Monmouth & Independence Community Advantage Magazine December 2022

INSPIRING HOMEOWNERS FOR OVER 30 YEARS

Everyone wants their outdoor spaces to be an extension of their home. As your local family-owned supplier of pavers and wall block, we look forward to helping you make your dream a reality.

Soon to be Habaneros! Muchas Fresh Mexican Food:

By Patti Jo Brooks, Contributing Writer

Muchas Fresh Mexican Food in Monmouth will be joining the Habaneros brand of restaurants next year in early 2023. Presently, Muchas Fresh offers a fast food menu of great-tasting authentic Mexican fare made with fresh ingredients. Once they change to Habaneros, they will continue to serve fresh, quality Mexican foods but with a slightly different menu selection. Regardless of which name they’re going by, or which menu they use, this restaurant promises fresh and delicious dishes to make you feel good about choosing them for your family’s meals.

Opening in November of 2007, Muchas Fresh Mexican Food was known as Muchas Gracias until 3 years ago. Cristina Sanchez, Regional Manager for Habaneros, LLC, has managed the Muchas Fresh restaurant since February of 2021. She is excited for the venue to fall under the Habaneros brand, joining three locations in Salem, one in Tualatin, and one in Portland.

In the meantime, stop by and order your favorite Muchas Fresh Mexican Food. Open 8:00am to 10:00pm Monday through Sunday, you’ll find all the popular menu selections. “People love the Oregon Burrito, Carne Asada Fries, Horchata (a drink made from rice sweetened with sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla), and for dessert, Churros,” says Cristina. Dine-in, drive-through, and delivery, as well as third-party services are available. Presently, Muchas is staffed by family and friends primarily, but management is looking to hire additional help from the Monmouth and Independence communities. Students seeking part-time positions are welcome to apply.

Muchas Fresh is dedicated to bringing fresh, homemade Mexican food to the community. “We understand that in the community people sometimes work too hard and they don’t have time to cook,” Cristina relates. Try a Breakfast Burrito, made fresh all day long, and for extra savings use the Punch Card for Burritos – buy 10 and get the 11th Free! Seniors and students also receive Free Drinks, and there are future plans to implement the choice of a 10% discount in place of a free drink. Muchas Fresh happily provides catering by request for corporations, local businesses, family gatherings, social events, and more.

Whether they’re Muchas Fresh, or Habaneros, this local restaurant is committed to its Monmouth residents, and as the occasion arises, they plan to increase their involvement in the community. Cristina expresses these heartfelt words, “We always try to be part of the community, as we know they are our customers and they take care of us, so we want to take care of them.”

Muchas Fresh Mexican Food (Habaneros in 2023) is located at 601 Clay St E. in Monmouth. Give them a ring at (503) 837-0400, or visit their website and order online at muchas-monmouth.com/ or habanerosmex.com.

Making a Healthier Community

By Dennis McNabb, Contributing Writer

Bice

COVID has wreaked havoc on every aspect of our lives, and the dominoes continue to fall. The myriad effects it has had on both our physical and mental health alone are astounding, let alone all the far reaching economic and socioeconomic factors involved. As important as exercise is to our general health and well-being, many of us have not had access to a gym. And while we all enjoy the occasional break, two years of surfing the couch may be considered extreme. But no more! Monmouth Fitness Club is back to full capacity and they are ready, willing, and excited to help you get back on track!

Since 2001, Monmouth Fitness Club has been the premier fitness center in the area. Owners Tony and Brittney Jeffries have been there almost since day one (although they just took ownership in 2016), and have a genuine and invested interest in every single member’s health. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tony, and his passion and enthusiasm for both the business and his clientele were inspiring. The gym offers just about everything anyone could ever want or need from a fitness club. Now they just need everyone to know they are open and ready to take on new members!

General membership includes: Initial fitness evaluation (free consultation and body scan to determine body fat percentages and muscle mass), access to basic cardiovascular and strength training programs, 4 complimentary Fit Coaching sessions, full use of equipment, access to group fitness classes, and personal training. If you’re looking for that little something extra, you can also upgrade your membership to include their Hiit House program: a specialized, high-intensity, group training class designed to help you burn upwards of 450-1000 calories in just a 55 minute session! Those looking for quick and dramatic results should look no further!

Are you ready to Rock the House? It’s time! COVID is obviously still a legitimate concern, but it’s no longer a valid excuse for inactivity. Regardless of how far you’ve let yourself go—because we all have to some degree during the pandemic—Monmouth Fitness Club is where you’re going to turn things around. They pride themselves on their great and friendly staff, inclusivity, and cleanliness! And while January is typically the best time to enroll (no enrollment fees on any membership throughout the entire month), why wait? Now is the time to begin that journey towards meeting your fitness goals, and Monmouth Fitness Club is the place!

