For fifty years the most popular restaurant in the Hollywood neighborhood, Yaw’s Top Notch, is reopening in Gateway.

Despite being out of the restaurant business for more than thirty years, Steve Yaw, whose grandparents opened the first Yaw’s Top Notch in 1926, thinks he can capture lightning in a bottle again, this time in east Portland.

Set to open in Mid-July, Yaw's Top Notch Restaurant, depicted here by artist Mike Hill, is coming to Gateway.

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.

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. The Smith interview concludes the mayoral portion of the series. Council candidate interviews follow in upcoming editions.

State Representative Jefferson Smith.

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.

Jessica Vega Pederson is a candidate for Oregon House District 47, which includes portions of Portland east of I-205 to the Gresham border and from I-84 and Northeast Sandy Boulevard south to Division Street and Powell Boulevard. She is running to build a sustainable economy with high wage jobs, to strengthen our educational system and to fight for equity in Oregon. If elected, she would make history as the first Latina to serve in the Oregon House.

Running in House District 47, Jessica Vega Pederson wants to become the first Latina to serve in the Oregon House.

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.

????? ??????Zach Abney, Parkrose High quarterback, was the center of attention at an event in the school cafeteria yesterday held to showcase him signing a National Letter of Intent to attend Harding University on an athletic scholarship. While the day was about Zach, his accomplishments and this honor, the theme was most definitely about community.

Zach Abney, center with tie, wears a Harding University cap for the first time at a ceremony to recognize him as a scholar athlete who has been offered a scholarship to play football at the Searcy, Ark. school. Supporting him are teammates (from left) Tonga Tokelau, Matteo Rigoni, Thomas Lott, Andre Johnson, Deontre Curry, Jonathan Boland, Cody Rowley, Marquis Hammick and Jerry Hunter.

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.

Football
Despite a conference record of 1-4, the David Douglas Scots took advantage of play-in game defeating North Medford 20-6 to advance to the 6-A state tournament. They beat West Linn 17-14, but were ousted by Oregon City 28-18 the following week.

David Douglas was upended Round 2 of the 2011 OSAA 6A Football State Championships. Oregonian photo/Jessika Brandt

Parkrose finished the season 3-5 to qualify for a state tournament play-in game against PIL champs, Jefferson. The Democrats prevailed 36-19, bringing the Bronco season to an end on a cold, wet and rainy night. Zach Abney, Quame Adams, Jonathan Boland, Marquis Hammick, Jerry Hunter, Thomas Lott and Henry Vy earned Northwest Oregon Conference honorable mention honors.

The Rev. Caroline Litzenberger was recently assigned to serve the St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church parish as priest-missioner. A history professor at Portland State University, she will serve at St. Matthew’s on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Litzenberger and Deacon Marla McGarry-Lawrence extend a personal invitation to those not currently attending a church to worship on Sunday or stop by for a visit during the week to learn more about St. Matthew’s and the Episcopal Church

Rev. Caroline Litzenberger is the new priest-missioner at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Parkrose.

Rev. Litzenberger invites neighbors to join the St. Matthew’s community for worship, Sun., Nov. 13 at 9 a.m.