The May 2012 Mid-county Memo is posted online. A recap of its contents:

Last month, the top three mayoral candidates debated at David Douglas High School’s Howard Horner Performing Arts Center; the new Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative areas are approved; Parkrose School District averts a teacher’s strike; David Douglas special education teacher Annie Harrell is named Outstanding Teacher of the Year; Lee Perlman interviews City Commissioner Amanda Fritz and opponent, state Rep. Mary Nolan; the Planning and Sustainability Commission endorsed the Outer Powell Conceptual Design Plan; since 2006, east Portland neighborhood associations have been operating illegally; the Portland Housing Bureau is changing tax abatement area boundaries in east Portland … again; and, longtime Gateway hairstylist June Bauer’s obituary.

The April 2012 Mid-county Memo is posted online. A recap of its contents follows:

Bre’Shay Barnes was named Rose Festival Princess from Parkrose; the new Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative areas struggle to meet financial goals; Parkrose School District declares impasse with teachers; PSD Superintendent Karen Fischer Gray is one of four finalists for Reynolds job; the first meeting between Metro and Glendoveer golf course lovers since a contentious open house in August; the Argay Neighborhood Association hires a lawyer to help fight infill development across the street from Argay Park and an east Portland high school winter sports roundup.

You’re climbing a mountain, going up a steep slope. You’re exhausted, but the summit is within sight, within reach. Somehow, you summon up reserves of strength, haul yourself up, and throw yourself triumphantly upon the sum…No, that was just a shoulder. The real summit looms ahead, and there’s a lot of it.

Amelai Salvador, from left, Joe Rossi and Luke Shepard at a Parkrose NPI meeting.

This might sound familiar to the steering committees of the six new Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative districts, of which four are in mid-county. There are rewards to be had, to be sure, including more than a million dollars in public funding for business development and local projects, but the hurdles these good people must overcome are steep and getting steeper.

After a career working outside the neighborhood he grew up in, Mike Pifher is coming home to work. He already lives in the neighborhood he dearly loves: about ten years ago, he bought the house next door to his parents’ on Southeast 113th Avenue near Market Street.

Now, he is bringing his decade of restaurant and nightclub experience home as general manager of the Dog House Saloon, on Southeast 122nd Avenue near Stark Street in the old Wai Kong Asian Bistro & Bar space. “A contemporary, urban sports bar,” as Pifher described it recently.

Posted online, here’s a recap of the February 2012 edition of the Mid-county Memo ….

Tom West, girls varsity basketball coach at Portland Christian for 30 years, was named Oregon’s 2010-2011 National Federation of State High School Associations Coach of the Year.

Former Portland Christian girls varsity coach Tom West, center, holding plaque, was named 2011 National Federation of State High School Associations Coach of the Year. West quit coaching after 30 years at the school. He won three state titles, including a 29-0, undefeated record in 2007.

The Portland Police Bureau’s Missing Persons Unit asks for help from the public in locating 16-year-old Kalpana Wagley, a recent Bhutanese refugee, missing since last Friday.

Kalpana Wagley, left, a 16-year-old David Douglas High School student seen here at a 2010 soccer clinic, was reported missing Friday. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim Curran

Wagley is described as a female Nepalese, five feet eight inches tall, and 104 pounds, with mid-back length black hair. Kalpana was last seen wearing knee-length, cut-off blue jeans, dark brown ski-type boots, and a black vest under a white jacket.

Two of three Mid-county school districts — Reynolds and Parkrose — are seeking state mediation help in reaching agreement on their teachers contracts; classified employees in Parkrose also.

The third district, David Douglas, has been negotiating since June, but is not headed to mediation — yet.

In a show of solidarity, area union members and volunteers joined Parkrose teachers and employees picketing the school district. From left, North Clackamas School District teacher Deborah Barnes, eight-year-old Tori Garrett, and Sena Norton, Boring Middle School teacher and Garrett’s stepmother.

On Monday, the Fairview Police Department discovered its radar speed enforcement trailer was stolen.

According to a news release from the Fairview PD, its last known location was near the intersection of Northeast 213th Avenue and Hancock Street in Fairview. Making it hard to miss, the trailer is adorned with three Fairview Police Department emblems painted on its sides.

Anyone seen the Fairview Police Department's speed enforcement trailer?

The Fairview PD is offering a reward of $500 for information leading to the recovery of its stolen radar speed enforcement trailer. The police are also offering an additional reward of $500 for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the theft.

SnowCap Community Charities celebrated the annual end-of-summer garden party last month at its facility with an extra boost this year with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Grainger Foundation presented by a volunteer whose connection with the organization goes back to her years as a Bluebird volunteer.

The grant, presented by Lori Gilinsky, of the Illinois-based W.W. Grainger Co., will be used to continue SnowCap’s Food 2 You program, which delivers food boxes to seniors and shut-ins

Posted online, a recap of the October 2011 edition of the Mid-county Memo  follows ….

At 15, Curtis Crawford joined the Knott Street Boxing Club; it changed his life forever. Crawford is a mixed martial arts fighter, youth boxing coach and a personal trainer at his gym, Curt’s Ultimate, in Gateway; he lives to fight.

Curtis Crawford, from left, with Curt's Ultimate Youth Boxing coaches Ray Monge and Joel Caldera. Crawford's gym, his mixed martial arts career and youth boxing program are featured on the Memo's front page this month.

East Portland Rep. Jefferson Smith throws his hat in the ring for Portland’s mayor.