RENAISSANCE FAIRE
BRING ON THE PAIN
SHREWSBURY
TREVOR
CROSS
Page 7A
Page 10A
Volume 141, Issue 37
www.Polkio.com
September 14, 2016
$1.00
Dallas Senior Center plans underway
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The city of
Dallas hopes to put the new
Dallas Senior Center project
out to bid this fall, if the
schedule goes to plan.
So far, that hasn’t been the
case.
In December, it will be
two years since Oregon’s In-
frastructure Finance Author-
ity approved a $1.9 million
Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) to build
a new senior center on the
vacant lot next to the old
Carnegie Library on Church
Street in Dallas. The city
signed a contract with the
state in January 2015 to use
the funding.
The delay in the project
has been concerning for
some users of the current
senior center located adja-
cent to the Dallas Public Li-
brary, as illustrated by recent
letters to the editor pub-
lished in the Itemizer-Ob-
server, but Dallas City Man-
ager Ron Foggin said the
timeline to this point has
been mostly out of the city’s
hands.
An environmental review
that began in June 2015 — a
federal requirement when
using CDBG funding — will
have taken nearly a year and
half by the time its signed off
by the state, according to
Foggin.
“There is nothing the city
could have done to speed
this process up, and we are
certainly not working to
slow or stop the construc-
tion of the center,” Foggin
said.
Foggin said the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration finished its
review on Aug. 15, and the
city is due to receive public
comments from that review
on Friday.
That will not allow for the
city to begin the project in
September, as was the plan
previously.
The city still has to submit
public comments to the
state, which should happen
in early October. If they are
accepted, the project should
go out to bid in November,
Foggin said.
“We were hopeful that the
project would start in Sep-
tember, but the federal re-
quirements will not be
wrapped up in time,” he
said.
Central
Language Arts
Math
2014-15
59 percent
18 percent
68 percent
22 percent
Dallas
Language arts
Math
77 percent
45 percent
72 percent
31 percent
Falls City
Language Arts
Math
50 percent
30 percent
65 percent
25 percent
DALLAS
Blue Garden post-
poned.
»Page 3A
FALLS CITY
Falls City survey
shows true poverty
level.
Polk County 11th grade state test scores
2015-16
IN
YOUR
TOWN
»Page 5A
Making
the
grade?
INDEPENDENCE
Central’s volleyball
team earns a five-set
win over South Albany.
»Page 10A
MONMOUTH
A presentation on In-
formation Overload will
be held at the library on
Thursday.
»Page 3A
SPORTS
Dallas senior Tanner
Earhart rushes for more
than 400 yards and
seven touchdowns.
Perrydale
Language Arts
Math
71 percent
38.5 percent
54 percent
13 percent
State Average
Language Arts
Math
68.5 percent
33 percent
67 percent
30.5 percent
»Page 11A
ELECTIONS
Morett, Evans vie for
House District 20 seat.
»Page 2A
All percentages are of scores at level 3 or level 4, considered college-
and career- ready.
Source: Oregon Department of Education
Smarter Balanced scores show improvement in Dallas, Perrydale
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
POLK COUNTY —
Scores from last year’s sec-
ond round of Smarter Bal-
anced tests in Polk County
s c h o o l s s a w i m p r ov e -
ment — and some fall
off — compared to the first
year.
School officials note that
the test is still new and
changing, making analysis
of the data difficult.
“I’m not shocked that
(the scores) are going up
and down, and I expect
that for the next couple of
years,” said Central Su-
perintendent Buzz
Brazeau.
Still, he said the data is
important, and the district
is sharing it with it teachers
with an eye toward im-
provement.
“I think it’s important to
t a k e t h i s s e r i o u s l y, ”
Brazeau said.
Test scores fell into four
categories, with level 4
being the highest and level
1 the lowest. Students
earning levels 3 and 4 on
the test are considered
“college and career ready”
for their grade level.
See TESTS, Page 5A
Celebrate present, past at Hop fest
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — If
you like what is happening
in Oregon’s craft beer indus-
try now, you might want to
thank a homebrewer.
Brewing beer at home was
illegal in this state until
1978, long after Prohibition
was lifted, said Gail Oberst,
who is helping organize a
contest during the Hop &
Heritage Festival that recog-
nizes the work of local brew-
ers, the Homebrew Compe-
tition.
