La Center session leads to plan to form float study committee
Alice Perry Linker
staff reporter
After nearly three hours of passionate and sometimes contentious debate between the La Center City Council and about 25 community residents, the council decided March 7 to take the first steps in forming a citizens committee to study ownership of the city’s parade float.
Because the council was meeting in a work session, no vote could be taken, but Mayor Jim Irish asked City Attorney Daniel Kearns to organize a process for the citizens committee and present it to the council at the meeting set for Thurs., March 15, 7 p.m., City Hall, 214 E. Fourth St.
The council voted 3-2 on Nov. 21 to surplus the float and sell it. Council members Bill Birdwell and Linda Tracy opposed the decision. Later, after about 300 La Center people signed a petition asking the city to maintain ownership of the float, the council delayed action and scheduled the work session.
During the March 7 work session, council member Dale Smith suggested that a citizens committee research the total cost of maintaining the float and find out what other communities do. He asked that the committee establish rules to govern the use of the float, examine the legal issues surrounding ownership, and determine who benefits. He suggested that two council members join the committee.
Charges and counter-charges flew between members of the audience and the council members after three council members admitted to exchanging e-mails and information about the future of the float. Council members Troy Van Dinter and Bob Smith said they had contributed to a new organization that they hope will take over ownership. Van Dinter has created the La Center Community Float Foundation and received a non-profit number from the state. According to the state document, Van Dinter is the registered agent for the foundation.
Van Dinter said he has established a bank account and a Web site, and he and Bob Smith pledged $100 each to the account.
“This gives everybody the opportunity to donate,” Van Dinter said. “I think we need to limit our liability. If everybody who signed (a petition for the city to keep the float) gave $50, it would be a win-win.”
Van Dinter and Bob Smith said the city’s liability is their major concern about city ownership, but Kearns said that the city carries $10 million liability insurance. Kearns said that the city could continue to be liable for injuries if two council members set up an organization to receive the float.
“That would just be an appendage of the city,” Kearns said.
“We didn’t have anybody else there,” Bob Smith said. “We had to get something going. It’s the ease of getting it going.”
Bob Smith said that he and Van Dinter wanted to demonstrate that a non-profit corporation could be established with a little work.
Neither Van Dinter nor Bob Smith said how the new foundation expects to acquire the float, although Van Dinter said that “$10,000 would purchase it to keep it in the community.” He said about $1,500 a year would buy liability insurance.
Kearns said that the city could donate surplus property to a non-profit organization if the donation would have a “direct benefit” to the citizens.
In an e-mail sent by Van Dinter to council member Linda Tracy, Van Dinter wrote, “I have done some work in regards to the float and would like to talk to you about it.”
Tracy said she was “shocked” to receive the e-mail.
“We said we’d listen to the public,” she said. “I’m not against an independent community organization, but I’m disappointed in the behind-closed-doors situation.”
La Center-area resident Erin Nolan, former interim police chief for Ridgefield, also questioned Van Dinter and Smith’s decision to form a corporation. She said she has “concerns about decisions being made behind closed doors.”
Nolan and others said they felt that council members had decided on a course of action without consulting the public.
“I’m not sure what interests you’re serving,” Nolan said.
During a verbal confrontation between council member Dale Smith and resident Craig Rogers, Rogers accused the council of not embracing “what the citizens want,” and he said that Dale Smith has “personal reasons why you don’t want it (the float).”
Dale Smith said Rogers was attacking a council member personally. Dale Smith accused Mayor Jim Irish of allowing members of the audience to continue to deliver personal attacks against council members, and he turned to Irish and said, “this has got to stop.”
“Shut up,” Irish replied to Smith.
Dale Smith made a motion to adjourn and move to another location, and Van Dinter seconded the motion.
During discussion about the motion to adjourn, Dale Smith said, “This feels like abuse.”
Later, Irish called his choice of words “unfortunate” and said he used them for “shock value.”
