Two accidents, only 17 hours apart, take a life, in one case‚ and “totals” two vehicles, sending occupants to the hospital, in another,

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Traffic was shut down at the intersection of SE 122nd Avenue and SE Stark Street twice, in less than 24 hours, due to car crashes.

Deadly hit-and-run
July 4, about 10:35 pm, East Precinct officers respond to a pedestrian- involved hit and run accident, near the intersection of SE 122nd and SE Stark.

“A citizen apparently saw the collision, and followed the suspect until officers could stop him and take him into custody,” Portland Police Bureau’s spokesman, Sgt. Brian Schmautz, tells us. “Officers located a critically injured male; he was transported to OHSU.”

Police say Florentino Garcia struck a pedestrian in the intersection on July 4.

Investigators believe, Schmautz informs us, that 59-year-old Florentino Garcia was driving a Ford pickup westbound on SE Stark Street when he hit a man, identified as 44-year-old Dannie Price. They believe Price was crossing northbound across SE Stark Street in the crosswalk.

Dannie Price died of injuries sustained in this Independence Day accident.

“Based on witness information,” Schmautz continues, “investigators believe Garcia, the driver, had a green light at the time of the collision.”

Officials say Garcia was booked on one count of DUII, one count of Reckless Driving, and one count of Assault in the Third Degree. The suspect was booked before the victim died. “The case will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s office, which may ask jurors to consider raising the assault charge to a manslaughter charge at grand jury. Alcohol consumption will be a factor in the decision-making process regarding both the suspect and victim,” adds Schmautz.

17 hours later‚
At 3:18 p.m. on July 5, on SE Stark only 50 feet west of SE 122nd, a two-car collision ultimately sends two people to the hospital.

Within minutes of the smashup, Portland Fire & Rescue Truck 45 arrives on-scene. Fire and Rescue workers help remove the injured passengers from the two cars; they prepare the patients for transport to Mt. Hood Medical Center for evaluation.

Police say the this accident victim was in the car that pulled out into traffic and caused the wreck.

Again, Sgt. Brian Schmautz fills in the details: “18-year-old Shauna Leistiko was exiting the Burgerville parking lot [on the northwest corner of the intersection].”

Schmautz confirms what an eyewitness at the scene, Allen, tells us: “The Chevy Cavalier came out of the parking lot, looking like she was going eastbound on SE Stark Street. She drove right in front of a car coming westbound. It was quite a smash,” the witness says.

This accident victim came from the Camry. The vehicle was hit so hard, it knocked it south, across three lanes of traffic and into a tree on the south side of the road, authorities say.

Leistiko’s Cavalier collided with a Camry driven by 73-year-old Constance Haynes, Schmautz says.

While no tickets were issued, Schmautz tells us, Haynes had the right of way. “Two people went to the hospital for trauma injuries. Two cars are wrecked. The lesson is simple: Look before you enter the street.”

Police say this accident is the result of one driver not yielding the right of way to traffic already traveling along the street.

© 2007 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News Service

Because Portland Fire & Rescue’s crew arrived within four minutes of the call, the house was saved. There’s an important lesson here‚

Firefighters used power saws to slice open garage doors, to gain access to the fire raging inside.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Dressing up in firefighting outfits, called “turnouts”, on a 90-degree day, makes for a warm afternoon.

But, the heat of the day doesn’t slow crews from Portland Fire & Rescue from preventing a home in outer SE Portland’s Centennial Neighborhood, on the 14300 block of SE Woodward Street, from burning down on July 5.

By the time we arrive on scene, the fire is out, although smoke and steam is still pouring out of the attached garage.

Looking at his MVT (mobile data terminal), Portland Fire & Rescue Deputy Fire Chief Mark Schmidt confirms crews arrived within four minutes of getting the call. “It came in at 1424 [2:24 p.m.], and the truck arrived on scene at 1428.”

We ask why the city’s Deputy Fire Chief is in command; usually a district Battalion Chief directs the crews.

“I was coming out to meet to the Gresham Chief,” Schmidt says. “I was only blocks away, and came over.”

Asked to comment about the fire, Schmidt tells us, “This is a house fire. Most of the loss is in the garage. Also, there’s quite a bit of smoke damage inside the house.”

Although it’s hot work, crews use heat-sensing cameras to check for any hot spots left in the garage.