Come down today and take a look around! They are located at 165 Main St. E in Monmouth. Or you can check them out online at monmouthfit.com and pick up a gift card for a friend or family member while you’re at it. They make for terrific stocking stuffers! Feel free to ring them at (503) 838-2951.

Photos by Laurel

Pictured above, Tony Jeffries —Owner, & Jen Wells —Manager.

Brie in Puff Pastry with Cranberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS

CRANBERRY SAUCE

1 C fresh cranberries

6 T packed brown sugar

1 T orange juice

1/2 t grated orange peel

BRIE AND PASTRY

1 T butter or margarine

1/3 C sliced almonds

1 (17.3 oz) sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed 1 (14 to 15 oz) round Brie cheese

1 egg, beaten

DIRECTIONS

1. In 1-quart saucepan, mix cranberries, brown sugar and orange juice. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens and cranberries are tender. Stir in orange peel; remove from heat.

2. In 8-inch skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook almonds in butter, stirring frequently, until golden brown; remove from heat.

3. Heat oven to 400°F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. On lightly floured surface, roll pastry into 16x9-inch rectangle. Cut out one 8 1/2-inch circle and one 7-inch circle from pastry.

4. Place cheese round on center of large circle. Spoon cranberry sauce and almonds over cheese. Bring pastry up and press around side of cheese. Brush top edge of pastry with egg. Place 7-inch circle on top, pressing around edge to seal. Brush top and side of pastry with egg. Cut decorations from remaining pastry and arrange on top; brush with egg. Place on cookie sheet.

5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 hour before serving.

Serve with assorted crackers or sliced fresh fruit.

bettycrocker.com/recipes/brie-in-puff-pastry-with-cranberry-sauce

ProLift Garage Doors of Salem:

By Patti Jo Brooks, Contributing Writer

Whether your garage door needs repair or replacing, “Leave the Work to Us, Call the Pros!” ProLift Garage Doors of Salem will send a qualified garage door technician to service your garage door and get it up and running smoothly again. A broken spring, weather stripping for the winter, or replacing a damaged garage door altogether can be easily handled by ProLift Garage Doors of Salem. No job is too large or too small. Let ProLift Garage Doors be your first call!

“I really strive to keep our customers happy,” says Gabe Peace, independent owner and operator of ProLift Garage Doors of Salem. His focus is quality work using quality parts. Gabe is currently a dealer for Amarr Garage Doors and hopes to add other manufacturers to that list in the future. He continues by saying, “The two guys I have working for me right now, I’ve had a lot of customers tell me how polite, how great, how informative they were.” Gabe’s goal is to maintain that level of customer care and to “make sure we always do things that way.”

One of only two ProLift Garage Doors franchises in Oregon, Gabe’s Salem location covers a large territory including Newberg, McMinnville, Molalla, Woodburn, Monmouth, Albany, and more. Gabe runs the day-to-day business himself and will occasionally do some of the work, but as the owner he’ll go out to a job whenever he can. His two hired technicians, “the younger guys,” do the heavy work. Gabe also owns two service trucks now, adding the second one last October.

With a background in construction, lumber mills, and always mechanically inclined, Gabe saw ProLift Garage Doors as a solid fit for a small business venture. “I like garages,”

Gabe thought, when the opportunity presented itself. Together with his wife Renée, they co-own the franchise and opened for business one year ago on October 25th, 2021. “I don’t have to be huge,” Gabe confides. “I just wish to be well-known, reliable, trustworthy, and be a small local business that’s successful.” Gabe’s excited for ProLift Garage Doors of Salem to get the exposure it deserves.

A member of HBA, you might have seen Gabe at last year’s Home Show at the Salem Fairgrounds. He’s also a member of the Salem Chamber of Commerce, and hosted a sponsorship at South Salem High School. He honors Military, Teachers, and First Responders by offering a 10% discount on Service and up to $150 off on New Garage Doors at any time throughout the year. Gabe looks forward to more involvement in the community. “I love sports. I played sports growing up,” he comments. “I’d like to sponsor a Little League team. It would be fun!”

Find Gabe on Facebook at facebook.com/proliftdoorsofsalem and on LinkedIn. Visit their website, proliftdoors.com/salem/ for more information. Or call the Contact Center at (541)293-8240 and ask for local Salem owner, Gabe Peace. Email Gabe at gpeace@proliftdoors.com.

