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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2016)
Polk County News 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 Oct. 25............... 65 Oct. 26............... 65 Oct. 27............... 58 Oct. 28............... 66 Oct. 29............... 65 Oct. 30............... 56 Oct. 31............... 61 51 53 49 46 46 45 51 RAIN Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 2, 2016 3A Minet seeks to improve Ungricht seeks Company needs upgrades to system as it seeks to expand code solutions By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer INDEPENDENCE — Monmouth Independence Networks has seen increased demand on its bandwidth with the frequent use of more devices and streaming of data, said PJ Armstrong, Minet’s technology manager, at the Minet board of direc- tors meeting on Thursday. “Last calendar year, we were probably hitting six gigabits of traffic, some- thing like that,” Armstrong said. “What we’ve found, as students have returned and we’ve bumped those data rates, we’re hitting our six- gig cap, so what we’ve found is a possible issue with our core router. We’ve been working with LS Net- works, our upstream provider.” The issue isn’t in the serv- ice itself, said executive di- rector Don Patten, but rather with equipment. “We purchase the ability to provide up to 10 gigs,” he said. “We’re pulling all of six gigs, but we can’t seem to pull anymore, even though we have the ability to pull the full 10. We have some limitation that had not been previously identified in our systems. Now that we’re aware of it, we’re trying to correct it.” Bo a rd m e m b e r Mi k e Lodge asked if Minet cus- tomers were receiving throt- tled service — meaning that the more people are online, the slower the internet serv- ice is. “Essentially, we are throt- tling ourselves,” Patten said. “We’re not intending to do that. It’s our equipment.” The issue impacts both speed and capacity, Arm- strong said, and upgrades to routers should improve the situation. The passive optical net- work also needs upgrading, Armstrong said. “We have engaged an out- side consultant to guide us in the process of an up- grade,” he said. “We’re hav- ing discussions with multi- ple vendors. It’s expensive, but we have discovered it may be 20 to 30 percent less cost than we thought it would be.” Patten said as Minet looks to expand services to cus- tomers outside the bound- aries of Monmouth and In- dependence, the company needs to look at upgrading through used equipment. The talk of expanding Minet’s boundaries came up again during a review of the intergovernmental agree- ment that governs the com- pany, signed by councils from both Monmouth and Independence to create Minet in 2004. Some of the language in the IGA was outdated, board 54 th Holiday Fair Friday & Saturday Nov. 4th & 5th 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Polk Co. Fairgrounds in Rickreall Over 125 Exhibitors FREE Admission - Donations Accepted Benefits Polk County 4-H For more info Contact OSU Polk Co. Ext 503-623-8395 .03 .94 .38 .TT .01 .14 .40 Rainfall during Oct. — 11.25 in. Rain through Oct. 31 — 34.95 in. Windermere’s 2016 “Share the Warmth” Coat & Blanket Drive is coming up soon and this year we would like to get an early start on it! This year’s donation drive will start on Monday, November 7 and go until Friday, December 9. Seven Locations; Windermere – Monmouth; Windermere – Dallas; Monmouth Fitness; Les Schwab – Monmouth; Independence Library Les Schwab – Dallas; World Gym chair Scott McClure said, and needed to be updated. Mark Theones, Minet’s fi- nance officer, said he want- ed more definition in the IGA — the sole governing document of Minet — about what the term “surplus” means. McClure said that surplus is defined by revenue after the initial startup debt is re- covered and operational ex- penses were covered. “That would be fine if you weren’t working with a com- pany with growth, but with Minet, moving forward into the city of Jefferson, there’s going to have to be upfront capital required, and it’s not a small amount,” Theones said. “Minet’s not going to be able to go into these busi- ness ventures without up- front capital.” Board member David Ritchey pointed out that the board of directors was the one who would declare what was surplus, according to the language of the IGA. By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer FALLS CITY — Terry Un- gricht, the mayor of Falls City, said the biggest challenge of his first term was figuring out a solution to the lack of code enforcement in his city. His second term is ap- proaching — he’s running unopposed — and that struggle continues, but Un- gricht is hoping the city is closer to a fix. In October, the city had its attorney review its nui- sance code, and Ungricht found that the Falls City City Council is authorized to review cases under the current regulations. The council is not authorized to levy fines, Ungricht noted, but that can be changed. Ungricht said the city at- torney suggested a qualified code enforcement officer should review the nuisance codes to streamline the process. He added he would prefer that the city contract with a code officer for the purposes of identifying vio- lations, issueing citations, and presenting cases. Ungricht said Friday he hasn’t had any luck finding an officer to help so far, and still is trying to locate the city’s former code en- forcer, Bob Crowson. “Then there’s still the ar- gument about who will hear the cases,” Ungricht said. He said the council seemed supportive of the idea that the council could hear the cases, but was de- bating how that should be structured. One suggestion was to have two councilors hear and vote on a case ini- tially. If they disagree, the case could be taken to the full council. Ungricht said restoring enforcement isn’t to collect fines, but to help residents understand the code and assist them in staying in compliance.