Schmidt notes that a training crew from Station 2 was called in to do the overhaul [checking for hot spots and removing burned material]. “On a hot day like this, it helps to have extra crew on scene‚ they spell off each other. It’s hot work, especially wearing these turnouts.”

As some of the firefighters paused to guzzle a bottle of water, no one complains. “We’re happy to serve,” one said, sweat pouring off his brow. “We saved a house today.”

The homeowner, Paula Farris, praised the bureau’s response. “We have a wonderful fire department. They arrived quickly and saved the house. Everyone was OK.”

A Portland Fire & Rescue training crew joins regular firefighters, spelling them off on this hot, July afternoon.

Lighter’s flick ignites blaze
Portland Fire & Rescue’s Lt. Doug Jones later tells us that fire investigators reported: “An 18 year old male was working in the garage working on motorcycle or vehicle. There was an open container of flammable liquid. He lit a [cigarette] lighter, or was using the flame from a lighter, and that accidentally ignited the vapors. He received minor injuries to his leg, but was treated on-scene.”

Jones adds, “We’re glad no one was seriously injured. But people have to use common sense with fire and open flame, when working with flammable fluids.”

© 2007 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News Service

How does retired Parkrose School District superintendent view his tenure? Does he plan to kick back in an easy chair? Read his reflections on his time managing the district‚ and his new adventure‚ right here‚

Now that he’s retired, Parkrose School District’s former superintendent, Michael Taylor, says he’s pleased to have helped increase the quality of education that Parkrose students have received‚ but gives teachers and staff members the credit.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
On June 30, the hard-charging superintendent of the Parkrose School District walked out of his office on NE Prescott St. for the last time‚ and into retirement.

We’ve brought you the story about how the district’s board conducted a community-wide research program, from which they developed a concise plan for the future of education in Parkrose. Then, the school board conducted an extensive search for a new superintendent. And, we introduced you to the candidates, and the board’s selection of Dr. Karen Fisher Gray to fill Taylor’s post.

Taylor’s good ‘grades’
Just before he left Parkrose Schools, we asked Taylor to share some of his thoughts about his tenure at Parkrose‚ and plans for his future.

“I feel really good about my time here in Parkrose,” Taylor began. “The transition process has spoken to that. The board’s research says there is a core level of satisfaction about what we‚ our schools, teachers and staff‚ are doing. It shows they appreciate our desire to maintain quality education. That says something good.

“We’ve worked to make this happen. I feel good both about my tenure here, and the transition process.”

While Taylor credit’s the districts achievements to the diligent efforts of its teachers and staff, he does admit he’s pleased to have had a hand in improving public education in Parkrose.

Best part: seeing more students succeed
We asked Taylor what the best part of his time in Parkrose Schools.

“Sometimes in education, you don’t get to see the results of the things you have done. But the way things were in this district, you got to see the results.

“Other people in other districts work as hard I do, and know as much about schools and I do, but not everybody gets the opportunity to help close such a [educational success] gap. It is easier to close the first part of the gap‚ moving from 50% of your kids making it — to 70% — than moving from a 70% success rate to a to 100% rate.

“When I came here, my predecessor told me, ‘All the basics are here, Mike. The core is solid. It just needs to be organized and brushed up a little bit.’

“It was true. Our core staff was good and only got better. Our community supports our educational efforts. The core structure was here; it just needed to get aligned.”

Alignment, Taylor told us, is “about getting people into the right places to do what they need to do. More importantly, successful alignment means moving non-important stuff out of the way so our educators can be successful. To a great extent, we accomplished this.”

Not the best of times: contract negotiations
Asked if there was anything he truly disliked about the job, Taylor thought for a moment before answering.

“If I never negotiate another contract with the union, it will be fine with me. The further the relationship between the school management and the teacher gets, the less the issues are about your schools and your kids.

“To a degree, the interests that were present [in negotiations with unions] got further away from the good of the teachers and the students. We had a couple of hard rounds of negotiations, influenced heavily by outside interests. This stresses the relationships among management, the teachers, and the district.

“Yet‚ and David, this is important — the individual teachers, staff members and organization‚ I have the greatest respect for them.”

Dealing with budget woes
“Another difficult task was creating a budget with the lack of funding we had before the Multnomah County I-Tax,” Taylor continued.

