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Somthing is fishy Depoe Bay hosts annual Salmon Bake Page B1
75 CENTS | VOL. 85 | NO. 37 | 2 SECTIONS YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1927
SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 | WEDNESDAY
www.TheNewsGuard.com
LINCOLN CITY, OREGON
Ridge shooting pair reunited in jail
Bittersweet
If anything came out of what amounted to a bittersweet defeat for the Taft High football team, it was that progress is being made from both coaches’ and players’ perspectives. “Every loss is tough, but that was a real tough one,” first-year Taft coach Perry Herbst said following a 13-8 nonleague home defeat to Seaside on Friday, Sept. 7. See Page A11
Murphy’s law
Last week’s article about a Lincoln City student’s success at the Oregon Statewide Spelling Contest contained – you guessed it – a spelling error. The winning student’s name is correctly spelled Terin Trachtenberg. The News Guard regrets the error.
PATRICK ALEXANDER The News Guard
A 19-year-old Lincoln City man involved in the 2010 shootings that left one man dead and another wounded is back in Lincoln County Jail after apparently absconding from the care of the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA). Selvin Fajardo-Landa was committed to the OYA after admitting unlawful use of a weapon during the 2010 incident and is now accused of running away from the
home of relatives with whom he had been placed. Meanwhile, the 18-year-old accused of firing the shots has Thomas been comGarcia-Mendoza mitted to the Oregon State Hospital for an evaluation to determine whether he is mentally capable of standing trial. Thomas Riley Garcia-
Downey says he will sue police
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PATRICK ALEXANDER The News Guard
A man cleared by a Lincoln County jury of charges that he abused a pit bull puppy says he plans to sue Lincoln City Police Department, saying the allegations ruined his life and forced him to leave town. Ryan “They held Downey me captive for 10 days while I lost my home, my job, my kids,” Ryan Downey said on Friday, Sept. 7, just hours after a jury found him not guilty on all charges. “I never took a plea,” he said. “I’m not going to plead to something I didn’t do.” Lincoln City police arrested Downey on Feb. 16 after concluding he was responsible for breaking the leg of his puppy, an 8-week-old pit bull mix called Missy. Officer Robert Bomar said eyewitnesses reported seeing Downey throw the puppy into his apartment “with such force that she screamed and ‘yipped’ in pain.” But Downey said Missy’s leg was broken when she and Downey’s infant son fell off the couch together while playing.
WEATHER GUIDE
High Low Prec.
Tues., Sept. 4 Wed., Sept. 5 Thurs., Sept. 6 Fri., Sept. 7 Sat., Sept. 8 Sun., Sept. 9 Mon., Sept. 10
65 61 59 61 59 60 63
0 52 48 0 49 0 50 0 49 0.04 53 0.15 56 0
Weekly Rainfall: 0.19 inches Yearly Rainfall: 56.38 inches
WEEKLY OUTLOOK If Mother Nature doesn’t play tricks on us the forecast through the weekend should be for sunny weather. NOAA suggests coastal valleys may be cool enough at night to bother sensitive plants. Enjoy the sunshine. Weather data provided by Roads End Weather Watcher Sheridan Jones
See SHOOTING, Page A10
Puppy owner cleared of abuse
INSERTS
PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS
not actually fire the shotgun that he pointed at the victims. Fajardo-Landa was dealt with through the juvenile court system and, in April 2010, was committed to a youth corrections facility for up to five years. OYA spokesperson Ann Snyder said Fajardo-Landa was paroled from the RiverBend Youth Training Facility in La Grande on May 31 to a relative’s home.
Garcia-Mendoza and Fajardo-Landa have been in custody since a few hours after the Feb. 7, 2010, shootings at The Ridge Apartments in Lincoln City, which left 29-year-old Samuel Cruz Villegas of Toledo dead and 29-year-old Antonio SuarezJimenez of Newport with gunshot wounds to the gut and hand. Both were initially charged with murder but prosecutors later revised the charges against FajardoLanda, then 17, in light of evidence showing he did
Mendoza, who was 15 at the time of the shootings, has been the subject of conflicting psychological Selvin evaluations Fajardo-Landa during his two and a half years in custody, with some experts saying he is competent while others say he would not understand the court proceedings.
