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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 23, 2015)
Polk County News Polk County Itemizer-Observer • December 23, 2015 3A Falls City ‘Third of July’ traditions in jeopardy Without someone to take charge of organizing Independence Day events, they may be scaled back By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer FALLS CITY — A well- loved tradition in Falls City is in danger of having to scale back in size. Cost and staff time con- cerns may shrink the size of Falls City’s day-early Inde- pendence Day celebration if the city can’t find an organi- zation to coordinate the event. Last July’s event had to be restructured when the or- ganization that took over co- ordination had to back out at the last minute over in- surance concerns. July 3 proceeded with no noticeable changes this year, even with that chal- lenge. Next year, city officials want to avoid a repeat of that situation. “We had the ‘after meet- ing’ and it was decided to have an early plan in place for the 2016 event,” said Mayor Terry Ungricht. He said the firefighters as- sociation appointed three people to work with three members of the city’s parks committee to come up with a plan. JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer file A scaled-back “Third of July” celebration in Falls City may mean the end of the sponta- neous, small-town parade down Main Street. City officials are seeking more donations and someone to take charge of organizing the event for 2016. To date, no members have been selected from the parks committee. Thus, no plan is taking shape yet, Ungricht said. One of the most popular traditions, the July 3 fire- works show put on by the Falls City Fire Depart- ment, will continue. “We are still planning on doing it,” said Fire Chief Bob Young. What the other pieces of the celebration — the pa- rade, vendors, and activities in the park — will look like remains unclear. Ungricht said the city will not be able to take on its normal role this year. “Staff’s going to be ex- tremely busy this year. I mean, we are trying to get a lot accomplished,” Ungricht said, noting time will be de- voted to helping with the city’s water master plan starting in January and modifying the waste water Minet to seek more ways to earn By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer MONMOUTH — Mon- mouth Independence Net- works (Minet) has kept a 60 percent market share in its coverage area, maintaining a mostly flat revenue versus expenses, said Buzz Brazeau, chair of the finance committee. “ N o l o s s , n o g a i n ,” Brazeau said. “From the fi- nance committee’s point of view, we believe we will have at least two recommenda- tions to give to the board in a short period of time. We have to look at ways we can increase revenue.” Brazeau, who reported to the Minet board at its Thurs- day meeting, said it is easy to say, as has been said in years past, “find more sub- scribers.” “It’s easy to say, ‘We’re at 60 percent, so let’s go to 80 percent” penetration, Brazeau said. “As of this morning, I weighed about 280. It’s easy to say, ‘I’d like to weigh 250.’ But for me to weigh 250 is going to require an act of God and Congress.” Instead, Minet needs to focus on growing other sources of revenue, Brazeau said. To that end, General Man- ager Don Patten asked the board for guidance on what members wanted him to do with the company, noting he had several talks going on with var ious potential clients, but not providing specific details to protect proprietary secrets. Board chair Scott McClure said Patten could bring vague ideas about deals, and without naming names, could inform the board about what’s going on. Also, an executive session could be used, McClure said, likely under the allowable exemption, “to discuss mat- ters of trade when a body is in competition with other states or nations.” McClure noted that the bigger the risk involved, the more information should come before the board be- fore moving forward. “If you have someone say, ‘We’d like to use your serv- ice,’ and we (the cities) have to dump $300,000 to get that done, that’s where we need to have a discussion about what these things look like,” he said. McClure said that it would be a tough sell to the public to invest any more money in Minet. “We set up Minet, and said it’s going to work and it’s going to make money,” he said. “Then we took more debt, then we doubled down. It’s going to work, it has to, and it didn’t. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t make enough money, and hey, we’re going to offer more Monmouth-Independence Networks board of directors and their connections: David Clyne—Independence city manager, MINET board ex-officio member Greg Ellis—Minet board member, Dallas economic development director Scott McClure—Monmouth city manager, MINET board vice-chairman David Ritchey—Monmouth Police officer Jon Carey—Monmouth city councilor Jerry Hoffman—Independence city councilor Mike Lodge—spouse of Independence city council president Nancy Lodge Other connections: Marilyn Morton—MINET administrator, Independence city councilor Board members are appointed by the Independence and Monmouth city councils, according to the intergovernmental agreement that formed MINET. services. The constituents are going to say, ‘What?’” Board member Jon Carey agreed. “It’s been a drain on city resources,” Carey said. “We’re all interested in push- ing this thing forward. It’s the future. But to get run- ning, you need oxygen. To get oxygen, you need to get above water.” McClure said the board will continue with basic oversight, but board mem- bers are eager to move on to the bigger discussions on how Minet will move for- ward to become a financial asset rather than burden. “We’ve obviously been very distracted on non-big- picture things,” he said. “We’re not going to have it all down perfect the first time, because it’s new terri- tory.” Board members suggest- ed Patten look at grants — even hiring a grant writer if needed. “We want … what other businesses would do before making a decision,” McClure said. facility plan. He said he had hoped an- other organization would step in to coordinate the event. “I’m real concerned that no one seems interested,” he said. “I’m basically recom- mending that we scale down the celebration, maybe have a cookout and games down in the park, and let it go at that.” Another concern is in- creasing costs. In years past, the fire de- partment has purchased and put on the fireworks dis- plays, while the city covered the cost of insurance, portable toilets and security. In 2015, the city budgeted $1,000, but spent $1,945. Ungricht said the city bud- geted $1,200 for 2016, but he doesn’t believe that will be enough. The price of putting on the fireworks show has steadily increased, now cost- ing more than $7,000, but in recent years donations have decreased. “We used to get pretty much half of whatever we shot up,” Young said. “The last couple of years, it’s been really down.” He said only about $2,000 was donated for the show last year. The fire department uses its savings to purchase the fireworks and needs about half of the cost donated to make putting on the show sustainable. “We used to get a lot that night,” Young said, referring to collections from the audi- ence on July 3. “I really don’t know why people aren’t giv- ing.”
