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Volume 142, Issue 47
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November 22, 2017
Student
homeless
on the rise
IN
YOUR
TOWN
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS
POLK COUNTY — The
Oregon Department of Edu-
cation released its annual
homeless student report last
week, showing two Polk
County school districts with
more homeless students and
two with fewer.
Both Dallas and Central
found more students met
the federal definition of
homeless, while Falls City’s
and Perrydale’s tally
dropped slightly.
The definition of home-
lessness for the purposes of
the report is: students who
“lack a fixed, regular and ad-
equate nighttime residence.”
That includes those with no
shelter, families sharing
homes with other families
and students living in shel-
ters or motels.
Falls City, however, re-
mains in the top 10 in the
state by percentage of stu-
dents considered homeless
at 17.71 percent. The district
count dropped from 35 in
2015-16 to 31 during last
school year.
Dallas saw a jump from
60 in 2015-16 to 81 in 2017-
18. That number accounts
for 2.5 percent of students
enrolled.
Central’s count of homeless
students rose from 81 to 88,
or 2.66 percent in 2016-17.
Perrydale School District
had no homeless students in
2016-17 and not enough to
report in 2015-16 (the state
doesn’t list numbers in the
1-5 range due to the risk of
identifying those students),
according to the report.
Salem-Keizer School Dis-
trict, part of which is in Polk
County, has the fifth-highest
number of homeless stu-
dents at 1,162.
That accounts for 2.79
percent of students enrolled
in 2016-17.
See HOMELESS, Page 5A
Parents are filing a
lawsuit against Dallas
School District over
transgender student’s
use of restroom.
»Page 5A
FALLS CITY
Jeremy Gordon gets
sworn in as Falls City’s
new mayor.
»Page 2A
MONMOUTH
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Ken Brown, the co-owner of Westwinds Farm in Dallas, talks about the trees at his farm that are ready to sell.
Oh Christmas tree
The best-selling Christ-
mas tree variety has had a
difficult run lately.
There wasn’t a good crop
of Noble fir cones from
2001 to 2015, said Bob
Schafer, at Noble Mountain
Tree Farms in Polk County.
No cones mean no seeds,
no seedlings and no trees,
he said.
Schafer said production
of Noble firs on his farm is
down 25 percent this year.
The farm has tried to
fill the hole with
other varieties, such
as Douglas fir, the
second-highest
Christmas tree in
sales.
Still, the re-
sult has been
scaling back
on the
num-
ber of cus-
tomers
the wholesale grow-
er can serve.
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Christmas
trees, particularly the
Noble fir variety, may be in
short supply nationwide
this year, but local tree
farm operators say there
should be plenty of trees to
choose from this holiday
season.
If you have your heart
set on a Noble, though, you
might want to start you
search early this year.
“We are going to run low
on Noble firs,” said Don
Beal, of Beal’s Christmas
Tree Farm in Dallas. “We
haven’t been able to re-
place any for the last three
seasons.”
He said the farm lost
most of its young Noble fir
trees due to recent hot, dry
summers.
“We lost 95 percent,”
Beal said. “That was a
tough.”
“It makes for easier har-
vesting season,” Schafer
said. “We’ve cut out our
oversees business. It’s nice
to say you ship to the Pacif-
ic Rim, but we wanted to
take care of our U.S. cus-
tomers first and foremost.”
The business won’t be
shipping to Texas this year
either — the Lone Star
state is as far east as is cost-
efficient to ship — and Cal-
ifornia will be getting a dif-
ferent mix of trees, in-
cluding fewer Noble
firs.
That may be the
situation for sever-
al years to come,
industry wide.
Ke n Brow n ,
co-owner of
Westwinds Farm
in Dallas, said
that an
ov e r -
abundance of
trees over the
last decade and resulting
»Page 10A
lower prices drove growers
out of the market or forced
them to plant fewer trees.
That trend has caught up
to the industry.
“There has been an ex-
cess of trees for 10 years,”
Brown said. “Last year, it
turned around, and it
turned around really fast.”
The good news is 2016
marked the first year of
healthy Noble fir crop,
Schafer said.
“We are getting some
seed in the pipeline, more
in line with what the indus-
try is used to,” Schafer said.
It will take about seven
years for those young trees
to grow to Christmas-tree
standard — about six-feet
tall — though.
Noble Mountain may be
something of an exception
to that as Schafer antici-
pates higher production in
the variety over the next
few years on his farm.
