MASTER OF THE MAIZE
OMLID COMES TO WOU
CORN MAZE Page 7A BASKETBALL
Page 10A
Volume 140, Issue 34
www.Polkio.com
August 26, 2015
QUAKE IS COMING?
75¢
IN YOUR TOWN
Officials await an ‘overdue’ 9.0 earthquake off the Oregon coast
DALLAS NEWS
By Jolene Guzman
Ron and Cheryl Spicer don’t want shut the doors
for a final time at their store, Foster’s Furniture, on
Monday.
But it’s time to step away.
The couple has owned the store for six years —
original owner and the couple’s friend, Gary Foster,
opened it 20 years before then — and has
searched for a buyer without much luck.
“I’m going to be 80 on Dec. 3,” Ron Spicer said,
explaining the timing of the closure on Monday.
“We are hoping someone still will come forward.”
The Itemizer-Observer
Editor’s note: This is the first in a se-
ries of three stories exploring what
would happen locally during and after a
predicted 9.0 Cascadia subduction zone
earthquake off the Oregon Coast.
POLK COUNTY — Geologists can’t say
precisely when the Cascadia subduction
zone will shake the Pacific Coast, but the
consensus is it will happen.
Given the area is “overdue” for “The
Really Big One,” as a recent story in The
New Yorker coined it, there’s a chance it
could happen within the lifetimes of
residents of the Pacific Northwest now.
What does that mean for those living
in Polk County?
Areas not directly on the coast won’t
be hit with the one-two punch of violent
shaking in a possible 9.0 magnitude
quake followed by a devastating tsuna-
mi. But it won’t be pretty, especially if it
were to happen in the near future.
In The New Yorker story published
last month, a FEMA official overseeing
this region of the country said if the
earthquake were to happen now “Our
operating assumption is that every-
thing west of Interstate 5 will be toast.”
State and local officials say “toast”
may be a dramatic way of describing
what would happen in the Willamette
Valley.
Althea Rizzo, the geologic hazards
program coordinator for Oregon Emer-
gency Management, said, no, the valley
will not look like a scene from the
movie “San Andreas,” though some
areas will experience heavy damage,
she noted.
This far away from fault, the shaking
wouldn’t be as strong as on the coast,
but nothing to shrug at when you con-
sider the age of many buildings and
bridges in the area.
Rizzo said the first seismic building
codes were not established until 1994.
“If your building was built since
then, it’s very likely it will stand,” she
said. “If not, you need to look at retro-
fitting.”
When Rizzo says “stand,” that is pre-
cisely what she means. Buildings up to
code should not collapse, protecting
the people inside, but that does not
mean it will be usable after the quake.
From there, it’s dependent on the type
of soil your home or office is built on.
Soil types common to the valley are
prone to liquefaction — similar to
turning to mush — while the earth is
moving.
Landslides are another common
secondary risk, so even if your home
could survive the shaking, it could suf-
fer a different kind of disaster.
Infrastructure — electricity, sewer,
»Page 3A
FALLS CITY NEWS
The city of Falls City has applied for two grants to
complete more than $3.5 million in road and
bridge repairs.
If things go as planned, the city may be able to
do it without spending a dime.
To pull off that magic trick, the city has applied
for a grant from the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) to help pay for much needed repairs to
Dutch Creek Crossing.
“It’s in bad shape,” Falls City Mayor Terry Ungricht
said. “I don’t want to have to put a weight restric-
tion on Dutch Creek.”
»Page 13A
INDEPENDENCE NEWS
OREGON RESILIENCY PLAN/ for the Itemizer-Observer
When “the big one” hits, liquefaction and landslides will be a factor.
water and roads — also will be dam-
aged and not functional for a period of
time. First-responders will be short-
handed, to say the least.
So what now? Panic? Move?
No, according to local officials, just
be prepared.
Dean Bender, Polk County’s emer-
gency manager, said he’s been asked
on a number of occasions since the
New Yorker story was published what
people should do.
He’s appreciative that people are
thinking about getting ready, but he
also doesn’t want them to panic.
“Today is no different from the day
before, but just be self-prepared,” he
said. “It’s going to be a bad day. There’s
no way around it.”
Really, it’s going to be a bad stretch
of months, according to the Oregon
Resilience Plan, which outlines the
state’s ability to withstand a Cascadia
quake and offers recommendations to
prepare over the next five decades.
See QUAKE, Page 5A
Did you know?
• The Cascadia subduction zone
is a 600-mile long earthquake fault
stretching from offshore northern
California to southern British Co-
lumbia. This fault builds up stress
for hundreds of years as the Juan
de Fuca and North America tecton-
ic plates push against each other.