By Donovan Darling, Staff Writer

Klaus (2019)

A SpanishAmerican movie written and directed by Spaniard Sergio Pablos, this is a wonderful alternate origin story of Santa Claus. In the movie, Klaus is a reclusive toymaker living in a fictitious 19th-century island town in the Far North who’s befriended by a mail man misfortunately stationed there. The animations are slick and fantastical, the characters well-voiced and sympathetic, and in this moody yet romantic world a heartfelt mystery unfolds. And the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first animated Netflix film to ever be nominated. Starring Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Norm Macdonald, Joan Cusack, and more. This is a newer must see for the whole family. Rated PG.

Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

One of my all time favorites, this Ron Howard flick stars Jim Carrey in yet another “how did he do that?” stellar performance. Based on and expanding from the book,

this movie brilliantly recreates the Who world in all its magic, humor, and whimsy. We learn the Grinch’s new origin story as a bullied child who retreats to his mountain cave, and many years later he returns as he’s nominated to be the Holiday Cheermeister. A classic Us vs. Them, it’s also a tale of love, inclusion, community, and redemption, and a lovely expansion from the original movie and book. This star-studded cast also includes Taylor Momsen, Christine Baranski, Molly Shannon, Jeffrey Tambor, Bill Irwin, and more. A classic movie that’s great for the whole family. Rated PG.

Jingle All the Way (1996)

Produced and co-written by Chris Columbus (Home Alone), this is a lesser known cult classic begging to be watched. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Jake Lloyd, and cameos from Jim Belushi and Robert Conrad, the uncanny cast carries the thinly-plotted movie about sell-out toys and the commercialization of Christmas. Howard (Arnold), a father and husband who chooses work over his family, soon learns his lesson when he delays and discovers his son’s Christmas toy of choice has sold out. From there, it’s a hyperbolic romp of Howard and Myron (Sinbad) maniacally running all over town in a flurry of hijinks, pranks, and fatherly desperation. It’s fun, silly, and emphasizes the importance of family over material goods for Christmas. A tad violent in a cartoony way, it’s rated PG but views like a soft PG-13.

Fatman (2020)

Pitch black, violent, and cynical, it’s a gritty postmodern Christmas movie just for adults. Chris Cringle (Mel Gibson) is a down-andout Santa barely surviving–kids have become so ruthless that half of them are on the naughty list, toy production has succumbed to outsourcing, and the U.S. government has halved their subsidy. This forces Chris to take on a shocking new government contract of production to pay the bills. After Christmas, a ruthless rich kid who, after justifiably receiving coal, hires a hitman (Walter Goggins)–who eerily and obsessively collects and stores Santa-made gifts–to kill Santa. All culminating in an ultimate showdown. It’s dark, serious, and surprisingly entertaining. Not for the faint of heart. Rated R.

Christmas movies to also include in your movie marathon: Die Hard (1988, R), Scrooged (1988, PG-13), Home Alone 2 (1992, PG), The Family Man (2000, PG-13).

Stream these movies where available, or rent from your local movie store, library, or rental kiosk.

A legacy of vision and hope

The History of Timberline Lodge

By Robert Matsumura, Contributing Writer

What trip to Mount Hood is complete without a visit to Timberline Lodge? As an Oregonian you are likely familiar with this iconic landmark nestled at the base of the state’s most prominent mountain, but are you aware that this historic alpine retreat was developed as a symbol of hope during one of the bleakest periods in American history?

Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established in 1935 as a program to boost the economy by funding state and city projects. These public works projects generated jobs for millions of unemployed Americans victimized by the catastrophic economic downturn triggered by the stock market crash of 1929—known today as the Great Depression.

Timberline Lodge was conceptualized by a number of individuals including Jack Meier of the Mount Hood Development

Association, Francis E. (Scotty) Williamson Jr. of the United States Forestry Service, and Emerson J. Griffith, the WPA Director for Oregon. Timberline Lodge was envisioned as a triumphant symbol of the WPA, and a shining example of what it could achieve.

After funding approval from the WPA in December of 1935, Gilbert Stanley Underwood was selected as the lead architect for the project. Underwood had already successfully designed lodges at many national parks, including Yosemite and Bryce Canyon. Similar to the other lodges Underwood had completed, Timberline was planned as a rustic, asymmetrical structure with a rough-hewn style reminiscent of the region’s early pioneers. Underwood also suggested the lodge incorporate native materials, and that decorative elements be implemented honoring both the area’s Indigenous peoples and the pioneer settlers who had arrived on the Oregon Trail.

