Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 5

OCA Statesman Journal Salem, Oregon Tuesday, February 20, 1990 Almanac: 2C Region: 2C Classified: 4-8C (Bim seeks tassi Riders can't get to stores, post office By Christine Decker The Statesman Journal West Salem bus riders want to be able to get to the post office on their side of the Willamette River. They also want to be able to ride to West Salem's newest grocery store, Roth's IGA Foodliner. About 15 people attended a town hall meeting Monday night to tell officials of the Salem Area Transit District what they wanted from bus service in West John Whittington, the district's operations manager, said there was never enough communication between drivers and office workers. "It is virtually impossible to keep the level of communication we'd like to keep," he said. Here were some of the bus riders' other concerns: Salem Transit District meetings are at 7:30 p.m., after the buses stop running.

That makes it difficult for bus riders to attend. There are no bus shelters at King-wood West retirement apartments or the Oak Hills Shopping Center. Salem. The meeting was sponsored by the West Salem Neighborhood Association. Jeanne Arana, the neighborhood association president, said that many West Salem residents ride the bus to the South Salem Post Office and to Roth's Vista Market in South Salem because they can't get to similar West Salem services on the bus.

There have been no changes in the bus routes for six years, Arana said, even though there are new shopping areas such as Roth's, 1130 Wallace Road NW, and a new location for the West Salem Post Office, 300 Glen Creek Road NW. The transit district experimented with "On Sundays, we're left stranded," he said. "If we want to go to church, we have to hoof it." There is no Sunday or night service past 6:15 p.m. throughout the entire city. Craven said the board also would evaluate starting night and Sunday bus service.

Deborah Feldner, another bus rider, suggested that there should be better communication between the bus drivers and the main bus office. "I called during the snowstorm, and they told me my bus was on time. It turned out that it hadn't left for its route," she said. "There were women waiting 45 minutes for that bus, and we called back twice while waiting." a temporary route to the West Salem Post Office from September through December, but bus officials said it made the entire route late and had low ridership. Jim Craven, a member of the transit district board, said that all the routes in the city should be evaluated.

He said that voters might have to approve additional money for added bus service, which would allow a West Salem-only route. West Salem's current two routes are part of the overall pulse system and travel across the river to the downtown transit center every 30 minutes. Merlin Brown complained about the lack of Sunday bus service. Business booms at Salem library Temporary home hasn't deterred readers IJim-ili I.TI'Uiiiiii. run.

i i i 1,1 iuiii i fWWf vn? i 0 Tutors help adults learn how to read Polk County plan helps 45 students By Tom Visoky The Statesman Journal DALLAS Martha Weston wants to write a letter, read a daily newspaper or curl up with a good book. Those aren't unusual desires for most adults. But for Weston, 50, whose formal education ended two weeks into the sixth grade, those have been long-delayed dreams. Now Weston may be only a year or so away from realizing those dreams. Working with Patty Miller, Weston is closing in on her goal of learning to read.

Miller, a retiree who has been Weston's tutor for about 10 months, said Weston is making good progress. "Basically from not being able to read at all to going through high school is pretty darn good," Miller said. "She's going great guns. But she works hard at it." Weston is one of about 45 students involved with the Polk County Literacy Project, a program offering individual tutoring. The program, financed through government grants, is designed to help people who are functional illiterates or have difficulty reading.

Functional illiterates read at or below elementary school level and have difficulty understanding everyday reading material such as newspapers or job applications. An estimated 127,000 Oregonians are functionally illiterate. The free program, open to people 16 and older, is run through Chemeketa Community College's volunteer tutor program. It also is affiliated with the Polk-Marion-Yamhill Literacy Coalition. About 65 tutors work with the Polk County program, which began two years ago.

The program also offers reading lessons to adults entering Cheme-keta's Graduate Equivalency Diploma program and to English as Turn to Reading, Page 3C. Sarah Fick finds this book absorbing during a visit to the library. By Christine Decker The Statesman Journal Salem residents have flocked to the city library's temporary home, and the popularity of the place has surprised library officials. Library director George Happ said that 124,000 items were checked out last month from the temporary library, which is in a former Smith's furniture store at 2131 Fairgrounds Road NE, That's the equivalent of more than one book for each Salem resident and is 1,000 items less than the figure for January 1989. "It's been a great month," Happ said.

"It's been much better than I expected. And I don't think everybody has found us yet." The library moved out of its downtown quarters at 585 Liberty St. SE in December, when workers began a yearlong, $5 million expansion project. Happ expected the move to reduce library use by about 15 percent. "But I guess people have just reformatted themselves into coming here," he said.

Library user Ellie Goward of West Salem said the temporary location was not as convenient as the library's permanent quarters. But her son, Sean, 10, said he liked both libraries. The Gowards were using the temporary library Monday for the first time. "There was no school today, so this is what we usually do on school holidays," Ellie Goward said. The temporary library's parking lot was full Monday, and at one point about 20 people waited in line to check out books.

The layout of the temporary building has given a boost to the library's audio and video department. That department, downstairs at the downtown site, has a more visible main-floor spot in the temporary quarters. Library users checked out 10,795 video and audio cassettes, compact discs and computer software items in January. "It's the highest checkout of these items we've ever had," Linnea Patrick, the audio-visual supervisor, said. One visitor to the department, Cary "It's been a great month.

It's been much better than I expected. And I don't think everybody has found us yet." George Happ Salem library director Long, 29, of southeast Salem, checked out the Beatles' Revolver compact disc. "I knew they were in the other library, but it wasn't as convenient as here," he said. The audio and visual department will be downstairs again in the remodeled library. All 200,000 of the library's books have been moved to the temporary location.

