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.”