Molalla Pioneer

Four Molalla residents showed up at the Molalla Communications Company office on Friday afternoon bearing copies of a petition that, if successful, would oust the majority of the telephone cooperative's directors and upper management.

The petitioners say the action is necessary to spur change in a board and management team that has not been responsive to the public’s concerns; while MCC management say that a removal of the company’s leadership would jeopardize the cooperative’s financial stability and disrupt service to the members.

The petition follows on an open forum that took place June 20, in which members questioned the MCC board of directors and CEO Steve Loutzenhiser about high rates of employee turnover; a failed business venture by MCC into a company called Envada; and a perceived lack of openness on financial matters, including failure to post data on the board members' compensation in the annual report released to members.

At the forum, some members threatened to attempt a recall of the board, an action that would require a written request for a special meeting by 10 percent of the cooperative's members.
MCC's bylaws allow removal of board members by a majority vote of the membership at a special meeting.

The petition presented to MCC on Friday calls for a special meeting to be held Oct. 30, 2007, in which members would vote on the proposed removal of three of MCC's five directors, as well CEO Loutzenhiser, vice presidents Chris Michalopoulos and Steve Jantz, human resources director Christine Cline, network operations and internet service manager Lance Eves, and law firm Foster-Pepper LLP.

The document calls for removal of directors Ed Lettenmaier, Marcie Marsh and Kay Wise for "permitting the removal of over 50 percent of employees, including veteran key employees of MCC in a 12-month period ... creating a hostile work environment, diminution of services, destruction of the co-op, families and community fabric, failure to report the amount of directors' compensation and excessive spending in a wrongful manner."

As replacement directors, the petition proposes MCC members Peggy Smith, Michael Raub and Mike Wagner, all of whom made an appearance on Friday to hand the petition to MCC staff.
Asked why two of the directors, Ron Jones and Lorraine Peters, are not being targeted for removal, petitioner Peggy Smith said, "Ron Jones is brand new (on the board) and came up through the ranks of Molalla Telephone Company (where he worked for eight years). And I know Lorraine Peters has stuck up for the MCC employees on several occasions."

Jones and Peters could not be reached for comment.

Upon being notified of the petition MCC board chair Ed Lettenmaier said, "It's unfortunate, but they have every right to do it."

He added, however, that under the bylaws, if members vote to remove directors from the MCC board the remaining directors would appoint their replacements, rather than the replacements being specified by the petitioners.

For his part, Loutzenhiser questioned the petitioners’ motives.

“I find it interesting that the people running for the board in the petition are also the people instigating the petition,” he said. " … It seems that these people have a personal agenda and it's not what's in the best interests of the cooperative."

Wagner, who made a previous unsuccessful bid for an MCC board position, running against Lorraine Peters in March 2006, said the three proposed replacement directors were asked to by other MCC members to put themselves forward as candidates.

Asked about the timing of the petition, he said, “We are doing this now because we have waited more than one month (since the open forum) and nothing has happened. MCC is hoping that we will disappear.”

On Friday, the same day the petition was presented, the MCC board mailed a letter to the approximately 30 people who attended the June 20 open forum, responding to the concerns brought up at the meeting.

The letter compares MCC’s internet connection speed and prices favorably to other small rural telephone companies; cites a membership survey in which 92 percent of the 1058 respondents said they would recommend MCC’s services to family and friends; and points out that net margins of $4.5 million in 2006 show the company to be in good financial condition.

The gains came despite an unsuccessful business venture by MCC into a company called Envada, which folded in 2005 after losing $119,434 in 2004 and $25,596.

"I believe we have addressed every concern (the petitioners) have had, except for why specific individuals that are associated with them, or who they know about, are no longer working at MCC," Loutzenhiser said.

MCC has consistently declined to discuss personnel issues involving specific employees.
After having received and read the letter on Monday, Wagner said, “There’s really not any new information in there … It’s nicely done, but it’s not responsive.”

The removal of three board members, five key staffers and the law firm would throw MCC into chaos, Loutzenhiser said.

“Is (the petitioners’) goal to destroy the company or just to gain employment opportunities for those they desire?” he asked.

Wagner acknowledged that the proposed changeover in leadership at MCC would take some adjustment but added, “Firing 20 people in the last year didn’t seem to be difficult for the company, according to top management … I’m confident that the employees will be more than happy to pull a little harder in a short time frame, because that hostile work environment would no longer be there.”

Loutzenhiser said the “hostile work environment” does not exist and characterized the petitioners and their supporters as a small but vocal minority of MCC members, who are unlikely to sway the majority of the company's customers.

