2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 4, 2015
Polk County News
Online stalking a
growing concern
By Emily Mentzer
Stay Safe Online
The Itemizer-Observer
LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer file
Bicycling is one aspect the Polk County Rural Tourism board hopes to use to attract people to visit and spend money.
Tourism hotspots pinpointed
Polk County Rural Tourism Studio continues planning efforts
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
POLK COUNTY — The
Polk County Rural Tourism
Studio kicked off on Jan. 27,
but much work remains for
the community to imple-
ment the vision of attracting
tourists — and their money.
Through the series of
workshops guided by Travel
Oregon, a laundry list of pos-
sible tourist attractions were
pinpointed, from the Valley
of the Giants to wineries and
Rogue Farms, from birding
to bicycling.
Reina Nelson of the Con-
federated Tribes of Grand
Ronde will lead the cultural
heritage action team, which
will develop resources for
cultural tourism. The first
step will be organizing a din-
ner series, starting with a
“tribe to table” dinner hosted
at the Chachalu Museum
and Cultural Center.
Other dinners will focus
on other aspects that are
unique to Polk County: hops,
heritage and a pioneer so-
cial.
Connecting the reserva-
tion with bike trails is just
one of the possibilities for
the bicycling team, led by
Shawn Irvine, Independence
economic development di-
rector.
“What we’re lacking (in
Polk County) is defined
routes and places to go,” he
said. “We need to get down
and identify where the best
routes are.”
Irvine noted that gravel
cycling is a “big deal,” and
said many opportunities for
gravel bike trails exist in the
county. Efforts have already
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started to create an alternate
route through Polk County
as part of Oregon Scenic
Bikeways.
Ivy Hover, marketing
manager at Left Coast Cel-
lars, noted that wine is “a
huge piece of the puzzle in
Polk County,” but all other
aspects of agriculture needs
to be included to make a
complete tourist package.
“We have a very good
asset list,” she said. “We need
to build upon that and make
sure there’s no gaps.”
Part of her goals include
developing agriculture trails
and restaurant tours, taking
people out to farms and
wineries to see where food
and wine comes from.
Ben Roberts and the mar-
keting team will work on
how to put it all together to
attract tourists from around
the state, nation and world.
Roberts, from Lavender Lake
Farms along Highway 99W,
said he wants to develop an
original brand and help
businesses get involved to
promote Polk County.
“We want to see Polk
County be popular,” he said.
Projects will be paid for in
part through a $10,000 grant
from Travel Oregon, but
most of the money will have
to be paid for by other grants
and the cities, Irvine said.
“A lot of it will have to be
driven by the local tourism
industry,” he said. “They will
have to see value in the proj-
ects and be willing to con-
tribute to their success.”
For more information or
to get involved in these proj-
ects: Shawn Irvine, 503-837-
1191; Irvine.shawn@ci.inde-
pendence.or.us.
MONMOUTH — It would
be considered inappropri-
ate and creepy to look
through a peep hole at
somebody, spying on them
while they are at home.
But sitting at a computer
and going through photo al-
bums on Facebook is social-
ly acceptable, said Charisse
Loughery, student conduct
coordinator at Western Ore-
gon University.
Both of these situations
can be considered stalking,
and it’s dangerous and
harmful, she said last week
at a workshop about cyber-
harassment and cyber-stalk-
ing, hosted by Abby’s House.
“Using technology, it’s
easier to track individuals as
we move through our day-
to-day life,” Loughery said.
In the age of social media
and smartphones, informa-
tion about someone is easi-
er than ever to obtain,
whether it is willingly shared
online or not, said Kjerstin
Stanavige, social media spe-
cialist for WOU’s Teaching
Research Institute.
Smartphone applications
exist just to stalk someone,
said Samantha Hughes,
Abby’s House advocate.
“People can go into the
app store, buy the app, put
it on your phone and get all
sorts of information about
what you’ve been doing,”
she said.
That includes tracking
movements via the phone’s
global positioning system,
turning on the camera on
the phone to visually see
what the user is doing at that
moment, and accessing text
messages and phone calls.
“They can check what
apps you’ve been using,
what you’ve been browsing
on the Internet on your
phone, and it’s all really
creepy,” Hughes said.
Some clues that someone
Tips for staying safe
while online and using
social media:
• Lock down Facebook
and other social media
sites by changing “priva-
cy settings.”
• Password protect ac-
cess to smartphones and
keep it secure by not
sharing that password
with friends. Apps also
may be protected.
• Disable global posi-
tioning system programs
in a smar tphone —
under “settings” — when
not using an app that re-
quires them, such as
maps. If GPS locations are
enabled, even photos
taken from a smartphone
will have coordinates that
could give away your lo-
cation to a stalker.
• Remember the bot-
tom line: Nothing is ever
truly secure online. If you
don’t want your grand-
mother to see it, don’t
post it.
has installed a stalking app
on your smartphone in-
clude the battery draining
really fast, Hughes noted.
Because these apps don’t
show up on the app screen
and are completely hidden,
they cannot be simply
uninstalled. But calling your
phone carrier might pro-
vide simple solutions, such
as doing a factory reset.
Some ways to protect
yourself online and when
using your smartphone is to
turn off location settings un-
less you’re using an app that
requires it, such as maps,
Hughes said.
Lockdown social media
through privacy settings,
which makes it harder for
strangers to find you,
Stanavige noted.
For more information
about staying safe from
stalkers: www.wou.edu/stu-
dent/club/abbyshouse.
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