Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 11, 2016 5a
WOU students spread joy to local youths Fire: More staff,
funding needed
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — Home-
lessness is difficult to define
or quantify, but in the latest
report by the Oregon De-
partment of Education, Mar-
ion and Polk counties had
1,449 students in the K-12
system who were considered
homeless.
Of those, 24 in Polk Coun-
ty were listed as “unshel-
tered.” In Marion County,
257 were living in a shelter,
or going without.
People who are homeless
are transients by nature,
coming and going where
they can find work or a roof
over their heads for a night.
Children can get lost in
the system, but, thanks to a
nonprofit group in Marion
County — there are no shel-
ters in Polk County — they
don’t go without a birthday
party, not if Simply Birth-
days can help it.
“Simply Birthdays started
last year,” said Shannen
Brouner, Western Oregon
University student in Molly
Mayhead’s event planning
class. “Every month it pro-
vides a birthday party for
every kid in that shelter.”
On Sunday, the class will
take over the party at a shel-
ter. Students have been co-
ordinating and planning the
event for months. Each
p a r t y i n c l u d e s g a m e s,
prizes, goodie bags, cake
and ice cream, and presents
for each child who has a
birthday that month.
“We just found out there
would be two kids,” said
Amanda Ditzhazy. “At the
homeless shelter, there’s a
lot of transitioning.”
The class had to raise
money and plan activities
for the children.
Students hosted bake sales
and information booths to
gather donations. They
MOLLY MAYHEAD/ for the Itemizer-Observer
Western event planning students take on two projects this term to help youths.
raised more than $1,500 —
exceeding their $900 goal.
Rather than throw one ex-
travagant birthday party for
the lucky May children, Ditz-
hazy said they will throw a
great party and give any left-
over money to Simply Birth-
days for future celebrations.
Students in Mayhead’s
class have taken on another
event to plan this term: a
summer dance party for all
the youth in Polk County,
through Nite Court.
“The Nite Court kids actu-
ally picked the theme and
gave suggestions for what
they want to see at the
dance: fog machines, strobe
lights, a disco ball, glow
sticks,” said Nicole Keidel.
The dance, which will be
on June 3 at 7 p.m. at the In-
dependence Elks Lodge, will
be open to all Polk County
students in middle and high
school. Nite Court is for stu-
dents in middle school, but
Riley Anhuluk said they
wanted to extend the out-
reach to include more kids.
The chance to plan events
that helps the community is
something Mayhead’s stu-
dents enjoy.
“We never would have
heard of Simply Birthdays or
Nite Court,” said Jenni
Bowker. “We can see the dif-
ference it makes.”
Anhuluk said Nite Court
was originally a partnership
between the Monmouth and
Independence police de-
partments to combat the
gang problem.
“It evolved into giving kids
more inspiration to get high-
er education, and help
women realize they can be
more than just a wife, they
can have a job and have
something else to be proud
of,” he said.
Keidel added that young
chaperones set a good exam-
ple for continuing education.
Chen’s Family Dish reopens
“Plus they provide super-
vised activities on Friday
nights, which is crucial to at-
risk youth,” she said.
It’s the difference these
Western students are mak-
ing in the lives of local
youths that make Mayhead’s
event planning class unique
from other offerings at
WOU.
“You don’t find classes
that can bring happiness to
people,” said David Ribich.
“I honestly don’t think of this
as a class; it’s a job.”
The class is still raising
money for the Summer Nite
Club. They have a sponsor-
ship from Mangiare and are
looking for more.
“Extravagant party re-
quires extravagant expense,”
Bowker said.
To
contribute:
gofund.me/nitecourt. Pre-
sale tickets are $5, available
at school offices; $8 at the
door. Occupancy is limited.
Continued from 1a
Parrott said the length of
“turnout time,” how long it
takes to get volunteers on a
truck, is a concern because
of what is called “flashover.”
Flashover describes when
a fire has been burning long
enough to create enough
heat and flammable gases
that the entire environment
combusts, Hertel said.
At that point, the fire is
harder to get under control
and rescuing someone
trapped in that environ-
ment may be impossible.
Flashover occurs between
six to eight minutes.
“Our goal is to try to get
water on the fire to begin
cooling that environment
before flashover occurs,”
Parrott said. “We know it
makes a difference.”