"Quality service, phone service, broadband internet, financial stability and payment of capital credits is what the majority of members are interested in," Loutzenhiser said. "And according to statistics (from a recent membership survey), they are satisfied."

With the current membership of MCC standing at 5,228, the petitioners will need to collect at least 523 signatures to call the special meeting for removal of directors.

The petitioners said they might withdraw the petition if MCC met certain demands, but declined to discuss the points on which they would be willing to negotiate.

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

The case remains open, but the search for missing 75-year-old Ruby Larson was called off last night.

After two days of combing Molalla and the surrounding area for a sign of the elderly woman, who left the Pheasant Pointe assisted living facility at 3 p.m. on Monday, searchers concluded that their resources were exhausted, according to Molalla Police Department officer Scott Douglas.

"We just have nothing to go on and the resources we have are expended-- the dogs are exhausted, the people are exhausted," Douglas said.

The search was a combined effort of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue, Washington County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue, Pacific NW Search & Rescue, Search 1 K9, Molalla Fire Department, Mountain Wave, Molalla City Employees, a helicopter, and a number of private citizens with flyers.

After performing a door-to-door and back yard search inside the city, the rescue teams fanned out to search the surrounding area, using bicycle teams, canines and a helicopter. Boating teams searched the Molalla River between Feyrer Park and Wagon Wheel Park.

But the searchers came up empty handed.

"We had only a couple of leads and tips from citizens who possibly might have seen her," Douglas said. "But we have found no evidence of her."

As more time passes, the chances of finding Larson alive are diminishing.

"I would have to say at this point the possibility of finding her alive is slim," Douglas said. "In a missing person case, the first 24 hours is key, and she's a small, frail woman without any water or sustenance."

Although the search has officially ended, MPD is continuing to treat Larson's disappearance as an open missing persons case.

Anyone with informations about Ruby Larson's whereabouts is asked to call the Clackamas County Communications Center at 503-655-8211.

The search in Molalla for missing 75-year-old Ruby Larson was halted temporarily last night at 9 p.m., and was restarted today at 6 a.m. Search and Rescue teams from Clackamas County Sheriffs Office, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office will be searching today, along with three K9 teams and 25-30 searchers. Searchers will be going door to door. The seaching is scheduled to continue through daylight today.

Police are requesting Molalla area residents to check their yards, cars, low trees, shrubs, crawl spaces, sheds, and any others areas on their property.

Anyone with information about Ms. Larson should call Clackamas County Communications Center at 503.655.8211, or Molalla Police Department Public Information Officer Scott Douglas at 971.253.9996.

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

Austin Wright Greenwood, 18, of Oregon City pled guilty today to two counts of third degree assault and one count of first degree criminal mischief in the May 24 attack on two Latino men in Mulino's Wagon Wheel Park.

According to deputy district attorney Scott Healy, angry words "fueled by alcohol" culminated with a mob of young men and women chasing the victims, Alex Bivian Guzman, 26, and Edwin Alfonzo Gonzales, 27, striking Gonzales in the back and pelting his car with river rocks.

Gonzales was hospitalized after being struck in the back by a rock, and his car was totaled.

While initial reports suggested the assault may have been racially motivated, Healy said that interpretation of the case did not hold up to investigation.

"Those statements that it was racially motivated were premature," he said. "People had been drinking too much, and it was a fight that occurred over girls."

Fifth District Circuit Court Judge Ronald D. Thom sentenced Greenwood to 36 months in prison with three years of post-prison supervision. Greenwood was also ordered to pay monetary restitution to the victims for medical bills and the damage to Gonzales' car. The amount has yet to be determined.

Greenwood will be eligible for a boot camp program, which could reduce the amount of time he will spend in prison.

Family members present at the trial said that Greenwood was unfairly singled out for punishment in an altercation that involved as many as thirty people, according to witness reports.

"We think it's sad that Austin had to take the brunt of all that happened there," Greenwood's mother Jean Lindquist said. "A lot of it would have been dropped, but because it was in the media and they said it was racially motivated at first, (the district attorney) decided to make an example of him."

Greenwood's aunt, Kathleen Reid, added, "There were a lot of underaged kids up there drinking and it doesn't seem that a lot was done to find anyone else."

Greenwood never faced hate crime charges as a number of immigrants’ rights organizations would have liked because even though some members of the crowd allegedly shouted “Go back to Mexico” during the attack, investigators could not identify the individuals.

