New Page 1

GLENWOOD — As Glenwood goes, so go Steve and Paul Roth.

And vice-versa.

The Roth brothers — both 1970s graduates of Thurston High School — have had their wagon hitched to Glenwood’s yoke since at least 1994, when they opened Camp Putt miniature golf course.

Five years later, when the corporate owner of an adjacent Pietro’s Pizza business decided to close the restaurant, the Roths expanded their investment in the area. They converted the Pietro’s property — a longtime family holding — to their own Roaring Rapids Pizza brand.

“We had the property available and we were looking for a place to put the (miniature golf) course,” Steve Roth says. “It came down to Glenwood, and sure it’s a little rough around the edges but it’s right in the middle of the metropolitan area. We thought the location would really work for that kind of business.”

At Roaring Rapids, the Roths’ family-friendly recipe includes a mix of limited arcade games and a 77-year-old carousel, along with close proximity to their 36-hole Camp Putt layout.

The prime riverfront setting has helped to make the Roths’ venture appealing to those with more relaxing pursuits in mind.

“Sitting out on the deck at a table overlooking the river, with a good pizza and a pitcher of beer, that’s a pretty nice combination,” says Dan Egan, executive director of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and a frequent Roaring Rapids customer.

The Roths didn’t so much choose their location, as it chose them.

Their grandparents, Norman and Marjorie Kolln, founded Pietro’s Pizza with a Longview, Wash., restaurant in the late 1950s, and followed it in 1961 with the Glenwood Pietro’s.

Pietro’s had grown to seven locations by the time the Kollns sold their business in the 1970s to Campbell’s Soup Co., which parlayed it into a 50-store chain before selling it to an investment group 10 years later. That company declared bankruptcy in the early 1990s and sold 26 of the Pietro’s locations — including the Glenwood restaurant — to Chicago Pizza Northwest.

But when Chicago Pizza was unable to come to terms on a new lease agreement with the Roth family in 1999, the Glenwood Pietro’s was closed.

It was reopened by the Roths as Roaring Rapids a year later, following a top-to-bottom makeover featuring Western lodge decor.

“It took us a year,” Roth says. “We even had to dig out the concrete floor, and re-lay some of the pipes. But we were convinced it would be a good investment, and thought Glenwood would be a good place for it.”

When the Roths’ grandparents sold the Pietro’s chain 30 years ago, research by Campbell’s Soup Co., indicated that the Glenwood restaurant was one of the busiest pizza locations in the country, Steve Roth says.

And it continues to be both popular and profitable.

“We have just a wonderful spot along the river that you can’t really duplicate,” Roth says. “That’s a really big draw, especially during the summer.”

The Roths have turned over day-to-day management of Roaring Rapids to operating partner Garry Weber, but have continued to be active in business and civic circles. Steve Roth has served on the Glenwood Urban Renewal Advisory Committee, is involved in planning for an eventual reconstruction of Franklin Boulevard and is this year’s president of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.

The brothers were jointly named businessmen of the year for 2007 by the business group.

“They’re not going to be the kind of guys who bring in $320 million (in investments) — an Apex kind of thing,” says Egan at the Chamber, referring to Portland’s Apex Investment Group, which cited unfavorable market conditions in dropping its plans last month for an extensive mixed-use development in Glenwood. “But (the Roths) have worked hard with the city of Springfield, and they want to be part of that area.

“You look at the Roth brothers, and certainly they want to do well in business,” Egan says. “But they have a bigger vision, or a longer vision, that is kind of community-based.”

Steve Roth says he and his brother intend to remain involved with Glenwood, both as business owners and participants in the planning process.

They own a total of eight acres at the site of their two businesses and plan on continuing to operate Roaring Rapids, at least. While they’d like to keep the miniature golf course in operation, they’re also open to the idea of devoting some or all of their property — other than the restaurant — to Glenwood’s redevelopment.

“Paul and I are both very excited about what the future is going to hold for Glenwood, and we’re hoping we can be a part of it,” Roth says.

BEST PUTT-PUTT GOLF

Glenwood: Augusta of local mini-golf

First, it ain't golf if it's indoors. Doesn't matter if it's regular golf or putt-putt golf.

Second, if there isn't a water hazard - or 37 of them - it's not golf.

So although Putters on Highway 99, Glow Golf at Springfield's Gateway Mall and Sand Dunes Frontier south of Florence are fine establishments - and the Willamettans, those perennially naked folks, also reportedly have a place to putt their balls - Team Best of ... gives its putt-putt nod to Camp Putt in the downtown metropolis known as Glenwood.

Also, we prefer the term "putt-putt" over "miniature." This isn't a game played only by small people, you know. Not that it's just for old-timers, who seem to "putt-putt" wherever they go. We just think things named twice are doubly nice.

We like our putt-putt courses with two sets of 18-hole courses. Camp Putt has Nature's Challenge and Cascade Springs.

For either course, you're greeted by a sign that tells you that for your own safety and security, "play is monitored by camera."

All this means to us is that, although the camera doesn't exactly love us (we are print journalists, after all), it's sort of like making the big time, because we're being filmed, just like the pros. In fact. as he teed off on one hole, one Team Best of ... member could have sworn he heard "You da man!" coming from the peanut gallery in the parking lot that leads back to the riverside Roaring Rapids Pizza Company.

Whatever, you, too, can be "da man" or "da woman" by pulling out your best putter (or one of the black or green or yellow or blue ones in the Camp Putt pro shop) and playing holes with names such as "Richochet Rock," "Pond O'Peril," "Gopher It!" and "Dam Beaver!"

Camp Putt's holes are beautifully landscaped, and those waterfalls add a nice touch. However, we could have used a windmill. That's our only complaint. Miniature, er, putt-putt golf needs not only to be played outdoors, but to be played through the rotating vanes of a windmill.

Must be the Dutch in us.

If you can't have a windmill, though, you can have an "Earthquake!" at Camp Putt. That's the name of the sixth hole on the Nature's Challenge course, a stretch of green turf separated by deep crevasses you do not want to find your dimpled ball in - as did a certain Team Best of ... photographer (check the photo credit here). Still, it was his favorite hole, even if the favorite of the Team Best of ... was Triple Trouble, the only par 4 on the Nature's Challenge course. On it, you have to choose between three holes to hit your tee shot into, your ball then flying down a tube that spits it out somewhere else, into the second tier, or third one, where the one the hole is. You'd be wise to choose the latter, gopher.

Camp Putt in Glenwood offers natural landscaping, waterfalls and numerous water hazards along its two 18-hole courses.

Other items of interest in Springfield and Eugene

Roaring Glenwood success

Pietro's now called Roaring Rapids is owned by the sons of the guy who owned it when we were young. Same pizza & merry-go-round. The first pizza I had! Unless you count something I had in Chicago (when I was 10) that they called pizza!

Camp Putt is up front on Franklin Blvd. and Roaring Rapids is on the river -- with a view out back of the Willamette River. When you're riding the carousel, you can see the river. We have only a few places to eat that give us a river view -- so it's popular, especially for family get togethers.