Wilsonville Spokesman

This new Business Tribune series explores master-planned subdivisions adding new housing in Portland-area suburbs.Villebois, French for "village near the woods," is a Wilsonville community that is inspired by traditional European villages. Initial development began in 2004 and continues with a new phase that is adding a trio of mixed-use buildings in the Village Center at the heart of the community. When fully built out, Villebois will provide a total of 2,700 housing units. Costa Pacific Communities began developing the initial phases in partnership with master architect and land developer Lee Iverson of Iverson Architects in Newport Beach, Calif. Since then,...

A $20 billion bill in Congress would help every state make elections more secure with predictable funding. Elections systems in the United States are considered critical infrastructure. That means that like energy, food and transportation, they must be modern, secure and properly maintained. Afterall, these systems support our fundamental political right — the right to vote. Unfortunately, we don't fund elections like critical infrastructure. According to the Election Infrastructure Initiative, a nonpartisan partnership of elections officials, nonprofits, counties and state governments, Oregon is $767,477,251 short of what it needs to fully fund elections over the next 10 years. I love...

The Oregon Air National Guard will help set the Independence Day mood in several local communities. F-15 fighter jets from the Oregon Air National Guard are set to fly over several cities in Oregon and two in Southwest Washington for Independence Day. The jets, part of the 142nd Wing, will take off from the Portland Air National Guard Base at Portland International Airport and will soar above multiple July 4 celebrations and parades at a noticeably lower-than-normal altitude of 1,000 feet. Beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, the first community will see the aces' aerial "salute" at speeds of around 400...

Gentle and quiet, fat and toothless, old and set in their ways - we love our pets anyway.Oregon pet owners agree: pets are best for making you laugh. A survey from Oregon Values and Beliefs Center found that 75% of Oregonians say their pets often make them laugh. Only 2% said their pet never makes them laugh. Roughly two-thirds of Oregonians said their pets often reduce their stress levels or feelings of loneliness. One in three Oregonians have adopted a pet in the past two years, roughly since the start of the pandemic, the survey found. Nearly all Oregonians consider...

Six area players will test themselves in the annual all-star football battle.If you like summer — and who doesn't? — and if you like high school football — and you should — then have we got a deal for you. Coming up on Saturday, July 2, is the 2022 Les Schwab Bowl, the annual high school football all-star game, set for a 6 p.m. kickoff at Linfield College's Maxwell Field, 51 S.E. Lever St. in McMinnville. The 74th iteration of the game features a handful of significant changes, jettisoning its former North vs. South geographical matchup in favor of a...

The Wilsonville-based academy's July 12 event will be open in person for the first 100 registrants, and virtually to the first 1,000 registrants. Oregon Charter Academy in Wilsonville will join hundreds of sites across the nation in celebrating the release of the first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope — the most technologically advanced of its kind — at a July 12 event. The event, slated for 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, July 12, will be free and open to the public. Located at 30485 SW Boones Ferry Rd., #202 in Wilsonville, it is open in person to the first...

Nearly 80% of respondents had moderate or great concern about the loss of public forestland.Significant rainfall this spring noticeably greened up the Oregon countryside and appears to have calmed nerves across the state, according to a survey about wildfire danger conducted in June by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. The survey, conducted from June 2-11, found that 60% of respondents felt wildfire was a threat to their local communities. In May 2021, that number was 68%. The wildfire perception survey interviewed 1,446 Oregon residents 18 or older. The survey sought to gauge how concerned Oregon residents are heading into...

New building is expected to be completed in 2025 and cost $313 million - a significant increase over earlier $189 million estimate. On Wednesday, June 29, Clackamas County commissioners approved selecting a contractor to begin construction of a new courthouse. Fengate PCL Progress Partners (FP3) was the successful bidder to design, build, partially finance and maintain a new courthouse at the Clackamas County Red Soils Campus in Oregon City. "We are finally at a place, where we can finally do it. I look forward to it," said board Chair Tootie Smith about moving forward with replacing the courthouse. "We will...

Fitzgerald is relishing the chance to truly connect with the community and city she loves.It's been over 18 months since she took office, and, really, Wilsonville Mayor Julie Fitzgerald is just starting to settle in. She's still tweaking her approach and discovering the intricacies of the gig and community she serves — still taking the temperature of her new role. Fitzgerald seems to acknowledge that, in some regards, she's behind schedule. Fitzgerald took over former Mayor Tim Knapp's role in January 2021, during one of the most trying stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time she...

Charles Gallia: Congress should make American Rescue Plan Act subsidies permanent before insurance premiums rise.Through my work as a co-founder of the Oregon Pediatric Improvement Partnership, which ensures children with special health needs receive the care they deserve, I have witnessed the need for greater access to quality, affordable health coverage across Oregon. When this need was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress expanded health insurance subsidies to more Oregonians and Americans than ever through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), helping thousands of families find plans that fit their budgets. Unfortunately, as those same families are paying higher...