According to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office report, Greenwood made the comment, "All I did was wrestle with some fat Mexican" upon his arrest.

However, Healy said testimony before the grand jury did not warrant treating the assault as a hate crime in Greenwood’s case.

According to the original CCSO report on the incident, Guzman and Gonzales, stopped at Wagon Wheel park to drink beer after work shift at the RSG lumber mill in Mulino. While consuming "a considerable amount" of beer, they struck up a conversation with a couple of young women who were at the park with the party of white males, Healy said.

Healy said the women invited Guzman and Gonzales to join the party, which included Greenwood and his friends, and "everyone was getting along fine" until Guzman and Gonzales left with a pair of women to get more beer.

"When they came back, another female came running up and said the boyfriend of one of the girls in the vehicle had slapped a girl," Healy said. "People were upset already because of something that happened there and words were exchanged between Edwin Gonzales and another male that was there (not Greenwood)."

Seeing the argument, people began crowding around in anticipation of a fight, at which point Greenwood began circling Gonzales and Guzman, Healy said. After more heated words, an unidentified male hit Gonzales in the face, he said. Meanwhile, Greenwood came around behind Gonzales, and it was at that point that Gonzales was struck in the back by a rock.

"That's when (Gonzales and Guzman) started getting pummeled," Healy said.

Greenwood admitted to grabbing Gonzales by the neck, throwing him to the ground and wrestling with him, but he denied throwing the rock that struck the other man in the back.

With assistance from one of the young women on the scene, Guzman and Gonzales succeeded in getting in Gonzales' car and attempted to flee the scene, but the crowd pursued and pelted the car with rocks.

Police arrived on scene shortly thereafter and arrested Greenwood, who witnesses identified as a ringleader in the attack.

"My client was unfortunately the only one charged in this case," Greenwood's defense attorney Jerry Seeberger told the court. "He became the face of this particular incident that was blown way out of proportion."

A teary-eyed Greenwood told the court, "This is not who I am ... I do have a drinking problem and I know this was a very bad mistake."

Guzman and Gonzales were not present at the trial.

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

After finding dioxins -- toxic chemical compounds -- buried in the soil of the former Avison lumber mill site in Molalla, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has asked Avison Rock Quarry to sample the soil of nearby properties in search of contamination.

Dealing with the soil contamination is the last hurdle facing Avison before 25 acres of the site can be certified as shovel-ready industrial land by the State of Oregon.

Dan Hafley, project manager with the Oregon DEQ's voluntary cleanup program, said the levels of dioxins found in the soil on the north end of the site were low, less than one particle per billion.

"We don't want people to be unduly concerned, because we're not unduly concerned," he said. "But as a precaution, we have asked the property owner to take samples from nearby residential properties."

After conducting the sampling at eight neighboring residential properties tomorrow, the results are expected to come back in three or four weeks. At that point, the DEQ will decide whether contamination from the Avison site is posing a risk to human health.

Long-term exposure to dioxins has been shown to cause cancer in animals and scientists suspect the same is true of humans.

The toxic particles in the soil at the old mill site are residue from dip tanks filled with pentachlorophenol, an anti-mold agent used to treat wood in the 1980s, Halfley said. The mill closed in the early 1990s, and has since remained undeveloped except for the northwest corner, leased by the Molalla Redi-Mix cocnrete plant.

Avison Rock Quarry owner Bill Avison said details of the site cleanup plan are still being finalized.

"We've been working cooperatively with the DEQ to get (the site) to this point, and I think everyone wants to see it completed," he said.

The cleanup could be as simple as shoveling out the offending turf and hauling it away or could entail removing some and capping the rest with cement or another sealant. Halfley said the dioxins on site are not thought to pose a threat to neighboring groundwater.

"We've assessed the groundwater and we have some very localized impacts, but they don't expand off site," he said.

While contamination has also been found on the south side of the 54-acre property, in ditches that extend toward Bear Creek, Halfley said the DEQ's main focus is on the 25 acres in the northern portion of the site, where a certification as shovel-ready industrial land could bring new economic development to the area.

"The potential for development is very important to us," he said.

Jamie Johnk, Clackamas County's rural economic development coordinator, said the site will likely receive its certification in September.

"Once you're done with the certification, it guarantees potential property owners that they can break ground on the site within 180 days," she said.

Once the soil testing results return, and a final cleanup plan is presented, the DEQ will accept public comment before approving the plan.

Avison is funding the environmental study, cleaup, and regulator oversight costs at the site. Some funding for the investigation came through a Clackamas County EPA Brownfield Grant and development funds from the Oregon Economic Community Development Department.

