Polk County News
6A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 5, 2016
OBITUARIES
Geraldine Bernice Peel
Shirley Mae Klassen
July 3, 2016
Shirley Mae Klassen, 89, of Retsil, Wash-
ington, passed away peacefully on Sun-
day, July 3, 2016, with close family by her
side.
Shirley was born in Buffalo, Wyoming,
to Miles and Sybil Turner. She was the eld-
est of three children. Her family moved to
Grandview, Washington, when she was in
grade school. After high school, she mar-
ried Donald Klassen. They had three children and eventually
settled in Salem, Oregon. Shirley moved to Independence,
Oregon, in 1960, with her children and parents and attended
The Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon Uni-
versity) where she received her master’s in education, with a
minor in special education. She taught elementary school in
Monmouth for several years. In 1965, they moved to Enum-
claw, Washington, where she taught special education. She
and her two sons then moved to Guam in 1970 and she
taught elementary school there for five years. While living in
Guam, she continued to travel extensively throughout Asia.
After a quick stint working in Alaska, Shirley came back to
Monmouth, put all her belongings in storage, and with only
the name and address of a company that was hiring, booked
a flight to Iran. She arrived in 1976 and was promptly hired
by Bell Helicopter. Her time in Iran was, as she would often
describe, very exciting. She witnessed (and directly experi-
enced) the Iranian revolution and fall of the Shah. She stayed
on to help evacuate over 4,200 civilian Americans from Iran,
a period that proved harrowing on more than a few occa-
sions. In fact, her departure in 1979 was on the final plane to
leave the country before the Iranians took 52 American
hostages. She evacuated to Germany and met up Bonnie
Agahi, a former roommate from her time in Iran who had
evacuated earlier. Unfazed by closely witnessing a dramatic
and at times violent revolution, they then traveled to Spain,
Morocco, and Tunisia. After a short stopover in Monmouth,
she moved to Germany and spent two years working for the
Department of Defense. After Germany, she once again set-
tled back in Monmouth and worked for Yamhill County Drug
and Alcohol until her retirement. Her love of traveling didn’t
diminish in her later years, and she visited England, Ireland,
Scotland, Wales, Egypt, Bali, and China. But even though she
had a passion for traveling, Grandma Shirley’s greatest joy
was when her grandchildren and great-grandchildren came
to visit her. In 2007, she met Robert Langager and they were
married in March of 2008 , at age 81. As Shirley’s dementia
worsened, in 2009, they moved to the Washington State Vet-
eran’s Home in Retsil Washington, and remained happy com-
panions until Bob passed away in 2011. Shirley continued to
be well cared for until her death. Shirley was preceded in
death by her son, Scott Klassen (2005) and her brother, Ted
Turner, just eight days prior to her own passing. Shirley is sur-
vived by her daughter, Christy (David) Riddell, Monmouth,
Oregon; her son Bruce (Suzy) Klassen, West Linn, Oregon; her
sister, Marylou Graff, Seattle, Washington; her sister-in-law
Patricia Turner, Bremerton, Washington; her eight grandchil-
dren Laurice Riddell, Independence, Oregon; Anissa Branch,
Monmouth, Oregon; Carly Ruhnke, Highland, Kansas; Jessy
Pfarrkircher, Berlin, Germany; T.J. Klassen, Sarah Al-Karzoun,
Michaele Barrera and J.J. Klassen, Seattle, Washington; her
11 great-grandchildren Dylan, Rhiana, Nyah Branch, Mon-
mouth, Oregon; Metta Beshay, Independence, Oregon; Rex
and Zeke Ruhnke, Highland Kansas; Noah and Elise Pfar-
rkircher, Berlin Germany; Christopher and Nicholas Barrera
and Noah Al-Karzoun, Seattle, Washington; her “adopted”
granddaughters Hilary Olsen, Lake Oswego, Oregon; Tamara
Shannon, Oakland, California; her “adopted” great-grand-
daughters Audrey and Candice Olsen, Lake Oswego, Oregon;
Eva Shannon, Oakland, California; and numerous nieces and
nephews. The family is very grateful to the Washington State
Veteran’s Home for the excellent care she received. The staff
were all very compassionate and treated our Mother/Grand-
mother with great dignity. A celebration of Shirley’s life was
held on September 16, 2016, at Farnstrom Mortuary, 410
Monmouth St, Independence, Oregon, 97351. In lieu of flow-
ers, a donation may be made to your favorite charity.
