Molalla Pioneer

Not everything fits in the newspaper.


Annual MCC membership meeting yields mixed results

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

At Molalla Communications Company’s 50th annual membership meeting on Friday night, with more than 900 people in attendance, MCC board members and management handed out prizes, discussed the company’s financial success in 2006, and took a membership vote that passed amendments to the cooperative’s bylaws.

They also voted in Ron Jones as a board member, replacing Dick Lefever who resigned for health reasons on March 20.

However, they did not address concerns raised by some audience members regarding allegations of mismanagement and favoritism in the workplace.

Several citizens took the floor during the new business section of the meeting to ask that the board address claims regarding unfair practices in hiring and firing of employees and determining salaries and benefits that were made in an anonymous e-mail sent out to hundreds of MCC members last Saturday.

Audience member Peggy Smith asked, “Instead of finding out who wrote the e-mail, why aren’t you more concerned as to whether it’s true or false?”

Tod Northman, attorney to MCC, declined to respond to the question.

“If you have particular concerns to raise with the board, you can do that, but not at the annual meeting,” he said. “… Running the cooperative on a day-to-day basis is not an appropriate topic for a membership meeting.”

MCC board chairman Ed Lettenmaier told the audience the board would be willing to set up an open meeting where the public could voice concerns, although he added that many of the questions being raised, as personnel issues, were privileged information.

Smith remained skeptical that her concerns would be addressed.

“They shut me up by bringing in a lawyer. They shut me up and a lot of other people too,” Smith said. “If we are a part of MCC, why was I not heard tonight?”

17-year-old arrested on sexual assault charges

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

Shortly after noon today, two Oregon State Police detectives and a trooper arrested a 17-year-old Molalla High School student from the high school campus on sexual assault charges stemming from an incident that took place in December 2006 during an MHS basketball team trip to Sisters, Ore.

The student arrested today was transported to Portland and lodged in the Donald E. Long Home, a juvenile detention facility, on charges of unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree, coercion, harassment and probation violation. As of press time, OSP LT. Gregg Hastings said he could not disclose the charges that led to the youth's probation.

The OSP investigation was launched in January after an initial report was filed with the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

"The detectives, after working on this since late January, finally felt there was enough probable cause to make the arrest," Hastings said.

He added, "The investigation is continuing and we'll have to see if there are any future developments."

Molalla police cite three in drug raid



By Abby Sewell

Molalla Pioneer



The Molalla Police Department executed a search warrant on an apartment on Center Avenue in downtown Molalla on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in three residents being cited on drug charges.

MPD Sgt. Jim Barnhart said the raid was a result of a two-month investigation that revealed methamphetamine was being sold out of the apartment on a regular basis.

"There are children that live right next door to this place, it's across the street from a bank, and we had these people committing felonies quite arrogantly, dealing meth a block from the police department," he said.

The search, which was conducted about 3 p.m. on Wednesday, resulted in the discovery of one small baggy of meth inside a light bulb that had been converted into a makeshift meth pipe. A syringe loaded with some form of liquid was found in the toilet, as were several empty syringes, marijuana pipes and a small quantity of marijuana.

George Hamm, 36, was cited on a charge of unlawful possession of methamphetamine but was not taken into custody, as he is the sole caretaker for his mother, who has serious heath problems, Barnhart said. The mother, who also lives in the apartment on Center Avenue, was not charged with any crime or believed to be involved in the drug activity.

Two other residents of the apartment were also cited. Brenda Wacker, 34, was cited on a charge of frequenting a place where controlled substances are sold. She was released.

Pamella Marez, 46, was arrested and lodged in the Clackamas County jail on charges of unlawful possession of methamphetamine and violating her probation from a previous conviction of driving under the influence of intoxicants.


"George Hamm dealt quite a bit of meth in small amounts," Barnhart said. "Not much was found on scene, but by putting the time and effort in (to execute the search), we disrupted the activity."


He added that the owner of the property where Hamm was a tenant had been notified of the search warrant and was "very supportive."

Anonymous email messages prompt investigation

Hackers access phone company computers, send fake emails

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

On Saturday evening, an anonymous party used a Molalla Pioneer e-mail address to send an unauthorized message to hundreds of people in the Molalla community making allegations of mismanagement in the leadership of Molalla Communications Company.

The email, which led off with the statement “MCC board members negligent, new board members needed ASAP — it’s time for a total change,” was discovered by MCC staff on Sunday.