Dale Smith said he was “surprised” by the e-mails between Van Dinter and Tracy.
“I wasn’t trying to do anything except request information from Troy (Van Dinter) and Linda (Tracy),” he said. “I don’t want to be surprised.
“I was elected to represent you and everybody else. That’s why I made the recommendation that we form a citizens committee. I have a problem with the way the meeting is being conducted.”
Dale Smith accused Irish of not being impartial.
“He should turn the meeting over to somebody else so he can participate,” Dale Smith said.
The mayor votes only to break ties.
“As an elected official with no vote, I can speak my concerns without having to recuse myself,” Irish said.
As tensions lessened, Dale Smith withdrew his motion to adjourn and Van Dinter withdrew the second.
Bob Smith said he’d like to see a committee formed, “if it looks at options.”
“Could there be another organization?” he said. “Just take a look at that.”
As public comments ended, Ridgefield Mayor Gladys Doriot asked the city to keep the parade float.
“I envy you and I’m saddened by the discussion this evening,” Doriot said. “You have an opportunity that I wish Ridgefield could afford.”
She urged the city to “take advantage” of the volunteers who want to work on the float.
“Please don’t let this opportunity slip through your fingers,” she said.

Gordon remembered for smile, political savvy
Mel Gordon was a strong swimmer in both real waters and political waters, and added his effervescent smile and optimistic personality to everything he did.
The former Clark County commissioner, who also served four terms as Multnomah, OR county commissioner and received a prestigious presidential appointment, died Feb. 17, 2007, at age 84.
Melvin Louis Gordon was born May 4, 1922, in Portland. He had fun telling people later in life that he attended “Failing Grade School,” and then Lincoln High School. His mother, Kathryn Haviner, was Irish, and his father, Harry Gordon, was Jewish. They divorced when Mel was 5 or 6 years old, and Mel and his sister, Geraldine, were raised by their grandmother, Rose, a native of Latvia who spoke broken English. Not long after the divorce, Harry Gordon was killed when his horse and buggy collided with a car on Front St. in Portland.
Gordon developed lifelong friendships in grade school. He learned to swim at Neighborhood House community center, and remained an avid swimmer and water activity enthusiast all his life.
During high school, Gordon worked at an ice cream shop. He drove a 1932 Essex. He loved to dance and enjoyed big band music. “He was always a ladies’ man,” said widow Micki Gordon.
After graduating from high school, Gordon and two friends went to Laguna Beach, CA, where he got a job as a lifeguard. He also lied about his age, said Micki, and was employed as a bartender.
Gordon received draft notices, so he moved back to Portland and entered the Coast Guard. While other inductees were sent to far off places during World War II, Gordon was assigned to Astoria, OR, where he boarded Russian merchant ships. Gordon readily learned foreign languages, and he learned the Russian language during this period.
Gordon was injured in an automobile accident and left the Coast Guard.
Gordon married Elizabeth Thomas in Portland and in the late 1940s, the couple had two sons, Bruce and Alan, and daughter Betsy, the last born in March 1951. The family lived in the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Portland.
Gordon worked for Hobbs Battery for about five years, serving as a sales representative in western states. Promised a promotion that never occurred, Gordon quit and opened Standard Batteries, a Portland-based company of which he was president. He manufactured batteries. He was also the Portland distributor for General Tire.
In 1961, Gordon entered politics, leaving private business behind for awhile. He was elected as a Republican to the Oregon State Legislature and served one term. He was then elected Multnomah County commissioner and served four terms, ending when he resigned in 1978 to accept an appointment from Pres. Carter to head the federal Pacific Northwest River Basins Commission, a position he held until 1981.
While a Multnomah County commissioner, Gordon played an important role in both the planning for light rail and the design of the I-205 freeway. He was later referred to as the “Father of Light Rail.”
The family took a 6-week vacation to Europe and Gordon bought a car in Germany.
