Polk County News
On your ballot
Local measures and races
MEASURES
• measure 27-118: Falls City School
District, $2 million bond to build a mul-
tipurpose gym and cafeteria at Falls
City Elementary School.
• measure 27-119: City of Dallas, 10-
year, $10 million bond to repair resi-
dential streets.
CANDIDATES
• Polk County Commissioner Posi-
tion no. 1 (nonpartisan position) —
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • April 27, 2016 5A
Jennifer Wheeler (incumbent) and Ter-
rence “Terry” Taylor.
• Polk County Assessor — Doug
Schmidt.
• Polk County District Attorney —
Aaron Felton.
• Judge of Circuit Court, 12th Dis-
trict, Position no. 2 — monte Camp-
bell.
• Oregon House of representatives,
District 10 — David Gomberg (incum-
bent, Democrat); and Thomas m.
Donohue (republican).
• Oregon House of representa-
tives, District 20 — Paul Evans (in-
cumbent, Democrat); and Laura S.
morett (republican).
• Oregon House of representative,
District 23 — mike nearman (incum-
bent, republican); Beth Jones (republi-
can); and Jim Thompson (Indepen-
dent).
• Oregon Senate, District 5 — Arnie
roblan (incumbent, Democrat); and
Dick Anderson (republican).
• Oregon Senate, District 12 — Brian
Boquist (incumbent, republican); and
ross Swartzendruber (Democrat).
Of note: The offices of Polk County
sheriff, treasurer and clerk will appear
on the november ballot.
Falls City voters asked to support schools
Crowded gyms, kitchens, classrooms cramp teachers and students
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — On April
20, Falls City School District
staff prepared more than
130 meals in a kitchen with
very limited prep space —
and no dishwasher.
That means everything is
hand washed. Each meal
tray has to be dried with a
paper towel.
“We do that every day,
once a day,” said Head Cook
Yvonne VanHorn.
VanHorn recalled years
ago she was asked a ques-
tion: “If you could have any-
thing, what would it be? I
said a dishwasher.”
Measure 27-118, a $2 mil-
lion bond to build a multi-
purpose gym and cafeteria
at Falls City Elementary
School, would grant that
wish.
The 20-year bond would
cost $1.30 per $1,000 of as-
sessed value and, if passed,
would be doubled by a state
grant, making $4 million
available for the project.
Proponents say the gym
would allow the district to
hold more sports practices
at once — and avoid having
practices run until after 9
p.m. for some teams.
More space for a cafeteria
would give kitchen staff
more elbow room, food stor-
age space, and the modern
convenience of a dishwash-
er.
Classroom space could be
Education
expanded at the elementary
school as “gym” classes
could be moved from a
basement “multipurpose
room,” that also serves as a
music room.
Currently the school has
classes with two grade levels
taught by one teacher.
School officials say with
more space, they could
break up the larger classes
into single grades.
Falls City School Board
Chairwoman Jami Kidd said
the proposed facility could
offer the district the oppor-
tunity and room to hire full-
time music and drama, and
health and physical educa-
tion teachers.
“We have really seen a dif-
ference in our kids’ ability to
be well-rounded, lifelong
learners decline without the
influence of extracurricular
activities, music and PE,”
she said. “In order to em-
power our kids to be suc-
cessful, we are bringing
health and physical educa-
tion back into the regular
curriculum.”
As planned now, the
building would be next to
the elementary school on
land the school district
owns, but is not using.
Like the school site, it has
a steep slope on what would
be in the back side of the
building.
Resident and City Coun-
cilor Tony Meier raised
questions about cost to
build an earthquake-safe fa-
cility compared to the flat
land across the street, now
occupied by a covered play
structure and playground.
Project architect Alan
Costic said the site shouldn’t
affect the cost and the facili-
ty would have to be built to
current earthquake codes.
“The cost would be rela-
tively the same whether we
built up here or over there.
The reason we are building
here is really proximity to
this building,” he said. “The
fact that these children are
going to be the ones who
will be using it.”
Costic said while plans are
still preliminary, the objec-
tive is to build a facility that
is as maintenance-free as
possible.
“We know that you are
going to be paying money
now,” Costic said. “There’s
no sense in paying money
year after year after year in
terms in of upkeep, so that
is one of the goals we have
in terms of developing
this.”
Resident Charlie Flynn
said the district is asking for
the bond at a time when the
city is facing potentially
costly upgrades to its sewer
system.
He said at a recent town
hall meeting that he’s con-
cerned about how the new
facility would affect the sys-
tem.
“We are facing a real issue
with the septic systems and
having to do a lot with that
in a short amount of time or
the state may step in,” Flynn
said. “And once they do, we
have no choices left.”
Falls City Superintendent
Jack Thompson said he be-
lieves because the building
will use water more effi-
ciently than the existing
gym, there will be no nega-
tive impact to the city’s
treatment plant.