MCC president and CEO Steve Loutzenhiser said he believes the sender of the e-mail logged into an MCC member’s e-mail account without authorization and changed the reply address to that of the Molalla Pioneer before sending the message.

Molalla Pioneer Editor Joe Wilson said the email messages did not come from the newspaper or anyone who works there.

Loutzenhiser said, “I believe somebody logged in as somebody else and I believe those actions were potentially criminal.”

He declined to say whose e-mail address the sender used to log in.

After logging in and changing the reply-to address to pioneer@eaglenewspapers.com, the sender attempted to distribute the message to several hundred people, although MCC’s spam filters prevented some of the e-mails from being sent, Loutzenhiser said.

He said he was unsure where the sender got the list of e-mails from, but that to his knowledge, all the recipients were MCC customers.

On Monday morning, MCC staff also discovered that there had been a disruption in the company’s internet service.

Loutzenhiser said the connection with two of MCC’s major internet providers was broken. The problem was remedied by switching to a third provider and internet service was restored within a half hour.

“We don’t have any idea if (the disruption in service) was related to the e-mails at all, but it’s unusual for two providers to be down at the same time,” Loutzenhiser said.

The e-mail sent on Saturday, which called for the removal of the entire MCC board of directors and the company’s senior management team, and alleged unfair hiring and firing practices within the company.

“This year alone six employees voluntarily left and seven were fired,” the letter said. “Most were fired under fabricated performance allegations.”

MCC human resources director Christine Cline said those numbers were not correct, but for confidentiality reasons, MCC management declined to give the actual number of employees who had left or been fired.

The e-mail went on to allege favoritism in hiring decisions and in determining salaries within the company.

“(The e-mail) was a violation of employees’ privacy and was completely inappropriate,” Loutzenhiser said.

Cline said the company follows the hiring guidelines outlined in its employee manual.

MCC management did not provide a copy of the manual and was unable to confirm or deny other figures cited in the e-mail concerning the salaries of MCC senior management, due to confidentiality concerns.

Cline noted that in an employee satisfaction survey sent out on April 3, 98 percent of MCC’s 41 regular employees said they were satisfied with their compensation and benefits.

“We do care about providing a good place to work,” Loutzenhiser said. “ … This (e-mail) is taking our resources away from doing what our community really needs.”

As of press time, Loutzenheiser said MCC had not contacted law enforcement but was working with a forensics expert to determine the source of the e-mail. He said the company might consider filing a civil suit and criminal charges at a later date.

The MCC management could not say who they believed might be the source of the e-mail.

However, vice president of marketing and member relations Chris Michalopoulos said, “If you look at the tone of the letter it seems like an ex-disgruntled employee.”

He added, “Not everybody likes change, and even though the benefits to the community are so apparent, some people will fight it.”

The e-mail was sent out a week before MCC’s annual membership meeting, scheduled for Friday evening. More than 1,300 people are expected to attend.

Middle school bomb joke not so funny

Student quickly recants claim of bomb in duffel bag when police show up

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

The Molalla Police Department responded to a call at Molalla River Middle School at about 8:30 on Friday morning, after a 12-year-old male student made a joke about having a bomb in his duffel bag.

MPD Chief Jerry Giger said the police received a call after an MRMS teacher overheard one student ask another, “What’s in your bag?” to which the second student responded, “A bomb.”

Although the student appeared to be joking, Giger said, staff pulled him into the office and called MPD. Upon a search, the student was not found to be carrying a bomb or any weapons.

Giger said the student was apologetic when he realized the seriousness of the situation.

“The minute he knew he’d done something wrong, he folded,” Giger said. “… We couldn’t find any indication of any threat of harm. But (in light of the recent massacre at Virginia Tech) we are not and may never be at the point of taking these things lightly.”

The school did not go into lock down mode and continued on with its regularly scheduled activities for the remainder of the day.

MRMS vice principal Andy McKean said the student was sent home with his mother for evaluation and is currently out of school.

“This was a situation where the kid was making an off the cuff remark and wasn’t taking things seriously, and unfortunately you can’t say those things in today’s society,” McKean said.

Three head coaches resign

By Tim Lane
Molalla Pioneer

Three head coaches at Molalla High School resigned recently as the extensive time commitment prep sports requires became too much for them.

Tim Baker, the head football coach, Waldo Sotelo, the head girls soccer coach and Shelly Wetzell, the head volleyball coach all notified Molalla High School shortly before spring break.

