Last night, police officers responded to a call of shots fired at a residence in the 14800 block of Northeast Fremont Court in the Wilkes neighborhood of outer east Portland.

According to a Portland Police Bureau news release, arriving officers found a deceased adult male at a residence. Immediately, they began searching the area for a suspect and called for Homicide Detectives and the Forensic Evidence Division.

Investigators are on scene and no additional details area available at this time as this is an active and ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Lt. Robert King, 503-823-0010, pager: 503-790-1779, or email him at Robert.King@portlandoregon.gov.

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.

Are east Portland neighborhood associations all illegal? Technically yes, says East Portland Neighborhood Office Executive Director Richard Bixby, but it is not their fault. It is his.
A handful of the City’s 95 recognized neighborhood associations are 501(c)3 non-profit corporations, able to offer tax deductions for donations. Most of the rest fall into a different non-profit status.

Because they handle relatively small amounts of money, they do not have to make yearly reports to the IRS — or did not until the year 2006, when the law was changed.

American Legion Auxiliary Portland Unit #1 annual rummage sale is Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, April 15 from 9 a.m. until noon at 1830 S.E. 122nd Ave. in outer east Portland.

All proceeds support veterans programs. If you have questions, contact rummage sale chair Donna Linstead at 503-252-6245.

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.

Despite the Argay Neighborhood Association’s efforts, the city will go ahead and approve the partition of property across the street from Argay Park, Bureau of Development Services associate planner Sean Williams said  in a phone interview today. Williams, who is writing the official decision due out next week, indicated the city will approve the proposal, the first step before property owner Lynnia Woods could offer them for sale.

The property across the street from Argay Park will be divided for three single-family homes.

Not one of the more than fifty people attending the special meeting of the Argay Neighborhood Association on March 5 was in favor of the partition plat for three home sites on land across the street from Argay Park on Northeast 141st Avenue between Failing Street and Beech Ct.

Valerie Curry leads fight against Argay infill.

The special meeting was called to meet the March 12 deadline to respond in writing to Bureau of Development Services.

A few days after the meeting, run by former ANA chair Valerie Curry, the board met and voted to hire ($500) land use attorney and Argay resident Roger Dierking to write a letter to BDS opposing the proposed development on behalf of the association.

There is another five-year wait for new sidewalks, crosswalk improvements, bike lanes, and neighborhood greenway construction in east Portland.

According to transportation planner Ellen Vanderslice, the 'holistic' approach to street improvements is being taken in east Portland. Results: five more years waiting for new sidewalks, crosswalk improvements, bike lanes, and neighborhood greenway construction in east Portland.

Last month transportation planner Ellen Vanderslice presented the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission with East Portland in Motion, a multi-modal program of traffic improvements set for implementation in the next five years. The projects were culled from the “known universe” of previously identified plans, including the East Portland Action Plan, and supplemented with outreach to community groups. Students from Portland State University, volunteers from the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, and EPAP’s Land Use and Transportation, and Bicycle, committees aided the outreach effort.

Editor’s note: The 2012 elections are a watershed moment in city politics. For the first time in decades, with the mayor declining to run for re-election, Randy Leonard retiring from his council seat, and incumbent commissioner Amanda Fritz facing a serious challenge, there will be at least two, if not three new faces at City council. Veteran beat reporter Lee Perlman interviewed the major mayoral and city council candidates. In this post, mayoral candidate Eileen Brady is interviewed.