“I actually think it is going
to reduce the amount of
flow into the system, espe-
cially when we have large
events,” Thompson said.
School board member
Larry Sickles agreed with
Flynn that timing is key, but
for another reason.
He said the state’s grant
makes the bond a unique
opportunity.
“We are one of nine
schools that got selected to
do this, because they recog-
nize the need that we have,”
Sickles said. “Doing this fa-
cility now is extremely im-
portant because of the
matching funds. If we don’t
get the matching funds, we
couldn’t do this.”
Motor voters add
4.4 percent to pool
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
POLK COUNTY — Bal-
lots will be mailed on Fri-
day. For 519 people in Polk
County, it will be their first
election as registered vot-
ers — and all they had to
do was have a current dri-
ver’s license.
The Motor Voter bill took
effect on Jan. 1 and has in-
creased the number of reg-
istered voters statewide by
34,410 in nearly four
months.
In Polk, it’s a 4.4 percent
increase in registered vot-
ers, said County Clerk Val
Unger.
“Dur i n g a n a ve ra g e
week, outside of an election
cycle, we typically receive
50 to 70 registrations,
which may be new registra-
tions to our county or ad-
dress updates,” Unger said.
“In the past three days, I
have processed over 600
online registrations.”
In addition to the motor
voters, more information
about the primary election
has been distr ibuted,
prompting political party
changes.
In Polk County, numbers
have gone up for both De-
mocrats (1,385) and Re-
publicans (747).
Motor voters must return
a card to be affiliated with a
party, or they are registered
as a non-affiliated voter
and would not be eligible
to vote in the presidential
primary.
Unger said another fac-
tor in the changes in par-
ties could be because the
Independent party opened
the primary to non-affiliat-
ed voters.
“As was done in the past,
when a major party opens
up the primary, the secre-
tary of state mails a notice
to each non-affiliated voter
informing them of their
right to request an Inde-
pendent ballot if they
choose,” Unger said. “This
time, the state also includ-
ed additional information
about the closed primary
system, informing each
voter of their options for
this election, including up-
dating to a major party.”
Drop box locations:
Ballots are due by 8 p.m. on may 17. They may be
mailed, or put in a drop box around the county:
• Polk County Courthouse, east side: 24-hours.
• Falls City Wagner Community Library, 111 n. main St.:
Tuesday-Thursday, 1 to 6:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4
p.m., Election Day, 1 to 8 p.m.
• Grand ronde, Governance Center Building G, 9615
Grand ronde road: monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Election Day, 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Independence City Hall, 555 S. main St.: 24-hour drop
site in the front lobby.
• monmouth Public Library, 168 Ecols St. S.: Tuesday-
Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat-
urday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Election Day, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Western Oregon University, Werner University Center,
345 n. monmouth Ave.: monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.,
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Election Day, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• West Salem roth’s market, 1130 Wallace road nW:
Sunday-Saturday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Election Day, 6 a.m. to
8 p.m.
Streets: City says repairs will get more
pricey; opponents say no guarantees
Continued from 1A
That the proposed bond
doesn’t address the whole
issue is another part of the
proposal opponents take
issue with.
“If you vote for the bond,
there’s no guarantee that
your street will be repaired,”
said Dallas attorney Stephen
Mannenbach, who has been
critical of the proposal.
He said the city should
have published a map of
streets that could be re-
paired with the bond. That
way people would know
what they are voting for.
Mannenbach said his
main criticism is whether
the city considered if prop-
erty owners, especially those
on fixed incomes, can afford
the additional taxes.
“They are not going to do
it based on your ability to
pay, we are just going to tax
property owners,” Mannen-
bach said. “To me, it just
shows a lack of compassion
for people on a fixed in-
come”
Others voting against the
bond say the city needs to
make a better case that ask-
ing for additional taxes is the
only option.
“I think first they need to
show that they are very fru-
gal with the money,” said
Dallas resident Terri Par-
sons. “We need new ideas.”
After looking at the city’s
budget, Parsons questions
why only $270,000 out of a
$1.1 million is going to street
repair.
She added that she would
like the city to consider pri-
o r i t i z i n g g e n e ra l f u n d
money for streets or consid-
er cuts in other places to pay
for streets.
“It seems like a very small
percentage is going to street
repairs,” she said.
Rich Rohde, who is work-
ing with the political action
committee supporting the
measure, said the plan is for-
ward-thinking and saves the
city from having to pay even
more later.
“We are coming up with a
solution that will help us
now, and hopefully, future
generations,” he said.
Christiansen added let-
ting the backlog of mainte-
nance get longer will only
hurt the city and those who
live on streets needing re-
pair.
“The roads will continue
to be in poor condition
and, not only do they con-
tinue to be in poor condi-
tion, but they keep on get-
ting worse,” he said
Christiansen adding that
cracks and potholes will
form and continue to dete-
riorate until the street basi-
cally becomes gravel.
Re-Elect
Aaron
Felton
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