12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 22, 2017
Polk County News
Falls City gets a direct connection
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — Thursday
morning Richard Faber ut-
tered a phrase that people
should get used to hearing
from him: “Make sure you
put your seat belt on.”
Faber, the driver for the
new Falls City Direct Con-
nect bus service, drove his
first official routes on
Thursday, driving from Falls
City to Dallas and back
again four times. The first
day didn’t see a lot of riders,
but that didn’t surprise the
people who worked about a
year on getting the free
service up and running.
“The longer it runs, the
more people we will get,”
Faber said just before clos-
ing the bus doors and
pulling away from Moun-
tain Gospel Church, the
pick-up and drop-off spot
in Falls City.
It has stops at the Polk
County Veterans Service
Office, Flaming Medical
Clinic, Walmart, the Ore-
gon Department of Human
Services office, and the
Academy Building, where
Polk County Public Health
and Family & Community
Outreach departments are
located.
Trips to Dallas take off
from Falls City four times a
day on Tuesdays and Thurs-
day, except for the second
Tuesday of the month,
when the route goes to
Monmouth.
Monmouth stops are
Monmouth Public Library,
Waremart, Central Commu-
nity
Resource
Center/Health Center, Polk
County Behavioral Health
and the Total Community
Health Clinic.
Marie McCandless, Polk
County Veterans Service Of-
ficer, said she’s thrilled to
have her office in Dallas be
a stop on the route.
“I think it’s huge. Getting
vets to the office is one of
the biggest hiccups we
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Richard Faber drives the Falls City Direct Connect bus, a service that connects Falls City to multiple key locations in Dallas and Monmouth.
have, letting them know we
are here and getting them
here,” she said. “We don’t al-
ways have two people to go
and do a home visit.”
Falls City Direct Con-
nect’s free service is paid
with a grant from
Willamette Valley Commu-
nity Health, the local coor-
dinated care organization
for Polk and Marion coun-
ties.
A group of county and
Falls City representatives
began meeting about a year
ago to talk about the lack of
transpor tation options
available to Falls City resi-
dents.
With only 950 residents,
it was a stretch for most
traditional public trans-
portation systems to offer
service in the community,
said Brent DeMoe, the
Family & Community Out-
reach director.
People on what became
known at the Falls City
Transportation Committee
had to think outside the
box. The group consisted of
Polk County department
leaders, service organiza-
tion leaders, Salem Health
representatives, former
Falls City Mayor Terry Un-
gricht, Lynn Bailey with the
Falls City School District,
and residents Donna
Creekmore and Teresa Vod-
den.
Polk County Commis-
sioner Craig Pope, who
serves on the WVCH board,
also assisted the effort.
“I was told by a commu-
nity leader that transporta-
tion was broken, and it
could never be fixed in Polk
County,” said Mona K-
Hinds, the Polk County
principal youth advisor
with Community Services
Consortium and one of the
original committee mem-
bers. “Those are like fight-
ing words.”
See CONNECT, Page 3A
JOLENE GUZMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Falls City Direct Connect is a free service paid with a grant.