Polk County
Voices
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 5, 2015 4A
EDITORIALS
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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
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Dawn Ohren .....................................................................................................................ioads@polkio.com
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Phone: 503-623-2373
Fax: 503-623-2395