JIM FOSSUM/THE NES GUARD
Nearly 100 participants take to the water for the first leg of the Lincoln City Sprint Triathlon, a half-mile swim, followed by a 10-mile bike ride and three-mile run, on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Regatta Grounds Park on Devils Lake. .
A devil of a race Lincoln City Sprint Triathlon tests athletes’ mettle
JIM FOSSUM The News Guard
I
f there was any news better than comfortable weather for participants serious about winning the Lincoln City Sprint Triathlon, it was that longtime Newport High cross-country coach Dave Campbell did not compete. Campbell, who has won eight of the last nine triathlons at Regatta Grounds Park on Devils Lake, chose not to participate in the three-stage endurance test Sunday, Sept. 9, to concentrate on bike racing. The result was a fresh face crossing the finish line first
in relatively calm water and on mostly dry land. “We were so lucky considering the fog we had this week and the rain yesterday,” said Gail Kimberling of the Lincoln City Parks and Recreation Department, which sponsored the race. “Even the wind on the lake wasn’t a factor. Today was just perfect all the way around.” Eighteen-year-old Oregon State biology major Marco Ramirez of Cornelius won’t argue. Neither would McMinnville resident and physical therapist Tara Rich, a 40-year-old mother of two. Ramirez and Rich won
the overall men’s and women’s titles after negotiating the .75-kilometer (half-mile) swim, 15.5K bike ride (10 miles) and 5-kilometer run (3.1 miles) with personally gratifying efforts despite struggling through the opening leg on the lake. “The swim could have used a few more buoys,” said Ramirez, who finished in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 44 seconds in just his ninth triathlon in two years of competition. “It was a little hard to scout for that one small buoy, so maybe next year they could have a little better routing. Somebody could really get lost out
there.” Meanwhile, Rich lost her way due to a problem with her goggles rather than with the buoy. “I passed the buoy, then my goggles fogged up,” said Rich, a former winner who first competed in the 22nd annual race well before her 14-year-old daughter was born. “I went straight into the oncoming men traffic. When I saw all these yellow caps [men wore yellow, women orange], I thought I was actually catching up with the men, but they were really coming right at me.” See TRIATHLON, Page A2
See PUPPY, Page A3
City signals Roads End annexation Plan would place area on tax rolls next year
Lincoln City’s bid to annex Roads End has officially begun, after city councilors received assurances that officials have gathered enough consents to bring the area within the city limits by a simple council vote. At its Monday, Sept. 10, meeting, Lincoln City Council directed staff to pursue annexation, a process that will start with a hearing at the planning commission and is scheduled to finish by the end of March — in time for the area to be added to the Lincoln City tax rolls for L10489 Power Ford 6x2 091212:Layout 9/10/12 the coming1fiscal year. 3:38
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ertainly if we would not have achieved the triple majority, there’s no question that I would have ordered us to proceed with shut offs. We were not bluffing.
“
PATRICK ALEXANDER The News Guard
- David Hawker The City is estimated to make a net gain of roughly $600,000 per year after the increased tax revenues are weighed against the cost of providing services such as police and road PM Page patrols 1 repairs.
In return, Roads End property owners will see their property taxes increase by roughly $2,200 for a median-value oceanfront home and $1,400 for a median-value home on a non-oceanfront lot.
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stakes sending out letters giving property owners 60 days to sign a consent or risk having their water supply shut off. Despite several property owners refusing to sign the demand letters, the City has not shut off anyone’s water. City Manager David Hawker said he was holding off until all the demand letters had been mailed out. “Certainly if we would not have achieved the triple majority, there’s no question that I would have ordered us to proceed with shut offs,” he said. “We were not bluffing.”
Rather than put the annexation to a vote of Roads End property owners, the City has opted to pursue the triple majority method of annexation, which requires it to obtain consents from more than half the property owners representing more than half the acreage and property value. In order to obtain those consents, the City has used its control over the area’s water supply as leverage. Since 2004, the City has required all Roads End property owners to sign a consent to maintain water service whenever a property changed hands. In November 2011, the City raised the
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