass band that E. D. Mort organized. Band members agreed to care for their instrument; pay a 50¢ fine for missing a rehearsal; and avoid vulgar talk and stories. Today Irish and ukulele jams are held in the hall on Sunday afternoons. See www.winonagrange271.org for Sundays and times.
Brass Band formed in 1908 by E. D. Mort. The Grange purchased the instruments and band members agreed to abide by strict rules.
There have been challenges. The most serious was the flood of ’96. The Tualatin River overflowed leaving 46” of oily, smelly water and mud on the ground floor of the hall, ruining the oil furnace and kitchen appliances. Thanks to Tualatin firemen, the Lion’s Club, Mix N Mingles and Robin Hoods square dance clubs, the contents were cleaned and disinfected, and money was raised to replace or repair the furnishings.
An aging membership no longer holds a community fair, public breakfasts and dinners, plays or card parties. Now the hall is rented by many groups. The Grange partners with others to host free or low-cost classes on first aid, gardening, and mental health.
Winona Grange welcomes community input on unmet needs and actively seeks new members with energy and willingness to help organize them. If you are a former member, a descendant of members, or have a Grange story to tell, we would love to hear it and invite you to the party.
The Meals on Wheels People non-profit has always delivered meals to home-bound seniors (thus, the “wheels”) along with serving congregate meals in senior centers in Multnomah, Washingon and Clark counties, but now the organization is only providing home deliveries because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Julie Piper Finley, director of communication and public relations.
But first and foremost, Piper Finley wants everyone to know that people over the age of 60 qualify to utilize the service. “People think this is only for poor people,” she said, noting that no senior seeking the meal service has been turned away, and the service starts 48 hours after they sign up.
“Pre-pandemic, we had two programs going – the Meals on Wheels home deliveries and serving meals in two dozen neighborhood dining centers, but those closed at the end of March,” Piper Finley said.
“They probably won’t reopen until there is a vaccine, so we are probably looking at a year. We are using an abundance of caution in not exposing vulnerable seniors to the coronavirus.”
So the non-profit underwent a transformation, adding new Meals on Wheels routes and quickly gearing up from serving 5,000 meals a day to 8,000 per day. It also stopped delivering fresh meals every weekday and instead delivers seven meals once a week to limit the exposure of seniors to the drivers. “That is a big, big change,” Piper Finley said.
“We used to deliver every day Monday through Friday, and people had to be home between 10:30 and 12:30 because we don’t leave food on the front porch. With a delivery only one day a week, this gives seniors more flexibility.”
Meals on Wheels People stopped hot meal deliveries a couple years ago, according to Piper Finley, with a typical meal consisting of an entree and vegetable plus a roll, salad and dessert. Now recipients get two fresh meals every week and the rest are frozen.
“They also get a loaf of bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a quart of milk,” Piper Finley said. “Now we’re adding hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, peanut butter and potatoes as they come in.”
Another big change is how drivers get the meals to deliver. They used to go into the senior centers to pick up their day’s deliveries, and at the Tigard Senior Center, for example, they would come early, grab a cup of coffee and sit around and chat with other drivers until their load was ready.
“Now it is basically a drive-through operation,” Piper Finley said. “As drivers pull up in the parking lot, someone comes out and puts all the food into the back of their vehicle, and they drive off. You don’t get out of your car, and everyone wears masks.
“It is really sad that seniors are losing the daily contact they used to have with their drivers. So we started the Friendly Chat program. Anyone who wants the service can sign up, and someone will call you a couple times a week.
“When we asked for volunteers, nearly 1,000 people signed up, and we had 1,000 seniors who wanted the service, so we matched up people to chat. We try to steer them clear of hot-button topics like politics and religion or to go too deeply into health issues.
“This is a very popular program. Some volunteers call a couple people, and some of the people in the Friendly Chat program are also drivers.”
Piper Finley is already thinking ahead to the future, “when things return to ‘normal’ or what the new normal will be,” she said. “We just can’t predict when we will reopen as we are dealing with such a vulnerable population. Maybe we will give people options about how they want to get their meals.”
Luckily there have been no lay-offs “because we have had such an increase in meal production,” Piper Finley said. “The senior centers didn’t produce the food for Meals on Wheels deliveries as it was done in our 14,000-square-foot kitchen in Multnomah Village, which is one of the largest commercial kitchens in the state. Now our daily numbers have gone up so much.
