Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 4, 2016 3A
Minet better,
but not good
DEADLINES
NEWS DEADLINES
For inclusion in the
Wednesday edition of the
Itemizer-Observer:
Social news (weddings,
engagements, anniver-
saries, births, milestones) —
5 p.m. on Thursday.
Community events —
Noon on Friday for both the
Community Notebook and
Community Calendar.
Letters to the editor —
10 a.m. on Monday.
Obituaries — 4 p.m. on
Monday.
ADVERTISING DEADLINES
Retail display ads — 3
p.m. Friday.
Classified display ads
— 11 a.m. on Monday.
Classified line ads —
Noon on Monday. Classified
ads are updated daily on
www.polkio.com.
Public notices — Noon
on Friday.
CORRECTIONS
The Polk County Itemizer-
Observer is committed to pub-
lishing accurate news, feature
and sports reports. If you see
anything that requires a cor-
rection or clarification, call the
newsroom at 503-623-2373 or
send an email to
ementzer@polkio.com.
WEBSITE
The Polk County Itemizer-
Observer website,
www.polkio.com, is updat-
ed each week by Wednes-
day afternoon. There, you
will find nearly every story
that appears in the print
version of the newspaper,
as well as some items, in-
cluding additional photos,
that do not appear in print
due to space limitations.
The Itemizer-Observer is
also on Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram. Watch for
breaking news, links to sto-
ries, sports scores updates
and more.
WEATHER
RECORDED
HIGH LOW
April 26............ 60
April 27............ 61
April 28............ 64
April 29............ 59
April 30............ 67
May 1................. 83
May 2................. 86
35
47
45
46
39
47
50
RAIN
.01
.05
.00
.03
.00
.00
.00
Rainfall during April — 2.04 in.
Rain through May 2 — 19.13 in.
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
CHRIS COLE/ for the Itemizer-Observer
The Spring Dance Concert returns to Western Oregon starting on Thursday.
Moto-warriors to take stage
40th annual Spring Dance Concert to open Thursday
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — The lan-
guage of dance is not set in
stone, especially when it
comes to modern dance.
A group of male dancers
will take the stage Thursday
during the 40th annual
Spring Dance Concert at
Western Oregon Universi-
ty — on hover boards.
“They’ll be running
around doing things on
(hover boards), moving in
different ways,” said Darryl
Thomas, dance department
faculty. “We’ve experiment-
ed a lot of ways to find vo-
cabulary, meaning things
they can do on the boards
that we can then set and
teach other people how to
do that movement.”
Dance vocabulary is simi-
lar to words, but in modern
dance, choreographers are
able to make up new words,
Thomas said.
“You can experiment in
modern dance with things
like hover boards,” Thomas
said. “Whereas with tradi-
tional dance, like ballet,
there’s a set vocabulary al-
ready. There’s moves that
you do that everybody
knows the name.”
Like with spoken words,
dance moves can mean dif-
ferent things depending on
Check it out:
What: Western Oregon
University’s dance depart-
ment’s 40th annual Spring
Dance Concert.
When: Thursday, Friday
and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Rice Auditorium.
Admission: General, $12;
seniors, $10; students, $7.
For more information:
wou.edu.
context, he said.
“It’s really more poetic,”
Thomas said. “With modern
dance, we’re always trying to
balance how to create an
image, how to tell a story,
how to give meaning to
movement and how to cre-
ate something that connects
with people.”
Choreographers use the
title of their dance to help
clue people in, he said.
The hover boards are just
one performance in the con-
cert. The evening also will
feature a ballet number, hula
and more forms of modern
dance, Thomas said.
The dancers themselves
come from a variety of back-
grounds, from those who
have been out of the dance
world for years to those who
live and breathe dance daily.
Maia Jones is a non-tradi-
tional student at WOU who
is taking classes to continue
her education. This year, she
got a part in the concert. It
has been a long time since
Jones has performed on
stage, though she does come
from a dance background.
“It’s challenging to get
back into (dance),” she said.
Jones was selected to per-
form in Kristie Martinez’s
piece, and said it’s been fun
working with her.
“We mesh well,” Jones
said. “She’s been really pro-
fessional in rehearsals. That’s
what I’ve really appreciated
about this experience, is this
dance department takes their
performances very seriously.”
The concert includes stu-
dent and faculty choreogra-
phers, and guest choreogra-
pher Mark Santillano.
May 5 - Sept. 29
General Vendors
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Food Vendors
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Featuring Growers, Producers & Artisans of the Polk County area & beyond!