Eventually, the two plates rip apart,
creating some of the largest earth-
quakes and tsunamis on earth.
Where the Juan de Fuca oceanic
plate and the North American con-
tinental plate meet is called a sub-
duction zone, because the denser
Juan de Fuca plate is being pulled
under North America. The Juan de
Fuca plate is moving to the north-
east at about an inch a year as the
North American plate moves west.
— Source: Oregon Office of
Emergency Management.
Students in second grade may end up filling jobs
that haven’t even been invented yet, said Inde-
pendence Economic Development Director Shawn
Irvine.
“How do you train kids to be adaptable, to be
problem solvers, to be critical thinkers, which is ba-
sically what you need to be to have the skills for a
job that you don’t even know what it’s going to be,”
Irvine said.
The Technology Association of Oregon Founda-
tion designated the city of Independence as an In-
novate Oregon city, which will help bring training
and resources for educators.
»Page 16A
MONMOUTH NEWS
Funding for the Monmouth Senior Center ex-
pansion project is complete with a $90,000 grant
awarded on Aug. 17 by the Ford Family Founda-
tion.
That, coupled with $40,000 from Meyer Memori-
al Trust, $30,000 from Oregon Community Fund
and $15,000 from the Collins Foundation, will be
added to the $127,000 raised by Friends of the
Monmouth Senior Center and $120,000 donated
by the city of Monmouth.
Construction of the 2,133-square-foot addition
should be completed in 2016.
Tracks on Second to get facelift
Independence, Willamette & Pacific work together to repair road, rail
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — Mike
Danko didn’t think he’d ever
see the day when the rail-
road tracks on Second Street
would get refinished.
“I’ve been working to im-
prove that railroad (track)
for the whole 25 years I’ve
been here,” Danko said.
After requests from Inde-
pendence city councilors
dating back 100 years, and
the time Danko has spent
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
cultivating relationships
with directors at the
Willamette & Pacific Rail-
road, construction will
begin Wednesday (today)
and continue through the
weekend.
The work should be com-
pleted by Monday or Tues-
day, Danko said.
It will mean detours around
the Monmouth and Second
street intersection, but Danko
said he hopes it doesn’t cause
too much impact on down-
town businesses.
“This area (downtown)
will be open to local traffic,”
he said. “We’re going to pro-
vide a right-hand turn onto
Second Street (from C
Street), just one lane so you
can go down to B Street.
There will be a little impact,
but hopefully it won’t be too
bad.”
Part of the 100-year delay
on the project was that, in
general, railroad owners
don’t care about the condi-
tion of the street crossing
the rails.
“They run a pretty fixed
maintenance budget every
year, and they’re really
tight,” Danko said. “They
don’t care if the railroad
(tracks) looks bad, they just
want it to be safe (for
trains).”
But the two-block stretch
of road was not safe for bicy-
clists, wheelchairs — even
cars.
“People have split their
tire on the rail a number of
times,” Danko said.
See RAIL, Page 14A
»Page 5A
POLK COUNTY NEWS
A suspicious package was neutralized at 10 a.m.
Friday after it was discovered in the Grand Ronde
Tribal mailroom at about 7.
The discovery of the package prompted the clo-
sure of Grand Ronde Road. The Salem Police De-
partment bomb squad assisted at the scene.
The black PVC package was left on the front
deck of the mailroom with a Post-it note under-
neath it.
It was immediately reported to the Grand Ronde
Police Department, who cordoned off the area and
contacted Salem PD.
»Page 3A
wed
thu
fri
sat
sun
mon
tue
Grab a yoga mat
and head to Rogue
Hop Farms for some
free yoga in the
bines. Stay for food
and a beverage.
4 p.m. Free.
Johnny Limbo and
the Lugnuts will
rock the Rotary
stage for the last
performance of
Sounds of Summer.
6:30 p.m. Free.
Watch the debut of
Un Carol de Inde-
pendence, a play
written about and
by the Hispanic
community.
7:30 p.m. Free.
Bring your un-
wanted treasures to
Main Street Park in
Monmouth for the
communitywide
garage sale.
It’s fiesta time for
the whole commu-
nity all day at
Riverview Park and
Amphitheater, with
food, music and fun.
You’re never too old
to try something
new with the
Willamette Valley
New Horizon’s Or-
chestra.
School is around the
corner, so stop by
Bounty Market and
pick up fresh veg-
gies and fruits for
packed lunches.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.
9 a.m.-10 p.m. Free.
6:30 p.m. $25/month.
10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free.
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Showers
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Partly Cloudy
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