May 23, 1939 – Sept. 29, 2016
GERALDINE BERNICE PEEL, 77, passed away Thursday,
September 29th in Dallas, Oregon. She was born on May
23, 1939 in Kirkland, Ohio the daughter of Edward and
Bernice Simmons Dremann. Geri graduated from Grant
Valley High School in Orwell, Ohio in
1957. She married Carl Peel in Orwell,
Ohio on June 29, 1957. She spent some
time in California while her husband
Carl went to seminary school. Geri was a
loving mother of 5 children. She moved
with Carl to Oregon for work. Geri and
Carl were missionaries in Ivory Coast,
Africa from 1981 to 1983. Geri worked
alongside her husband Carl as a book-
keeper for their carpet business for many years in Salem,
Oregon. She really enjoyed knitting, sewing, gardening and
most of all spending time with family.
She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Carl Peel.
She is also survived by her brother, Mark Dremann, her
children, John Peel, Tim Peel, Andy Peel, Becky Kutz, and
Suzie Kolka, as well as 19 grandchildren and 8 great grand-
children.
Private services for family will be held. To leave a mes-
sage or a memory for the family go to
www.dallastribute.com. The Dallas Mortuary Tribute Cen-
ter is caring for the family.
Ronda Hipp
Aug. 20, 1956 – Sept. 27, 2016
Services are pending. Dallas Mortuary Tribute Center is
caring for the family.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Free lessons for future guitarists
DALLAS — A free guitar clinic will be offered from 10 a.m. to
noon on Saturday at Dallas Church, 450 SE Washington St., in
Dallas.
The clinic is for those aged 10 and older. Participants must
bring their own guitar. Donations are accepted.
For more information: 503-559-2600.
Dallas Chamber to host debates
DALLAS — The Dallas Area Chamber of Commerce’ Public
Policy Committee is holding three election forums this month
and is looking for people to submit question for candidates to
answer.
Candidate questions are due to the chamber by Monday.
They can be submitted
All three forums will be held at the Dallas Civic Center, 945 SE
Jefferson St. The two evening forums are free while the lunch-
eon event (Oct. 17) is $12 and requires an RSVP by Oct. 14.
The first forum is Oct. 13 from 7 to 8: 30 p.m. and invited can-
didates are Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton and his challenger
Todd Whitlow; Oregon House District 23 candidates Rep. Mike
Nearman and challenger Jim Thompson; U.S. Congressional Dis-
trict 5: Rep. Kurt Schrader and challenger Colm Willis; and Sen-
ate District 12 Sen. Brian Boquist and challenger Ross Swartzen-
druber.
On Oct. 17 the second forum during the chamber’s luncheon
is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Topics will include Measure 97 –
Business Tax Increase and Measure 98 – Career Tech 1.
The last forum is Oct. 20 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and invited are
Dallas City Council candidate LaVonne Wilson, Kelly Gabliks, Ken
Woods Jr., Paul Trahan, Marsha Heeter, Jennie Rummell, and
Terry Crawford.
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ADVERTISING THAT WORKS.
Dallas set to
increase water,
sewer rates
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The city of Dal-
las’ Utility Rate Committee
has made a recommendation
to increase water and sewer
rates each year until 2019.
Joe Koubek, chairman of
the committee, presented
the results of its review of
current rates and how they
compare with operating
costs and necessary im-
provements of the systems
at the Dallas City Council’s
Sept. 19 meeting.
The committee is recom-
mending increasing water
rates by 4.31 percent and
sewer by 2.75 percent each
year until 2019, when the
rates will be reviewed again,
Koubek said.
That would have the aver-
age monthly water bill for
residential customers go
from the current $29.98 to
$33.55 in 2019.
Average residential sewer
bills would increase from
$41.67 now to $45.60 in
2019.
The rates were last adjust-
ed following a 2012 study
that recommended the city
adopt the Portland-area
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
as a method of figuring an
Pool: No easy fix to
center’s money woes
Continued from Page 1A
Locke didn’t see adding
workout equipment as feasi-
ble unless the facility was ex-
panded.