See TREES, Page 8A
Olsons take giving to ‘a new level’
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
MONMOUTH — It takes
a village, or so the saying
goes. In the Monmouth-In-
dependence community,
one of the driving forces be-
hind the success of the “vil-
lage” is Stacy and Neal
Olson.
They’re credited with sav-
ing marriages, literally put-
ting shoes on people’s feet,
keeping youth sports pro-
grams going when money
was scarce, feeding young
athletes, and positively in-
fluencing the lives of those
around them.
The Olsons have blessed
the Monmouth and Inde-
pendence communities for
nearly 20 years, though they
would tell you they don’t do
anything spectacular or out
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
of the ordinary.
“They’re great role mod-
els,” Central High School
Athletic Director Shane
Hedrick said. “They’re very
unselfish. And you hear
about people giving — they
just take it to a whole new
level.”
Hedrick said he first no-
ticed the Olsons about eight
years ago when Central
School District had to cut
NEAL OLSON/for the Itemizer-Observer
Stacy and Neal Olson help Monmouth any way they can.
middle school sports.
“The one name that
would come up in any con-
wed
thu
Come bring your fa-
vorite brew and
learn about New
Testament figures at
St. Thomas Episco-
pal church.
7 p.m.
The Itemizer-Ob-
server wishes every-
one a happy,
relaxing and safe
Thanksgiving Day.
Our office is closed
today.
Rain
Hi: 61
Lo: 53
Rain
Hi: 58
Lo: 43
fri
After a day filled
with food and fam-
ily, why not enjoy
some music at the
Guthrie Park jam
session?
6:30 p.m. Free.
Showers
Hi: 53
Lo: 42
versation was Stacy Olson,”
he said. “Because she basi-
cally kept that middle school
Western Oregon Uni-
versity’s men’s basket-
ball team enters season
with great expecta-
tions.
program up and running.
She was the organizer in get-
ting parents together to
make that happen. She just
kept it together. Absolutely
huge for us, and she got
nothing for it.”
Neal said he and Stacy
were passionate about keep-
ing the program, not just for
their kids, but for the com-
munity. Without sports,
what would the youths do in
the afternoons?
“That’s the most impres-
sionable time of their lives,”
Neal said. “It’s where you
kind of make or break kids,
in middle school. So we fig-
ured we better put our ac-
tion where our mouth
was — a little more action, a
little less talk.”
Like so many things, Stacy
said they didn’t do it alone.
See OLSONS, Page 8A
SPORTS
Falls City’s football
team eliminated in the
1A semifinals.
»Page 10A
Dallas family
wins college
savings plan
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS —Stephen
Miller, of Dallas, and his
family won an Oregon Col-
lege Saving Plan account
after participating in Dal-
las Public Library’s sum-
mer reading program.
Miller’s family entered
his name into the summer
reading campaign, “Read a
Book. Save for College.
Build a Better World.”
Stephen’s family was one
of 15 whose name was
randomly drawn, and will
receive a $529 Oregon
College Savings Plan ac-
count.
As the host library, Dal-
las library will also receive
a $500 cash prize from the
Oregon College Savings
Plan.
“It is important for stu-
dents to continue reading
and improving their lan-
guage skills during the
summer months,” said
Mark Greenhalgh-John-
son, librarian at the Dallas
Public Library. “While the
Summer Reading Program
is fun, it is more than a
way to entertain kids.
Through this program kids
find that learning takes
place all year long
whether they are at home,
in school, in the library, or
even in the park.”
According to the Ore-
gon State Library, 64,545
youth from birth through
age 18 signed up for this
year’s summer reading
program at public libraries
throughout Oregon; col-
l e c t i ve l y, t h e y re a d
323,441 books over
880,104 hours.
www.polkio.com
sat
sun
mon
tue
The Polk County
Craft Festival offers a
chance to find
unique holiday gifts
for loved ones.
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Free.
The Darr family will
be collecting warm
clothing through
Jan. 8. A drop box is
located at Starlite
Lanes, 394 Main St.,
Dallas.
Orquestra Brasil and
Western Hemi-
sphere Orchestra
will team up for a
concert at Smith
Music Hall.
7:30 p.m. $5.
Have a sweet tooth?
A See’s Candy sale
runs through Dec.
15 at Salem Health
West Valley Hospital.
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
M-F
Rain
Hi: 52
Lo: 45
Rain
Hi: 53
Lo: 42
Rain
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Lo: 40
Partly cloudy
Hi: 50
Lo: 41