Dallas City Manager Ron
Foggin said the objective of
the report was to find out
how the agencies were per-
forming, not to make them
look bad.
“Now we know where we
stand and now we can set
goals and standards to
move forward,” Foggin
said.
Included in the report
were a number of recom-
mendations to improve
performance. The first for
the city and the Southwest
board to provide perform-
ance goals for each
agency.
He said the financial sit-
uation for Southwest is get-
ting critical fast and rec-
ommended the agency
have a comprehensive
study done.
Based on his forecasting,
the agency would be in the
red by 2020 and would
need an operating levy to
prevent cuts.
Indy PD to spend extra time on seatbelt, DUII patrols
Itemizer-Observer staff report
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The reopening
many in Dallas were waiting
for happened last week:
Chen’s Family Dish wel-
comed customers back
starting May 3.
The popular restaurant’s
new, larger location is at 165
Orchard Drive next to Safe-
way in the former Bert’s
Restaurant.
Chen’s remodeled the
building inside and out to
prepare it for the new busi-
ness.
It had been vacant since
l a t e 2 0 1 0 w h e n B e r t’s
closed.
Restaurant staff said with
more room, they can seat
people faster and provide
better service than was pos-
sible at the old location at
184 SE Washington St.
Chen’s hours are Sunday
through Thursday 11 a.m. to
9:30 p.m.; Friday and Satur-
day 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information:
503-623-7080.
“It’s time for you to have
a conversation with the
community,” he said. “Real-
ly sit down with them and
say, OK, this is our reality.
This is what is going on. If
we don’t fix this, we are
going to have to start back-
ing away from services.”
Parrott also suggested
having Dallas and Southwest
work more as one agency
from an operational stand-
point, which would elimi-
nate cost inefficiencies for
both departments.
To reduce turnout time
in Dallas, he suggested
more in-station staffing
through on-call volunteers,
a resident volunteer pro-
gram, or additional paid
firefighters.
For Southwest, he sug-
gested building another
station on Salt Creek Road.
Currently, the only paid
staff members are those on
the administrative team. In
the 2016-17 budget, the de-
partment will be able to hire
two seasonal firefighters to
assist with wildfire season.
Hertel said adding more
firefighters will be a deci-
sion for the Dallas City
Council and will require a
significant investment from
taxpayers.
“We want the citizens to
decide what they want,”
Hertel said. “If they want
better than that, then we
have to have a discussion
about how we get there.”
Foggin said the city has
no plans of changing its
proposed 2016-17 budget
to address concerns raised
in the report.
For information about
Emergency Medical Servic-
es (EMS) performance and
recommendations, see the
May 18 edition of the I-O.
INDEPENDENCE — The Independence Po-
lice Department, along with other regional law
enforcement agencies, will participate in extra
DUII and seatbelt saturation patrols during the
month of May, with special focus on the Memo-
rial Day weekend.
The DUII High Visibility Enforcement period
will begin on May 27 and run thru May 30.
The seatbelt blitz period will begin on Mon-
day and run thru May 29.
During the seatbelt blitz, special attention
will be given to proper seatbelt usage and mi-
nors riding in open pickup beds.
The ultimate goal of the Independence Po-
lice Department in conducting these types of
operations, is to educate our citizens and to
promote a safer driving experience for every-
one to enjoy, said Officer David Oliveros.
These operations are made possible through
funding that is administered by Oregonim-
pact.org, an agency dedicated to providing ed-
ucational experiences that will end impaired
and distracted driving.
The Dallas Street Bond:
Yes or No?
A “Yes” vote will repair 22 miles of
streets and create a much more attractive
and inviting community for industry and
commerce (jobs!).
A “Yes” vote will save Dallas property
tax payers BIG dollars in the long run.
Neglected streets will eventually need total
reconstruction at a staggering cost.
A “No” vote passes on a massive, unpaid
bill to the next generation.
TAX REALITY — Dallas has low
taxes and if this bond measure passes
it will still have low taxes.
Annual taxes on a $200,000 home in:
Dallas = $3,222 (with the bond)
Monmouth = $3,590
West Salem = $3,668
Independence = $3,932
A vote for Dallas streets is a vote for our future.
Vote “YES” with the confidence that you are
doing the right thing for this generation and the next.