Gordon was elected to and attended both the 1964 and 1968 Republican national conventions as a delegate from Oregon. Goldwater and Nixon were nominated for president at those conventions. He was elected president of the Oregon Association of Counties. He was a director of the National Association of Counties, serving in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Federal Energy Commission advisory board, representing the nation’s counties from 1974 through 1978.
Gordon was divorced in 1969 and married Micki Tobias in 1970. They honeymooned in Acapulco, Mexico. Micki’s daughter, Julie, then 12, rounded out the family.
Gordon moved to Clark County in 1978 where the River Basins Commission was based. He was appointed chairman of the Clark County Industrial Revenue Bonding Authority 1981-82.
Then Gordon went back into private business, operating Gordon International Inc., a company that exported beans, peas and lentils to Pacific Rim countries. He made a business trip to China. Two years later, he opened World Cruise Center Inc., the first cruise-only travel firm in the northwest. From 1984 until 1994, Gordon not only booked cruises for people, he and Micki went on cruises. Micki estimates that Gordon took 50 cruises during this period.
After selling these businesses, Gordon went to work in marketing for the sternwheeler The Columbia Gorge. “He liked the water,” said Micki. Gordon owned a 32-foot boat called “The Los Brisas” and was a member of the Portland Yacht Club. Gordon hosted parties in his boat house which had a fireplace and kitchen. He loved to play poker which also took place at the boat house.
Relatives remember cruising the San Juan Islands in the summer aboard The Los Brisas which slept four people.
Micki said Gordon came home one day and said he was thinking about running for office again. She knew he had already made up his mind.
In 1994, Gordon defeated incumbent Clark County commissioner Busse Nutley, and served one term as county commissioner.
The Gordons then took trips to Hawaii and Arizona. During one trip, Gordon taught his granddaughter, Shannon, then age 9, how to swim, working with her every day. He taught all three of Julie’s children how to swim.
“Let’s go where the sun shines,” said Gordon to Micki in 2000, and the couple sold their Vancouver home and moved to Rancho Mirage, CA, east of Palm Springs, where they bought a condo. While living there, the politically-active Gordon was appointed to the Energy Commission of Coachella Valley of Palm Desert where he studied the energy needs of 13 cities.
Hot summer weather brought the Gordons back to Vancouver in 2004.
Gordon took medication for 15 years to control his heart rhythm. Near the end of his life he resided in an assisted living facility. His death was attributed to a heart attack.
Relatives describe Gordon’s love of eastern Oregon, western outfits and cowboy lore. He had western clothing and one room of his home had a cowboy theme. He collected branding irons.
Gordon collected all types of hats during his life. He wore glasses starting in the 1970s. He smoked a pipe for many years but quit on the advice of a doctor. He was six feet tall. He enjoyed taking vacations by car and had driven through Montana, Utah and Wyoming. Micki said Gordon had signs of baldness even as a young man.
Gordon loved dogs and always had one in his home. Gordon was fond of German Shepherds and bulldogs, and had owned several Maltese breed dogs. “He loved every dog he met,” said Micki.
Micki recalls that while Mel was a Multnomah County commissioner, he and fellow commissioner Don Clark traveled to Utah for a conference. Mel discovered a clothing store where he purchased a coral-colored suit. He called it melon colored. He encouraged Clark to purchase a yellow suit. Back in Portland, both Gordon and Clark wore their bright suits to a commission meeting one day to the delight of colleagues and the media.
“He was a born optimist,” said Micki. “He always looked at the bright side of things.” She described Gordon as a very happy person.
Micki recalls her husband of 37 years coming home only once or twice discouraged about something, but he quickly changed his attitude and saw a positive view, she said.
During memorial services March 3, political colleague Dick Feeney said of Gordon, “He unabashedly loved the limelight.” “He didn’t mind political controversies,” said Feeney, “as long as the media spelled his name right and his phone was ringing.”
