Polk County News
2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • april 19, 2017
Got one!
NEWS IN BRIEF
Dallas Earth Day cleaning is Saturday
DaLLas — Dallas Downtown association will hold a “Down-
town Clean-up Day” on saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.
DDa is looking for more volunteers to help on various down-
town clean-up projects. The event is rain or shine, so dress ap-
propriately.
Volunteers are asked to meet in the back room at Pressed
Coffee & Wine Bar, 788 Main st., Dallas for coffee and project as-
signments.
For more information, Emma guida, DDa program manager
at emmagdda@gmail.com.
Wagner asks community to take survey
FaLLs CITY — The Wagner Community Library is asking for
people to take a survey on possible support of a ballot measure
to fund library operations.
Falls City residents should receive a copy of the survey in
their next water bill, and paper and electronic versions will be
available at the library, 111 n. Main st., Falls City.
Operations are currently paid for with the remainder of the
Wagner Trust Fund, which was dissolved and released to keep
the library open while a funding solution is found. If the survey
shows there isn’t enough support for a ballot measure, there
aren’t many options left, officials said.
Falls City Mayor Terry ungricht said the issue also will be dis-
cussed at the city’s budget committee meeting on Thursday.
Falls City approves court agreement
FaLLs CITY — The Falls City City Council now has a munici-
pal court after adopting a contract with the city of Independ-
ence to try cases in its court.
This is the first step in process of re-establishing a code en-
forcement program. The city still needs to hire a code officer –
a process that has already begun — and give authority to the
Polk County sheriff’s Office to enforce other city ordinances,
such drinking in the parks and other issues.
“This would set it up to where I could meet the sheriff (Mark)
garton on an Iga (intergovernmental agreement) with them
because they would have a court to cite to,” Mayor Terry un-
gricht said.
He said the code enforcement officer in albany is willing to
post the city’s request for a contract code enforcer.
The contract was approved unanimously.
Green Haven, Falls City agree on rates
Brooks graduates from safety training
By Jolene Guzman
saLEM — Polk County sheriff‘s Office’s Joshua Brooks was
part of the Basic Police Class’ 365th graduating class on Friday.
The class, put on by the Oregon Department of Public safety
standards and Training, is a 16-week course centered on sur-
vival skills, firearms, emergency vehicle operations, ethics, cul-
tural diversity, problem solving, community policing, elder
abuse, drug recognition and more.
The class graduated on Friday.
Indy corn grower earns national honors
InDEPEnDEnCE — Independence corn grower scott set-
niker was honored during the 2016 national Corn Yield Con-
test.
setniker placed second in Oregon in the I: Irrigated Class
with a yield of 296.465 bushels per acre.
setniker was one of 400 state winners nationwide. In total,
there were 7,979 entries from 46 states.
setniker used Mycogen seeds 2V357.
EMILY MEnTzER/Itemizer-Observer
Braylin Brooks, 3, (left front) adds a plastic Easter egg to her basket on Saturday. Naethan Flores, 2, (right) takes
in the scene at Gentle Woods Park, home of the annual Monmouth-Independence YMCA’s Easter egg hunt. The
Boy Scouts and members of Central Lions Club helped fill each egg, which contained prizes such as balloons, pen-
cil sharpeners, or tickets that could be redeemed for free books. The Easter Bunny visited with youngsters all
morning. Two golden eggs, one in each age group, represented special Easter basket giveaways. For more photos
from the event: polkio.com.
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — The city of
Falls City and Green Haven
RV Park have reached an
agreement on how the park
should be charged for water
until the city completes a
water rate study.
The city council approved
the contract Thursday. RV
Park owner Richard Bow-
man had signed the agree-
ment before Thursday’s
meeting.
The agreement changes
the base rate for the park
from $108.86 per month to
$326.58, increases its utility
reserve fee from $10 to $30
and adds a base of $15 for
each of five semi-permanent
RV spots. Overage charges of
$3.12 for each 1,000-gallon
unit will be charged after
usage surpasses 15,000 gal-
lons.
The estimated bill based
on the new agreement
would be $433.83.
The city and park have
Your community news source.
gested any rate increase wait
until after the city conducts
a water rate study, but said if
both parties reached an
agreement, he didn’t have a
problem with it.
“I think it’s a fair agree-
ment until we get certified
rates down, which I’m sure
we will have to do when we
seek financing for upgrades
on the (water) distribution
system,” Mayor Terry Un-
gricht said.
The agreement was ap-
proved unanimously.
CARTS service changes coming May 8; to be replaced with Cherriots express routes
Itemizer-Observer staff report
The Polk County Itemizer-Observer
negotiated for months after
the city deemed the park’s
bill was too low for its usage.
At first, the city wanted to
charge the park the residen-
tial rate of approximately
$42 for each of the 30 RV
spots, and the residence,
shower and office on site.
The park owners and resi-
dents objected to an in-
crease of that size — it
would have more than dou-
bled the rate — and hired an
attorney.
The city’s attorney sug-
POLk COunTY — Polk County will be
largely unaffected by changes coming to
CaRTs.
Beginning May 8, most CaRTs routes
will be replaced with new Cherriots Re-
gional express routes.
Final schedules and maps can be found
at www.cherriots.org/regional. Fares will
remain the same.
Buses will only stop at designated stops.
Passengers may no longer request the bus
to come closer to their home.
CaRTs 45, which serves Dallas, Mon-
mouth and Independence, will operate as
it does now with passengers contacting
the call center to request service, but the
name will change to Polk County Flex.