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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2015)
Polk County Voices Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 5, 2015 4A EDITORIALS How to Contact Officials Your support critical for Polk County Fair Alright Polk County, it’s time for some “Blue Jeans & Country Dreams” at the Polk County Fair. The annual event is a showcase, a reminder of what we do in Polk County and how many talented individuals the area has — whether that be in raising livestock, canning, baking, art or photography. It only happens once a year, starting on Thursday and running through Saturday, and you shouldn’t miss your chance to support the fair. This year, the fair’s schedule and list of offerings differs from years past. Those changes were made in response to fiscal realities, in the case of eliminating Sunday from the schedule, specifically. Others are the result of fairgoers re- sponses in the fair’s recent survey, such as adding a rodeo and new entertainment on the main stage. In an effort to stay with the times, the fair added a beer and wine garden, something almost every other county fair in the state has done in the last decade. Fair managers stayed local in picking the featured brewery and winery, Rogue and Eola Hills Wine Cellars, respectively. So in more than one sense, this really is your county fair. It’s the result of your requests and the product of your friends’ and neighbors’ hard work. In 2015, the stakes for the county fair are high. Financial difficulties may make this year a make-it-or-break-it situa- tion. No one says it better than Polk County Fair Manager Tina Andersen. “I hope people come out and support their county fair because if they don’t, it may not be here next year,” she said. That isn’t to say that all is lost. Switching to three days, adding potentially crowd-pleasing events and attractions and even increasing admission prices a nominal amount were wise moves on the part of the Polk County Fair Board. Here’s hoping that those changes hit all the right notes — and the weather gods provide the perfect conditions to bring out the crowds. Even if you are skeptical of the changes, isn’t it worth it to come out to the fair and give managers a chance to con- vince you they were the correct moves? We think so, and we’ll be there every day to write stories about what we see. We hope you will be there, too. WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor are lim- ited to 300 words. Each writer is restricted to one letter per 30-day period. Letters that are libelous, ob- scene or in bad taste will not be printed. Letters, like all edi- torial material submitted to the newspaper, are edited for length, grammar and content. Letters must include the au- thor’s name, address and tele- phone number. This includes letters submitted via the I-O’s website. Deadline for letters to the editor is 10 a.m. Monday. Letters submitted may not be retractable after this deadline. PUBLIC AGENDA Public Agenda is a listing of upcoming meetings for gov- ernmental and nongovernmental agencies in Polk County. To submit a meeting, send it at least two weeks before the actual meeting date to the Itemizer-Observer via fax (503- 623-2395) or email (ionews@polkio.com). — • Monmouth Historic Commission — 6 p.m., Volunteer Hall, 144 S. Warren St., Monmouth. 503-838-0722. • Monmouth Planning Commission — 7 p.m., Volunteer Hall, 144 S. Warren St., Monmouth. 503-838-0722. TUESDAY, AUG. 11 • Polk County Board of Commissioners — 9 a.m., Polk County Courthouse, 850 Main St., Dallas. 503-623-8173. • Independence City Council — 7:30 p.m., Independence Civic Center, 555 S. Main St., Independence. 503-838-1212. WEDNESDAY, AUG. 12 • Monmouth Library Advisory Board — 7 a.m., Monmouth Public Library meeting room, 168 S. Ecols St., Monmouth. 503- 838-0722. • Polk County Board of Commissioners — 9 a.m., Polk County Courthouse, 850 Main St., Dallas. 503-623-8173. • Monmouth Park and Recreation Board — 7 p.m., Volun- teer Hall, 144 S. Warren St., Monmouth. 503-838-0722. • Polk Soil and Water Conservation District — 6 p.m., USDA Service Center, 580 Main St., Suite A, Dallas. 503-623-9680, ext. 5. GOVERNOR Gov. Kate Brown (Dem.) 