Viks upset Hillsboro Forest Grove nails field goal victory — See Sports, B1
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2012 • MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN WESTERN WASHINGTON COUNTY SINCE 1886 • WWW.FGNEWSTIMES.COM • VOL. 128, NO. 41 • 5O CENTS
Cornelius gas tax fight heats up Opponent spends $1,000 urging voters to kill 2-cent tax By STEPHANIE HAUGEN The News-Times As election day approaches, residents of Cornelius will have to decide whether
to vote yes on measure 34-201, which would repeal the city’s 2-cent per gallon gas tax or vote no to keep it. The gas tax, passed in 2010 with 55 percent voting yes, led to the elimination of the city’s streetlight fee and added funds to the budget dedicated to more asphalt overlay on city streets. An estimated 40,000 vehicles use the city’s streets per day,
but Cornelius has fewer than 12,000 residents. The city also hosts five gas stations. Both residents and non-residents who fill up in Cornelius have to pay the gas tax, which pays for the city’s street lighting and street repairs. The money from the gas tax must be used for roadway improvements and cannot be moved out of the street fund for
other purposes. Bob Barman, who owns the Cornelius Chevron station, wants the gas tax repealed. Barman’s company, Cornelius Fast-Serv, took the city to court to try to prevent the adoption of the gas tax and Barman led an effort that collected enough signatures to put the repeal on the ballot. A Barman-led political action
committee has spent nearly $1,000 printing flyers that proclaim “yes means no,” urging voters to reject the gas tax by voting for the repeal. “What are they doing with the money?” Barman said while pointing out there is also both a state and county gas tax. According to Mayor Jef Da-
See GAS TAX / Page 9
NEWS-TIMES PHOTO: CHASE ALLGOOD
Bob Barman, owner of the Cornelius Chevron station is running a campaign against the city’s gas tax.
Murder case is costly tangle Yovane Muro is still in sights of police, immigration officials By LAURA FRAZIER For The News-Times NEWS-TIMES PHOTOS: CHASE ALLGOOD
Top: New adviser Mike Mlynski (right) chats with senior Thomas Stanton about photography assignments in advance of The Viking Log’s first issue of the 2012-13 school year, due out by the end of the month.
F
or the third time in four years, Forest Grove High School’s student newspaper has a new adviser — and an old name. Mike Mlynski, a former journalist-turnedEnglish teacher, has taken over for Allison Marks, who led the FGHS paper for two years before relinquishing the adviser post last June. “I’m a newspaper geek,” said Mlynski, 53. “Ultimately, my goal for the students is that they turn out a great product that informs others and highlights what’s happening in the high school community.” The publication had been known as The Viking Log for more than six decades until 2010, when it took the name The Forest, in part because of a change in advisers that resulted from a months-long controversy STORY BY over stories it had published. That May, then-Principal John O’Neill pulled issues of the paper from classrooms after a feature containing sexual innuendo created an internal flap. Other editions that explored issues of teen sex and drug use were deemed inappropriate by O’Neill, who re-assigned the former faculty adviser. Marks, an English teacher, ushered in a new era for the newspaper in September 2010, when it became The Forest under her tutelage. That fall, a group of former Viking Log staffers, disenchanted with what they considered editorial heavy-handedness on the part of school officials, set about creating their own independent paper, the Viking Log Underground. It published one issue in November 2010 before running out of funds, said former editor Jordan Meyers, a 2011 FGHS alum who’s now studying English
VIKING LOG REDUX ■ After a season of turmoil and a name change, a paper revived
NANCY TOWNSLEY
See PAPER / Page 15
Twins Tess O’Day (left) and Kate O’Day are tackling the layout of The Viking Log while editor Yasmine WeilPourfard (right) is setting the tone of the coverage.
of Sustainability Summits, the first held Saturday, Oct. 20. “What we are trying to do is develop a sustainability perspective for the entire community not just the city of Forest Grove,” said Jon Holan, Forest Grove community development director. Representatives from the city of Forest Grove, the Forest Grove School District, Pacific University and various organizations, including the city’s adhoc sustainability committee, joined together in Pacific’s
NEWS-TIMES PHOTO: KATHLEEN ROHDE
See SUMMIT / Page 11
See MURO / Page 12
INSIDE
Commentary ................... A6 Calendar ......................... A7 A&E ................................. A8
Obituaries ....................... A9 Police Log ..................... A12 Pet of the Week ............ A14
Forest Grove residents use more energy and are poorer than their neighbors By KATHLEEN ROHDE For The News-Times This weekend Forest Grove took it’s most visible stab at solving the conundrum of building a more sustainable city. The eco-friendly buzzword was installed in the vision statement of the city in 2007. Since then, an ad hoc sustainability committee was formed and this year the city spent $3,000 to hire a sustainability intern. Now city officials hope to build momentum toward tackling the city’s goals with a series
Sports ............................. B1 Weather .......................... B2 Classifieds ...................... B4
Costs continue to mount As required by state law, Muro’s case was dropped in 2008 after he was deemed unable to aid in his own defense. On his discharge from the state mental hospital in January 2010, he was re-arrested. But in May, after three years of court-ordered treatment, he was again ruled unfit for trial and released. Police suspect Muro returned to psychiatric care, but because of federal health privacy laws, law enforcement officials don’t know exactly where Muro is, and there is no guarantee they will be told if he is released into the general population. Repeated attempts by the News-Times to locate Muro or his family also led nowhere. Muro’s case is as expensive as it is vexing for the agencies involved in investigating the brutal 2004 murder of Vasquez Ramos. Already, the state has spent in excess of $1 million treating and jailing Muro in an effort to bring him to trial. With law enforcement stalled, Muro’s case has
The challenges to a sustainable city Pacific junior Cassandra Gallegos (far left) mediated the renewable energy and solar energy breakout group at the first of three sustainability conferences sponsored by the city of Forest Grove, Pacific University, Metro and others.
When murder charges against Yovane Muro were dropped earlier this year, he technically gained his freedom. But Muro, who suffers from catatonic schizophrenia, is still a wanted man. Forest Grove Police still hope to arrest Muro and county prosecutors still hope to take him to court (again) for the 2004 murder of Gilberto Vasquez Ramos in ForMURO est Grove’s Lincoln Park. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, for their part, want to review his immigration status. But none of that can happen until Muro’s mental illness abates. And given that efforts to help him regain his menSECOND tal health have OF TWO been fruitless STORIES for the past eight years, few expect that to change. Muro, whose whereabouts are unknown to police, has stumbled through an expensive legal loophole and may never come out of it.
VAMP UP HALLOWEEN Theatre in the Grove takes on “Rocky Horror” — A8