Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 6, 2015 3A
Polk County News
Spring dance concert to inspire movement
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — Jenni
Bowker tried to stay true to
herself as she choreo-
graphed, “Where the Wind
Goes,” to be performed at
Western Oregon University’s
Spring Dance concert.
The annual concert opens
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and
runs through Saturday at
Rice Auditorium.
This is Bowker’s second
time choreographing a piece
for the show — something
most WOU dance students
don’t get a chance to do.
Usually, the show is some-
one’s senior project, so they
graduate after the show, said
Deborah Jones, dance pro-
fessor.
Bowker said last year she
tried to use her dancers’
abilities and styles in her
piece.
“I got a little bit lost in
staying true to my own
dance aesthetic as a whole,”
she said. “This year, I was
able to utilize my dancers
while staying true to my own
movement and choreo-
graphic style.”
This attitude has helped
h e r u s e h e r d a n c e r s’
strengths while expanding
their dance horizons, Bowk-
er said.
“My dancers have taught
me to listen and to also let
go of control and trust them
with my vision, because they
are helping bring the piece
to life,” she said. “In return,
they trust me to help them
look their best on stage.”
Be Inspired
What: Western Ore-
gon University 2015
Spring Dance Concert.
Where: Rice Auditori-
um, WOU campus.
W h e n : 7 : 3 0 p. m .
Thursday through Satur-
day.
Admission: General
$12; seniors $10; stu-
dents $7.
For tickets or more
information: 503-838-
8463.
Photo courtesy of DEBORAH JONES
Western Oregon University’s 2015 Spring Dance Concert is sure to make a splash with
dances from guest choreographer Lauren Edson as well as students and faculty.
Being her second time at
the dance concert has
helped increase her confi-
dence — helping her know
what to expect along the
way.
The concert is a culmina-
tion of a year’s worth of cho-
reography courses, Jones
said.
This year marks Jones’
final year mentoring dance
students for the Spring
Dance concert, as she will
be retiring from Western in
June.
“I’ve been teaching for 30
years, 23 years (at WOU),
and just decided to do
something different,” Jones
said.
Her favorite thing about
the concert is seeing the stu-
dents’ work come to life.
“You never know what
somebody is going to cre-
ate,” she said. “It all comes
from imagination, translates
to form and movement. It
can be a story; it can be ab-
stract.”
Jones helps students
bring their ideas to fruition.
“I help guide their process
and give them their tools,”
Jones said. “I see the pride
that they have when they
perform. It’s huge. That’s al-
ways been my focus. It’s very
satisfying to watch them
succeed.”
Naomi Olson was inspired
for her piece by the quote:
“Nothing haunts us like the
things we don’t say.”
The piece she choreo-
graphed, “Left Unsaid,” is a
modern-based dance, and is
the first time Olson has cre-
ated something to be per-
formed onstage.
“I’m very nervous and ex-
cited all at once,” she said.
“This is an amazing oppor-
tunity and I love being a part
of it.”
Dance is a universal lan-
guage, Olson said.
“We can all speak with
our bodies when words fall
short or fail us,” she said.
“That is also what I love
about choreographing; it
gives you the freedom to ex-
press your thoughts without
speaking.”
The Spring Dance concert
will feature pieces by faculty
and students, as well as one
by guest choreographer Lau-
ren Edson.
One piece will feature
new technology incorporat-
ing selfies and texts collect-
ed from the audience.
“We’re all excited to see
how the selfies turn out,”
Jones said. “The pieces can’t
really pull together and
know what it’s going to do
until you get in the theater.”
MINET leaders say company is stable
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH/INDEPEN-
DENCE — Monmouth-Inde-
pendence Networks
(MINET) is stable, but not
growing at a rate that will
make it profitable and able
to make its debt payments.
That was the news the
MINET board of directors
heard from Chief Financial
Officer Mark Thoenes and
General Manager Don Pat-
ten at the board’s Thursday
meeting.
“MINET is between 60
and 65 percent of the size it
must be to fund all annual
debt service, capital expense
requirements and continue
to fully fund its operating
costs,” Patten told the board.
“Even if we penetrated 80
percent of this market, we’re
still going to come up short.”
Patten said MINET needs
to “think out of the box” and
find new revenue streams,
including possibly providing
citywide WiFi, selling whole-
sale services or finding more
tenant customers.
MINET has been trying
everything it can to gain
customers — particularly
when it comes to data plans,
MINET’s most profitable
service — but now Patten
said he needs clear direction
from the board of directors
to know what its goals for
the company are and how
long the timeline for those
goals is.
“If we know the rules by
which we must play, because
it’s agreed upon by the board,
we will set the plan and time-
line and do our gosh darnd-
est to achieve it,” Patten said.
“We’ll make sure we’re re-
porting (back to the board),
especially when we’re not
(achieving the goals) to make
sure we’re altering the plan
and get back on track.”
Board Chairman and Inde-
pendence City Manager
David Clyne said he was not
ready to respond to the re-
quest for direction, suggesting
the revised business plan go
first to the finance committee,
which was not re-established
at Thursday’s meeting.
Thoenes said getting di-
rections from the board of
directors was not something
a finance committee was
needed for.
“We are not, by any
stretch of the imagination,
suggesting we cannot grow
the company at least flat line
to our debt, but we need to
know, … we need direction
to say where do we put our
focus,” he said. “Any compa-
ny that’s an invested-in
company gets that from
their board, and we need it
from ours.”
Board Vice-Chairman and
Monmouth City Manager
Scott McClure asked Patten
to bring a goal to the board,
and then board members
could weigh in.
Patten said he would
bring back two to four sce-
narios outlining MINET’s fu-
ture for the board to consid-
er at its May meeting.
Ben Meyer, AAMS ®
Bob Timmerman
Financial Advisor
Financial Advisor
503-606-3048
503-623-5584
193 E. Main Street Mon-
mouth, OR 97361
159 SW Court Street
Dallas, OR 97338
In other business:
A new charter for the fi-
nance committee had not
been completed by Thurs-
day’s meeting, so the adviso-
ry group was not reinstated
at Thursday’s meeting. How
members of the group were
chosen was discussed.
Clyne said each city can
look to target who they want
on the committee. McClure
suggested advertising for
members at-large, because
the finance committee
should be a generic commit-
tee.
“My vision is for each city
to have a resident (on the
committee),” Clyne noted.
McClure said if that was
t h e c a s e, m e m b e r s h i p
should be equally dispersed
between the two cities.
DEADLINES
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Itemizer-Observer:
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Obituaries — 4 p.m. on
Monday.
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Classified display ads
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Classified line ads —
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ads are updated daily on
www.polkio.com.
Public notices — Noon
on Friday.
CORRECTIONS
A story headlined “LVCS
student help clean park” on
page 16A of the April 22 edi-
tion of the Itemizer-Observer
should have stated grant
funding for the project also
came from the Oregon Wa-
tershed Enhancement Board.
The I-O regrets the error.
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 that
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