Constructed between 1936 and 1938, the total cost of Timberline Lodge was $695,730, of which 80 percent of the cost went to labor. Skilled trade workers made ninety cents an hour, and unskilled laborers received fifty-five cents an hour. A number of

Timberline Lodge, summer

the stonemasons were Italian immigrants and had been brought over from their homeland to work on the Historic Columbia River Highway. Workers were housed in a nearby tent city at Camp Zig Zag and Summit Meadow.

Two key goals of the WPA were to foster independence through training and to encourage private enterprise. Ray Neufer, who was in charge of the Oregon WPA woodworking shop, explained that many of the men who crafted the newel posts (support pillars for stairwells) were inexperienced as carvers. Neufer recalled: “Most of the men came in from construction projects and they didn’t know they could do some of the things they did. Most of them had been out of work a long time, then on construction jobs, and they had lost their self-confidence.”

Material costs for the lodge were kept to a minimum by utilizing recycled materials. Female seamstresses wove upholstery, drapery, and bedspreads. Hooked rugs were fashioned from old Civilian Conservation Corps camp blankets. Discarded cedar utility poles became lodge posts, their crowns hand-carved in the shape of seals, birds, and bears. Tire chains were welded into fireplace screens. And the signature iron work, as well as andirons, were crafted from railroad tracks.

The decorative and stylistic elements of Timberline Lodge were directed by Margery Hoffman Smith, the Oregon Arts Project Administrator for the Federal Arts Project. Smith created many of the beautiful patterns for the textiles and rugs, and she designed the iconic “Snow Goose,”

the 750-pound bronze weathervane perched atop the lodge. Smith’s inspiration for the forms and motifs resplendent throughout the lodge are derived from the art of the Tenino, an Indigenous people of the area. Smith, too, recalled how many of the workers on the project successfully transitioned their skills into new areas: “Carpenters became cabinet makers, blacksmiths became art metal workers, and sewing women became expert drapery makers.” For her work on Timberline Lodge, Smith earned the title of “Grand Dame” of the Arts and Crafts style, and in 1979 Governor Vic Atiyeh awarded her the Governor’s Award for the Arts.

While on tour of government projects in the Western United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Timberline Lodge on September 28, 1937, five months before its opening to the public. He and his First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, arrived at the lodge via an open touring car, escorted by a motorcade of forty vehicles. As they wound their way up the Mount Hood Loop Road, horsemounted Forest Service personnel lined the roadway to salute and wave. From the terrace overlooking the main entrance, Roosevelt addressed a gathering of 1200 community members. “This venture was made possible by WPA emergency relief work,” he said, “in order that we may test the workability of recreational facilities installed by the government itself.” To this day, Roosevelt’s dedication on a bronze tablet is set in stone on the lodge terrace.

Following completion, Timberline Lodge was turned over to the U.S. Forest Service in January 1938, and opened to the public on February 4th of the same year. The Magic Mile chairlift was completed by the Riblet Tramway Company, and the WPA built the Silcox Warming Hut at the top of the lift.

Timberline Lodge was closed during World War II, but reopened again in 1945. However, discovering that the lodge and ski facilities had not been maintained properly, the U.S. Forest Service revoked the operating permit. Months later, Richard L. Kohnstamm was awarded an operating permit. He successfully restored the lodge, re-established ski education programs, and oversaw the construction of an outdoor swimming pool. In 1975, convention facilities were also added, and in 1981 the

Wy’East Day Lodge was built across the parking lot to serve the recreational skiers. Although Kohnstamm passed away in 2006, his family continues to operate the lodge through R.L.K. and Company.

Not surprisingly, Hollywood also found Timberline Lodge appealing. The exterior views of Timberline Lodge were used in the movie The Shining. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the bestselling Stephen King novel depicted Timberline Lodge as the fictitious Overlook Hotel.

In 1975, the Friends of Timberline organization was formed to celebrate and preserve the heritage of Oregon’s signature mountain retreat. Two years later, on December 22, 1977, Timberline Lodge was designated as a National Historic Landmark, and the finest example of WPA mountain architecture. The next time you find yourself bound for Mount Hood, be sure to stop by Timberline Lodge. Stand atop the terrace where FDR stood, and appreciate the vision, commitment, and labor of the many men and women who made this grand concept into a reality, which generations of Oregonians have held so close to their hearts.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Timberline Lodge on September 28, 1937, five months before its opening to the public.

Timberline Lodge interior

Timberline Lodge plaque

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