By James Day The Silverton Senior Center is down but not out. The group’s building on Westfield Street is out of commission because of a plumbing disaster that occurred during the January ice storm. The center, however, has been able to keep most of its programs rolling along by using other sites: aerobics, line dancing and gentle yoga at Immanuel […]
By James Day Housing continues to be a major concern statewide, with the Legislature passing another major housing bill in its recently completed short session. The City of Silverton decided to bone up on housing and land use issues in a March 18 joint session involving city staff, the City Council and the Planning Commission. The special meeting heard from […]
100 months for DUII fatality A Silverton man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for a DUII collision last year that killed a Keizer teenager. Gustavo Sosa, 27, pleaded guilty Feb. 1 in Marion County Circuit Court to second-degree manslaughter and hit-and-run for the May 23, 2023, death of Victor Andre Cortez-Andrade, 16. He also pleaded […]
By James Day The City of Silverton’s work on a master plan for its parks is yielding immediate fruit. Two of its major pieces, a trail system at Pettit Lake and new pickleball courts near the skate park, could see design and construction contracts come before the city as early as next month. The funds for both facilities have been […]
By James Day City of Silverton officials have called off their plans to host a public meeting to discuss the update of the parks master plan. The meeting was scheduled for Oct. 3 at the Silverton High cafeteria. City officials said that the technical advisory committee working on the plan wanted a bit more time before hosting the public session. […]
By James Day The City of Silverton has contributed more than $26,000 to assist the new owners of the Palace Theatre with their renovation work. The council, acting in its capacity as the city’s Urban Renewal Agency, voted at its Aug. 21 meeting to contribute $26,443 in urban renewal funds to bolster the Palace’s work on both internal remodeling and […]
By James Day The 30th anniversary edition of Silverton’s Community Picnic is set for Friday, Aug. 25. Events for the 5 to 8 p.m. soiree will be held in Coolidge McClaine Park and the Silverton Community Pool. “It’s just a great time to get together,”said Dodie Brockamp, executive director of the Silverton Senior Center, the lead organizer for the event. […]
By Melissa Wagoner For the past year and a half the Silverton Chamber of Commerce has been working hand in hand with the North Marion Tourism Collaborative (NMTC) – an organization developed to help cities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic – to boost tourism through a regional website (www.exploremc.com), and a mobile kiosk that can be reserved for events. The […]
The post-COVID return of public celebrations includes a ramping up of the traditional July 3 fireworks at the 80-acre Oregon Garden. While the fireworks were back last year, there was still room for improvement, according to Delen Kitchen, the Garden’s Director of Operations. “What we noted was that we needed more food vendors, and more entertainment to keep our guests […]
By James Day The City of Silverton is getting into the affordable housing business. Officials have identified a seven-acre parcel of city-owned land west of the Silverton Senior Center for the project. The issue was discussed at the June 5 City Council session, although final decisions are months or perhaps years away. The city might start by developing just a […]
On Saturday, June 3, 2023 the Silverton Lions will host Silverton Free Fish Day, co-sponsored are the Silverton Kiwanis, the City of Silverton and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. This will be the 27th yearly event. The day starts at 8 a.m. through 3 p.m. The reservoir is closed during the event. Transportation to and from the reservoir […]
By James Day The City of Silverton began work on its 2023-24 budget amid a staff shakeup that has the City Council initiating a search for a new city manager. Ron Chandler, who took over the top administrative post in Silverton in May of 2021, is leaving effective May 12 and relocating to Utah. In an April 12 letter to […]
By James Day Silverton is facing a $42,130 fine from the state for illegal discharges of wastewater, and city officials have appealed the decision. Silverton was notified Feb. 7 by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that it had exceeded the permitted levels of ammonia 32 times and for total suspended solids 24 times between May 2021 and August […]
By Melissa Wagoner It may not look like much, but this year the railway bridge over Silver Creek in Silverton – otherwise known as MP 10.6 or simply the Silver Creek Bridge – will turn 100 years old. Built in 1923 by the American Bridge Company, a company that – founded in 1900 in Pennsylvania – not only pioneered the […]
By James Day If you build it, other decisions will have to be made. That’s the challenge the City of Silverton faces as construction heads toward the home stretch on the new Civic Center on the former Eugene Field School property. The $19.5 million Civic Center project, which was opened to public tours March 16, is scheduled to be ready […]
By James Day The City of Silverton is considering a proposal that could add a 22-space recreational vehicle parking area on land just north of Mark Twain Elementary School. The 1.52-acre, triangular-shaped site, if the project is approved, would be used for temporary lodging for RVs and movable accessory dwellings. Approval of the project does not require Silverton City Council […]
By James Day The City of Silverton is accepting bids for rehab work on a modular unit that will serve as a warming shelter for clients of Sheltering Silverton. The city has set aside $250,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the project. The closing date for bids is March 21. The bid process opened Feb. 28. Sarah […]
By James Day The City of Silverton has agreed to spend an additional $350,000 on “contract administration” costs for the civic center project. The Dec. 19 City Council session included a Zoom meeting with project/design consultants from Mackenzie and Compass Project Solutions. The consultants have spent just more than $250,000 in contract administration costs to date and recognized that they […]
By Brenna Wiegand A string of past Our Town stories reflect the flurry of activity encircling the old wading pool in Silverton’s Coolidge McClaine Park. It all started in 2014 when Silverton participants in that year’s Ford Family Foundation Leadership program chose to beautify the wading pool/fountain in Coolidge McClaine as its public service project. Ford Family Foundation offered $5,000 […]
By James Day Silverton city staffers have been given a pair of awards for the work performed on McClaine Street. The Oregon chapter of the American Public Works Association honored the city as its “transportation project of the year” in the less than $5 million category. In addition to city Public Works staff, the efforts of engineering firm Keller Associates […]
By James Day The City of Silverton has put in place a new water use policy, which automatically kicked in May 1 with the lowest level of alert. The new policy was approved by the City Council at its March 7 meeting and is replacing one approved in 2016. The new policy features five levels of alert: low, mild, moderate, […]
May 15-21 is National Public Works Week and the City of Silverton is celebrating by holding a free, interactive, hands-on fair at Coolidge-McClaine Park May 19, noon to 4 p.m. Participants will get a chance to check out a sander, street sweeper, snowplow and backhoe up close, look through a sewer camera, learn how water lines are connected plus see […]
By James Day The Silverton Runners Club is turning 40, and organizers are planning some new events to boost participation in the club, which works to support running programs in Silverton and Mount Angel. The club, which was organized in 1982 by Silverton resident Amy Castle, is taking over management of the 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer runs associated with the Mount […]
By Melissa Wagoner Tyler Radniecki knows first-hand that there is a lot to be learned from studying the wastewater of cities. An Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University, he has spent years cataloging the microbes and pathogens found in sewer systems to, amongst other things, determine the spread of diseases in a community. Which is why, when […]
The city of Silverton was accepting bids through March 3 for the “overlook” project, which will repair a washed-out section of pathway along Silver Creek near the library. In 2015 during high flows of Silver Creek the old wall from an abandoned mill was damaged and the city closed the area. In the summer of 2015 the city demolished the […]
