(Courtesy/Dakota Tangredi) For Dakota Tangredi, a day at work as a waste reduction coordinator for Marion County often means showing up at apartment buildings with a safety vest, clipboard and gloves to examine their garbage. Starting with the recycling bins, Tangredi makes a rough estimate of what percentage of the[Read More…]
COMMUNITY
Middle school students will spend semester creating art for micro shelter residents
Students at Howard Street Charter School. (Courtesy/Robert Salberg) Students at Howard Street Charter School are embarking on an art project to make life brighter for people living in micro shelter villages in Salem that are intended to serve as a transition out of homelessness. In January, the middle school students[Read More…]
Salem volunteer has helped pick up 9 tons of trash in the city
Dave Newman, left, and Mayor Chuck Bennett pose for a photo. (Courtesy/city of Salem) Dave Newman has picked up a lot of trash. In the last decade, he’s collected 18,350 pounds of garbage from Salem’s streets. It’s more trash than all the city’s 96 Adopt-A-Highway groups collect in a year.[Read More…]
To restore Eco Earth to its former glory, Salem Parks Foundation seeks to raise $300,000
The Eco-Earth Globe in Riverfront Park on Nov. 10, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Tiles have broken off. Moss is growing in the cracks. Pieces of continents are missing. One of the signature features of Riverfront Park for the past 18 years is falling apart. The Salem Parks Foundation has a[Read More…]
Indigenous woman gets stolen tribal regalia back after being contacted by stranger
Auburn Logan wearing some of the traditional regalia pieces she says were stolen and later returned. (Courtesy/Auburn Logan) Just over a week after Auburn Logan reported her traditional regalia pieces stolen, she got a message request on Facebook that she couldn’t ignore. The message, delivered Nov. 28 at 9 a.m.,[Read More…]
Willamette professor honored with scientific research award
Christopher Irwin Smith studying a Joshua tree at his primary field site in Tikaboo Valley, Nevada, just outside of Area 51. (Courtesy/Christopher Irwin Smith) In a career of researching natural science, Christopher Irwin Smith’s fondest memory is the summer he spent studying bats in Oregon. Then fresh out of college,[Read More…]
Salem father remembers son’s humanitarian spirit
Aaron Harris (Courtesy/Wade Harris) Wade Harris stopped by a west Salem neighborhood around 8:30 a.m. Nov. 19 to pick up a friend when he saw firetrucks and police cars down the street. He knew his adopted son, Aaron Harris, was squatting at an abandoned house in the area with his[Read More…]
Salem now has its own refugee resettlement agency
A recently achieved nonprofit designation will aid Salem for Refugees just as the number of displaced people eligible to resettle in Salem is exploding. In summer 2021, Luke Glaze, the organization’s first executive director, and its board completed the paperwork required for nonprofit status, making it an independent organization and[Read More…]
Veterans share stories from Afghanistan tours with city club
(Courtesy/Spire Management) Kevin Dial will never forget the day he and others serving in the National Guard were invited to a party in Afghanistan. He recalled his fellow soldiers dancing with Afghan men from the local community. “That kind of engagement on the one-to-one level when you put down your[Read More…]
Meet the guitar shop owner who got Salem millions to help with housing and homelessness
Justin Martin. (Courtesy/Justin Martin) In the back room of a downtown Salem guitar shop, Justin Martin makes calls to secure millions of dollars for Salem. Martin, who’s going into his fifth year lobbying for the city, is also a part owner of Guitar Castle and has an “On Air” sign[Read More…]