Baker is a coach who is coming off of a very successful 2006 campaign where he led the Indians to a 9-2 record on the gridiron, including a perfect 6-0 record in Capital play.

The season eventually ended with a 19-8 loss to Central in the first round of the state playoffs.

Despite the recent success and the ingredients for another deep run in 2007, Baker felt like it was the right time to leave.

“Football has occupied my time for the last nine years and I have children who are five and two and they have been pretty patient with me coaching but they are growing up fast,” Baker said. “My wife has been real patient and it is just time to spend some time with my family before it is too late.”

Molalla was full of firsts for Baker when he originally came to the community.

“Molalla has provided me with a lot of opportunities. My first teaching job and my first coaching job and I (have) appreciated the support from the community and the school district and the players and their families,” Baker said. “I have been lucky to have a supportive wife and children as they stood behind me while I did this, but now it is time to turn my attention to them.”

The time commitment was only going to get bigger as Molalla gets ready for a possible move up to 5A where it will be necessary for the Indians to develop more of a program situation as opposed to just a team.

“We have only run high school teams for so long and now we are going to have to run complete programs, so it is going to take a lot of time and a lot of energy on their (the coaches) part,” Molalla High School vice principal and athletic director Steve Boynton said.

“Coach Baker looked at that and then looked at his family and said ‘I need to be a dad,’ and that is understandable and commendable. It was tough to see him resign and we hate to see him go,” Boynton said.

Along with the time associated with a jump in levels come the expectations of the town.

“That is a high-profile job,” Boynton said. “You have the new stadium down there and people expect a lot from the team. Last year we had a great year and hopefully we will be able to piggy-back off of that and get a good, solid staff to build on that.”

Right now Boynton is working with the athletic programs to get them prepared for the move to 5A.

“OSAA has given us a year to kind of get our ducks in a row,” Boynton said. “Realistically, they could have moved us this December, but they are going to give us some time.”

For many of the returning football players, hearing the news was somewhat of a surprise.

“I had a player meeting before spring break and I let them know,” Baker said. “I think that they were shocked, but they understood where I was coming from. A big theme of the program is that we have always stressed the importance of family and we have treated each other as family so when I told them of my decision they understood and were supportive.”

Baker expects to miss the job he has had for so many years.

“It is the right decision although it is a difficult decision because I look at those players as my boys and I care about all of them,” Baker said. “I wish Molalla all of the best in the future and I will be right there cheering along with everyone else when they make a run for the title next year.”

Next up for Molalla football will be finding a new head coach, and Boynton is committed to hiring one who will be in the classroom as well as along the sidelines.

“Research will tell you that any time you have a head football coach that is not a part of your staff then discipline problems will go up by about 30 percent,” Boynton said. “Legally, he (the new coach) doesn’t have to be in the building, but in terms of making the school function that is the one coach that all the research tells you needs to be in the building. I am going to look really hard for a teacher-coach for that position. I am going to look hard for teacher-coaches for all of my positions.”

As is common practice with Molalla High School, all assistant coaches are vacated when a head coach resigns.

“The reason behind that is it is not fair to any coach to bring them into a new setting and a new program and have assistant coaches that may not fit their philosophy,” Boynton said. “I need to be fair to the new coaches and let them make their choices; especially in a sport like football where you have such a variety of coaches. It might mean that some of the assistants don’t get their jobs back, but that is just the nature of the thing. You have to be fair to the new coach and the new program.”

The other two positions to be filled, girls soccer and volleyball, were vacated by coaches who were at the helm for only a year.

Waldo Sotelo, the Spanish teacher, found that coming in from Portland and teaching all day was too much when soccer practice was added to the equation.

“He commutes from downtown Portland and I think that between his teaching job and his commute it was getting to be too much of a burnout,” Boynton said.

Volleyball might be the most difficult position to fill as coaches who are involved with club volleyball are ineligible to coach at the high school level due to OSAA regulations.

Shelly Wetzell also was driving in from Portland for practices and it was becoming too much.

“Trying to do her work and driving was just getting to be too much,” Boynton said. “She has a young kid too, who she wants to be there for.”

Boynton hopes to fill the football position first and is posting the opening in a variety of sources and has been to a few job fairs looking for candidates.

Ideal applicants for all positions would be people interested in investing in the town.

“We need to find people who are going to contribute to our community,” Boynton said.

Howdy, Mister!



