Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 30, 2016 5A
Council to label
Minet debt ‘bad’
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
OREGON LOTTERY
A Dallas couple wins the grand $1 million prize in the Oregon Lottery’s St. Patrick’s Day Raffle on March 17.
DALLAS COUPLE WINS BIG
Locals win top prize in St. Patrick’s Day Raffle with Oregon Lottery
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — A Dallas cou-
ple had the luck of the Irish
in Oregon Lottery’s St.
Patrick’s Day Raffle, but it
took some time to realize it.
Usually the top raffle prize
winners show up the day the
winning numbers are an-
nounced, Lottery
spokesman Chuck Bau-
mann said.
Not this time. The lottery
office had to resort to issu-
ing a press release a week
after the numbers were an-
nounced in an attempt to
find the winner.
Baumann said he sent out
the release at 8:30 Thursday
morning. It didn’t take long
to find the winner after Ore-
gonlive posted a story.
“I was literally reading
that story when I was getting
a call that the winner (was at
the office),” Baumann said.
That lucky person is Dal-
las resident Pam Hoefling.
She told lottery officials it
didn’t occur to her for a
while to check the two tick-
ets she purchased. When she
took them to Safeway, she
was in for a pleasant sur-
prise.
“They scanned the ticket
and told me it said I needed
to go to Salem. I thought,
‘Oh, OK,’ but didn’t know
WOU to host geographic bee Friday
Itemizer-Observer staf report
MONMOUTH — Western Oregon University will host
103 contestants vying to win the 2016 National Geographic
State Bee on Friday.
The state champion will represent Oregon in the Na-
tional Geographic Bee Championship May 22-25 at the
National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington
D.C. The winner also will receive $100, the National Geo-
graphic book “The National Parks: An Illustrated History”
and a medal.
The bee will take place in the Pacific Room at WOU’s
Werner University Center, 345 Monmouth Ave. N. Prelimi-
nary rounds begin at 10 a.m. and the final round is slated
for noon.
The national champion will receive a $50,000 college
scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geo-
graphic Society.
The National Geographic Bee is a program of the Na-
tional Geographic Society. For more information,
www.natgeobee.org.
how much I’d won,” Hoe-
fling said. “So they printed
the winning raffle numbers
and then checked those with
my ticket.”
They were a match.
“Then we all freaked out,"
she said.
Hoefling and her hus-
band, Rick, buy two tickets
with each raffle. Whether it’s
Rick or Pam who buys the
tickets, they let the other
half pick one of the tickets
for their own.
“Left or right,” Rick Hoe-
fling explained as their selec-
tion method. “I had a 50 per-
cent chance of winning this.”
But alas, it was Pam’s tick-
et that won.
Rick said he found out she
had won when she an-
nounced Thursday that she
was going to Salem.
“She said, ‘I’m going to
the lottery office,’” he re-
called. “And she showed me
the ticket.”
Rick said the couple had
planned to take a few trips
in the coming years.
“We can speed that up
now,” he said.
After taxes, the Hoeflings
will receive $670,000 from
the $1 million raffle. Safeway
will share in the luck, receiv-
ing a 1-percent selling
bonus for being the location
where the winning ticket
was purchased.
Falls City School District
to host bond meeting
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — The Falls
City School District will host
an informational meeting
Tuesday regarding the bond
to build a gym at Falls City
Elementary School. Voters
will decide the issue in the
May 17 election.
The meeting is open to
the public and will be at 6
p.m. at the elementary
school, 177 Prospect St., in
Falls City. The project man-
ager and architect will be at
the meeting to answer ques-
tions and lead a discussion
about the bond.
The $2 million bond will
cost $1.30 per $1,000 of as-
sessed value and, if passed,
will build a multipurpose
gym and cafeteria at the
school.
For more information:
503-787-3521.
RECYCLE
MONMOUTH — In an
effort to preserve the city’s
cash flow and bond rating,
the city of Monmouth will
consider labeling receiv-
ables from Monmouth In-
dependence Networks as
non-collectible.
The discussion came
during a presentation of
the city’s audit during the
March 15 city council
meeting.
“They’ve been able to
pay essentially all the prin-
cipal, not the interest,” said
Mark Dunmire, Monmouth
finance director. “They’re
paying what they owe, just
not the interest.”
The debt totals
$13,749,646.
“That principal is sitting
on our balance sheet,”
Dunmire said. “We thought
it was a way to record —
not a forgiveness of debt,
but the likelihood of their
ability to pay.”
The debt was taken out
by the cities of Monmouth
and Independence to pay
for the infrastructure to
build Minet. The cities
make payments to the
banks, loans and bonds
and wait for Minet to repay
the cities.
“Whatever Minet doesn’t
pay, we will transfer from
Power and Light,” Dunmire
said.
In Independence, that
money comes from the
water utility fund.
Dunmire said the debt is
“definitely a negative
against the city.”
In terms of reporting,
considering the debt not
collectible is a safe move,
Dunmire said.
“I know Minet is looking
at a number of options to
increase revenues,” he said.
“They’re stable from an op-
erational standpoint, but
they’re not able to cover the
whole debt. We’re grateful
for what they do cover and
wish they could cover
more.”
Historically, Minet has
not been able to pay its
debt, Dunmire said.
“We wouldn’t consider
them collectible unless
something changed,” he
said.
A representative from
Grove, Mueller and Swank,
the accountants who per-
formed the audit, said the
debt would go to zero and
be considered a bad debt if
Minet could not pay it.
The city of Independ-
ence also considered a sim-
ilar course of action for
debt owed to it from Minet.
In other business, the
council, acting as the
Urban Renewal Agency, ap-
proved a $300 grant for the
Monmouth Montessori
School to reconstruct a
walkway.
The money is half the
cost of the new sidewalk,
making the school wheel-
chair accessible.
You’re Invited
Third Annual
Survivor Dinner & Celebration
hosted by Eola Hills Winery
sponsored by Relay For Life of Polk County
& Team Perrydale
Saturday, April 2
at Eola Hills Wine Cellars
501 S. Pacific Highway 99W, Rickreall
5:30 ~ Doors open, Meet & Mingle
6:15 to 8:00 ~ Dinner with entertainment by Oregon
Spirit, award-winning chorus selected to perform this
December at the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Every survivor and guest will be guests of honor.
Please join us for an evening of food, fun and festivities.
RSVP your name and the name of one guest to Vicki Bailey at
503-623-5241 or vickibaile@aol.com. RSVPs are encouraged.
Solution on Page 3A
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