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2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • April 29, 2015 Polk County News ‘Unearthed’ follows truffle hunters in Falls City Discover Channel shares mushroom adventures in Western Oregon in show’s Friday premiere By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer FALLS CITY — If all you are see- ing in Oregon’s forests are trees, you need to dig a bit deeper. Seri- ously, dig. That is what six men in the Falls City area do for a living as truffle hunters, and The Discovery Chan- nel is premiering a show Friday “Unearthed” that examines the se- cretive world of black truffle for- agers in Western Oregon. The show, produced by Zodiak NYC for the Discovery Channel, actually came about not because of the mysterious — and potential- ly lucrative — nature of black truf- fle industry, but because of the landscape where the delicacies are found. Joseph Schneier, Discovery’s ex- ecutive producer on the show, said after seeing photos and footage of Oregon, producers knew they had find a way to film here. He said they were impressed with “how gorgeous Oregon is, es- pecially Western Oregon.” “We wanted to tell a story about Western Oregon,” he said. Profiling the players in the black truffle world seemed a perfect way Truffle treasure hunters What: “Unearthed.” Where: The Discovery Chan- nel. When: Friday, 10 p.m. to combine a compelling story with the beautiful backdrop of Oregon’s forests, Schneier said. “It’s incredible that something that smells funny and looks like it should be trash is so valuable,” he said. Crews filmed the majority of the footage last fall, in the run up to the busy holiday season when “the truffle men of Oregon,” Roy Siegfried, Terry Drazdhoff, Ty Hale, Levy Schwartzendruber, Richie Maxfield and Justin Anderson were trying to collect their haul. These guys range from “lone wolf” Maxfield to “truffle kingpin” Anderson, but they are all facing the same problem: a dry fall. Black truffles are fungi after all, and require water to thrive. Dry weather threatens truffle “seams” that have taken years to find and develop into productive patches. Dependent on the delicacy for their living, the season’s five- episode span show how each hunter navigates the challenge. “I think (the audience) will like the ingenuity and the lengths they go to,” Schneier said. Schneier also admires the rela- tionship the hunters have with the forests. It’s not just about finding and keeping secret areas with the per- fect combination of trees, soil and water to produce the coveted fun- gus. Truffle hunting is a delicate art; disrupt the soil too much and the patch may die out. “Old timers” Siegfried and Drazdhoff especially are interested in educating people in the right way to harvest truffles — anything else could threaten an industry they helped established. “They have a ‘do no harm’ ethos,” Schneier said. He added he’s hoping the show is a success, so Discovery can look into what other fascinating indus- tries and characters can be found in the woods of Oregon. “We think we are not done telling stories out there,” Schneier said. DISCOVERY CHANNEL/for the Itemizer-Observer Terry Drazdhoff co-stars on the truffle men of Oregon, featured on Discovery Channel’s new show, “Unearthed,” which premieres on Fri- day. The show was filmed in Falls City for its striking beauty. Monmouth PD station costs wrapping up By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer SUNDAY, MAY 3 RD HOURS: 9-3 EARLY ADMISSION SUNDAY 6AM-9AM $5 REGULAR ADMISSION $1 ★ FREE PARKING ESPRESSO BAR PROVIDED BY JOIN US AT THE POLK COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS. WWW.POLKFLEAMARKET.COM POLKPRODUCTION@MINETFIBER.COM MONMOUTH — The Monmouth City Council ap- proved an additional $96,000 at its April 21 meet- ing to complete the renova- tions to the new Monmouth Police Station, located off Highway 99W. “For whatever reason, we didn’t have the best estimate for the station from the ar- chitect for the bond,” said City Manager Scott McClure. The council had already ap- proved $375,000 in July 2014, but it wasn’t enough to com- plete the project, McClure said. The original estimate was $3.785 million to renovate the old Boise Cascade building, done by Group Mackenzie, the architect that was ultimately hired for the renovation. McClure said the voters ap- proved a bond of $4 million. “To try and save taxpayers a few dollars, we only issued $3.935 million in bonds,” he said. “Project costs aren’t fi- nalized yet, but we antici- pate that the total project will be $4.406 million.” “When we got everyone contracted and going, we only went with a 3 percent contingency,” he said. “We knew we were low, and just through a whole bunch of different things, we ended up off a little bit.” One of the bigger issues that threw the budget off was making the building seismi- cally safe, McClure noted. “I think when the archi- tects looked at (the building) initially, they thought it was stouter than it was,” he said. “When they really started looking at it, they said no, we have to do more.” Other projects to renovate the old Boise Cascade build- ing took longer than expect- ed, which cost more time and money, McClure said. “The project manager said it’s probably just 80 dif- ferent things that came up a bit more expensive (than planned),” he said. One of the most recent issues was a problem with the build- ing’s sump pump, McClure said. “We have an emergency electrical backup system,” he said. “The sump pump had failed in the vault, and the vault had rusted out all the components.” Those components had to be replaced before the back- up generator could be in- stalled, costing another $3,000 to $4,000 more than expected, McClure said. All said and done, total costs went over budget by about 12 percent — only 10 percent above the voter-au- thorized $4.0 million, Mc- Clure said, including bond costs, construction and buy- ing the building itself. He said 12 percent isn’t much over budget, especial- ly for remodel projects. “The fact is, we have a great police station,” McClure said.