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.