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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2015)
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 4, 2015 3A Polk County News Dallas planning update to ‘citizen involvement’ rules DEADLINES NEWS DEADLINES For inclusion in the Wednesday edition of the Itemizer-Observer: Social news (weddings, engagements, anniver- saries, births, milestones) — 5 p.m. on Thursday. Community events — Noon on Friday for both the Community Notebook and Community Calendar. Letters to the editor — 10 a.m. on Monday. Obituaries — 4 p.m. on Monday. ADVERTISING DEADLINES Retail display ads — 3 p.m. Friday. Classified display ads — 11 a.m. on Monday. Classified line ads — Noon on Monday. Classified ads are updated daily on www.polkio.com. Public notices — Noon on Friday. CORRECTIONS The Polk County Itemizer- Observer is committed to publishing accurate news, feature and sports reports. If you see anything that re- quires a correction or clarifi- cation, call the newsroom at 503-623-2373 or send an e- mail to kholland@polkio.com. WEBSITE The Polk County Itemizer- Observer website, www.polkio.com, is updat- ed each week by Wednes- day afternoon. There, you will find nearly every story that appears in the print version of the newspaper, as well as some items, in- cluding additional photos, that do not appear in print due to space limitations. WEATHER RECORDED HIGH LOW Jan. 27............... 54 Jan. 28............... 58 Jan. 29............... 56 Jan. 30............... 55 Jan. 31............... 50 Feb. 1................. 51 Feb. 2................. 60 42 47 38 32 28 37 43 RAIN trc. .00 .00 .00 .00 .25 .35 Rainfall during Jan. — 3.21 in. Rain through Feb. 2 — 3.81 in. By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer Russ Downer installs a new LED light on a streetlight in the neighborhood of Candlewood Way. The new lights give off a clearer, whiter light than the old ones, and use less energy. Watts the difference? It’s big energy savings for city By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer MONMOUTH — Nearly half of Monmouth’s street- lights are brighter and clearer — and using 65 percent less energy than they did before. Old high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs have been re- placed with light-emitting diodes (LED), which require less energy to put off the same amount of light. Chuck Thurman, Mon- mouth Power & Light superin- tendent, said the projected en- ergy costs for the city to run the streetlights will be $32,000 a year, rather than $77,000 a year. While Monmouth Power is paying for the equipment and manpower to make the switch, the city street fund pays for the electricity to keep the lights running, Thurman said. “We’re doing our part out in the real world,” he said. “We’re not just saying ‘conserve, con- serve, conserve.’ We’re putting our money where our mouth is.” The idea is to sustain Mon- mouth’s overall energy con- sumption even through ex- pansion, particularly new homes built in the Edward’s Addition subdivision. “If we can keep energy costs down, we don’t buy more power from Bonneville Power,” Thurman said. “Then as our community continues to add a house here and a house there, … we’re … offsetting the new houses … by installing (LED) streetlights.” Once Thurman replaced the lights in his own home with LEDs, he noticed a huge differ- ence in his power bills. It made sense to look at replacing bulbs in the city’s streetlights. The price of LED streetlights has gone down and the quality has gone up to make the tran- sition financially plausible, Thurman said. Russ Downer, a serviceman for Monmouth Power & Light, has been the main person to change out the 310 lights done so far. He said it takes him about 15 minutes to complete the transition from the old lights to the new. Throughout the city, street- lights are of different wattages, ranging from 100 to 200, and are from a variety of manufac- turers. In addition to lower overall energy costs, Downer said he will be happy to have consistency in the lights. Having all the lights be one type will help cut down on labor and time, since workers will only have to be trained on how to switch and maintain one type of light, Thurman said. “The other advantage is warehousing,” he said. “I’m not stocking so many different styles of bulbs.” Since making the change, Thurman said he has received one positive comment, and no negative ones. DALLAS — The city of Dallas is considering adopt- ing new “citizen involvement” rules when it comes to planning and land use decisions. The proposed process would become chapter one of the city’s comprehensive plan and follow closely the state of Oregon’s “statewide planning goals” chapter on citizen participation. Members of the Dallas Planning Commission have recommended the change and the Dallas City Council will hold a public hearing on the requirements on Feb. 17. This will begin a process of the revision for the entire plan, Jason Locke, Dallas’ community develop- ment director, said at Monday night’s city council meeting. “This is where the planning commission CITY COUNCIL felt that it was impor- tant to start,” Locke said. “They basically evaluated what we had in our ex- isting comp plan and decided that didn’t really consti- tute a citizen involvement program.” Statewide land use planning goals — addressing topics such as public facilities, parks and open space, natural resources, housing and transportation — were adopted in the 1970s and provide the basis for many local jurisdictions’ comprehensive plans, Locke said. The first statewide goal is encouraging citizen involve- ment in planning projects. “They recognized back then that getting the citi- zens of the state involved in this process was extreme- ly important,” Locke said. “That’s where this fits in.” In other business, the council: • Learned that an interactive Dallas street map has been posted on the city’s website, available at www.dal- lasor.gov/streetmap. The map shows current conditions of individual city streets and the estimated costs to re- pair them. Streets are color-coded based on their “pave- ment condition index” (PCI) score, a method of measur- ing street condition on a 1 to 100 scale. Map users can click on a street segment and find out the condition and estimated cost to repair them to a minimum standard. Accompanying the map are an explanation of PCI and information about the latest street condition analysis done in Dallas. For more information or for questions on the inter- active map, call Fred Braun, director of engineering and environmental services, at 503-623-3562 or fred.braun@dallasor.gov. • Appointed Tory Banford and Paul Trahan and reappointed Pete Christensen to the Dallas Budget Committee. How’s that New Years Resolution “working out” for you? Complim entary 3-Day Lacking motivation? Seeing your results will keep you on track! Personal Trainers here to keep you focused and on track! T r ____ ial Pass ________ “Try it On _ ” for Size Availab worldgym le at .com/dall as It’s not too late! New Year! New You! Fit 212° on the second floor Get FIT TODAY Silver & Fit/Silver Sneakers #FitCouple Your membership includes — • Sauna • Spa Style Locker Rooms • High Intensity Functional Movement Equipment • Free Classes for All Fitness Levels & Ages • New Membership Introductory Training FREE DUFFLE BAG WITH ALL NEW MEMBERSHIPS* PLUS a Free Personal Training Session or Clean Eating Plan! 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