Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 18, 2016 3A
Indy leaders host
last-minute Q&A
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.
WEATHER
RECORDED
HIGH LOW
May 10.............. 80
May 11.............. 86
May 12.............. 83
May 13.............. 82
May 14.............. 57
May 15.............. 62
May 16.............. 61
42
45
47
47
53
53
51
RAIN
.00
.00
.00
.T
.45
.05
.06
Rainfall during May — 0.61 in.
Rain through May 16 — 19.74 in.
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Scott Herbert, Rich Miller, TJ Geise and Brock Wallace share a light moment while at work.
FCR on the way to top
Independence call center employs 240 and still hiring
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE —
Potlucks, pirates, races
around cones — at FCR, a
call center in Independence,
it’s just another day at the of-
fice.
“We try to be fun,” said
Rich Miller, site director. “We
try to be irreverent. We try to
be quirky.”
The atmosphere at the
company is upbeat, with
people coming and going,
laughing and talking togeth-
er. The environment is one
reason FCR has been voted
Best Place to Work by the
Oregonian for four years.
The company has been in
Independence for about
nine months. In that time,
it’s hired 240 people, Miller
said, and is still looking for
colleagues to join the staff.
FCR is a call center that
serves other companies, and
differs from other call cen-
ters Miller’s worked at.
“You have a lot of interac-
tion with a client on a daily
basis,” he said. “We don’t like
to be the ‘outsourcer,’ we’re
just a second outcropping of
their own internal business.”
When businesses grow, so
do their customer service
needs, Miller said, and that
creates more jobs at FCR.
“If we’re doing it right, the
customer service is also be-
coming more successful,
then the numbers of oppor-
tunities for customer sup-
port expand,” Miller said.
He has worked for FCR for
about a year, and for three
months as the site director
for the Independence loca-
tion. One thing he likes
about the company is its
unique vibe.
“I went from handling one
thing to handling different
programs,” Miller said. “In a
way, it’s their own business
within a business, so that va-
riety is very interesting to
me.”
Also, FCR is active in the
communities they are based
in, from March of Dimes to
blood drives to cleaning up
parks.
“A lot of our colleagues
know of charities going on, a
place that supports pets, or
we’ll get involved and see
what we can do,” Miller said.
He said he has enjoyed
working in the Independ-
ence and Monmouth com-
munities.
“Independence and Mon-
mouth have been super wel-
coming,” Miller said. “What’s
unique about this is how
well Independence and
Monmouth work together.
When we go to chamber
events, you see the mayors
working together to better
both communities at the
same time. It’s exciting to see
the downtowns revitalized
and grow here.”
FCR will have a booth at
the Discover MI Town event,
which is on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the company
continues to accept applica-
tions — and even will inter-
view walk-ins, Miller said.
For more information:
gofcr.com. For more on Dis-
cover MI Town: www.micc-
or.org.
INDEPENDENCE — A
discussion on Facebook led
Independence city leaders
to hold an impromptu
community meeting about
the city’s water and sewer
rates.
About 25 people packed
into a room to hear about
the water system and how
rates are set.
According to a survey of
cities, Independence’s rates
are in the middle. Com-
pared to neighboring Dal-
las and Monmouth, rates
are high.
City Manager David
Clyne said those rates differ
depending on the needs
and resources available to
each community, including
how water is available, or
whether it’s gravity fed or
pumped from a well.
Citizens were upset that
they have to pay a water
bill, even if the property is
empty. Some spent winters
in warmer climates, such
as Arizona, and are billed
for water in spite of not
using the service.
Public Works Supervisor
Ken Perkins said some
costs are constant and
must be spread out be-
tween all users of the sys-
tem. One such cost is daily
testing for bacteria, chlo-
rine and fluoride.
Other citizens were
angry that roughly 10 per-
cent of their water bill went
to pay the debt incurred by
building Monmouth Inde-
pendence Networks. A
woman asked why water
rates paid for cable, phone
and data — nothing to do
with water.
Clyne said the water
fund was put up for collat-
eral for state bonds in 2004
by city leaders to build the
system.
The city prides itself on
transparency, and all of this
information is online,
Clyne said.
One lady said the city
was not transparent at all,
and should include more
information in a line-item
format on the bill about
how money collected for
sewer and water is spent.
Clyne said the water
rates would continue to go
up, but he hoped at a slow,
steady pace. He said one of
the problems was during a
time when the council did
not increase rates at all,
creating a need for big
jumps to get caught up.
To read the full coverage,
see the Itemizer-Observer
online: polkio.com.
West Valley Housing Authority will hold
their Work Session Meeting on Wednes-
day, May 25, 2016 beginning at 11:30 a.m.
at 204 SW Walnut in Dallas, Oregon. The
Regular Meeting will be held on Wednes-
day, May 25, 2016 at 1:00 p.m. at 204 SW
Walnut in Dallas, Oregon. An Executive
Session pursuant to ORS 192.660 will be
held immediately following the Regular
Meeting, if required.
Agenda for the meeting is posted on the
Housing Authority website at www.wvpha.org.
The location for the meeting is handicapped
accessible. Please advise the West Valley
Housing Authority if you need any special ac-
commodations to attend the meeting. For in-
formation, please call 503-623-8387, TDD
1-800-735-2900.