2022 Year in Review, Part 1: A selective look back
News-Register’s choice of a baker’s dozen topics from news coverage in 2022 begins on these pages and will conclude in the Jan. 4 edition. With space a constraint, the annual review is a set of highlights but by no means an exhaustive list of every important story.
Also in the year’s review are retrospectives on the year in business and of Yamhill County residents who died in 2022, as well as a few selected images that had not yet appeared in print.
The news staff continually looks ahead, or strives to, as it plans and carries out coverage of news. Yet the end of each year gives editors and reporters a chance to take readers back in time through the year with a review of dominant stories from 2022. Some of these reviews include updates and looks ahead at how some of these stories will carry forth into 2023.
Homelessness remains a major local concern
The issue of homelessness remained one of the city of McMinnville’s top priorities in 2022 and while major projects moved forward, residents complained that more needs to be done about what some are calling vagrancy-related crime.
The year started with city council toughening camping and abandoned vehicle provisions in city code, which led to the leasing of a tow yard in July and the first sweep of illegally parked vehicles in August.
Three cars and five campers were towed to the city lot during initial sweeps.
Renovation work will begin next year for a 30-bed emergency low-barrier shelter at 327 and 329 S.W. Adams St. The Navigation Center will open in 2024 and be operated by Yamhill Community Action Partnership, with approximately $2 million in construction costs being paid by the city.
Other efforts such as the renovated motel turned transitional shelter called Project Turnkey have been dubbed a success but city leaders and social service agencies all agree more funding and property are needed to combat homelessness.
The city co-signed to a call from a coalition of Oregon mayors that the state legislature provide over $100 million annually statewide to address homelessness and the city requested $8.7 million from Governor-Elect Tina Kotek for “shovel ready” construction projects when she recently visited the city on a listening tour.
Despite the progress, a group of more than 300 residents signed a petition in December calling for task force on homelessness to be formed due to complaints of crimes and vulgarity wreaking havoc on businesses and the streets of McMinnville.
It is unknown what will come from the residents’ call to action, but it remains clear homelessness remains one of the city’s biggest concerns heading into the new year.
Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer outlasts recall vote
Yamhill County Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer made enemies early in her tenure, with her immediate move to end the Yamhelas-Westsider Trail project, and her treatment of county staff during the debates over the trail, among other issues.
For the first time in county history, residents moved to recall a newly-elected commissioner, as soon as she became eligible. The recall group described itself as a group of county residents of various political parties, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents, concerned about good governance. They accused Berschauer of fiscal irresponsibility, focusing more on state politics than county governance, bullying county staff, spreading misinformation about COVID-19, masks and vaccines, and trying to improperly influence the Sheriff’s office and prosecutors in a criminal case involving a man involved in litigation with her husband. She and fellow commissioner Mary Starrett also passed an ordinance purporting to exempt the county from new state or federal gun laws, leading to a lawsuit by the state, and demanded without authority the city of Newberg hold a $70,000 election on an urban renewal district plan.
The group Save Yamhill County raised the required number of signatures to put a recall on the ballot in 2021, but a clerical error required them to start over. The second round of signature-gathering was also successful, and the recall went to the ballot in March of this year, but was unsuccessful. Berschauer prevailed, in a vote of 52.49% to 47.51%.
The recall effort was supported by employee unions and by several former county commissioners.
Money poured into the race.
Berschauer raised more than $47,800, with heavy support from political action committees and hazelnut farms, in addition to supporters. She received $7,500 from Stimson Lumber Company, $9,000 from the Yamhill County Republicans, $1,000 from the Boquist Leadership Fund and a $5,600 loan from Mark Parrish, husband of former State Rep. Julie Parrish.
Save Yamhill County raised more than $54,600, mostly from county residents, with a few donations from out-of-state, and a fund-raising event. It received $1,000 from the Voices of Newberg political action committee. Berschauer threatened to sue the group, although she did not follow through, and was accused of doxing members.
South Yamhill Bridge replacement continues
Traffic on Three Mile Lane made the switch on April 5 from the existing South Yamhill River bridge to the diversion, or temporary, span built starting in 2021. In summer of 2022 crews from Wildish Construction cut up and removed the old bridge, built in 1954. Removal and replacement will cost about $15 million, according to owner Oregon Department of Transportation. The bridge is the main thoroughfare connecting downtown McMinnville to the city’s southern business district, airport, and Highway 18 to Portland and the Oregon coast.
Flaggers were a continuous presence in early 2022 as the south and north links were made on the diversion bridge, creating a serpentine traffic path. Large orange curved-arrow signs were installed along with those indicating reduced speed limit of 25 miles per hour. South- and north-bound vehicles started taking slight jogs from Three Mile Lane onto the diversion bridge, which will be in place for approximately two years. The diversion bridge carries the city sewer line, which will be re-installed on the permanent bridge when it is built. Completion is expected in about 18 months.
In May 2022 crews from Wildish began demolishing the old bridge. Where the old bridge crossed the river crews built a short construction bridge to give workers a platform for building the permanent bridge.
Creating the diversion bridge also required temporary closure of the Three Mile Lane junction with Cumulus, near the south end of the bridge. That meant for about three months drivers going to medical offices and other businesses on Cumulus had to continue a half-mile east on Highway 18 to Norton Lane. The Cumulus Avenue intersection at Three Mile Lane reopened on April 1.