Live music each week 11 am to 1 pm
Cash & Company 1st & 3rd weeks
Truman Price 2nd & 4th weeks
Confirmed opening day vendors: Akha Farm (6th season);
Bermudez Family Farm (7th Season); Black Rock BBQ (New vendor);
City of Dallas – Dallas Fire & EMS (2nd season);
Critelli Sweets (New vendor); Cryptic Cuisine (New vendor);
Edie’s Designs (3rd season); El Pique (6th season);
Geovalue Organics (New vendor);
Hound Boy Bakery LLC. (New vendor);
Howling Wolves Farm (New vendor); Massage by Ty (New vendor);
Mrs. Sew & Sew (New vendor); Rosie’s Scottish Goodies (7th season);
Sisters Treasures ReImagined (New vendor);
The Soap Store (3rd season);
Xiong Garden - Fresh cut flowers (New vendor)
You are cordially invited to the
Dudley’s
Polk County Historical Society’s
May Tea
on Saturday, May 21st, 2016,
at 1:30 p.m.
Hearing Aid Service
We hope you will be able to join us.
Admission: $7.50 each
pchsoregon@gmail.com
polkcountyhistoricalsociety.org
503-623-6251
Seeking: Vendors, Non-Profit Organizations and Sponsors
182 Academy St., Dallas (Corner of Main & Academy)
http://www.exploredallasoregon.org/bounty-market.html
503-623-2564
541-741-2936
Hearing Aids
Testing • Sales • Service
Come see Curtis every
Tuesday 10am - Noon
at Dallas Senior Center,
955 SE Jefferson St.
In Home Service: Call for details.
Birthstone for
May
V alued by
many cultures
throughout history, emeralds
have are associated with love,
fidelity, wisdom, harmony,
peace and abundance.
this month
503-623-3117
837 Main St. • Dallas
Mon-Fri 9-5:30
Sat 9-4
INDEPENDENCE —
Monmouth Independence
Networks (Minet) has made
strides when it comes to
taking care of its expenses
and debt, but still has work
to do, according to Doug
Dawson, president of CCG
Consulting out of Florida.
Dawson evaluated the
company two years ago,
and was asked to look again
to see how Minet could im-
prove its bottom line.
“Most of the items I rec-
ommended in (the old) re-
port has been done,” Daw-
son said at Thursday’s
Minet board meeting.
“From what I can tell, the
company is operationally
sound right now, but you
still have a loss.”
In the last year, the cities
of Monmouth and Inde-
pendence have been asked
to cover debt payments on
behalf of Minet to the tune
of roughly $800,000. Both
cities have written off the
debt, which was taken out
by the cities jointly to get the
cable, data and telephone
company off the ground.
Dawson said many of the
reasons Minet struggles are
out of its control, such as
climbing programming
costs from networks —
some of which have gone
up 360 percent in the last
year — and changing regu-
lations regarding access
charges, which the Federal
Communications Commis-
sion will phase out entirely.
To focus on what Minet
can do, Dawson said the
board will need to re-evalu-
ate its policies surrounding
discounts, the way the com-
pany charges for data and
increase rates to keep up
with programming costs.
D i s c o u n t s g i v e n by
Minet to customers have
doubled since Dawson did
his first report, he said.
Dawson said the board
could adopt a policy of zero
discounts, noting it would
likely cost the company some
customers, but said it would
probably make the company
better off in the long run.
Another thing Minet
could do is increase the
data charges for those who
only subscribe to the inter-
net and to businesses.
He said if costs were in-
creased to those customers
who receive just one serv-
ice — as well as to busi-
nesses who subscribe to
data — the company could
gain roughly $250,000 a
year in revenue.
While making all the
suggested changes would
not get Minet in a position
to pay all of its debt each
year — something that is
roughly $1 million — it may
get them down to under
$500,000, Dawson said.
“There’s still one dark
cloud on the horizon,”
Dawson said. “You’re still
looking at the fact that your
equipment is massively ob-
solete. It could crap out on
you and you wouldn’t be
able to replace it, and you’d
go dark.”
That means at some
point, Minet will have to
look into replacing 10-year
old technology, he said.
Facebook.com/bountymarket
Re-Elect
Aaron
Felton
____________ for ____________
Polk County District Attorney
✓ Tough ✓ Tested ✓ Trusted
• Effective crime prevention programs
• Holding offenders accountable
• Supporting law enforcement