Photo by Abby Sewell

Last Thursday and Friday, preschoolers from the Clackamas County Head Start program got a chance to tour the Molalla High School Land Lab. Land Lab manager Dennis Ettestad, above, introduced the little folks to farm animals like Mister the horse. “These young people will never forget this,” Ettestad said. “Some may live in town and don’t get to see animals every day.” MHS agriculture program students helped lead the children through a series of learning stations involving plant, farm equipment, and livestock. This spring marks the third year that Head Start classes have visited the Land Lab.

Mulino considers forming hamlet

By David Howell
Molalla Pioneer

A leading East Coast university has selected a Clackamas County program focused on giving rural residents a greater say over public services as one of the best government innovations of the year.

And the pioneering program could soon debut in Mulino.

The county Complete Communities’ Hamlet and Village Program has been named a semifinalist for the Innovations in American Government Awards and is eligible to win a $100,000 grant.

The program aims to link citizens in unincorporated parts of the sprawling urban-rural county with important public services, to express issues of concern, to prioritize activities and to coordinate community-based events.

“These two governance options give citizens an increased level of local expression, control and self-governance in decisions that affect their lives,” according to the county’s adopted ordinance.

The Hamlet and Village Program is among the “2007 Top 50 Government Innovations” named by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Eighteen finalists will be announced on May 2 and, ultimately, seven programs will each receive $100,000 grants.

The county program has established Beavercreek and Stafford as hamlets, while Mulino is in the final stage of formation. The village formed so far is the Villages at Mount Hood, which includes Welches, Brightwood, Zig Zag, Wemme and Rhododendron.

Mulino-area residents and business people are invited to attend a meeting set for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 17, at Mulino Elementary School, 26660 S. Highway 213.

The upcoming meeting is the latest stage in the hamlet-forming process, following three meetings at the Mulino Oregon Pilot Clubhouse.

Attendees at the elementary school will be informed about the purpose of a hamlet and proposed activities, bylaws and boundaries.

They will also be able to nominate candidates to serve on the proposed hamlet’s board of directors. People who wish to be candidates can submit applications to Suzanne Roberts at sroberts@coganowens.com.

(Proof of residency, or business or property ownership is required to vote on the hamlet formation.)

In order for a hamlet to be formed, at least 10 percent of the citizens living within the proposed hamlet boundary or 100 citizens, whichever is the lesser number, must sign a petition. A village petition requires the support of at least 15 percent of the local population or 150 citizens.

The proposed hamlet - the preliminary boundary is the Mulino Community Planning Organization’s coverage area - would advise the three-member Clackamas County Board of Commissioners. The formation of a hamlet or a village does not affect an existing Community Planning Organization, the county reports.

Stafford residents who attended a March 19 in Tualatin voted 344-30 to form a hamlet and 341-27 to approve its bylaws. The hamlet boundary and bylaws can be viewed at www.staffordhamlet.org.

Beavercreek citizens approved forming a hamlet after two town hall meetings last June. The hamlet boundary and bylaws can be viewed at www.beavercreekbulletin.org.

The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners has final approval of each hamlet’s board of directors, bylaws and governance structures.

Hamlets are not recognized by state law, so a board of directors can only advise the county on recommended projects, such as roads, infrastructure and safety issues, and has no power, authority or funding to act.

The program has been coordinated by Cogan Owens Cogan, which was contracted by the county.

“The Clackamas County Hamlet and Village Program is grassroots democracy in action,” said county board chairwoman Martha Schrader. “Citizens are able to effectively respond to their community’s needs and interests. The program offers residents in unincorporated areas of the county a means for more say in decisions that affect their lives.”

However, residents of Boring previously voted not to form a hamlet.

The top 50 programs - representing government agencies at the federal, state, county and city levels - were selected for their novelty and creativity, effectiveness at addressing significant issues and their potential to be replicated by other jurisdictions, according to a Harvard University news release.

Chosen from nearly 1,000 applicants, they represent government’s best efforts across a variety of policy areas, ranging from education to the environment, criminal justice to health care and management to community development.

“The programs represent the very best of public management,” said Harvard’s Ash Institute director Gowher Rizvi. “We are honored to highlight innovative practices that produce renewed confidence in public service.”

The hamlets and villages program will be part of the county’s fifth Complete Communities Congress, which is set for 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at Oregon City High School’s Jackson Campus, 1306 12th St.

To learn more about the county’s hamlets and villages program, visit www.co.clackamas.or.us/community.

