Salem-News.com Aurora articles

Next-Generation MAF Bush Plane on Display in Oregon This Month

It happens August 15th in Newberg and August 16th in Aurora Oregon: Innovative KODIAK Revolutionizes Travel to Remote Regions.

(NEWBERG, Ore.) - An innovative new airplane designed specifically to support missionaries, humanitarian organizations and others in remote areas of the world will be on display at two locations in Oregon.

The KODIAK plane is operated by MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), a faith-based, nonprofit ministry that serves missions and isolated people around the world with aviation, communications and learning technologies.

Oregon Civil Air Patrol Initiates Response to Tsunami Drill

The CAP has performed similar missions around the Mt. Hood area, indicating key points for avalanches, debris flows and other geologic areas of concern.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Oregon coastal communities are taking part in a simulated tsunami beginning Friday, and the Oregon Civil Air Patrol will be a participant in this unique exercise.

The statewide disaster drill is called Cascade Peril 09. Tom Traver with the Oregon CAP says it deals not only with the tsunami, but with the underlying 9.0 Megaquake that caused it.

Marion County Deputies Investigate Armed Robbery in Aurora‏

Both suspects left the store and got into what was described as an older model dark colored Pontiac Bonneville that according to witnesses, looks like a Honda Accord. The vehicle may also have a rear taillight out.

(AURORA, Ore.) - Marion County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Fuel N Mart/Circle K store on Delores Way in Aurora last night at 7:30 PM, over a report of an Armed Robbery that had just occurred.

Lt. Sheila Lorance with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, says according to store employees and witnesses, two Hispanic males entered the store and purchased a pack of cigarettes.

"They then went to the back of the store, took a dark gray knit hat off of a display and returned to the counter. When the clerk started to ring up the hat one of the suspects pointed a small gray pistol at her and demanded that she put all of the money in the hat," Lorance said.

Six Cars Crash Sending Five Victims to Area Hospitals

This accident snarled traffic for over two hours.

(AURORA, Ore.) - Just before 7:00 AM Tuesday, Aurora Fire Department responded to a car crash in front of Fir Point Farms on S. Arndt Road.

Upon arrival the rescue crews realized they had multiple vehicles and multiple victims.

The crash scene was scattered into two grouping of vehicles. One cluster was a two-vehicle entanglement involving a Chevy Pickup and a Honda SUV. The other was a four-car in-line crash, involving a Ford Focus, a Honda Accord, a Chrysler Voyager, and a Chevy 4X4 Pickup.

600 Plants Stolen from Oregon Nursery

The estimated value of the stolen trees is about $5000.

(AURORA, Ore. ) - At about 9:30 AM this morning deputies recieved a call from Loy Russell, owner of Russell's Nursery Inc, who reported that someone had taken 600 plants from one of the greenhouses at his nursery located at 22241 Boones Ferry Rd NE, Aurora.

The plants were assorted varieties of grafted Japanese Maple trees ranging in size from about 16" to as tall as 28". The trees had either green or purple leaves.

Aurora Man Safe After Train Crashes Into His Pickup

The train's engine was approximately 30 cars past the crash site before it could fully stop the train, which was estimated to be traveling at 30-35 MPH.

(CANBY) - At about 5:40 PM, Canby Firefighters responded to a report of a car hit by a train at 99E and S. Barlow Road.

When Canby Fire Units arrived they transferred the shaken driver into their medic unit to further evaluate the 72-year old gentlemen from Aurora. He told the firefighters that he misjudged the road. He apparently started to cross the railroad tracks and his vehicle became stuck, or high centered on the tracks.

Head-On Crash Between Dump Truck and Pick-Up Kills One, Injures Several

(AURORA) - Marion County deputies responded to the scene of a fatal car crash at Whiskey Hill Rd NE east of Fobart Rd NE on the Marion/Clackamas County line near Aurora early Wednesday morning.

Marion County Sheriff`s Office Spokesman Kevin Rau says the crash was apparently a head on collision between a tandem dump truck with one occupant traveling westbound and a pickup with three occupants traveling eastbound on Whiskey Hill Rd NE.

It is reported that one of the occupants of the truck died at the scene. The other two occupants of the truck were transported by Life Flight to Portland area hospitals for treatment of serious trauma injuries.

State Trooper in Unmarked Car Arrests Motorcyclist For Riding at 125 MPH

(SALEM) - An Aurora man was arrested Tuesday morning north of Salem on Interstate 5 after an Oregon State Police (OSP) trooper in an unmarked ADEP (Aggressive Driving Enforcement Plan) patrol car observed him operating his motorcycle in a reckless manner at speeds in excess of 125 mph.

This was the third driver arrested by the trooper using the unmarked patrol car during the last week driving 115-mph or faster.

On April 4th at approximately 9:20 AM, OSP Trooper Sean Swisher was
patrolling southbound on Interstate 5 near Woodburn when he spotted a 2003 Suzuki SV1000 motorcycle approaching from behind at a high rate of speed. After the motorcycle passed the unmarked OSP Chevrolet Camaro ADEP patrol vehicle, Trooper Swisher allegedly paced it at speeds in excess of 125 mph.

Man Charged With Smashing a Random, Occupied Car With a Backhoe

(Aurora) - An Aurora man faces numerous charges after allegedly smashing an `86 Chevy Nova with five people inside with the bucket of a tracked backhoe. Marion County deputies say 65-year-old Joe Wendal Schmidt of Aurora, used the backhoe to smash the car in the roadway in front of his residence at 12277 Donald Rd NE near Aurora.

The occupants of the car told investigators that they were driving on Donald Rd when they came upon a backhoe tractor blocking the roadway. They say the man operating the tractor, Joe Schmidt, began yelling at them saying he believed they were there to kill him.