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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2017)
Polk County News 12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 11, 2017 Marijuana taxes to be distributed EMILy MEnTzER/Itemizer-Observer Carol Christ reads to her granddaughter Finley Christ, 3, from one of the books that will be on sale this weekend. Friends to host bi-annual sale By Emily Mentzer The Itemizer-Observer DALLAS — What started in 2016 as a way to let volun- teers spend Summerfest with their families has turned into a financial bene- fit for the Friends of the Dal- las Public Library. The Friends discontinued its annual Summerfest book sale, opting instead for two sales a year — one in April and one in October. In so doing, it has nearly tripled its profits, adding to the group’s mission to sup- port programming at Dallas Public Library. “It would be an exaggera- tion to say all the volunteers needed a change, but many did,” said Friends president Carol Christ. The bi-annual sales have seemed to be a hit with the community, vice-president Dede Perkins said. “ We w o r k w i t h t h e schools to try and plan a Fri- Explore the world of books What: Friends of the Dallas Public Library book sale. When: 3 to 7 p.m. on Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Satur- day. Bag sale from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday. Where: Dallas Civic Center, 945 SE Jefferson St., Dallas. Prices: Hardbacks, $1; paperbacks, 50 cents. Children’s books, DVDs and books on tape also will be available. Book bags, $7. Make an offer on special books. Of note: The Friends of the Dallas Public Library support programs at the Dallas library, including the cultural pass- es, which allows any cardholder for the Dallas library ac- cess to a number of attractions and museums in the area, including the Gilbert House and the Evergreen Aviation Museum. For more information: 503-559-3830. day-Saturday that isn’t homecoming, or Bambino’s auction, or whatever, and the same thing in April,” she said. “Particularly October is good for us because if the weather is crappy, they’re thinking about reading a book in front of the fire- place. And in April, it’s the great awakening of, ‘I need more books.’” Twice the sales means twice the work in some ways, but less work in oth- ers. Christ said the Friends keeps fewer books in the storage unit than they used to, which means fewer books to haul out to the Dal- las Civic Center to arrange on tables. People donate to the Dal- las Public Library year- round, Christ said, and many of those books end up in the Friends’ collection for the book sales. “Occasionally a book will get added to the library col- lection itself — that’s the li- brarian’s judgement — but most of them go to the sale,” she said. “Each book is lov- ingly handled in the back room, boxed up, sorted by categories, and then stored in the shed until the sale.” Volunteers are needed to spread the word about the sale, set up tables, work on the day of the sale, and then carefully repack whatever hasn’t sold, Christ said. “You don’t want historical fiction that didn’t sell mixed with the history that didn’t sell,” she said. “You want them separate. And military history is different from his- tory, and the romantic fic- tion is separate from the suspense fiction. Everything has to be categorized and packed again.” A book at the Dallas Fr iends’ sale gets two chances to be sold. See BOOKS, Page 11A Itemizer-Observer staff report SALEM — The first dis- tributions of state marijua- na tax revenues — nearly $85 million — will be dis- tributed by Wednesday (today). Between Jan. 4, 2016, and Aug. 31, 2017, the De- partment of Revenue col- lected $108.6 million in state and local marijuana taxes, of which $94.55 mil- lion was state marijuana taxes eligible for distribu- tion. Local taxes collected by the department on behalf of cities and counties are distributed to them quar- terly. Of the revenue, $9.56 million went to repaying the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s start-up costs and covering admin- istrative costs for the De- partment of Revenue. The remaining $85 mil- lion was distributed based on the recipients and for- mulas provided in House Bill 3470: State School Fund (40 percent) — $34 million Mental Health, Alco- holism, and Drug Services Account (20 percent) — $17 million Oregon State Police (15 percent) — $12.75 million Oregon Health Authori- ty (5 percent) — $4.25 mil- lion Cities (10 percent) and counties (10 percent) — $17 million Distributions to cities and counties will use two formulas for calculating the amounts due to them: one for revenue collected before July 1, and the other for collections on or after that date. Pre-July, revenue will be based on population. After July, other factors are con- sidered, such as whether or not a city or county allows marijuana licenses of all types. DHS offers six CTE classes By Jolene Guzman The Itemizer-Observer DALLAS — Exactly 20 years ago, during the 1997-98 school year Dallas High School offered seven pro- grams that would now be called “career and technical education.” Career and technical edu- cation, or CTE, teaches stu- dents sk ills in trades – whether that be agriculture, computer science, business or engineering — and gives them experience like what they would have on the job. Tim Ray, a former agricul- ture teacher at DHS, has spent the last eight months work- ing with an advisory group of citizens and business owners rebuilding the school’s CTE program offering to the 1997- 98 level. They are almost there: in the 2017-18 school year, DHS has six approved programs in agriculture, business, culinary, engineering, visual media arts and health sciences. “We’ve got kids in every one of them,” Ray said dur- ing a report at a joint meet- ing of the Dallas School Board and Dallas City Coun- cil on Monday. He said the programs are designed to emphasize three necessary components of edu- cation: academic knowledge, developing technical skills, and teaching what he calls “professional skills” — being on time, taking pride in work, communicating well and being able to work on team. This year, 500 to 550 stu- dents, including some from Morrison Campus Alternative School, will enroll in the six programs, compared to 250 students last year participat- ing in the three available pro- grams. For a longer version of this story, visit www.polkio.com.