For more information, call Clackamas County’s Christine Roth at 503-742-5920 or Cogan Owens Cogan’s Kirstin Greene at 503-225-0192.

Volunteers hit trails for Earth Day

RiverWatch volunteers to work on Molalla River Recreation Corridor Trail System

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

Next Saturday’s Earth Day activities will be more than a walk in the park for dozens of volunteers who will lace up their work boots and head out to the Molalla River Recreation Corridor for a day of hard work in the woods.

Kay Patteson, executive director of Molalla RiverWatch, said she expects to see more than 125 volunteers trek out to the Molalla River Recreation Corridor Trail System.

There they will construct a new informational kiosk at the Aquila Vista Natural Resource Education Areas, plant native plants, and fan out around the area to clear winter debris from the 50-mile trail loop.

The work day is part of the SOLV-IT Earth Day program presented by Portland General Electric, and sponsored by Molalla RiverWatch and the Bureau of Land Management.

Last year, Patteson said, about 25 volunteers participated in the cleanup, but this year’s projects are on a larger scale.

“We didn’t have any major things planned last year, just a number of diverse small projects,” she said.

This year, volunteers will have their choice of several different projects. The most ambitious of these is the construction of a kiosk at Aquila Vista, about five miles from the Hardy Creek Trailhead.

The kiosk will provide a map of the local trail system and information about native animal and plant species.

Aside from that, volunteers will be planting trees and rooting out invasive species.

Patteson said that the LDS Church Neighbor to Neighbor program has offered to bring about 100 people to help out.

“(Neighbor to Neighbor) brings a lot of volunteers and enthusiasm to the project,” Patteson said. “It’s great to think we can establish a working relationship now and we’re looking forward to it in the future.”

Along with the Neighbor to Neighbor group, Patteson expects a crew of 10 from the Clackamas County Environmental Youth Corps, as well as any other unaffiliated people who may be interested in doing some physical labor for a good cause.

Molalla RiverWatch and the BLM will be supervising the projects and providing tools and barbecue fixings to keep up the volunteers’ strength and spirits.

They will start between 9 and 10 a.m., after meeting at the Hardy Creek trailhead to register.

To volunteer in the Earth Day Trail Enhancement efforts, meet at the Hardy Creek Trailhead between 9 and 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 28. From Molalla, follow detour signs to Dickey Prairie, as the Feyrer Park Bridge will be closed at the time. Turn left at the Dickey Prairie store onto Dickey Prairie Road and drive about four miles; then turn right to cross the Glen Avon Bridge. Follow the paved road about 3.5 miles and the Hardy Creek Trailhead is on the right. For more information, call Kay Patteson at 503-824-2195 or e-mail riverwatch@molalla.net.

Country Christian student’s threat taken seriously

After evaluation, the 14-year-old boy was released to parents

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

A 14-year-old male student at Country Christian School was picked up by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and taken to the county’s juvenile department for questioning on Wednesday, after making a remark to a staff member that was construed as threatening.

CCSO Detective Jim Strovink said, “We had a young man who made a comment on a very low scale of possible threats and got a call to go down there.” According to Strovink, a school administrator contacted CCSO after a conversation with the student in which he made the comment, “I can’t kill my teachers in their sleep.”

A sheriff’s deputy arrived on scene and took the student to the Juvenile Department for evaluation. “The deputy who went down there did the right thing because we have a zero-tolerance policy on those type of remarks,” Strovink said. “He (the deputy) would have been remiss to have not done that, and the school did the right thing in reporting it.”

Mark McDonnell, intake and assessment center supervisor at the Clackamas County Juvenile Department, said the student was brought in for evaluation at 10:30 a.m. and released at 3:40 p.m. He was not charged with a crime.

When a juvenile is brought in for evaluation, McDonnell said, there are four possible outcomes, ranging from sending the student home with a safety contract to placing him or her in a psychiatric hospital.

“This youth was at the lowest level,” McDonnell said.

Country Christian officials declined to comment on the
incident.

First Student bus drivers win union election

Molalla First Student bus drivers voted 25 to 11 today in favor of forming a union under the Oregon School Employees Association, according to school bus driver Lori Koos, one of the leaders of the union drive.

The bus drivers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board announcing their desire to unionize on March 13, 2007.

Last year, drivers narrowly voted against unionizing with the Amalgated Transit Union. OSEA is the union currently representing classified staff in the Molalla River School District.

For more details, see Saturday's edition of the Molalla Pioneer.