“When we needed more drivers, we put out the call, and we got 1,800 new people within three weeks. It was overwhelming. Now we are in our ‘regular’ recruitment mode for both drivers and people to chat. Everyone has to go through a background check, which takes a couple weeks, so they can’t start right away.”
What does it cost to run this organization? “We have a $12 million annual budget,” Piper Finley said. “We get 38 percent of our budget through the federal Older Americans Act, and the rest is through fundraising. A lot of large corporations have stepped forward without even being asked. We have been fortunate.”
Meals on Wheels People is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a virtual gala Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. with a goal of raising $50,000. Festivities will kick off on a red carpet with hostess Poison Waters at 5 p.m. Gourmet meals may be ordered that will be delivered ahead of the event. For more information, visit www.mowp.org.
Beginning Sept. 28, the Tigard-Tualatin School District (TTSD) is allowing high school athlete participation in season one of sports – the practice season – while following the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) guidelines.
Currently, neither TTSD high schools have plans to include contests with other schools during season one as they are still waiting on guidance from the OSAA.
Each conditioning season of sports will have one month of practices from Sept. 28 until the start of season two – winter sports – on Dec. 28:
Spring Conditioning: Sept. 28 – mid-October
Fall Conditioning: Mid-October – Thanksgiving Break
Winter Conditioning: End of November – Dec. 27
Virtual plans for Choir and Band’s reentry have been submitted for approval, and plans for Dance and Cheer are currently in progress.
ORIGINAL – Sept. 2, 2020
From being postponed, out of order or even canceled, the 2020-2021 sports seasons will be unlike any other when it starts four months from now.
The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) decided to shift from the traditional year-round sports calendar and condense the three sports seasons while adding a practice season due to the ever-growing concern over COVID-19. The sports seasons will each last seven weeks and occur between the end of December and June:
Practice Season: Aug. 31 – Dec. 27
Winter Sports: Dec. 28 – Mar. 6
Fall Sports: Feb. 22 – May 1 & 8
Spring Sports: Apr. 19 – June 26
Each of the traditional seasons will consist of two practice weeks and seven competition weeks followed by a culminating week. Although the specifics of a ‘culminating week’ have yet to be decided, it will act as an event for each sport to cap off the season.
This action was taken in alignment with most OSAA member schools participating in distance learning for at least the first two months of the school year.
This differs from the OSAA’s July announcement to delay the fall sports season by one month with high school football delayed indefinitely due to its close-contact nature.
In delaying the sports seasons, the OSAA Executive Board decided to waive the current out-of-season coaching policy, which typically prohibits out-of-season sporting events, to allow student participation this fall.
“The Board recognized that a one size fits all approach isn’t what’s best for students across the state. By waiving policy to allow regional participation this fall, local school districts will have the discretion for participation in those areas that are able to do so safely per state directives,” OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber said.
The practice season will begin Aug. 31. The practices, sports and activities permitted will not be designated by the OSAA as usual but by each school district.
Season two, the winter sports season, is set to begin on Dec. 28 with swimming, wrestling and basketball. As the season will only last until Mar. 6, Basketball will only contain 14 games.
Tigard and Tualatin basketball is the first up to start its season on Dec. 28 with the rest of Winter Sports.
Photo by Henry Kaus.
Season three, fall sports, starts Feb. 22 with cross country, volleyball, soccer and football. These sports will finish up May 1 with football as the exception since it will last until May 8 with only seven games. Water polo, a non-OSAA organized sport, was recently canceled all-together by the Oregon High School Water Polo association after reviewing the guidance from the CDC, Governor’s mandate, OHA and OSAA.
“Cross country, soccer and football are outdoor activities, and if we can play those in March or April, that’s probably a better scenario than January or February,” Weber told OSAAtoday.
Season four, spring sports, is set to begin Apr. 19 with golf, tennis, track and field, baseball and softball. Baseball and softball will only consist of 18 games until finishing up on June 26.
For students to play in a contest against another school, they must participate in at least nine practice days prior to the competition unless they played in the previous sports season.
The sports and activities that have no defined season were all set to start practices Aug. 31. This includes cheerleading, dance and drill, speech, solo music, choir, band and orchestra. All of which have different culminating weeks between Mar. 13 and May 16.
“Today’s decisions by the Executive Board provides a framework to maximize the potential opportunity for students in Oregon to participate in three seasons during the 2020-21 school year,” Weber said. “Nearly all schools are going to have to spend a significant part of the fall in comprehensive distance learning and that will present challenges in terms of the ability to offer opportunities to students in some areas. So, moving the season allows for those opportunities.”