Over 76 days, I covered almost 70 events and held more than 180 interviews with area athletes.All right. All right. I'll admit it. I'm still stuck in the 2022 spring high school sports season. Oh sure, I've moved on to summer stories in some ways — I covered the Oregon All-Star Series, wrote features about new coaches (including West Linn football coach Jon Eagle and Clackamas boys basketball coach Ryan King) and interviewed Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard. But like I said, I'm still suffering from a bit of a spring season hangover. And please, no jokes about hangovers...

Bart Brewer: There are many other roadblocks communities face, such as barriers to careWith the state of mental health care in this country being what it is, it's no surprise that we often look at it from the perspective of the majority. Fighting for proper mental health care is already such a battle that often minorities within this realm aren't included in the conversation. With July being National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, now is a perfect time to try and correct for that by addressing how racism and the language used around it can affect mental health. ...

This was our first trip of any consequence since we returned from Portugal just before the pandemic.The expression "The third time's a charm" has always meant that if you try to do something right and fail at it, try again and fail again, then success surely awaits you with the third try. I thought about this little piece of philosophy recently while I was on a riverboat cruising down the mighty Mississippi. It had been a relaxing, uneventful trip right up until a young and nervous-appearing cruise director took the mic. In a solemn voice, he said "Ladies and gentlemen....

The Seattle-based company says Recycle+ violates state law. Pride Disposal has jumped to the county's defense.Days before Washington County's new Recycle+ program is set to launch, Seattle-based recycler Ridwell has filed another lawsuit against the county. Ridwell asserts that Recycle+ violates Oregon law. It's the second lawsuit the company has filed since county officials ordered it to cease operating in Washington County by early this year. At the crux of the dispute is whether a private company can provide recycling services in what is considered the territory of haulers that already have franchise agreements to operate in Washington County. When...

Abortion likely to be big issue in the election after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.On the left, Terrebonne attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, the progressive Democrat who vanquished seven-term U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, in the May primary. On the right, former Happy Valley Mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the conservative Republican with hopes of flipping the seat to the GOP. Polarized politics isn't the only rift in the 5th Congressional District. There's the looming mass of the Cascade Mountains that cleaves the district into western and eastern portions. It's tied together by a thin ribbon of blacktop on U.S....

A Sandy resident who grew up in Milwaukie, Madalena Larkins has already earned one college degree.Madalena Larkins, who most recently served as vice-president of Clackamas Community College's Associated Student Government, will be the student-body president in the upcoming school year. A 16-year-old Sandy resident who grew up in Milwaukie, Larkins has already earned one college degree and is now pursuing another. The Clackamas Print, the college's student newspaper, recently interviewed Larkins and gave permission for this interview to be reprinted by Pamplin Media Group. A D V E R T I S I N G | Continue reading...

Wages will increase to $14.75 for much of the Portland area, $13.50 for outlying areas.Starting July 1, Oregon workers earning minimum wage will take home a little more pay each week. State legislators passed a bill in 2016 creating a three-tiered minimum wage, with different minimums for workers depending on location. The state is divided into three zones: The highest minimum wage occurs in the Portland area's Urban Growth Boundary which stretches through Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties. The move placed Oregon among the highest minimum wage states in the nation. This Friday, workers in much of Multnomah, Washington...

Residents of state are more polarized on issue than nationally based on political party affiliation.A majority of Oregonians support stricter gun laws, according to a new poll by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. The nonpartisan independent research group on Thursday released data reporting 59% of survey respondents say they believe the state's firearms laws should be stricter, which is in line with an April 2021 Pew Research poll finding 60% of Americans want stricter gun laws. The beliefs center surveyed 1,446 Oregon adults between June 2 and 11 about gun regulations. Last month, an 18-year-old man in...

With Senate papers due to open, historian praises 'admirable leadership,' but also touches on later scandals.Had Richard Etulain graduated four years after he entered Northwest Nazarene College, he would have heard a 36-year-old Mark Hatfield speak at the commencement ceremony in May 1959. But Etulain took an extra year to obtain a bachelor's degree from what is now a university in Nampa, Idaho. He was pursuing an Oregon dairyman's daughter who would later become his wife. So he did not hear Hatfield, then and now the youngest person ever elected governor of Oregon. That changed during his six years in...

Here's a look ahead at the OSAA's scheduled changes for the coming 2022-26 four-year block.It's been almost 20 years. Indeed, when the next four-year block as designated by the Oregon School Activities Association (the governing body for Oregon high school sports and activities) ends in 2026, it will mark exactly 20 years since the OSAA expanded the number of athletic classifications in the state from four to six. As someone who played high school sports in a long-since defunct league during my years at St. Helens — the Coast Valley League was disbanded after the 1978-79 season — I've always...