Truck flips on Highway 213 Wednesday afternoon

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

A 1998 Toyota Tacoma flipped after hitting a patch of hail on Highway 213 in Mulino Wednesday evening, at about 5:40 p.m.

Traffic was slowed for an hour while the vehicle was blocking the northbound lane. However, Vic Dunton of Mulino, the only occupant of the vehicle, was uninjured.
"I hit a hail storm -- I didn't see it coming," he said.

Dunton said he was accelarating to get up the hill on Highway 213 just past Graves Road when the slick road conditions caused the truck's rear end to flip.

"Fortunately no one was coming in the other lane," he said.

Molalla Fire Department personnel directed traffic until a tow truck arrived, shortly after 6 p.m.

Man escapes after police chase in Colton

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

A motorcyclist led Clackamas County Sheriff's Office deputies on a high speed chase ending in Colton on Sunday evening, before escaping into the woods.

A sheriff's deputy first spotted the man in Estacada at 6:51 p.m., speeding through the intersection of South Springwater Road and South Spring Creek Road at 104 miles per hour.

The Deputy attempted to stop the motorcyclist, who eluded him and sped down Highway 211 heading towards Colton.

Heading through the intersection of Wall Street and Highway 211 in Colton, the subject crossed into the oncoming lane and narrowly missed striking a white truck turning left, according to the CCSO report.

"As he passed Hult Road, the bike began to wobble and fell over," CCSO Detective Jim Strovink said, adding that the vehicle had apparently run out of gas.

The suspect ran down an adjacent driveway, pulled off his gloves and his helmet and climbed over a fence before removing his jacket. The deputy pursued him as he climbed over another fence into a berry bramble; however, the subject escaped.

Reinforcements from CCSO and the Molalla Police Department arrived and assisted in the search, which lasted until nearly 10 p.m., Strovink said.

The motorcycle, a yellow 2006 Suzuki GSX 600, was not listed as a stolen vehicle, Storvink said. However, police were unable to locate a registered owner.

The subject who escaped was described as a young white male adult wearing a long sleeved green shirt. Police had not identified him as of press time.

Molalla woman gave a lifetime of love

Donna Schmidt who drowned will be missed by many friends

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

At times, a police report can condense a whole lifetime into a few quick and dirty facts. So it was when the body of Donna Laverne Schmidt was discovered in the Molalla River on April 6.

The immediately available facts were limited to a cause of death — drowning — and a record of a recent criminal conviction for forgery and tampering with drug evidence.

But those who knew and loved Schmidt say that 54 years of sweet and compassionate life more than outweighed several troubled years and a tragic death.

The more than 200 mourners assembled at Butteville Community Church on Saturday recalled a gentle soul with deep reserves of love, especially for children, the elderly and the weak.

Her two sons were not the only people present on Saturday who spoke of Schmidt as a mother.

Seventeen-year-old Samantha Felgar, one of Schmidt’s step-grandchildren recalled Saturday mornings spent at the Schmidts’ house, making pancakes and cuddling under the blankets to watch cartoons, and learning to swim under Donna Schmidt’s patient guidance.

“She’d take care of us all the time, and we loved going over there,” Felgar said.

Friends and neighbors, like Diane Smith, told a similar story.

“(Donna) helped raise my grandchildren,” she said. “They had lost their mother when they were really young, and they would go over (to the Schmidts’ house) all the time. Especially every October, I remember they would go over and carve pumpkins for Halloween.”

From the time when she babysat neighborhood children as a teenager to her years running a daycare center in the Molalla area, up to the last years of her life, Schmidt’s husband of 25 years, Mark Schmidt, said she exercised an irresistible pull on those who encountered her.

“Even up to contemporary days, she’d push a grocery cart up to the line at the Safeway, and a child would see her and crawl from his cart into hers,” he said. “She was such a magical creature - very magnetic, soft and sweet - not drippy sweet, but very secure.”

Donna survived a turbulent childhood, leaving her with painful memories that would never disappear, but also with a deep empathy for those who were suffering, Mark said.

Born in the community of Butteville, Ore., she moved to Portland at age three with her mother and step-father. They returned to Butteville in 1968.

Sixteen-year-old Donna was in the house in when her step-father shot himself twice in the head with a pistol. He survived but was confined to a state hospital for the rest of his life, laying a heavy burden of debt on the family.

At 18, Donna was accepted into the first class of nursing students at Clackamas Community College. She attended the program for one term before dropping out to work full time and help her mother pay the bills.