Older magazines remain at the downtown library, but fax machines in both buildings help people locate needed articles. In addition to more space, the new library will have a 280-seat lecture hall, a coffee shop, study rooms and production studios for the local cable-access television channel. Photoi by Gerry LewlnStatesman Journal Blake Angus, 10, a fourth-grade student at Hoover Elementary School, hasn't let a broken leg and crutches stop him from coming to the Salem library's temporary location. Lincoln City tax up for grabs Bomb threat disrupts OSU classes Oregon State Police bomb experts were called to examine the package. "They X-rayed it and determined that it had the potential to be a dangerous device," Bruce said.

Before disassembling it, police also evacuated Memorial Union commons across the street at 3:45 p.m., he said. Police discovered that the threat was a hoax and allowed people back into the buildings at 4:20 p.m., Bruce said. He did not know what police found inside the package. Oregon State Police were investigating the threat. Bruce said he thought at least one exam was supposed to be given in Fairbanks Hall after talking with a Btudent during the commotion.

CORVALLIS Some Oregon State University classes were disrupted Monday after an anonymous caller said a bomb was going to explode in the art and sociology building. A student employee in Fairbanks Hall answered the phone about 1:15 p.m. and was told that a bomb was going to go off in the hall's lobby, Bob Bruce, the vice president of university relations, said. No motive or reason was given. The call turned out to be a hoax, but police and students were inconvenienced for more than three hours.

Shortly after the threat was made, Oregon State Police found an 8-inch-by- 10-inch package wrapped in tape lying on the floor in the first-floor lobby, Bruce said. They quickly evacuated the hall at 26th Street and Jefferson Wayand barricaded the streets. 1987 calling for half the money to be spent on roads and the other half on tourism promotion. Cribbs said not enough money was available for streets and parks, and he has prompted the council to look at the transient room tax split again. Dave Gomberg, the manager of the chamber of commerce, said the chamber supported the current money split.

"We are in competition with other communities," he said. "The best tool we have is advertising." Cribbs said he expected that one or two more public meetings would be held before the council decides on a course of action. Operators of motels, gift shops, restaurants and tourism service businesses want the city to continue to designate half for advertising and promotion. Others, including retired people, want more of the money five-sixths of it to be used for maintaining streets and parks. When the city first started collecting the room tax 20 years ago, the entire amount went for roads and streets.

However, after pressure from tourist-related businesses, the City Council decided to give them one-sixth of the receipts. The tourism share of the receipts crept up even more when the council passed an ordinance in By Frank King The Statesman Journal LINCOLN CITY Residents, motel owners and business people are debating how to spend the money that comes from the city's 6 percent transient room taxes. Half the money is used to fix streets and parks; the other half goes for tourism promotion and advertising. Mayor Sam Cribbs said that $680,000 in transient room taxes was collected last fiscal year. That is expected to climb to $810,000 this year.

Half of it will be spent on promotion and advertising. About $210,000 was spent to buy advertising time and space in fiscal year 1988-89. Portland Oregon Morning Region Salute Crews clear derailment off line near Meacham MEACHAM Crews have reopened a rail line through the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon that was blocked by a weekend derailment. Sixteen of 51 grain cars on a westbound train derailed about 9:40 p.m. Saturday.

Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said the track was cleared and reopened about 10 p.m. Sunday. Among the trains blocked by the derailment near Meacham was the Amtrak passenger run between Portland and Boise. From staff, wire reports Coast Guard tracks oil that dirtied coast ASTORIA The Coast Guard continued its effort Monday to find the source of tar-like oil that has washed up along the northern Oregon Coast. Blotches of oil have been found from Seaside to Rockaway Beach, but the only significant concentrations were discovered near Cannon Beach, where the oil first began washing ashore Thursday.

Coast Guard aircraft searched the beaches and the Pacific as far as five miles offshore during the weekend but found nothing that could explain the oil. The search expanded to 20 miles offshore Monday. Thank you Isn't enough to say to my husband, Dave Mllerta, and our chll-dren, Troy, Lisa and Nlkkl, for all of your help, patience and love that got me through a long Illness. I want everyone to know how special you are I love youl LuAnne Mllerta Salem Failed fuses cut power to 500 near Corvallis CORVALLIS Several hundred Consumers Power customers were without power for more than two hours Monday after fuses failed in a substation just north of here. Fewer than 500 customers were affected when the fuses failed about 8 p.m.

at the substation near Highland Drive and Lewisburg Road, Eugene Davison, the director of customer services, said. Power was expected to be restored by morning. Lane County judge dies of heart attack EUGENE A wheelchair-bound lawyer appointed two months ago as a Lane County Circuit Court judge died Monday in Sacred Heart Hospital after suffering a heart attack. Andrew Clement, 38, died in the emergency room after 9 p.m., officials said. He had been an administrative law judge for the state and a human rights specialist for the city of Eugene.

Clement suffered from muscular dystrophy. He is survived by a wife and a son. Women, minorities get boost for police jobs Police union officials have criticized a plan to give minorities and women job preference at the Portland Police Bureau. The bureau is hiring 100 officers to fill 60 new positions and to replace 40 retirees. Mayor Bud Clark has approved a plan to allow minorities and women to advance with 70 percent scores on a civil service examination rather than the 80 percent required for white men.

The bureau now has 762 officers, including 86 women and 48 minorities. To thank Someone, write Morning Salute Statesman Journal, P.O. Box 1300g Salem Ore. 97309. Please include your nam.

td-' dress and telephone number..