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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2017)
Polk County Voices Polk County Itemizer-Observer • December 20, 2017 4A How to Contact Officials EDITORIALS ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ GOVERNOR Gov. Kate Brown (dem.) 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-378-4582 Email: via website, http://governor.oregon.gov/ — STATE LEGISLATORS sen. Arnie Roblan (District 5, Democrat) S-417 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 sen.arnieroblan@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/roblan (Also known as, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) By Clement Clarke Moore ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds; While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave a lustre of midday to objects below, When what to my wondering eyes did appear, But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name: “Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!” As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the housetop the coursers they flew With a sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too — And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And he filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight — “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, 1983 PUBLIC AGENDA Public Agenda is a listing of upcoming meetings for gov- ernmental and nongovernmental agencies in Polk County. To submit a meeting, send it at least two weeks before the actual meeting date to the Itemizer-Observer via email (ionews@polkio.com). — WEdnEsdAy, dEC. 20 • Polk County Board of Commissioners — 9 a.m., Polk County Courthouse, first floor conference room, 850 Main St., Dallas. 503-623-8173. TuEsdAy, dEC. 26 • Independence City Council — 6:30 p.m., Independence Civic Center, 555 S. Main St., Independence. 503-838-1212. • Polk County Board of Commission work session — 9 a.m., Polk County Courthouse, BOC office, 850 Main St., Dallas. 503-623-8173. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR sen. Brian Boquist (District 12, Republican) S-305 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1712 sen.brianboquist@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/boquist Student success is team effort We have some of the best K-12 teachers; we are in the top 10 nationwide for spending dollars for stu- dents; and year after year we are in the bottom five of all states for graduating sen- iors. Where have we gone wrong? Present and past gover- nors have tried to bring in education experts — some were good, some not so good, but none stayed. We need to correct this. Voters passed Measure 98 putting $170 million into CTE (Career Technical Edu- cation) for 9-12 students to help lower dropout rates and furnish students with college readiness courses. Right away I see an ongoing problem: 5 percent will go for administration, which is too much. I feel there is too much dedicated funding for K-12 education not getting to the classroom. It winds up in administra- tion at all levels. Too much winds up in the hands of the Education Service Dis- tricts, creating more un- needed administration jobs. Oregon has twice the ESD’s than Washington, which has more than double the stu- dents. When you add this up, tens of millions are not getting to the classroom where our kids need it every year. This has to stop. Oregon education plan- ning is 20 years behind. It needs to be redone and brought up to a standard that looks to future needs. Legislators need to make sure this is done. The teachers union has to step forward to make this work and forget the old, outdated planning. sen. Jackie Winters (District 10, Republican) S-301 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1710 sen.jackiewinters@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/winters Rep. david Gomberg (District 10, Democrat) H-471 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1410 rep.davidgomberg@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/gomberg Remember it’s for the kids and their future, not self- serving the union as it is now. The final step is parents need to be involved. Help these kids at home with proper guidance. Get involved with the school boards and teachers; make sure they’re doing things right, and if not, speak up. Praise them when you see things done right. Bill J. Kluting Monmouth More babies headed for welfare More babies are needed to save Social Security. Paul Ryan got it partially correct, then the “talking heads” got it completely wrong. We are being over- run with babies, but we need parents to have babies that get jobs that pay into Social Security. We are in- stead, getting babies that stay on welfare. Gary Richards Monmouth Cinnamon rolls raise money for turf I would like to thank all who helped with the “Holi- day Christmas Roll” fundraiser. The proceeds will go toward the Dallas Booster Club “Field of Dreams” turf project. Thanks to the parents, teachers and students that helped roll them out, bake and package them in a very efficient manner. We had students from the girls soft- ball team and the football program graciously willing to help. Thanks to the individuals and businesses that donat- ed money and ingredients for this project. We always appreciate your support. A special thank you to Julie Schneidecker, DHS teacher, for her knowledge and experience making the cinnamon rolls. Her confi- dence helped the inexperi- enced