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

When 67-year-old Linda Mildred Cook unexpectedly left the home she shares with her husband in Emmett, Idaho, on July 4 police and family members thought she was heading for Molalla, where she lived for many years.

However, Cook, who has a thyroid condition that can lead to acute confusion, turned up in a Walla Walla, Wash., Super 8 motel room this morning.

After five days without contact, Cook called her husband from the motel this morning to tell him where she was and that she was safe. Walla Walla police responded to the motel and made contact with her.

Daughter Lori Jarvis of Molalla, who is currently en route to Walla Walla to meet her mother, said she was "ecstatic" to find Cook alive and well.

"Her van broke down in Walla Walla, but I don't think she knew she took the wrong direction," Jarvis said. "Other than that, we don't know much more."

Although originally from Idaho, Cook and her husband moved to Molalla in 1971 and only recently returned to Emmett.

Jarvis said the family made the drive from Molalla to Idaho every year to visit relatives, but that her mother always avoided driving for long stretches.

“She doesn’t drive long distances – Dad always did that,” Jarvis said. “Mom would drive in a radius of maybe 30 miles. Her arthritis can’t handle long distances, she never drives at night, and she doesn’t like driving in urban areas.”

According to the Gem County Sheriff’s Office, Cook left home at about 5 p.m. on July 4. Officials also said Cook apparently used a credit card to make a withdrawal from a US Bank in the La Grande area on July 5.

Lt. Gregg Hastings of the Oregon State Police said no sightings or other information about Cook’s whereabouts were reported after the bank withdrawal, until this morning.

Jarvis said Cook will be returning to Idaho once family members arrive to help her.

"The van is broken down, so we'll be with her until we figure out what to do," she said.

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

After a quiet week during the Buckeroo and the Fourth of July, a teenager nearly drowned in the Molalla River on Thursday evening, at Wagon Wheel Park.

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office reported that Jose Arguello-Delgado 17-year-old from Canby, was swimming in the river at about 7 p.m. when he became tired and went under the water.

Molalla firefighter Denise Everhart said the young man was under water for about a minute when bystanders came to the rescue. She estimated that the river was less than six feet deep at the point where he went in.

Most of the witnesses told authorities they did not see the Arguello-Delgado enter the water. But upon seeing him go under, they quickly came to his aid.

“Bystanders pulled him out and performed really good CPR on him,” Everhart said.

Dispatchers walked the rescuers through the CPR process over the telephone, while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

Upon arriving, emergency crews called in LifeFlight and the teenager was flown to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital.

Everhart said Arguello-Delgado appeared likely to make a recovery, thanks in large part to the quick action of the bystanders.

“He was conscious and his vital signs were stable by the time LifeFlight arrived,” she said. “This is exactly why I always tell people to take a CPR class.”

On Friday afternoon, however, the youth was still listed in critical condition at Legacy Emmanuel.

A construction worker who was injured while working on the Feyrer Park bridge on Tuesday has been released from Legacy Emmanuel Hospital and is in good condition, according to Clackamas County's project manager Mike Bezner.

"I think it was a treat and release kind of deal," he said.

The construction worker, a member of the C.P. Contruction crew contracted by Clackamas County for the bridge project, was pinned between a back hoe and a piece of steel while working under the bridge on Tuesday afternoon.

The bridge has been closed since April, with construction originally projected to be completed in October.

Bezner said the project is "moving along" despite a few unexpected glitches.

"We hit some difficulties with the foundation, when we hit bed rock where we weren't expecting it," he said.

The crews are currently building the foundation, and Bezner said the project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2007.

-Abby Sewell

Families lined the streets of Molalla with lawn chairs this morning to watch the Giant Street Parade, in honor of the 4th of July holiday. Pictured here, Grand Marshall Maryjane Sharp (in car, left) escorts Molalla Buckeroo Queen Rebecca Thompson (right) and Princess Stephanie Hedin (left) along the parade route.

Photo by Abby Sewell

A construction worker was injured this afternoon while working on the Feyrer Park Road Bridge. The worker, who was crushed between a back hoe and a piece of steel, was conscious when emergency personnel from Molalla and Colton Fire Departments arrived just before 2 p.m.

The man was taken to Legacy Emmanuel Hospital by LifeFlight.

Molalla firefighter Mike Berrington said the worker was under the bridge when the accident occurred.

Clackamas County is in process of replacing the old Feyrer Park bridge, with the construction expected to be completed in October.

-By Abby Sewell