HEAR YE, HEAR YE
THE THRILL OF VICTORY
SHREWSBURY
BOYS
SOCCER
Page 6A
Page 10A
Volume 140, Issue 37
www.Polkio.com
September 16, 2015
75¢
IN YOUR TOWN
DALLAS NEWS
CASA of Polk County has a new home and is
ready to show it off during an open house on
Wednesday.
CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) pairs
trained volunteers with abused and neglected chil-
dren who have been removed from their homes.
The volunteers advocate on behalf of children as
they move through the court system.
CASA’s new office is at 580 Main St. in Dallas.
Until a few months ago, the organization was
housed in the Polk County District Attorney’s Of-
fice.
»Page 5A
FALLS CITY NEWS
ROGUE FARMS/for the Itemizer-Observer
Tractors often are covered in the hop bines during the harvest each year.
HOPPIN’ GOOD HARVEST
Season produces record yields after hotter than average summer
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — If there’s one
thing farm expert Cheryl Gilson has
learned during her more than A
decade with Rogue Farms it’s this —
be prepared for anything.
From protecting crops from cold
temperatures in the winter to deal-
ing with unforeseen issues — like
last November when slugs ate 10
acres of rye seeds in 24 hours —
Rogue Farms sees its share of new is-
sues every day.
“You have to stay on your toes
when you’re working with Mother Na-
ture,” Gilson said. “You have to be
ready for anything and you just have
to roll with the punches.”
Facing an unseasonably warm
spring and summer, Rogue began its
hop harvest on Aug. 17, roughly a
week to a week-and-a-half earlier
than normal.
Rogue Farm expects this year’s har-
vest to run at least another week to
finish reaping the last of seven vari-
eties of hops.
An early harvest won’t mean a weak
LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer
Hop cones are dried before they are
baled and shipped to the brewery.
hop yield. In fact, this is shaping up to
be one of the farm’s biggest harvest
seasons yet, Gilson said.
“We’re guessing about 80,000
pounds of hops from our 42 acres,”
Gilson said. “You really don’t know
until it all happens, but we’re expect-
ing a really good yield this year.”
With the first hops ripening ahead
of schedule, it meant being ready to
start harvesting on short notice no
matter what had to be done to get
ready.
“Our crops haven’t suffered,” Gilson
said. “Like so many crops, they were
ready early. We decided the Friday be-
fore our harvest began to start the fol-
lowing Monday. We had to make some
last-second repairs on vehicles, but
we just had to get going.”
The process from bine to bale is a
lengthy one. When hops begin to
sprout, this year in mid-March, work-
ers string the bines and teach the
hops how to “climb” while they are
growing.
Once hops are ripe, the harvest be-
gins.
The journey starts as bines are cut
and brought to the picker warehouse
where they are stripped through a se-
ries of conveyer belts and screens.
From there, the cones are trans-
ported to the kiln where they are dried
for six to eight hours until moisture
falls below 10 percent.
Getting the moisture levels correct
is important. A mistake puts the cones
at risk for catching fire.
After drying, the hops are cooled
when hydraulic balers compress the
hops into 200-pound bales to be
transported to Rogue Brewery in
Newport.
See HOPS, Page 9A
A celebration of heritage, hops
Independence celebrates its roots during weekend festival at Riverview Park
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — It’s a
small-town festival, created
by the community for the
community, said Jason
Kistler, member of the Hops
& Heritage Festival com-
mission.
The festival is early this
year. Usually falling toward
the end of September, it
was moved up to avoid
competing with other
events — and to give festi-
val-goers a better shot at
good weather.
“Two years ago we al-
most canceled the festival
because there was a big
m o n s o o n m ov i n g i n ,”
Kistler recalled. “So we
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
For more on the
15th annual Hops &
Heritage Festival,
including schedule,
see Section C inside.
moved it up a week.”
Hops & Heritage puts a
nice little exclamation mark
on summer and kicks off fall
all at once, said Marie Trucco,
member of the commission.
