Polk County Itemizer-Observer • July 15, 2015 5A
Polk County News
NEWS IN BRIEF
Fort Yamhill holding history demo
GRAND RONDE — This weekend, Fort Yamhill State Heritage
Area will portray life at the fort more than 150 years ago when
soldiers watched over the Willamette Valley during the Civil
War.
The event is free and will be held Saturday and Sunday from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.
Costumed interpreters will share stories of the soldiers who
served their country in an isolated, yet important military in-
stallation. Park visitors can walk through the tent camp and
watch the soldiers drilling on the historic parade ground and
standing sentry.
Park staff will also lead guided tours of the fort grounds. Fort
Yamhill State Heritage Area is located on Highway 22, just north
of the Highway 18/22 junction.
For more information: 503-879-5814.
Dallas considers change to code
DALLAS — The Dallas City Council is considering a change to
its dangerous building ordinance to allow for a quicker re-
sponse to hazardous situations.
The current ordinance allows the city to depart from stan-
dard procedures in instances that are “unmistakably dangerous
and imminently endanger human life or property.” But the ordi-
nance did not stipulate a timeline for owners to address those
situations.
The proposed amendment would give the owner or owners
three days to address the issue before the city would take ac-
tion to abate the problem.
The council reviewed and discussed the amendment on July
6 and is scheduled to vote on the amendment on Monday.
For more information: 503-831-3502.
OBO names Grand Ronde director
GRAND RONDE — Shelly Sneed, a Grand Ronde Tribal mem-
ber, has been hired by the Oregon Board of Optometry as its
new executive director.
Sneed was employed by the Oregon Landscape Contractors
Board and worked as director of the Spirit Mountain Communi-
ty Fund.
POLICE REPORT
Information for the police re-
port comes from law enforce-
ment agencies. Not all calls for
service are included. The status
of incidents reported may
change after further investiga-
tion. Individuals arrested or sus-
pected of crimes are considered
innocent until proven guilty.
See online for more.
—
DALLAS
Arrests/Citations
• Wayne E. Cooley, 47, of
Dallas in the 1100 block of
Southwest Hayter Street on
Thursday on a charge of first-
degree criminal trespass.
• James E. Bemrose, 18, of
Dallas in the 500 block of East
Ellendale Avenue on Thursday
on a charge of physical ha-
rassment.
• Cody L. Moschetti, 19, of
Monmouth in the 800 block
of Southeast LaCreole Drive
on Saturday on charges of
fleeing to attempt to elude a
police officer and reckless
driving.
INDEPENDENCE
Arrests/Citations
• Antonio Monroe Mirelez,
25, of Independence in the
1300 block of Picture Street on
July 1 for unlawful possession
of methamphetamine.
• Dana Irene Kimball, 50, of
Keizer in the 1100 block of
South Second Street on July 2
for physical harassment.
• Josiah Christian, 23, of In-
dependence in the 200 block
of North Gun Club Road on
July 4 for interfering with mak-
ing a police report, felony
fourth-degree simple assault
and felony strangulation.
• Aaron Judson Beardsley,
21, of Albany at the corner of
Atwater Street North and
Main Street East on July 5 for
misdemeanor driving under
the influence of intoxicants.
MONMOUTH
Arrests/Citations
• Bryan Gilbert Ogden, 54,
of Independence at the cor-
ner of Catron Street South
and Main Street East on July 3
for misdemeanor driving
under the influence of intoxi-
cants.
Solution on Page 2A
Testing: Debate over methods
Continued from 2A
Rep. Paul Evans (District
20) said the U.S. Congress
passed an updated version
of No Child Left Behind that
has greater latitude for states
without financial penalty to
pull out completely from
standardized tests.
“The way we wrote the
bill, if Congress takes any
money away, it requires us
to rethink that policy,” Evans
said. “But yes, we’re very
concerned about long-term
consequences.”
That said, Evans was criti-
cal of standardized tests.
“They changed how you
succeed,” he said of Con-
gress. “We can’t afford to give
special education kids what
they need to succeed; we
can’t afford to give ELL (Eng-
lish Language Learners)
what they need to succeed,
but we’re going to say there’s
one standard, and just have
wishful thinking that every-
one will get there, without
giving them the funding to
get them there. Yeah, stan-
dards are great, but you
don’t chop off four legs of a
frog and tell it to jump, and
then wonder why it can’t
jump.”