team members feel confident. Together we packed approximately 85 dozen. Some were baked and ready to eat, and some were packaged and freezer ready. We appreciate all who placed orders, and we hope you enjoyed them with fam- ily and friends during this holiday season. Happy Holidays, and thanks for supporting the turf project. Rep. Paul Evans (District 20, Democrat) H-281 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1420 rep.paulevans@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/evans Rep. Mike nearman (District 23, Republican) H-378 State Capitol 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1423 rep.mikenearman@state.or.us www.oregonlegislature.gov/nearman — U.S. CONGRESS sen. Ron Wyden (dem.) 221 Dirksen SOB Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-5244 Fax: 202-228-2717 Salem office: 707 13th St. SE, Suite 285, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-589-4555 Email: via website, www.wyden.senate.gov Claudia Drill Dallas Booster Club Dallas WANT TO WRITE A LETTER? Letters to the editor are lim- ited to 300 words. Longer letters will be edited. Election-related letters of all types are limited to 100 words. Writers are limited to one election-related letter per election season. Election letters from writers outside of Polk County are not accepted. Each writer is restricted to one letter per 30-day period. Letters that are libelous, ob- scene or in bad taste will not be printed. Attacks by name on businesses or individuals will not be printed. Letters to the ed- itor that are obvious promotions for a business, products or serv- ices will not be printed. Letter writers who disagree with other published letter writ- ers should maintain a civil dis- course and address the subject, not the author. Letters, like all editorial mate- rial submitted to the newspaper, are edited for length, grammar and content. Letters must include the au- thor’s name, address and tele- phone number. This includes letters submitted via the I-O’s website. Names and cities of res- idence are published; street ad- dresses and telephone numbers are used for verification pur- poses only. Letters must be sub- mitted from individuals, not organizations. Letters of thanks to busi- nesses, individuals and organi- zations are limited to 10 names. The deadline for letters to the editor is 10 a.m. Monday. Let- ters submitted may not be re- tractable after this deadline. Reach us at: Mail: Editor, Polk County Itemizer-Observer, P.O. Box 108, Dallas, OR 97338. Email: ionews@polkio.com. sen. Jeff Merkley (dem.) 313 Hart SOB Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: 202-224-3753 Fax: 202-228-3997 Salem office: 161 High St. SE, Suite 250, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-362-8102 Email: via website, www.merkley.senate.gov Rep. Kurt schrader (dem.) 108 Cannon HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202-225-5711 Fax: 202-225-5699 Salem office: 544 Ferry St. SE, Suite 2, Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-588-9100 Fax: 503-588-5517 Email: via website, www.schrader.house.gov — POLK COUNTY Board of Commissioners 850 Main St. Dallas, OR 97338 Phone: 503-623-8173 www.co.polk.or.us — CITIES dallas 187 SE Court St. Dallas, OR 97338 503-623-2338 www.ci.dallas.or.us Falls City 299 Mill St. Falls City, OR 97344 503-787-3631 www.fallscityoregon.gov Independence 555 S. Main St. Independence, OR 97351 503-838-1212 www.ci.independence.or.us Monmouth 151 W. Main St. Monmouth, OR 97361 503-838-0722 www.ci.monmouth.or.us HOW TO REACH US nEWsROOM Emily Mentzer ..............Editor/Monmouth/Independence Reporter ....ementzer@polkio.com Vol. 142, No.51 (USPS) - 437-380) The official newspaper of Polk County • Serving Polk County families since 1875 Winner of 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 General Excellence Awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, OR, Independence, OR and Monmouth, OR. Published weekly at 147 SE Court Street Dallas, Oregon 97338 Phone: 503-623-2373 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Polk County — One Year $35 Other Oregon Counties — One Year $40 Outside of Oregon — One Year $45 POsTMAsTER: send address changes to: Polk County Itemizer-Observer, P.O. Box 108, dallas, Oregon 97338 Lukas Eggen..................Sports Editor......................................................................leggen@polkio.com Jolene Guzman............Dallas/Falls City/Polk County Reporter ................jguzman@polkio.com dIsPLAy AdVERTIsInG Heidi Leppin .................Display Advertising Manager (ext.115).................hleppin@polkio.com Karen Sanks...................Client Services (ext. 118)...............................................ksanks@polkio.com CLAssIFIEd LInE AdVERTIsInG Dawn Ohren .....................................................................................................................ioads@polkio.com PROduCTIOn Kathy Huggins ..............................................................................................................iosales@polkio.com Karyn Pressel .................................................................................................................iosales@polkio.com The Polk County Itemizer-Observer assumes no financial responsibility for errors in advertise- Web: www.polkio.com ments. It will, however, reprint without charge for the portion of an advertisement which is in error if the Itemizer-Observer is at fault. Phone: 503-623-2373 Fax: 503-623-2395