She believes it’s not a co-
incidence that the craft beer
industry in Oregon was born
shortly after the law
changed to allow people to
brew beer at home.
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
“Homebrewers are the
source of educated drinkers
and brewers in training,” she
said. “Nearly every brewer
you will meet in this state
began as a homebrewer.
And homebrewers loudly,
and sometimes annoyingly,
spread the gospel of good
beer.”
The Hop & Heritage Festi-
val will be in that business,
too, when it kicks off this
weekend.
Friday is the unofficial
opening to the celebration
of Independence’s hop-filled
history with two “supernat-
ural” events: the annual
Ghost Walk and new Zombie
Shuffle.
Equal parts history tour
and ghost hunt, the Ghost
Walk has “ghost hosts,” who
wed
Find hope in the
midst of losses,
being well when ill
and spiritual prac-
tices in a weekly se-
ries, Positive Aging.
10 a.m. Free.
Sunny
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Lo: 46
Inside ...
Hop & Heritage Festival special sec-
tion, with features and full schedule.
See Section C
tell tour takers stories of oth-
erworldly happenings in In-
dependence.
Not scary enough?
This year is the debut of
the Zombie Shuffle at 8:45
p.m., where people can
dress up like zombies — or
ghosts if you like — and
compete for prizes.
On Saturday, Hop & Her-
itage get serious about hop
history and the well-loved
beverage made from it:
beer.
thu
Veterans and their
families are wel-
come to Veterans
Night at the Elks,
with dinner and
conversation.
6:30 p.m. Free.
Sunny
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Festival goers can begin
the day at Independence
Airport at 7 a.m. to watch
the colorful hot air balloons
lift off, then file into the Ex-
perimental Aircraft Associa-
tion Chapter 292’s hanger
and have a delicious break-
fast of old-fashioned flap-
jacks, sausage and eggs.
Hop & Heritage officially
opens at 11 a.m. in Inde-
pendence Riverview Park.
Contests, including the
Homebrew Competition
and Cooking with Beer high-
light the activities, but
there’s plenty more going
on.
Classic, and messy, com-
petitions such as pie eating
and scarecrow building
provide entertaining old-
fashioned festival experi-
ences.
And you can’t have a fes-
tival named Hop & Her-
itage without beer. If you’re
looking for a good North-
west brew, head to the
Hopyard Tent, featuring
beers from Gilgamesh,
Santiam Brewing Company
and Mazama.
Live music kicks off at 11
a.m. with four acts taking
the stage before the festival
comes to a close with a fire-
works display at 8:30 p.m.
Aquatic Center
closed for
maintenance
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS — The Dallas
Aquatic Center is closed
this week for mainte-
nance.
The facility will be
closed through Friday for
annual maintenance that
will include the resurfac-
ing of the therapy pool.
Regular hours will re-
sume on Saturday.
For more information:
http://www.ci.dallas.or.us/
83/Dallas-Aquatic-Center.
Consortium to
serve county
Itemizer-Observer staff report
POLK COUNTY — The
Community Services Con-
sortium will serve Polk
County at the Henry Hill Ed-
ucation Support Center, 750
S. Fifth St., Independence.
The CSC will provide
youth workforce develop-
ment services, as well as
help attaining a general
education development
(GED) acquisition, aca-
demic improvement, work
readiness skills, paid work
experience and job specif-
ic skill development – all
services previously provid-
ed through HALO.
For more information:
Mona K-Hinds, 541-704-
7820.
fri
sat
sun
mon
tue
Come early for tick-
ets to the annual
Ghost Walk in
downtown Inde-
pendence, the start
of Hop & Heritage.
5 p.m. Free.
Explore the late-sea-
son bounty at Inde-
pendence’s two
farmers markets in
downtown, through
October.
4:30 p.m. Free.
Learn about the
hobby of remote
control airplanes at
Dallas Wingdingers
RC Flying Club, at
Whitworth.
1-3 p.m. Free.
Network with other
business people and
listen to a featured
speaker at the Dallas
Chamber luncheon
at the civic center.
Dig into your pock-
ets and coin
purse — you never
know what you
may find at the Polk
County Coin Club.
7 p.m. Free.
Sunny
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Lo: 51
Partly cloudy
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Lo: 51
Partly cloudy
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Lo: 52
Partly cloudy
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Lo: 48
11:30 a.m. $12-$15.
Sunny
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Lo: 49