2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • January 7, 2015
Polk County News
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Blazing the New Year’s Trail
Dusty Dodson, Dave
Dodson, Samantha
Young and Tracy Young,
left to right, hit the trail
on Saturday morning for
the Polk County Saddle-
ites’ annual New Year’s
Ride in Pedee. With
freezing temperatures
gone, the ice had melted
and turned to mud for
much of the trail
through the hills. Nei-
ther the horses nor rid-
ers seemed to mind.
About 25 riders came
from throughout the
Willamette Valley to par-
ticipate in the annual
event, which includes a
chili feed and bonfire to
warm up after the one-
and-a-half hour ride.
Decision will benefit community
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Ducks: Ainsworth is optimistic
Continued from Page 1A
Those dark days are over —
a point the Ducks drove home
with a 59-20 pummeling of
defending national champion
Florida State on Thursday.
“I thought it would be real-
ly tight,” Ainsworth said of
his thoughts before the semi-
final game. “I thought that
we could score on them, but
they could also score on us.
But our defense has really
played well the latter part of
the season, especially the last
four games.”
The score was tight, 18-13
in favor of the Ducks, at half-
time, giving Oregon fans
anxiety with FSU quarter-
back Jameis Winston and
Co.’s “second-half team” rep-
utation. The Ducks defense
had an answer for that, start-
ing with linebacker Derrick
Malone Jr.’s strip of FSU star
freshman running back
Dalvin Cook during the
Seminoles’ opening posses-
“It’s going to be tough. I would venture to
say that Ohio State is the hottest team in
the country. They are just phenomenal, but
—Mike Ainsworth
so are the Ducks.”
sion of the second half.
“It seemed like it was Katy
bar the door then,” Ainsworth
said. “The dam had broken.”
A flood of Oregon scoring
followed — 27 points in the
third quarter alone.
“I knew it was over when
(linebacker) Tony Washing-
ton picked that ball up and
ran it in for a touchdown,”
Ainsworth said, referring to
Winston’s now-infamous
“stumble fumble.” “The peo-
ple in our section were just
going crazy. It really makes
the trip worthwhile when
you win.”
Actually, the Rose Bowl was
the cap on a fantastic two-day
stretch for the Ainsworths.
The day before the Rose Bowl,
they were showing their Pan-
ther Pride as they cheered for
Central graduate Grant
Hedrick, who quarterbacked
the Boise State Broncos to vic-
tory at the Fiesta Bowl.
“He’s a great athlete, but
he’s a better person than he is
an athlete,” Ainsworth said.
“We should have been saying
Hedrick for Heisman.”
Well, Ainsworth isn’t in the
least disappointed college
football’s highest individual
honor went to Oregon quar-
terback Marcus Mariota.
And Ainsworth is hoping
— nay, is confident — the
Ducks will keep that roll
going Monday night. He isn’t
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overlooking the ’Bama-test-
ed Buckeyes, though.
“It’s going to be tough. I
would venture to say that
Ohio State is the hottest team
in the country,” he said.
“They are just phenomenal,
but so are the Ducks. We
have the best college football
player in Marcus Mariota.
“I’m not going down there
to watch them get beat,”
Ainsworth added.
In addition to the chance
to win the team’s first nation-
al championship, there is a
little revenge on the line for
the Ducks. Oregon is 0-8
against Ohio State, the last
defeat coming in the 2009
Rose Bowl. Oregon — and its
fans — would love to erase
that memory.
“You’ve got to get that
monkey off your back at
some point, so I think this is
the perfect time,” Ainsworth
said. “I think we match up
well with them.”
FALLS CITY — The Falls
City Fire Department has
been granted nonprofit sta-
tus by the Internal Revenue
Service, allowing the agency
and its firefighters to contin-
ue a long tradition of donat-
ing to community causes.
For decades, firefighters
with the Falls City depart-
ment have donated their
“points” money to charita-
ble causes, such as Falls City
High School, fire victims, or
to pay for community Hal-
loween or
Christmas
parties.
Howev-
er, about
a year ago
the prac-
tice that
allowed
for money
Young
to be col-
lected and donated came
under fire in Falls City and
at all other fire departments
across the country.
The IRS has a strict defi-
nition of volunteer —
meaning they cannot be
paid anything, including a
very minimal stipend for re-
sponding to emergency
calls and attending training.
The practice was originally
meant to cover expenses,
such as gas, incurred when
volunteers respond to calls.
In Falls City, the amount
firefighters were given cred-
it for was based on a point
system — with each call or
training session assigned a
point value. Firefighters
were then “paid” based on
how many points they had
at the end of each month.
Those payments had to
come to an end everywhere,
but Falls City Fire Chief Bob
Young said the Falls City Fire
Association decided to con-
tinue to support local chari-
ties until the city and the IRS
could work out an agree-
ment for nonprofit status.
That took an unexpect-
edly long time — about six
months — before the city
received notice in Decem-
ber the status was granted.
“We had to pull about
$4,000 out of savings to
keep things going like they
had been,” Young said.
But now that the fire de-
partment is officially a non-
profit, it can take a monthly
donation from the city to
cover what would have been
firefighter “points” in the
past and continue to sup-
port community causes.
The arrangement is to be fi-
nalized in an agreement be-
tween the department and
the city on Thursday.
“We are going to put this
as more of a community
contribution than anything
else,” said Jon Hanken, Falls
City’s interim city manager.
“That gets us away from the
IRS’ concerns and everything
should be moving forward.”
Young said he’s glad to
see the situation resolved,
but added the nonprofit ap-
plication process cost the
department about $1,100
and didn’t change how the
system operated.
“The only one that really
benefitted from this whole
thing is the IRS,” he said.
Dallas council OKs enterprise zone
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS — The Dallas City
Council unanimously ap-
proved an expansion of the
Dallas-Independence-Mon-
mouth Enterprise Zone
Monday.
The addition is in Inde-
pendence and will add 7.22
acres to the area within the
city’s boundaries in an area
called “central business dis-
trict” off Monmouth Street.
All zone sponsors — which
include Dallas, Monmouth,
and Independence — must
approve a resolution sup-
porting the expansion for it
to take effect. Polk County
also must approve the ex-
pansion.
The enterprise zone offers
businesses that locate or ex-
pand within it a three- to
five-year property tax ex-
emption on capital invest-
ment in a plant or equip-
ment.
The zone was originally
created in 2009. In 2013, it
received a supplemental
designation as an “electronic
commerce zone.”
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