During her twenties, Donna worked for several years as a licensed practical nurse at a geriatric home in Lake Oswego. She loved the job, which appealed to her nurturing instincts, Mark said.

“There were countless people she ushered over the threshhold of death,” he said. “... And on the other side, so many lives she ushered into the world. She skated so close to the edge, always on the threshold of either in or out.”

During that time, Donna went to work as a nanny in the Molalla area, caring for the three and four-year-old children of Tim Roley. While caring for the children, she fell in love with the father. They were married in 1972 and had two sons of their own, Chris and Sean.

It was the 1970s and the hippy counterculture was still in full effect. Donna opened a 24-hour daycare center, with which she supported the family for several years, often caring for children whose parents had become entangled in the drug culture of the time.

“It was a different world then,” Mark said. “There wasn’t a drug war going on, and people were very naïve. …. A lot of times she was caring for those children whose parents were dropping out.”

Mark Schmidt, who was then working as a contractor in Corvallis, had known Roley since they both were boys. Needing extra hands on the job, he hired Roley to work for him building houses, and it was then that he and Donna met.

After working several months for Schmidt in Corvallis, Donna and Tim Roley returned to Molalla. Schmidt believes that it was during that time period, with her husband and his friends, that Donna first became involved with drugs, doing what used to be called “crank,” now commonly known as crystal meth.

“She struggled with meth addiction, but one day she stood up and said, ‘You can’t do this in my house any more,’” Schmidt said. “She took the boys by the hand and walked out, and they came up to Glen Avon, to me, and started a new life. She cold-turkey quit her meth habit and walked away.”

Mark had moved to the Molalla area, near the Glen Avon Bridge, in 1982. When Donna left her marriage and her addiction, he came to her aid. Together they lived and raised the two boys for eight years in an old house on a former fishing resort.

Donna spent her days gardening and welcoming friends and family to the house.

“Our doors were always open for people,” Mark recalled. “We’d just turn on the grills at five o’clock and on weekends she would cook for 300 people. It wasn’t a wild party scene, just people and families.”

Patti Nightingale, a friend and neighbor of the Schmidts, has a similar recollection.

“The river spot was always a barbecue,” she said. “Everyone went there, and there was always enough food to go around, and laughter and music.”

In 1992, the Schmidts returned to Butteville to care for Donna’s 77-year-old grandmother.

“Helen (Donna’s grandmother) was her real parent,” Mark said. “We spent 10 years at Grandma Walker’s.”

They lived across the street from the 114-year-old Butteville Community Church, where Mark would later design a second church building on the property to hold an expanded congregation. The building was completed and dedicated in November, 2006.

It was during the time in Butteville that Donna’s earlier demons returned. After Helen Walker’s death, Donna’s step-niece, then in her 20’s, moved into the back unit of the two mobile homes in Butteville where Donna and Mark had been living. A pair of young female friends joined her soon after, and they began to party regularly.

“It became apparent that there was more than just drinking going on there,” Mark said.

However, the Schmidts were occupied with caring for Donna’s grandmother, and after she died in 2000, Donna and Mark moved back to Glen Avon, leaving the niece and her friends behind.

Donna worried that her niece had become caught up in the meth scene, Mark said. She began going down to visit, in hopes of helping the younger woman escape a bad situation.

“Donna went back to Butteville to rescue Lisa (her niece) from meth addiction, and she got Lisa out,” Mark said. “Lisa moved to Florida and cleaned up, had a life and a baby. But that wasn’t enough for Donna. She thought she could rescue the other two girls.”

In the process, he believes, Donna was sucked back into her own addiction.

For five years, it was an unspoken demon dogging the marriage.

Afraid of driving her away, Mark said, he never pressed Donna to tell him the truth.

“I couldn’t break her heart or her spirit,” he said. “I believed in my love, how deeply I loved her, and I thought she would come to me when she was ready. … And maybe three times in the last three years, she came to me and her eyes welled up with tears, and she said ‘I need to talk to you.’”

But each time, she drew back before telling the truth.

However, through her connection with the drug scene, Donna had drawn attention from law enforcement. She was first arrested in July 2005 on charges of falsifying a prescription. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence, but the investigation continued, and the case was later reopened.

Mark said that Donna had obtained prescriptions for painkillers and antibiotics after an accident in 2002, when a pile of plywood fell on her leg. However, he never looked closely into her medical affairs.