Through the summer of 2022, Wildish drove pilings and poured large concrete footings in the mid-section and ends of the future bridge path. More bridge support construction work will continue in the first half of 2023 before rebar and beams go into place for the bridge deck.
Riverbend remains an ongoing legal, environmental issue
Riverbend Landfill took another step toward closure this year, with the issuance of a closure permit by the state Department of Environmental Quality. However, parent company Waste Management of Houston still has the ability, at any time, to try again for expansion, if it can clear the legal hurdles that stopped the previous effort, after years of court battles.
In June, the DEQ announced that it would be issuing a closure permit, and invited public testimony.
It intends to have Riverbend Landfill closed in eight years, officials told the public at a hearing conducted by Zoom.
Longtime opponents asked the DEQ to ensure the landfill stays closed permanently. However, the monitoring required for at least 30 years after closure requires a closure permit that provides regulation authority for the state — and as long as there is a permit, Riverbend Landfill can apply to have it modified, to reopen and expand the landfill. The landfill is being closed because it has reached near capacity, and stopped taking in garbage and recycling in 2021.
Riverbend has been fined for various permit violations several times in recent years.
Some critics argued that the landfill poses a significant risk of failure in the event of a massive subduction zone earthquake. DEQ officials, however, dismissed the concern, saying its seismic engineering is sufficient, and that monitoring of groundwater is also adequate.
Controversy roils Newberg School District and board
The Newberg School District endured another chaotic year, as lawsuits over the new school board’s divisive policies proceeded to court hearings and more and more staff resigned from the district, including one notable week when the entire information technology department resigned. Many staff members found jobs in the McMinnville School District and other surrounding areas. Some parents also withdrew their children and moved out of the district.
Three members of the board resigned, saying they could no longer endure the treatment from their colleagues.
In January, the two most prominent members of the controlling wing of the board, Brian Shannon and Dave Brown, faced a recall election, but held onto their seats. The race drew heavy spending from right-wing organizations, including some that had no apparent tie to school issues.
In September, a judge ruled that the board’s policy prohibiting “political, quasi-political or controversial” signs violates the state Constitution’s guarantee of free speech.”
A lawsuit against the board by the teachers’ union that went over many of the same grounds was dismissed on Dec.20, after the parties reached a settlement. At least two other lawsuits are still pending.
In May, the board hired a new superintendent, Stephen Phillips, who resigned from the Beaverton School District after controversy erupted about remarks he had made on social media. Phillips then went to work for the Jewell School District, before being placed on leave in March 2021.
In September, Phillips was criticized for hiring a company with ties to school board members, without soliciting bids, and the district opened bids for a new communications company.
The district also struggled with unreliable busing for students, and in December announced that the board had voted to change its five-year contract to one year, with the Student Transportation Association.
Tempers have been high in the community for more than a year, with white nationalist groups coming into the city to protest, and at least one city councilor saying she has received numerous death threats. In December, three new city councilors were elected, who had ties to the school board or to other right-wing groups.
Yamhill officials defy new state gun regulations
Guns were once again a major topic of discussion for the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners in 2022.
The issue began in 2021, when County Commissioners Lindsay Berschauer and Mary Starrett voted to pass an ordinance purporting to exempt the county from any new state and federal gun regulations, despite being warned by county legal staff that the ordinance defied state law. The ordinance banned the Sheriff’s Office from enforcing new gun regulations, and the District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting them, and said any Sheriff’s deputy or county prosecutor who did so could be fined, and be subject to lawsuits.
The state sued in the fall of 2021, and the county hired attorney Tyler Smith to defend it. Smith wrote the original draft of the ordinance, and has also been active in other local control issues around the state.
The case did not get to trial. The state asked to have the county’s ordinance summarily dismissed, while Tyler, arguing on behalf of the county, said it was the state’s lawsuit that should be thrown out.
Judge Ladd Wiles made short work of ruling the county’s ordinance was in clear violation of the state Constitution.
Summary judgments, either to dismiss a lawsuit or to find in favor of the plaintiffs, are issued when a judge determines there is no genuine dispute over the facts, and that the prevailing party is entitled to the judgment as a matter of law.
In court, Wiles read aloud the relevant sections of state law, including Statute 166.170, which says that “the authority to regulate in any matter whatsoever ... any element relating to firearms and components thereof, including ammunition, is vested solely in the Legislative Assembly,” and goes on to state that counties may not enact ordinances pertaining to gun regulations.
Attorneys for the state Justice Department pointed out that another state law specifically bans counties from being able to make their own employees personally liable for actions taken as part of their jobs, and Wiles ruled that part of the ordinance also clearly violates state law.
By the time of the hearing, Smith had billed the county for more than $14,000.
In August, Berschauer and Starrett directed Smith to file an appeal of Wiles’ ruling. Opening briefs were due Dec.16, but after the county sought more time, the deadline was moved to Jan. 30.
While the case is in litigation, the county’s ordinance is not in effect.
In November, voters approved a ballot initiative requiring a permit to purchase firearms, a ban on magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, safety training and criminal background checks for gun buyers.
Starrett and Berschauer passed a resolution in opposition in early December, and Sheriff Tim Svenson said he would not actively enforce the law, although he said he would work on developing a permit application system for the county, and reserved the right to use provisions from the law when he believes they are needed.
The law is currently on hold, by a judge’s order, pending the outcome of various lawsuits.
Part 2 of the News-Register's Year in Review will Publish next week.
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