Feeney also recalled retreat meetings when Gordon would make pancakes with his special recipe that included yogurt and sour cream. “He stayed up half the night preparing them,” said Feeney, “and then spent more time talking about them the next day than eating them. They were fabulous.”
Gordon leaves widow Micki, at home in Vancouver, sons Bruce Gordon of Portland and Alan Gordon of Arizona, daughters Betsy Skalak of Arizona and Julie Wright of Vancouver, and seven grandchildren.

Arrest made in connection with fatal crash
Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputies have arrested Kelley Hill, 34, Woodland, in connection with a Feb. 26 auto crash in which 12-year-old Jake Fry died.
Hill was booked into Cowlitz County Jail March 8 on charges of first degree manslaughter, and is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Hill was the adult passenger in the crash where she reportedly allowed the under-aged Fry to drive her 1993 Ford Taurus. Fry lost control and crashed into an oncoming vehicle. Fry died at Doernbechers Children’s Hospital the following day. Four other people were injured in the crash.
The arrest documents allege that Hill knew the dangers of allowing the youth to drive, and that she willfully disregarded those dangers. Deputies alleged that this is not the first time she had allowed the youth to drive.
“The deputies have worked very hard on this case,” said Cowlitz sheriff’s department Captain Mark Nelson. “I know it seems somewhat of a ‘no-brainer’ that this is a crime, but truly, when you’re talking about someone’s life, both the life lost and the person charged, the one thing you need most is a thorough investigation.”
“This young boy would most likely be alive today if the adult here had done the adult thing and said, ‘no,’” said Nelson.
Fry was the son of Loren Fry and Kathy Fry, both of Woodland, and a seventh grade student at Woodland Middle School.
Officials report that Fry was southbound on N Pekin Rd. near the Woodland city limits when the car slid out of control and into the path of a 2005 Toyota Sequoia driven by Donna Howell, 55, Woodland.
Deputies reported that Hill was riding in the front passenger seat of the car that Fry was driving, and Hill’s 12-year-old daughter, Trisha Delcoure, was in the back seat.
Extrication equipment was needed to remove the front door of the Taurus to free the driver and to peel back the roof to remove the girl in the back seat, according to Woodland fire chief Tony Brentin.

Human bones found
Remains identified as female; second
victim found in area in three years
Bill Myers
staff reporter
Clark County Sheriff’s deputies and search and rescue teams recovered a skull, other human bones and potential evidence from a wooded area south of Yale Reservoir March 6-7.
The search took place about 200 feet below a steep bank on the east side of SR-503, approximately one-quarter mile south of the Yale Bridge.
A 911 call from a hiker at about 10 a.m. March 6 prompted the search. The hiker, searching for antlers, reported finding what he thought were human skeletal remains.
Sheriff’s sergeant Fred Neiman said the search was very labor intensive as deputies combed areas of dense foliage outlined by marker tapes. Deputies were aided by searchers from the Sheriff’s Office Civilian Search & Rescue, Clark County Search & Rescue, Silver Star Search & Rescue, Mounted Search and Rescue and Civil Air Patrol search teams. A doctor helped to sort human from animal bones.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman sergeant Tim Bieber said the bones were taken to the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office for examination. He said the victim was a female, at least in her late 30s at the time of death with significant, specialized dental work, who died at least a year ago.
The remains will be examined by forensics specialists in an effort to identify the person, said Bieber. The case is being treated as a homicide.
The remains were found within a few hundred feet of where another hiker in May 2004 found the remains of Yakov V. German, 37, a Vancouver man. His partially-decomposed body was found in a shallow grave in a wooded area east of SR-503 south of the Yale Bridge and north of recently-found remains. After an autopsy, detectives said German, missing since August 2003, was a victim of homicidal violence. The investigation was transferred to the Vancouver Police Department and remains unsolved.
There are several unsolved missing persons cases in Clark and Cowlitz counties.