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 The Silver Falls Family YMCA has embarked upon a major fundraising campaign to pay for and construct a new building in which to operate its programs. Amid challenges to insuring an aging building, the YMCA left its long-time home in the Silverton Community Center in March. The building is currently being leased by the city from the […]
The Kennedy High baseball team won its final 7 games in the 2022 season, ending up with a state Class 2A-1A title. Last year, a veteran team that started eight seniors went 31-0 and repeated as state champions. This season a young squad with just one returning starter, Brody Kleinschmit, won its first eight games. That’s 46 in a row […]
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 […]
By James Day Thriving in Times of Change is the theme for the Sustainable Silverton event set for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 at The Oregon Garden. Admission is $12 and includes refreshments. Registration is available at https://www.simpletix.com/e/thriving-in-times-of-change-tools-for-adap-tickets-163552/. The conference begins inside the Garden’s education center, which is the building on the right as you enter […]
By James Day The Future Foxes sixth-grade girls are on a roll. The squad won its second consecutive state championship last month in Bend and Redmond by capturing the gold division. Last year the squad won the fifth grade competition. Payton Brautigam was named player of the year and her father Dave earned coach of the year honors. Mirren Knudsen […]
The Silverton High girls basketball squad’s Class 5A title last month capped 10 years of staggering success by the boys and girls programs, both in terms of league accomplishments and statewide achievement. Consider: In the ten-year span from 2015-2024 the girls team has won or shared seven Mid-Willamette Conference titles, won two state Class 5A titles (2016 and 2024) and took […]
By James Day The Silverton City Council has finalized its work on goal-setting for the new fiscal year beginning July 1. The goals were discussed at length at a nearly four-hour special session at The Oregon Garden on Feb. 6, tweaked at the Feb. 26 work session and received unanimous support at the March 4 regular meeting. The goals are […]
By James Day The Marion County 4-H ThinkRobots Club, which includes students from the Silverton area, placed three teams in the top 5 at the Feb. 24 elementary and middle school state tournament at Cedar Ridge Middle School in Sandy. A total of 26 middle school teams and 19 elementary school teams competed in the all-day event. One ThinkRobots team […]
By James Day Two more meetings of a rulemaking advisory committee on updating the statewide wildfire hazard maps will be on Zoom in the coming weeks. The committee’s focus for these sessions will be to provide input on whether irrigation for farmland and agricultural crops should be incorporated into the calculations for wildfire hazard assessments. One meeting was held on […]
Marion County is encouraging residents to participate in a health and environmental hazards survey. The county is teaming up with Polk County and Willamette University on the survey, which is intended to gather community concerns about how heat waves, severe storms, wildfires, poor air and water quality and drought affect residents. You can participate by going to co.marion.or.us/HLT/PH/PS and clicking […]
Every team is a novel, a story that evolves over time. Practices. Nonleague games. League contests. And then the playoffs, the ultimate climax. The Silverton girls basketball team wrote a masterpiece this season, with far too many elements to wrap into a 750-word column. But I will try. First, was the historic comeback. The Foxes rallied from a 17-point third-quarter […]
By James Day The Silverton High unified basketball teams are back from strong success at a regional tournament and are ready to show off their skills before the home fans on March 20. Silverton’s competitive orange team took gold in its division with a 3-0 record in the Special Olympics South Regional Unified Basketball Tournament on Feb. 24 at Oregon State […]
By James Day The new Silverton Civic Center, a years-long $19.5 million project, likely will not open until late April, city officials said. Our Town participated in a tour of the building Feb. 15, along with project manager Jason Gottgetreu, the city’s community development director, new city manager Cory Misley and Luis Mendoza of Compass Project Solutions, which is providing consulting services […]
By James Day Six months since its opening on the Kennedy High School campus the new welding room already is producing dividends. Fundraising for the facility, which opened at the beginning of the school year, has reached $145,000, said John Gooley, the Mt. Angel Community Foundation vice-president and Withers Lumber executive who led the campaign. The additional funds (the facility […]
Sustainable Silverton is hosting a Repair Fair and Share from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, at the Silver Falls Library, 410 S. Water St. Free services to be offered at the event include small appliance repair, simple jewelry repair, sewing and textile repair, house plant consulting, simple bike repairs and tech assistance with computers/phones/tablets/electronics and tool […]
Silverton finished 11th as a team at the Class 5A state wrestling championships Feb. 22-24 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Leading the way for the Foxes was junior 285-pounder Brash Henderson, who dominated his weight class on the way to his first state championship. Henderson, who took second last year at 220 pounds, scored two pins and a […]
By James Day Sometimes your ability to make a difference in your community can be as simple as how often you say ”yes.” That’s been the case in recent years with Oak Street Church and its pastor John Friedrick. Yes to continuing its Monday meal tradition. Yes to using the church building for a warming shelter. Yes to hosting listening […]
The party to honor retiring Silverton Senior Center Executive Director Dodie Brockamp was rescheduled because of the water damage the building suffered during the recent ice storm. Now the party, honoring Dodie’s 12 years of service, is at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17 at the First Christian Church, 402 N. First St. A light luncheon and cake will be served. […]
By James Day From its arrival in Silverton in 2002 Willamette Valley Bank has lived by the motto that to serve the community you must be involved in the community. “Twenty-two years ago a group of business owners opened Willamette because they believed the community would be better served by a locally headquartered bank, managed by people who understood the […]
By James Day Figuring out what is next for the Silverton Community Center is turning into a confusing game of musical chairs. The city holds the lease for the building, which is owned by the Oregon Military Department. That lease expires March 31, which means that tenants Jazzercise, Silverton Area Community Aid (SACA), WIC, the Silver Falls YMCA and the […]
By James Day Silverton High has returned to competitive cheerleading. The Foxes took second at a meet at Lakeridge, the first such participation by the school in approximately a decade. Stacey Spears, who has more than a decade of experience with the Future Foxes, is coaching the squad, which continues to have a cheer presence on the sidelines at football […]
By James Day Sustainable Silverton is putting on an event on how communities such as Silverton can thrive in changing times. The free event runs 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb., 8 at the Silver Falls Library, 410 S. Water St. Presenters in the “community conversation” will look at the examples of the 2020 wildfires and the 2021 ice […]
By James Day The Silverton Senior Center was heavily damaged during the recent ice storm and is currently closed until repairs can be made. Board President Jenny Ohren told Our Town that when officials returned to the Center on Jan. 18, after being closed during the ice event, “broken pipes in the attic” led to the collapse of a ceiling because […]
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 […]
