IN SEARCH OF
WOU WOMEN’S HOOPS
SHELLS
RISING STAR
Page 10A
Volume 140, Issue 1
Page 6A
www.Polkio.com
January 7, 2015
75¢
IN YOUR TOWN
DALLAS NEWS
With final approval granted from the Dallas Plan-
ning Commission, Dallas Retirement Village is mov-
ing forward with plans for 40 to 63 more independ-
ent living apartments and a new community center.
The expansion will take place in two phases on a
5.3-acre empty lot on Northwest Jasper Street, ad-
jacent to current DRV facilities. Phase 1 plans call
for building a complex with one-bedroom and
two-bedroom units and a 20,000-square-foot din-
ing and activity lodge. One-bedroom apartments
will be 850 square feet and two-bedroom units will
be 1,500 square feet.
»Page 3A
FALLS CITY NEWS
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Mike Ainsworth may very well be Polk County’s biggest and most dedicated Oregon Ducks football fan.
DELIRIOUS DUCKS
UO football’s championship game run gives locals ‘Duck Fever’
By Jolene Guzman
Playing For A National Title
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Mike Ains-
worth can remember when
he was a senior at Central
High School in 1973, there
were four Oregon Ducks fans
— in the entire school.
“Back then, if you beat
Idaho, that was a good year,”
he said. “How things have
changed.”
No kidding.
Four decades later, the
Ducks will play Ohio State for
the national title Monday in
Arlington, Texas, in the first
championship game of the
College Football Playoff era.
Ainsworth, a Polk County
commissioner — and once
Who: Oregon Ducks
(13-1) vs. Ohio State
Buckeyes (13-1).
What: College Foot-
ball Playoff National
Championship Game.
When: Monday, 5:30
p.m. (PST)
Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas.
TV: ESPN.
Radio: KXTG-AM 750, KXTG-FM 102.9.
Point spread: Oregon favored by 7 points.
long-suffering Ducks fan —
will be there with his wife,
DeAnn, to cheer on the
team. He was at the Rose
Bowl for the national semifi-
nal playoff game in Pasade-
na, Calif., on New Year’s Day
to see Oregon’s win. Ohio
State defeated Alabama in
the other semifinal to punch
its ticket to the title game.
To see the Ducks in a sec-
ond national football cham-
pionship game in four years
— Oregon lost to Auburn 22-
19 in 2011 — is a pretty nice
reward for the loyalty he’s
shown the team over the
years. Ainsworth has had
season tickets for more than
30 years. He ran into one of
the three other Oregon fans
he went to school with at the
Rose Bowl.
“We reflected on what it
was like 42 years ago when
we were seniors in high
school — we never thought
this would ever happen,”
Ainsworth said. “It’s fun be-
cause we watched some
pretty bad football when we
first got season tickets.”
See DUCKS, Page 2A
More changes in store for fair
County showcase going to three-day format starting in 2015
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
RICKREALL — The Polk
County Fair Board has voted
to shorten the annual county
fair by one day, removing Sun-
day from the schedule and
going to a three-day event
starting with the 2015 fair.
The board voted unani-
mously at its December
meeting to make the move,
citing a pattern of low atten-
dance and lackluster revenue
on Sundays.
“After reviewing our finan-
cials for the last few years,
this change made good busi-
ness sense,” said Anna
Scharf, chairwoman of the
Polk County Fair Board. “The
fair needs to be profitable,
and the fourth day was the
day that was not accom-
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
plishing that.”
Comparing the number of
tickets sold for Saturday —
the highest attendance day
— to Sunday, the drop off is
substantial. During the 2014
fair, Saturday attendance was
nearly 3,600, while Sunday’s
was 1,800. In 2013, it was al-
most 3,700 on Saturday com-
pared to 2,000 on Sunday.
The revenue picture painted
the same stark contrast.
“If you look at Saturday’s
total gate (revenue), Sunday
brings in half the revenue as
Saturday,” Scharf said. “People
want to get out of there. Ven-
dors want to go home. The
kids want to go home.”
In fact, in recent years there
has been a decline in vendors
willing to stay at the fair for
Sunday’s final day.
See FAIR, Page 5A
The Falls City Fire Department has been granted
nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service,
allowing the agency and its firefighters to continue
a long tradition of donating to community causes.
For decades, firefighters with the Falls City depart-
ment have donated their “points” money to charitable
causes, such as Falls City High School, fire victims, or
to pay for community Halloween or Christmas parties.
However, about a year ago the practice that al-
lowed for money to be collected and donated to
community activities came under fire in Falls City
and at all other fire departments across the country.
»Page 2A
INDEPENDENCE NEWS
What, exactly, does a 200-year-old parrot think
about, and how does it act? Just ask Molly Hare, 10,
who plays Polynesia in Pentacle Theatre’s annual
fundraiser production of “Dr. Dolittle,” opening
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Central High School.
“I had to learn to make parrot sounds and do
parrot movements,” she said, giving off a “caw-caw!”
that would make one think a bird was in the room.
For being 200 years old, Hare said her character
is still pretty active, moving around the stage a lot.
It’s the old bird who tells Dolittle, played by
Lorenz Bilbo, that if he cared to, he could learn the
language of animals and talk to them himself.
»Page 13A
MONMOUTH NEWS
Many fees for the city of Monmouth were revised
for the first time since 2008 at Tuesday night’s city
council meeting, pending council approval.
Most of the fees increased slightly, with some
new fees added.
Fees that were increased were based on person-
nel costs, City Manager Scott McClure said.
“Personnel costs went up a bit, which is normal,”
he said. Fees established by the city “shoot for cost
of service,” he added.
In the police department, one fee went down
substantially: the cost for photocopies.
»Page 9A
POLK COUNTY NEWS
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer file
Fairgoers will have one less day to enjoy the carnival
rides and other attractions at the Polk County Fair after
the fair board decided to shorten the event to three days.
Monmouth Elementary School kindergarten
teacher Samantha Henderson has the names and
photos of her smiling students posted on a two-
sided board in her classroom. One side is her morn-
ing class roster; on the other, her afternoon class.
Henderson, like many other kindergarten teach-
ers, leads two half-day sessions, each about 2½
hours long.
That may change next year in Polk County school
districts — and others across the state — as schools
prepare to offer full-day kindergarten in 2015-16
following the passage of House Bill 248 in 2011.
»Page 14A
wed
thu
fri
sat
sun
mon
tue
Up for a game of
Scrabble? Join the
fun at the “Scrabble
with Betty” gather-
ing at Independ-
ence Public Library.
1 p.m. Free.
Ash Creek Arts Cen-
ter hosts a reception
for “The Inhabited
World” at MaMere’s
Bed & Breakfast in
Monmouth.
5-7 p.m. Free.
Rainbow Dance The-
atre performs “iLu-
miDance” during the
Smith Fine Arts Se-
ries at WOU’s Rice
Auditorium.
7:30 p.m. $11-$28.
Grab your partner
and head out to the
Guthrie Park Com-
munity Center for an
old-fashioned coun-
try-style dance.
7 p.m. $5.
The Pentacle The-
atre stages its final
performance of “Dr.
Dolittle” at Central
High School in Inde-
pendence.
2 p.m. $15-$20.
Help save a life by
making a donation
during an American
Red Cross blood drive
at Calvary Chapel in
Independence.
12:30-6 p.m. Free.
Dallas High’s girls
basketball team
opens Mid-
Willamette Confer-
ence play by
hosting Woodburn.
7 p.m. $5.
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