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-378-4582 Email: via website, http://governor.oregon.gov/ — STATE LEGISLATORS Sen. Arnie Roblan (District 5, Democrat) S-417 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 sen.arnieroblan@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/roblan LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dems get away with everything It is good to be a Democ- rat because the media lets you get away with anything: • The Democrats use the IRS to go after conservative organizations by withdraw- ing their tax exempt status. The use of the IRS to tar- get political enemies is something Richard Nixon dreamt of doing but never achieved. • President Obama has al- lowed over 2.5 million illegal aliens from a Third World country because most will vote Democrat. These aliens murdered 3,000 in Texas alone. The president gave amnesty to 172,000 illegal alien crimi- nals and imported a quarter of the population of Mexico into the U.S. • Democrat Hillary Clin- ton, through a series of transactions approved by her State Department, al- lowed Russia to acquire 20 percent of uranium in the U.S. She never disclosed a $500,000 fee she received from a Russian bank to fi- nance the building of eight nuclear reactors for Iran. • President Obama nego- tiated a secret side agree- ment with Iran that the U.S. will defend their nuclear sites. Iran receives $100 billion to increase terrorism world- wide. It is good to be a Democ- rat when you can get away with so much without being outed by the media. George Irving Dallas Firefighters, help appreciated A big thank you to every- one in the community who reached out to us during and after our field fire on July 24th. We so appreciated your prayers and offers of assis- tance, as well as the prompt response and dedicated ef- forts of multiple fire agen- cies. We feel very blessed to live in such a supportive community. Kelly and Sara Gordon and Family Replace those who don’t represent you What is the right thing to do! We all try to do what we feel is the right thing in every circumstance. Our Constitution gives the people the right to make decisions and follow a course of action that is de- pendent upon their own personal beliefs and pro- hibits a central government from setting policies that take away these freedoms. We now live in a society where the government has compromised these individ- ual rights and dictated to the people what their beliefs and activities must include in order to comply with these newly formed regula- tions, which were never made public prior to being made into law. So, as Americans, we now are being ruled by a central government that has taken on the powers and authority of a kingdom, in total con- tradiction to our constitu- tion. It is time for Americans to consider just what is the right thing to do. Because of the repeated lying and irrational explana- tions given to us by mem- bers of our government, we no longer trust anything that we are told by these people. The old punch line that says, “We are from the gov- ernment and we are here to help you,” is no longer a joke, but a horror story. Our governmental agen- cies only want to deal with us when they can penalize us for not complying with some of their regulations. Somehow, if this society is to survive, we must return to the original thoughts and ideals of the individuals who formed this nation and wrote our constitution. If we cannot trust our current legislators to do this, then it is time to replace them. Totally. chooses to ignore his re- sponsibility to report to the voters of this district on his own actions and views. Note: I hesitate to call Mr. Nearman “Representative,” since that is likely not the case. That is not to say he is not responsible to someone. He just doesn’t believe it is the voters. I am confident that Near- man’s string pullers, such as the Tea Party, the extreme right and the super-rich oli- garchs in America are fully up to date and happy with their puppet. Please understand that the weak minded members of the right really think that they are the only ones capa- ble of knowing what is good for American citizens. By sheer coincidence these held beliefs are direct- ly in line with the desires of the super-rich oligarchs in the USA. Hence, the right wingers are easily led down the path desired by their masters. The results of the last election in putting a pseu- do-representative in place is clearly the outcome when a major portion of the voters choose to be either too stu- pid or lazy to even perform a simple act like voting. Of course, another major flub in the last election was the Polk County Democrats choosing to run a straw- candidate rather than some- one really interested in the job. What’s-her-name had a clear chance to take an Ore- gon House seat not held in three decades. But, it would have taken a campaign. Didn’t get one. Richard C. Evans Monmouth The Friends of the Dallas Library book sale was a great success and many thanks go to the volunteers who gave of their time, en- ergy, and hard work. A special thanks to Daryll's Nursery for the loan of their truck to transport boxes of books. The proceeds of this sale help support our library and outreach to the Dallas com- munity. Rep. ignores responsibility I see that the Itemizer made a second attempt to provide voters with an in- sider’s view of the progress of the Oregon legislative session, and I note you folks were only partially success- ful. (“Success, struggles in first session,” July 