“After 10 years of reductions, having to make yet another round of cuts the year before the I-Tax‚ that was extremely difficult for me. We were down to the point losing services to the point to where the NEXT cut would become toxic to the kids we were trying to serve. It just felt like any more cuts would harm our students.”

Taylor says he’ll stay involved in East County education‚ he plans to help set up a construction trade Skills Center in outer East Portland.

No easy chair for Taylor
Although he did admit to taking fly-fishing lessons this spring, Taylor’s retirement won’t consist of hours spent terrorizing trout. Nor will be be putting his slippers on and lounging in his easy chair at home.

“I’m going to stay involved with education,” Taylor said about his next adventure.

“There is a four-district ‘Skills Center’ that’s being developed; created in association with the Oregon Building Congress.

“The Skills Center has a charter [school] application in to the State of Oregon; it will be sponsored by four school districts in East County. When it is approved, a charter school in construction, architecture and engineering will be available to high school juniors and seniors.”

Skills Center partners with existing high schools
Taylor continued, “I’ve pursued this notion several times before, and never was able to make it happen. I firmly believe that the Center for Advanced Learning in Gresham is a good model for this program.”

Instead of building “mega-high schools” that try to be “all things to all students”, Taylor continued, the concept of operating educational clusters, centers or satellites of specialty makes better sense.

The educational model of the future, he added, is to have a core public high schools, and satellite learning centers.

“If we create a massive number of small schools, we lose public education. We lose the integration of cultures and interests.

Combines specialty training and school spirit
High school juniors and seniors will take general education courses when they attend their “home” high school every other day. “On their days at the Skills Center, students will get [educational] content in math, English or communication, calculations and maybe some of their science — in conjunction with skill sets in construction and engineering.”

Taylor told us that the “comprehensive” high school provides the setting for socialization. “The social culture of high schools is important. A sport, proms, arts, elections and even ‘donkey basketball’ are important parts of growing up.

“At the same time, when it comes to the individual learning interests, schools have to better accommodate the individual student’s needs. We can’t build academies to accommodate all interests in all schools.”

The Skills Center is being developed with partners in the construction trades: carpenters, electricians, HVAC and sheet metal. These trades all currently have their training centers in outer East Portland. The Skills Center, Taylor said, will be located at NE 158th Ave. and Sandy Blvd.

“You’ll be hearing more about it in September,” Taylor promised.

© 2007 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News Service

While many Argay neighbors agree their neighborhood could use another park, read why security, access, and activity locations raised some eyebrows at a recent meeting‚

Representatives from Portland Parks & Recreation‚ Doug Brenner, East Portland Services Manager, and Riley Whitcomb, Program Manager‚ show an aerial photo illustration of the farmland scheduled to become a park.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
While most people in the outer Northeast Portland neighborhood of Argay think of the “Beech Property” plot as farmland, it will eventually become a city park, according to representatives of Portland Parks & Recreation.

On June 11, Doug Brenner, East Portland Services Manager, and Riley Whitcomb, Program Manager from Portland Parks & Recreation, held a public meeting at Shaver Elementary School to tell neighbors why the city revoked a farmer’s lease‚ even though there isn’t currently funding to develop that land into a park.

“At present,” Doug Brenner told a group of 40 neighbors, “there is no funding for park development, but a variety of strategies can be considered once the Master Plan is complete.”

The 15.7 acre Beech Property, leased out as farmland up till a few weeks ago, is actually an undeveloped park located next to Shaver Elementary School, we learned from Brenner. “Portland Parks and Recreation purchased the parcels in 1984 and 1999 as part of a long-range vision to provide a large community park to serve this part of east Portland.”

Brenner said a Master Plan for the new park will be developed in 2008, “through a collaborative, community process.  It will result in a park design that responds to the area’s recreation needs, and reflects the community’s priorities.”

Ending urban farming
Neighbors quizzed the PP&R pair about halting the farming activities for which the land has always been used. Whitcomb acknowledged it as “a difficult situation, when we must end a [farming] lease. But, stopping the farming is the responsible thing to do, for environmental reasons. We don’t want to put [the farmer] out of business.”

Whitcomb said one of the parcels was foreclosed and given to the City of Portland by Multnomah County. “If we don’t develop it as a park, we’ll have to give it back to the county. They will put housing there. If you don’t want a city park on the NE parcel, we’ll have to sell it. It will probably be sold to a developer. It is zoned R3, low-density multi-family. The point is, we want to see a park there. It is a matter of partnering with you to make it happen. We want to make it as good as possible.”

