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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2015)
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • September 2, 2015 3A Polk County News DALLAS FIREMED PARAMEDIC AMBULANCE MEMBERSHIP Support Your Local Ambulance JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer Hermelinda Garcia closed the doors on her salon on Aug. 24. Garcia spent 42 years as a salon owner. She opened her first shop in 1973 in Independence. Garcia retires after 42 years of hairstyling By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer INDEPENDENCE — In her career as a salon owner, Hermelinda Garcia can count 42 years, three loca- tions, and countless friends. Garcia, who goes by “Linda,” recently surpassed another milestone, age 70. “It was time to retire,” she said Monday, a week after her last day at Hermelinda’s Beauty Salon. “I’ve been doing it all my life.” Garcia began cutting hair for family and friends at an early age, but when it came time to select a career, she took a different path — for a while. “When I got out of high school, I was a nurse’s aide,” she explained. “Then I de- cided I liked doing hair bet- ter.” Originally from St. Paul, Garcia moved to Independ- ence after marrying her hus- band, Julio. Opening her first shop in 1973 and becoming involved in the community, she quickly made a name for herself — and for him — in Independence. “I’ve lived here a lot longer than she has, but I’m still known as Linda’s hus- band,” he said, chuckling. Linda Garcia served on a cultural awareness com- mission in Independence, on the PTA when her chil- dren were in school and on the Independence Public Library board. She recalls fondly teach- ing hair care classes to girls at the library when her daughter was young. “A lot of them are grown ladies now and they re- member learning about hair from Linda,” Julio Gar- cia said. “They all remem- ber Linda.” The same is true of her customers at the salon. She’s had generations of the same families come to her throughout her career. “I made a lot of friends,” she said. “They become your friends.” And if you are wonder- ing, yes, the relationship be- tween hairdresser and cus- tomer is much the same as between bartender and pa- tron. Garcia has heard many good stories in her 42 years behind the chair. Some, she said with a knowing smile, are not fit to print. “It was a lot of fun,” she said. “It was.” She said her former salon at 1331 Monmouth St. in In- dependence is ready to re- open with a new owner, something she’s pleased to see. Just like how she began, Garcia still will cut hair for family members at her home with a special license from the state. It isn’t quite the same as arriving at the shop at 8:30 each morning to greet customers, though. “I (will) miss it,” she said. MINET receives security update after system audit By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer MONMOUTH — Mon- mouth Independence Net- works employees have been busy getting updates made and security improvements done. “We’re doing work on ba- sically all the systems, all the guts of the system,” said Scott McClure, MINET board vice president and Monmouth city manager. “The idea is to get a handle on the core technology — the computers, the servers, the networks — and get it all buttoned down as tight as possible.” The work started after an in-depth system audit was completed. The audit, which looks at MINET’s se- curity, is confidential, Mc- Clure said, and not avail- able to the public. MINET Manager Don Patten said he would see if a summary of the report could be made available, but did not have it by press time. The cost of the audit also was unavailable by press time. T h e a u d i t w a s p e r- formed at Patten’s request because of recent transi- tions, including changes in employees in both the tech services and information technology departments, McClure said. Patten said MINET work- ers have begun the process to correct “numerous defi- ciencies found in the report, including ordering new fire- wall hardware, which will help prevent attacks and serve as a disaster recovery program. “The unit replaced an outdated system that was no longer supported,” Pat- ten said. The firewall was not the only thing that needed up- dated. MINET has been in oper- ation since its original 2004 intergovernmental agree- ment between the two cities of Monmouth and Inde- pendence, and was still using original equipment, McClure said. “It comes as no surprise to anyone in this room that we’ve been experiencing some serious technical is- sues as a result of failed maintenance over a num- ber of years,” Patten said at Thursday’s MINET board meeting. “MINET has man- aged to stabilize most of the blade servers that offer services. Several servers have been taken down.” The idea behind the sys- tem audit was to find out what needed to be done to meet industry standards, McClure said. “Basically it’s getting the system really cleaned up and in good operating order,” McClure said. “We’re being more proactive to get it in the best order that we can.” One benefit to the cleanup is when something goes wrong, it will be much easier to fix quickly, he said. In other business: • The board approved the board of director’s code of conduct. Bylaws continue to be evaluated by the board’s subcommittee of McClure and Jerry Hoff- man, board member and Independence city coun- cilor. McClure said bylaws may be discussed at the Sept. 17 meeting, but added that the board has the over- all governance of the IGA. “We just did the code of conduct, do we need some- thing else about how the board operates and does business?” he said. “You have to be careful if you have parallel documents. If something gets altered in the first one, it gets altered in the second one.” • Board member Mike Lodge made a motion to hire Gail Fischer, private in- vestigator and independent insurance adjuster from Eu- gene, as an outside consult- ant to interview board pres- ident and Independence City Manager David Clyne “based on comments he made at previous board meetings on continued misconduct at MINET,” Lodge said. Fischer will be hired at $90 per hour. Clyne said he would invite her to come speak at an executive ses- sion with just board mem- bers in the future to discuss how to structure an investi- gation. • The board decided it did not want to publish video tape of its meetings anymore. “Certainly meetings are open, but there was con- cern (at the Aug. 17 board retreat) about information that might be contextual- ized, strategies that might be developed, so we de- clined to (provide video),” said Jon Carey, board mem- ber and Monmouth city councilor. Lodge said the board al- ready provides audio of the meetings, so adding video doesn’t impact public ac- cess one way or another. Rod Killen, MINET mar- keting contractor and Willamette Riverside Stu- dios owner, said he volun- teered his time to video tape MINET board meet- ings. He noted that barring him from taking video would be equal to denying a private citizen access to taping a public meeting. 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