Brazeau said he hopes to
see universities use results
from Smarter Balanced to
replace placement tests to
determine what level of
math and English a fresh-
man would be in.
“That’s the part that
sometimes gets lost,” he
said. “We talk about having
to take the state tests. We al-
ways had to take tests to get
into school. Students have to
take the ACT or SAT to get
into college. I would hope
someday to see the Smarter
Balanced, SAT and ACT folks
kind of get together so we
aren’t doing the same thing
over and over.”
Townsend said she knows
a lot of parents who didn’t
get their letters to opt out
students turned in on time
because they weren’t noti-
fied in a timely manner.
“There was quite a hand-
ful in my circle that either
didn’t get their letter in on
time, or for whatever reason,
got denials,” Townsend said.
“I can guarantee they’ll be
opting out, and a large per-
centage of students whose
parents are from higher edu-
cation fields, parents who
are educators themselves
who (will be) opting out.”
Gorman noted that the
new law will help school dis-
tricts be more consistent
when it comes to approving
or denying requests to opt
out.
Brazeau said he hopes the
community sticks with the
district as the state figure
out where it will head with
testing.
“I hope we can get our
community to hang with us
while we hang with the
state and find out which
tests are valuable and which
ones aren’t,” he said. “The
more opportunities they
have to gather information,
the better decisions they
make.”
Session: Wins for vets, schools
Continued from 1A
“We’re certainly working
on the bureaucracy (veter-
ans face), but the outreach
piece is important,” Evans
added.
House Bill 2838 establish-
es a task force to identify in-
carcerated veterans to help
get their families benefits
promised to them. When a
veteran is in jail, he or she is
not eligible to receive bene-
fits, but his or her family is,
Evans said. Additionally, the
task force would be used to
help veterans with housing
and transitioning out of jail.
Also, a women’s veterans
coordinator has been estab-
lished, as well as a LGBT co-
ordinator.
“A lot of folks had their
honor stolen by a very differ-
ent view of conduct and be-
havior,” he said. “At the end
of the day, if you wore the
uniform and you served this
country, you should be
judged on what you did, not
who you were or who you
are.”
Evans helped pass some
bills regarding safety, includ-
ing one that would help
keep guardians of endan-
gered children safer. When a
child is in protective custody
because of a bad family situ-
ation, including abuse,
sometimes the adults who
JEFF MENTZER/for the Itemizer-Observer
Oregon’s 2015 Legislative Session adjourned July 6. The
session will be remembered for historical events, includ-
ing the appointment of Gov. Kate Brown.
take care of those children
are stalked and threatened,
Evans said. House Bill 3391
will allow the Department of
Justice to intervene and
make it more difficult for
stalkers.
“The bill I’m most excited
about and surprised by is
HB 2459,” Evans said. The
bill is not huge, and won’t go
down as a landmark bill, but
it will increase the number
of free fishing days offered to
Oregonians by the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
“Our society’s changed a
lot. If you’re not raised in the
fishing culture, you’re not
just going to go and buy a
fishing license if you haven’t
had the experience,” Evans
said.
The bill increased the
number of free fishing days
from two to four, which
means more opportunities
for families to get out there
and try it.
“We might just get ’em
hooked,” Evans said.
He voted yes on Senate
Bill 941, a move Evans said
wasn’t “politically smart,”
but was the right thing to do.
The bill was regarding addi-
tional background checks
for firearms.
“In the last five years, Ore-
gon became one of the
fastest growing Internet
based sales of firearms,
meaning other states were
putting these (checks) in
place, and people were
doing Craigslist and other
types of advertisements,
meeting in parking lots and
selling guns to people they
didn’t know,” Evans said.
Partly because of his
choice to vote yes on SB 941,
and partly because District
20 is a swing seat, Evans ex-
pects a tough campaign for
2016, but he’s ready to keep
fighting for his seat.
“Overall, it has been an
unforgettable experience,”
he said.
For more on this story
and a link to Nearman’s
record, go online to
www.polkio.com.