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November 17, 2015
Minutes
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David Dahle, Chair
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Woody Dukes
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Brock Campbell
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Michael Livingston,
Vice Chair
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Bob Hanna
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Diana Dettwyler
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Erma Hoffman,
Treasurer
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Bruce Hoffman
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Neal Kern
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Sarah Owens, Sec’y
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Rebekah Engle
p=present a=absent e=excused
Residents: Bill Holmstrom, Rick Yurt
Organizations: Maurice Anderson, First Congregational UCC and Salem Homeless Coalition;
Simon Sandusky, Guest Services Manager, Union Gospel Mission, A.P. Walther, Salem
Weekly, Verena Wessel, Northwest Human Services
City/County Representatives: Councilor Bennett, Officer Vanmeter; Gina Courson, Marion
County Parole & Probation
Guests: Jeremy Mills, NEN; Cyndi Astley, Deputy Director, MWVCAA; Brent Demoe,
Manager, Polk County Family and Community Outreach
The regular meeting of the CanDo Board of Directors was called to order at 6:00 p.m. on
Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at the First Christian Church at 685 Marion Street NE, Salem.
Michael Livingston was in the chair and Sarah Owens acted as secretary.
The agenda and the minutes of the October meeting were approved unanimously.
Deputy Courson reported the latest MCRI statistics and answered questions.
Councilor Bennett made announcements and stated that the City needed “to continue to
work with the affordable housing issue”, saying that, in the 1970s, the City had a “very
aggressive housing policy because the feds [at that time] had a very aggressive housing
policy”, but not since then had either the City or the feds addressed the problem
adequately. He said private developers were “few and far between for cities the size of
Salem” and that the City would be considering the Salem Housing Authority’s proposal to
build affordable housing on part of the State Hospital’s North Campus.
Officer Vanmeter reported that SPD makes 5-6 drug/alcohol-related arrests per day under
the Center St. Bridge near UGM. As a consequence, Public Works Director Peter Fernandez
and SPD had agreed it would be preferable to prevent the need for arrests at this location
by better "environmental design", i.e., by fencing off the area under the bridge. Both Public
Works and SPD recognize that this course will merely send the problem behavior elsewhere.
No timeline was given, but it seemed from what was said that action was likely to be taken
within the next 60 days.
The board heard a presentation from Brent Demoe on developing the Dallas Academy
Building model for co-locating social services for families in need, followed by a lively
discussion on how it might be used to develop a similar resource center for homeless
individuals living in downtown Salem.
There being no other business before the board, the meeting of the Board of Directors
adjourned at 7:02 p.m.