15). Rep. Paul Evans respond- ed and I thank him. The reason for the lack of success is that Mr. Nearman Sen. Jackie Winters (District 10, Republican) S-301 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1710 sen.jackiewinters@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/winters Sen. Brian Boquist (District 12, Republican) S-305 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1712 sen.brianboquist@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/boquist Rep. David Gomberg (District 10, Democrat) H-471 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1410 rep.davidgomberg@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/gomberg Rep. Paul Evans (District 20, Democrat) H-281 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1420 rep.paulevans@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/evans Rep. Mike Nearman (District 23, Republican) H-378 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1423 rep.mikenearman@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/nearman — U.S. CONGRESS Sen. Ron Wyden (Dem.) 221 Dirksen SOB Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-5244 Fax: 202-228-2717 Salem office: 707 13th St. SE, Suite 285, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-589-4555 Email: via website, www.wyden.senate.gov Fred Brown Dallas ‘Friends’ summer sale a success Cari Richey President, Friends of the Dallas Library Board Dallas Sen. Jeff Merkley (Dem.) 313 Hart SOB Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-3753 Fax: 202-228-3997 Salem office: 495 State St. SE, Suite 330, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-362-8102 Email: via website, www.merkley.senate.gov Rep. Kurt Schrader (Dem.) 108 Cannon HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202-225-5711 Fax: 202-225-5699 Salem office: 544 Ferry St. SE, Suite 2, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-588-9100 Fax: 503-588-5517 Email: via website, www.schrader.house.gov — POLK COUNTY Board of Commissioners 850 Main St. Dallas, OR 97338 Phone: 503-623-8173 www.co.polk.or.us — CITIES Dallas 187 SE Court St. Dallas, OR 97338 503-623-2338 www.ci.dallas.or.us Falls City 299 Mill St. Falls City, OR 97344 503-787-3631 www.fallscityoregon.gov Independence 555 S. Main St. Independence, OR 97351 503-838-1212 www.ci.independence.or.us Monmouth 151 W. Main St. Monmouth, OR 97361 503-838-0722 www.ci.monmouth.or.us HOW TO REACH US Vol. 140, No. 31 (USPS) - 437-380) The official newspaper of Polk County • Serving Polk County families since 1875 Winner of 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 General Excellence Awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, OR, Independence, OR and Monmouth, OR. Published weekly at 147 SE Court Street Dallas, Oregon 97338 Phone: 503-623-2373 Fax: 503-623-2395 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Polk County — One Year $27 Other Oregon Counties — One Year $33 Outside of Oregon — One Year $38 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Polk County Itemizer-Observer, P.O. Box 108, Dallas, Oregon 97338 The Polk County Itemizer-Observer assumes no financial responsibility for errors in adver- tisements. It will, however, reprint without charge for the portion of an advertisement which is in error if the Itemizer-Observer is at fault. NEWSROOM Nancy Adams ...............Publisher/Editor .............................................................nadams@polkio.com Lukas Eggen..................Sports Editor......................................................................leggen@polkio.com Jolene Guzman............Dallas/Falls City/Polk County Reporter ................jguzman@polkio.com Emily Mentzer ..............Monmouth/Independence Reporter ..................ementzer@polkio.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING Heidi Leppin .................Display Advertising Manager ....................................hleppin@polkio.com Rachel Best ....................Display Advertising.............................................................rbest@polkio.com Karen Sanks...................Client Services ...................................................................ksanks@polkio.com CLASSIFIED LINE ADVERTISING Dawn Ohren .....................................................................................................................ioads@polkio.com PRODUCTION Kathy Huggins ..............................................................................................................iosales@polkio.com Karyn Pressel .................................................................................................................iosales@polkio.com BOOKKEEPING Pat Letsch ......................................................................................................................pletsch@polkio.com Web: www.polkio.com Phone: 503-623-2373 Fax: 503-623-2395