“Donna would never let me manage her health care or legal care,” he said. “She didn’t need a man to tell her what to do, and I respected that. But when she needed an attorney, I paid for it. I didn’t give her the money, because I wanted to make sure it went to the attorney.”

On Labor Day weekend of 2006, Donna was arrested after a routine traffic stop, on the same forgery charges. Because the courts were closed for the long weekend, she spent four days in the Marion County Jail.

“That was really traumatic for her,” Mark said.

Donna maintained her innocence for several months, eventually pleading no contest on three counts of identity theft and two counts of tampering with drug evidence on Jan. 10, 2007.

She was due for sentencing on April 16.

“We knew the sentence would be rehab,” Mark said. “And we were going to accept rehab, or so I thought.”

During the months following her arrest, Donna was in low spirits, somewhat withdrawn from the world.

On the morning of March 12, Mark noticed that she was acting strangely groggy. So instead of leaving the house at noon as he usually did, to pick up the mail and run business errands, he stayed home and watched her.

At 3 p.m., with Donna sleeping heavily, he finally prepared to go out on his daily route.

“Sometimes you just say the right thing at the right moment,” he said. “I woke her up and said ‘I love you, baby, and I’ll see you in just a bit.’ I was gone for two hours, and when I came back, everything was exactly as I left it, but she was gone.”

For the first time in all their years together, Donna did not come home that night. Mark was not immediately worried. His wife had spoken to him about wanting to get away, saying that if she disappeared, he was not to worry, that she would get in touch soon.

“I thought she was going to Jane Doe herself into rehab,” he said. “And I was so proud of her. I didn’t report her missing right away. In our situation, I knew that Donna just needed to get her head together, and the last thing she needed was to get arrested again.”

When she failed to contact him after two days, he began searching on his own. Finally he filed a missing person report with Clackamas County on March 22.

The river was running high the day she disappeared.

No one was on the scene to say how it was that she slipped off the river bank.

What is certain is that she left behind a community of hundreds who loved her deeply.

“Donna was basically an angel on earth,” Nightingale said. “You hear that phrase a lot, but rarely do you meet someone who really fits the description.”

As for Mark Schmidt, looking back on the last 25 years, he said, “We were really lucky. We lived a full life, but all too soon it’s over.”

Woman found in Molalla River identified


Following a forensic autopsy, Oregon State Medical Examiners have identified the woman whose body was recovered from the Molalla River today as Donna Schmidt, 54, of Molalla.

The cause of death was determined to be drowning, but the circumstances are unknown. Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Detective Jim Strovink said, however, that the case is not being regarded as a potential homicide.

For more information, see the Saturday, April 7 issue of the Molalla Pioneer.

Update: body recovered

Clackamas County Sheriffs Office Marine dive team personnel recovered the body of an unidentified female from the Molalla River just before 11 a.m.

The body was transported to the Oregon State Medical Examiners office in Clackamas for a forensic examination to be conducted this afternoon.

Investigators are releasing no further information at this time.

Body discovered in Molalla River

By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is working to recover the body of an unidentified female from the Molalla River, about a mile and a half upstream from Feyrer Park.

The property owner discovered and reported the body at 6:30 p.m. last night, near South Molalla Forest Road, between South Adams Cemetery Road and Dickey Prairie Road. CCSO personnel responded to the scene and verified that there was a human body submerged at the bottom of a 10 foot deep pool of water.

Due to hazardous currents in the area, divers deemed it unsafe to attempt a recovery in the dark, according to CCSO Lt. Bob Lowe.

He said investigators have an idea of the woman’s identity, based on a missing person report, but have not been able to verify it.

“At this point, we’re treating it like a crime scene, although it could be anything from an accidental drowning to a homicide,” he said.

The recovery process can be lengthy, as divers must search for evidence and property that might help identify the body before attempting to remove it from the river.

The Oregon State Medical Examiners Office anticipates performing a forensic autopsy this afternoon, at which point the identity and cause of death of the deceased may be released.

We’re not just doing this to be cool!

A large part of a newspaper’s responsibility is to attempt to give its readers all the news they want and need. A newspaper is even going further than that if it engages its readers in a dialog. News should not be a one-way street.

That’s exactly why we are now offering our readers this online Web log or blog to accompany our regular news Web site and printed newspaper. This blog will carry breaking news, questions posed to the readers and other information we hope readers will find useful. You’ll likely find some news and interesting hearsay that didn’t make it into the paper from time to time.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

And be sure to check back regularly to see what’s going on.

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