By James Day The bridge over the Pudding River on Hazelgreen Road NE between Silverton and Salem is being replaced and roads in the area will be closed for an extended period of time. Marion County is replacing the 1969 timber bridge near the intersection of Hazelgreen Road NE and Torvend Road NE. The bridge, and the two roads, closed […]
By James Day When Todd Engstrom joined the Silverton Police Department in 2021 “I knew Chief Anglemier was getting ready to retire and I knew taking his place as chief would be a possibility,” he told Our Town. Jim Anglemier knew it, too. “Todd is ready and will be a good chief,” Anglemier said. “He is tied to the community […]
By James Day The Silverton Budget Committee is moving toward approval of a $75 million budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The committee, which consists of Mayor Jason Freilinger, the six councilors and seven citizen members, heard the budget message from the city manager at a May 7 session and began its review of the document. Final passage could come […]
By James Day Memorial Day, which honors those Americans who died in the service of their country, will include observances in both Silverton and Mount Angel. The Silverton events, sponsored by Post 7 of the American Legion, begin Friday, May 24, with an 8 a.m. uncovering of the six service flags at Town Square Park. Included will be the Space […]
The streets of Silverton will be awash in pets on Saturday, May 18, as the Kiwanis Club puts on the annual Pet Parade. The event, which started in 1932, starts at 10 a.m. on Coolidge at Apple Street, turns right on Main Street, left on First Street and concludes at the new City Hall. The event is free and registration […]
By James Day Silverton-area composer Christopher Wicks has debuted a short opera at an arts festival in Australia. Wicks’ piece, The Curse on Dyved, was inspired by his interest in Welsh music and folklore. It debuted at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which Wicks described as “literally hundreds of events in many fields of performing and visual arts between mid-February and mid-March […]
A few years back I was at Kennedy to report on a Class 2A baseball playoff game. The Trojans won easily, and I figured it would be just a few minutes before coach Kevin Moffatt would be done talking with his team and I could interview people. I waited. And waited some more. The huddle in the outfield appeared to […]
By James Day Just a few short years ago Colton Meyer was playing football and baseball at Silverton High. Now, after a college career at Linfield and summer ball with the Corvallis Knights, Meyer, 24, is in charge of the Foxes baseball fortunes. Silverton is 9-14 overall and 6-9 in the Mid-Willamette Conference this season. It should be noted that […]
By James Day The City of Silverton has completed work on a new water intake project that will dramatically increase its water producing capacity as well as extend the life of the system another 50-plus years or more. On April 5, city staff, a federal official and the project manager held a walk-through at the intake project site alongside Silver […]
By James Day Silverton Gymnastics Academy had an excellent spring, turning in sterling performances at state and regional competitions. From April 19-21, 17 of the club’s athletes participated in a regional meet at Boise, Idaho, that brought together the top gymnasts in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho and Hawaii. “Our athletes did amazing and we couldn’t be more proud of their […]
Oregon State Parks came close to a record number of visitors in 2023, with Silver Falls State Park among the busiest. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department officials reported that total parks visits were at an estimated 52.2 million a year ago. That’s the second highest figure ever, beaten only by the 53 million during the post-pandemic parks binge of 2021. […]
The Dallas High softball team came into the Wednesday, April 24, showdown against host Silverton with a perfect 15-0 record and the state’s top ranking. The Dragons, state champs last year and runners-up in 2017 and 2019, only had given up 13 runs in those 15 wins. Wednesday was different. It was as if the game had been moved to […]
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 […]