Brenner said PP&R would become responsible for planting “tall grass” and keeping it mowed to knee height. He also said the rainwater runoff on the land would become a responsibility of the city.

More questions and answers
Asked why the city is going through a Master Plan process, Riley Whitcomb replied, “Without going through the planning process, we don’t know what people want. We want to learn the issues and desires of neighbors, so we can address them.”

Issues that surfaced immediately included:

• Mice and rats living in the tall grass;
• Potential access points into the park;
• Parking problems affecting adjoining streets; and
• Safety concerns.

“We’re park planners — I can’t specifically speak about roads and mice,” said Whitcomb. “But we don’t just rubber-stamp our approval on park plans. We’re here to talk about concerns you may have.”

As this PP&R photo illustration shows, the Beech Property consists of two oddly-shaped parcels‚ they adjoin each another at only one small point.

Two odd parcels
Asked how a park can be made from two oddly-shaped parcels that meet only at one small point, Brenner replied, “Our two pieces of property do touch at one point. We’ll have to talk with the [Parkrose] school district [which owns the other property] at some point.”

Addressing access, traffic and parking, Brenner said one potential location for a parking lot is at NE 131st Place. “And, there are many walk-in access points.”

Issues of uses and security raised
“What kind park will this be? What kind of activities will it be designed for?” asked neighbors.

“We’re designing this as a more active kind of park,” replied Whitcomb. “It could be designed to accommodate soccer and softball fields. There is room for picnicking and activities for kids. We try to zone activities to fit the situation. We don’t want the soccer field next to someone’s house.”

When a neighbor raised concerns that park traffic may lower neighborhood safety, Whitcomb replied, “One key to providing a safe park is to have good visibility by neighbors, and to make sure the police can see into the park. Lighting is important; but sometimes lighting also brings in undesirables at night.”

At the meeting, PF&R’s Riley Whitcomb says good park design can reduce drug activity and crime.

Valerie Curry, Argay Neighborhood chair, noted that nearby Argay Park has turned into a place for increased drug activity, and asked what could be done to keep this from happening in the proposed park.

Whitcomb responded, “The way we organize the space is important. Where you have a dark corner area, like in Argay Park, those areas are problematic. We may need to think about how we address that. Maybe we need a street that comes though the park so everything is in full view. Lighting and location of activities are at issue. And, when neighbors ‘take ownership’ of their park, we see fewer problems.”

Bathrooms and trees
The group learned that the proposed park would feature a permanent bathroom.

A neighbor living south‚ thus above‚ the property, asked about trees. “Will I lose my view? I can see the Columbia River from my home.”

Brenner replied, “Portland parks are about trees. We will be bringing trees into the park.”

Timetable revealed
Exactly how the park will be designed, and the features it will include, is all part of the Master Plan, Brenner repeated.

Although asked in several different ways during the meeting, the most frequently asked question regarding the final Master Plan was, “Do we, the neighbors, get to vote on it?”

Whitcomb stated, “It is discussion. Typically, we bring three or four alternatives.”

“The plan is developed as collaborative decisions made between the community and PP&R,” clarified Brenner.

The Master Plan will be developed in 2008, stated Brenner. “It can take from three to nine months. We don’t yet have funding to develop the park. We look at a variety of strategies to develop a park. It could be a citywide parks levy. Maybe by then the city will be in good financial shape; funding could come from grants.”

Riley Whitcomb says of the Beech Property, “the reality is, the use of this land is changing. For many years, it was farmed. Now, there will be other kinds of activities.”

Summing up, Whitcomb added, “Some people will be happy with what we come up with, others will be upset. If this is the case, then I’ve done my job. We listen to your concerns. The reality is, the use of this land is changing. For many years, it was farmed. Now, there will be other kinds of activities.”

Stay in touch
“We want you to be included in the process,” Brenner concluded. “Please e-mail or telephone me with your contact information. We never sell or lend our lists to anyone for any reason, other than contacting you about this project.”

Resources:
For information, contact Doug Brenner, East Portland Services Manager, at 6437 SE Division Street, Portland, OR  97206; telephone (503) 823-5255, or E-mail pkdoug@ci.portland.or.us.

© 2007 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News Service