“This facility was not de-
signed for that and the addi-
tion of that type of equip-
ment,” he said. “It would
have to go somewhere, and
in order for it to go some-
where right now, without
expanding the facility, you
have to take up some of the
existing rentable space that
we rent fairly often.”
He didn’t think a contract
with an outside agency
would save money, either,
based on his research.
“It’s simply not cost effec-
tive without some sort of
subsidy,” he said. “We are
probably going to pay more
to do that, and we are not
going to have as much con-
trol in the operations.”
On the expenditure side,
Locke didn’t find much room
for savings given the increas-
ing employee and mainte-
nance costs.
Visits to the facility have
increased in recent years,
meaning even more employ-
ees are required for the pool
to operate safely.
“Those costs are going to
keep increasing as the mini-
mum wage increases and as
we have to staff the facility in
order to accommodate all
the different user groups and
activities and lessons,” Locke
said. “It’s great to be busier,
but the flipside of that is you
have increased pressure in
your personnel costs.”
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Your community newspaper.
He added a loan used to
pay for energy efficiency up-
grades will be paid off next
year, reducing costs by
$50,000.
Locke did find a way to in-
crease revenue by increasing
admission costs and annual
memberships by 10 to 20
percent, which could net the
facility $40,000.
Options that would elim-
inate the subsidy, such as
an operating levy or form-
ing a recreation district,
need more research before
the city committee could
accept or reject them in a
recommendation to the
Dallas City Council, said
committee chairwoman
Kelly Gabliks.
A rec rea ti o n di st r i ct
wo ul d req ui re vo te r a p-
p rova l an d wo uld cre-
ate a permanent tax
rat e. A vo ter-a pp roved
operating levy would
provide temporary
p ro p er ty ta x reven ue to
th e f a ci l it y.
“Anything that we take
to council, I want to make
sure that we can explain
why we think this is the
best way to go,” Gabliks
said. “I would ultimately
like to be able to provide
the council a list of every-
thing that we considered
and why we ultimately re-
jected (some options).”
The committee asked
Locke to do more research
on a levy and district, and
bring a report back at a fu-
ture meeting.
Obituary
Information
S OME D ECISIONS H AVE A V ERY P ROFOUND E FFECT .
M AKE O NE T HAT B ENEFITS Y OUR E NTIRE F AMILY .
annual increase to rates to
keep up with costs.
Koubek said the 2012
study made assumptions
about growth in the commu-
nity and increase in costs to
provide water and sewer
services that were off target.
Furthermore, the Portland-
area CPI, which calculates
the increase in cost for
goods and services, showed
slower growth in costs.
City Manager Ron Foggin
said the study estimated an
average CPI increase of 3.1
percent. That didn’t happen,
with the actual growth at 1.9
percent.
“The CPI was actually
going down because energy
costs were going down,”
Foggin said. “That didn’t
necessarily change the cost
of construction over that
same amount of time.”
Koubek added the com-
mittee recommends remov-
ing the CPI because it wasn’t
working.
“The operations costs
don’t track well with that
index we talked about,”
Koubek said. “That’s why we
were asked to revisit water
and sewer rates.”
The council made no de-
cision about the recommen-
dation at the meeting.
Privately owned
cremation facility.
Locally owned and operated
by Oregon families.
www.ANewTradition.com
The Itemizer-Observer has
changed its Obituary policy.
Obituaries now cost $8 per col-
umn inch (25 words). Death
notices are run free of charge.
Obituary information must
be submitted by 4 p.m. on the
Monday before publication to
be included in the newspaper.
Most funeral homes handle
obituary information and pro-
vide it to the newspaper. How-
ever, information can also be
submitted directly from family
members.
Color and black-and-white
photos can be submitted, but
photos will only be published
in black and white. The Itemiz-
er-Observer uses a flag logo in
the obituaries of people who
served in the armed forces.
Information can be brought
or mailed to the Itemizer-Ob-
server, 147 SE Court St., Dallas,
OR 97338, or emailed to
ionews@polkio.com.
For more information: Emily
Mentzer, 503-623-2373, ext.
117.