“I think it’s just a sweet
celebration of the commu-
nity,” she said. “Last year,
people came and stayed
and played. It’s small; it’s
not the Fourth of July, but
people found things that
(piqued) their interest.”
It’s no surprise, given all
the different things to do,
from trying your hand at
painting, to entering old-
time contests such as build-
ing a scarecrow or eating
pie. There’s even a pa-
rade — of critters, that is.
Some of the most interest-
ing animals join the parade,
from chickens to parrots,
reptiles to more traditional
pets such as dogs.
This year, instead of a
cookie-baking contest —
which seems to have run its
course due to the low num-
ber of entries last year — the
festival will host a culinary
challenge to cook with beer.
“We’re looking for any-
thing that you can incorpo-
rate beer or hops into,”
Kistler said. “We’re hoping
to cast a wider net that way,
hoping for more entries.”
The scarecrow contest al-
ways brings a big crowd of cre-
ations, from professional-
grade to more original models.
See FESTIVAL, Page 9A
A sewer rate increase may be coming for Falls
City residents, but that won’t be enough to resolve
all the issues with the city’s aging system.
In the 2014-15 fiscal year, wastewater revenue
was $100,819, while expenses amounted to
$98,635, according to a report Falls City Mayor
Terry Ungricht presented to the Falls City City
Council at its meeting Thursday.
Falls City’s wastewater system is an enterprise
fund, meaning it is supposed to be self-sustaining
on user fees. Last year’s expenses didn’t include re-
placement of a circulation pump at $8,489.
»Page 9A
INDEPENDENCE NEWS
Firefighting is the only career the new Polk
County Fire District No. 1’s chief Al Alcalde has ever
known, or wanted.
“A lot of our neighbors were firefighters for the
city of Torrance (Calif.),” Alcalde, 54, said. “I was in
track, and I saw a lot of the firefighters on the track
working out.”
When he graduated from high school, he joined
the Air Force and took a job fighting fires.
“It was a different kind of firefighting because
we were on a base,” Alcalde said. “Our primary re-
sponsibility was for aircraft.”
Later, he became a paramedic.
»Page 2A
MONMOUTH NEWS
The Monmouth Public Library will host a conver-
sation about death and dying at 6 p.m. on Sept. 24
at the library, 168 Ecols St. S.
“I think this will be a great opportunity for our
community to be able to come together and talk
about a subject that is not often discussed pub-
licly,” said Krist Obrist, Monmouth library director.
“We all experience death on different levels
throughout our life, yet it can be such a difficult
and personal experience to open up about.”
The conversation is part of a statewide initiative
by Oregon Humanities.
»Page 9A
POLK COUNTY NEWS
Glen Miller, the new director of Chemeketa Com-
munity College’s Dallas Center, wants the commu-
nity to know the campus doesn’t just offer classes
for students in high school fifth-year programs.
“Yes, we do offer general education classes,” he
said.
“A student could get a significant portion of their
associate of arts Oregon transfer degree here in
Dallas. We are a legitimate college-course offering
campus that I personally think is being underused
by the community because they don’t know we are
a resource that’s available.”
»Page 14A
wed
thu
fri
sat
sun
mon
tue
Helping Hands
Emergency Food
Bank is there for
those who need a
little extra help each
Wednesday.
10 a.m.-noon. Free.
Lift up your voice
and sing with others
at the hymn sing-
along at Monmouth
Senior Center each
Thursday.
6:30 p.m. Free.
Support Buell
Grange at its fall
market where a raf-
fle, local produce
and a garage sale
will be happening.
9 a.m.-6 p.m. Free.
Head to Dallas Al-
liance Church for
dinner and a blue-
grass concert in the
field and help raise
money for youths.
5 p.m. $10.
Those interested in
learning more about
flying remote con-
trol aircraft may
meet at Whitworth
Elementary School.
1-3 p.m. Free.
Network with other
business people
while enjoying lunch
at the Dallas Area
Chamber of Com-
merce luncheon.
11:30 a.m. $12.
It’s National Voter
Registration Day! If
you haven’t regis-
tered to vote, today
is the perfect day to
update your records
or get registered.
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