Polk County News
2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • October 18, 2017
County awaits word
on safety corridor
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The Polk County Board of Commissioners
is awaiting word from the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation on a request to re-establish a safety corridor on
Highway 22.
The request is for the portion of the highway from the
Willamette River bridges in Salem west to Oak Grove
Road.
Highway 22 from the Willamette River bridges to Rick-
reall was a safety corridor from 1993 to 2010, when it was
decommissioned due to lower crash rates.
“Fast forward to today, with more vehicle traffic/con-
gestion, virtually no safety improvements in the last
seven years and support crash data for that problem area,
consideration of a safety corridor is more than justified,”
the commissioners’ letter to ODOT said.
Safety corridors impose greater fines for speeding and
place signs to inform drivers to slow down.
The request was made in August. ODOT hasn’t decided
anything yet, but the agency and Polk County Public
Works are slated to meet later this month.
A stretch of road must meet standards to qualify as a
safety corridor — including a serious or fatal crash rate
that is 150 percent higher than similar roads in the state
— and the availability of police patrols, said Nicole
Charlson, with ODOT’s Region 2 Traffic Safety division,
in an email about the request.
“We have requested the crash data and we’re looking
into whether or not it qualifies as a safety corridor,”
Charlson wrote. “ODOT has been closely monitoring traf-
fic on Highway 22, and every fatal crash is reviewed by
our traffic safety staff.”
She said if the section of highway doesn’t qualify for
designation, ODOT can seek other solutions, including
grants to Oregon State Police and Polk County Sheriff’s
Office for patrols in the areas most prone to crashes.
“Police enforcement is one of the best ways to reduce
crashes, because drivers slow down and pay better atten-
tion when they see a patrol vehicle,” Charlson wrote.
Fatal crash near Sweet Home
Itemizer-Observer staff report
LINN COUNTY — A Willamina man died Oct. 3 after-
noon in a motor-vehicle crash on U.S. 20 near milepost
34.5 in Linn County east of Sweet Home, Oregon State
Police reported in a press release.
Preliminary investigation by OSP troopers revealed a
green 2002 Harley Davidson Motorcycle was travelling
east on U.S. 20 near milepost 34.5. The motorcycle was
rounding a right-hand curve when the operator, Robert
DeLong, 74, of Willamina, crossed the center line and
struck the front of a white Toyota Tacoma pickup, driven
by Kevin Schaffer, 27, of Santa Ana, Calif., who was travel-
ling westbound. The motorcycle came to rest in the west-
bound lanes, according to OSP.
DeLong was wearing a helmet and was pronounced
deceased on scene by emergency medical personnel.
Schaffer was not injured. Both vehicles were towed from
the scene. The investigation is continuing.
OSP was assisted on scene by Sweet Home Fire Depart-
ment, Sweet Home Chapel and Oregon Department of
Transportation.
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Zelma edwards shows off her 143-pound watermelon, which won a prize for its weight and size.
Extreme growers in Dallas
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Zelma Ed-
wards calls the watermelon
she’s been nurturing all
summer and fall “the baby.”
It doesn’t live up to its
name. It’s 143 pounds, far
bigger than most babies, ex-
cluding infant elephants and
whales.
Edwards’ baby won a title
suitable to its size on Oct. 7:
The largest watermelon
grown and weighed in Ore-
gon.
Her watermelon crushed
the competition by 41
pounds, and it wasn’t the
only giant in her garden. The
next biggest weighed 124 —
that too, would have broken
the record, but she only en-
tered her largest in the con-
test at Bauman’s Farm &
Garden in Gervais, part of
the farm’s annual Harvest
Festival.
“I don’t think I’ve gotten
over it yet,” said Edwards, of
Dallas, last week. “I knew
that it was going weigh big,
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Brixius Jewelers 837 Main St.
Capitol Auto West Valley Chevrolet 812 SE Jefferson St.
Cedar Salon and Lash Bar 131 SW Mill St.
Country Insurance 141 SW Court St.
Court Street Hair 155 SW Court St.
Courtyard Coffee House 156 SE Mill St.
Dallas Antique Mall 811 Main St.
Dallas Chamber of Commerce 168 SW Court St.
Dallas Cinema 166 SE Mill St.
Dallas City Cleaners 144 SW Washington St.
Downtown Barber Shop 194 SW Mill St.
First American Title 807 Main St.
Grandma's Attic Sewing Emporium 167 SW Court St.
Harvest CrossFit 761 Main St.
Heartstrings Florist & Artisans 137 SW Court St.
Home Comfort 1827 S. Main St.
Jake's Garage 161 SW Washington St.
Just Stuff 947 Main St.
Main Street Emporium of Dallas 939 Main St.
M.D. Tats & Oddities 143 SW Court St.
Old Mill Feed & Garden 1313 Main St.
Polk Co. Itemizer-Observer Newspaper 147 SE Court St.
Pressed Coffee & Wine Bar 788 Main St.
Sassy's Kegs & Eggs 186 SW Court St.
Some Things 857 Main St.
Tater's Cafe 683 SE Jefferson St.
The Decorated Wall 186 SE Mill St.
Tim's Automotive Specialties 172 SW Washington St.
Tipp's Copy Center 164 SE Washington St.
Tony's Place 127 SW Court St.
Ugo's Pizza 967 Main St.
Van Well Building Supply 1650 SE Uglow
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World Gym 887 Main St.
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but I didn’t know I was going
to take the Oregon record. It
was fun growing it, and it
was fun at the end of it. I’ll
do it again.”
Edwards and her husband,
Ron, have been growing large
vegetables and plants —
pumpkins, tomatoes, sun-
flowers and watermelons —
for about seven years. Ron
took sixth place in the giant
pumpkin contest at Bau-
man’s with his own more-
than-1,300-pound baby.
They do care for their
growing giants like they are
“a bunch of kids,” Zelma
said. Her watermelon want-
ed for nothing.
“We work hard at it,” she
said. “It takes your whole
summer.”
She followed some com-
mon principles of “extreme
vegetable growing,” as Ron
puts it, to raise her hefty wa-
termelon.
“You have to take all the
small ones off, and it has to
be fed every day,” Zelma ex-
plained. “They are a very
high eater. The sun gives
them sugar and the sugar
gives them the energy to
grow at night.”
Every two or three days,
she would see a noticeable
difference in the watermel-
on’s size.
“It was hard not to go out
there and measure every
day,” she said.
During the hot days, she
made sure the watermelon
patch had shade, and when
t h e n i g h t s g o t c o l d e r,
Zelma’s “baby” was tucked
under a blanket.
Her state record-breaking
season began with the hope
of topping her personal
record.
“I grew one once before
and that was only 61
pounds,” she said. “That was
a few years ago.”
Serious about the endeav-
or, she searched for the right
seeds and found them by
joining a giant watermelon
club based in Tennessee,
which sends its members
seeds.
She was sent seeds from a
monster 305-pound water-
melon grown in Tennessee.
“Can you imagine one
that big?” Zelma said.
Ron said the hot nights in
that region of the country
produce those larger-than-
life watermelons.
“It’s warm all night. They
have a lot of days that will be
80, 90 degrees all night
long,” Ron said.
He said the hot summer
in the Willamette Valley this
year provided an assist to
Zelma’s record-breaker.
Zelma’s season began
with ambitions to grow a
giant pumpkin and giant
tomatoes in addition to her
giant watermelon.
The pumpkin ended up
being “small” at 807 pounds,
and the tomatoes, while
firmly in the large category,
weren’t on par with what
she’s grown in the past.
“Then I could see it (the
watermelon) growing and I
could see the progress in it,”
she said. “I kind of lost inter-
est in everything else and
put all my energy into the
watermelon.”