HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Volume 142, Issue 52
www.Polkio.com
December 27, 2017
$1.00
Falls City ends contract with SW
IN
YOUR
TOWN
Fire department, district work to rebuild without formal agreement
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — The con-
tract between Southwest
Polk Rural Fire Protection
District and the city of Falls
City will end officially on
Monday.
The two entities have
been negotiating for
months, while existing on
temporary extensions of a
contract that expired in Sep-
tember. Falls City Fire Chief
Bob Young said Southwest
will pull its trucks and
equipment from the station
on Tuesday (Jan.2).
That is according to a let-
ter the district sent the city
Dec. 15. Southwest Chief
Fred Hertel confirmed Fri-
day that was the case.
“I never expected it to go
this far,” Young said. “It’s
pretty disappointing. No one
out here is happy about it.”
Young said he attended a
meeting on Dec. 11 with the
Southwest board that ended
with a vote allowing the con-
tract to expire. On Nov. 30,
Fallas City Acting City Man-
ager Terry Ungricht declared
negotiations at an impasse.
Young said, from his per-
spective, the issue was
Southwest wanting to take
over more of the administra-
tion of the department than
he or city leaders were com-
fortable with.
“The city was concerned
about keeping our own de-
partment,” he said. “That
was really the sticking
point.”
Hertel described it as a
“cultural difference” be-
tween the two entities on
which rules and regulations
needed strict adherence.
“The rules vary from ab-
solutes to best practices and
everything in between,”
Hertel said. “We disagreed
on what those should be.”
The contract had Falls
City firefighters responding
to Southwest incidents in
the district’s trucks. Young
said with the Southwest
trucks gone, the department
is only well-equipped to re-
spond within the city limits.
Young said he wants peo-
ple who live in the district,
but closer to Falls City than
Southwest stations in Dallas
or Rickreall, to know that
they may experience longer
response times. Young said
those are areas that Falls City
crews running Southwest
engines typically arrive first.
“We are going to try to re-
spond, but we might not be
able to,” Young said.
He said his department is
no longer equipped to ade-
quately respond to Camp
Tapawingo or Black Rock
Mountain Bike Area.
The city and the district
still have a mutual aid agree-
ment, meaning they will
send crews to each other’s
calls.
Hertel said he doesn’t be-
lieve there will be a decline
in service — especially since
Falls City can still respond
via mutual aid.
See Fire, Page 5A
Dallas begins restructuring in city hall
Jason Locke on leave until off Jan. 2 as his department is eliminated, reorganized
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — The Dallas City Coun-
cil voted to eliminate the Communi-
ty Development Department, and
its director, Jason
Locke, on Dec. 20
as part of a restruc-
turing of city de-
partments.
Locke is on leave
u n t i l Tu e s d a y,
when he will be
laid off. He has
worked for the city
ellis
since 2008.
Interim City Manager Greg Ellis
recommended the change, and said
he realized during his first staff
meeting that the city had too many
department heads reporting to him.
In a memo to the council, Ellis
said having more than six “direct re-
ports,” or people reporting directly
to him, could cause inefficiency.
“The way I’m proposing to do that
is take some of the departments that
are, in my opinion, should logically be
in other areas and put then in those
other areas,” Ellis said at the meeting
Dec. 20. “What that entails, basically,
is the elimination of the community
development department.”
Community development previ-
ously included planning, the build-
ing department, facilities mainte-
nance and the Dallas Aquatic Center.
“That would entail the loss of the
community development director,”
Ellis said. “I’m proposing that the
council eliminate that department
and reorganize as proposed.”
With the change, planning is a
stand-alone department that in-
cludes the building division. The city
is in the process of hiring a manager
for planning.
Facilities maintenance will go to
public works, and the Dallas Aquatic
Center management will become
part of the new parks and recreation
department.
Parks and recreation will include
park maintenance, the DAC and
Recreation Coordinator Sheila
Pierce. Eric Totten is the park and
rec manager. The DAC supervisor
position is vacant since the retire-
ment of Tina Paul.
Ellis’ proposal has the police, fire,
planning, public works, and finan-
cial services supervisors reporting to
him. Ellis is the supervisor of the ad-
ministration department, which
contains human resources, library,
parks and recreation and economic
development.
“There’s still a lot of direct reports,
but it does eliminate some,” he said.
Ellis, who started with the city on
Dec. 8, said the possibility of new
development projects is one of the
reasons behind the swiftness of the
change.
“Planning functions are currently
part of community development’s
responsibility,” Ellis wrote in his
memo. “There is a high likelihood of
transformative industrial and com-
mercial development within the city
beginning in the first or second
month of 2018. Due to that fact
alone, I believe this reorganization
needs to happen immediately in
order to eliminate project disruption
at a later date.”
See DAllAS, Page 5A
Take a look back at top news from 2017
itemizer-Observer staff report
pOlK COUnTY — The year
brought good news and bad.
We take a look through 2017’s
Itemizer-Observers to remem-
ber it all.
January
Oregon’s retirement Sys-
tem: perS puts pressure on
tight budgets for local govern-
ments
local governments’ 2017-18
fiscal year budgets have a
shadow looming over them in
the form of Oregon public em-
ployees retirement System
rate increases.
perS officials say rising rates
won’t be an anomaly, continu-
ing for the foreseeable future.
ella Curran Food Bank
feeds thousands: patty nevue
is just about to her one-year
anniversary as director of the
ella Curran Food Bank.
She has seen the ebb and
flow of the donation cycle, and
said the food bank — and all
who use it — is blessed to have
so much support from the
community year-round.
nevue took the job from pat
Jaffer in January 2016. She said
she was surprised to see the
scope of people served by the
food bank.
Snow leaves schools on
thin ice: With more than aver-
age snow in early 2017, school
THE NEXT
7
DAYS
PLANNING
FOR YOUR
WEEK
Dallas PD
brings
Christmas
cheer
itemizer-Observer staff report
DallaS — Thanks to an
anonymous donation, the
Dallas police Department
made Christmas a little
merrier for 50 local fami-
lies.
Inspired by a story
about a donation made in
another community, a
member of a long-term
Dallas family gave a
$5,000 donation to the
Dallas police Department.
The donor — who wished
to remain anonymous —
asked that the money be
used to help families in
need and distributed
through Dallas police offi-
cers.
The donation was bro-
ken into $100 gift cards to
Walmart. Dallas police offi-
cers were given the cards
and assigned the task of
giving them to families or
individuals who needed a
little extra help. Officers
began handing them out
on Dec. 1. The last two
were given away on Dec.
22.
“The donation from a
family in our community
was very generous and
made a real difference for
50 families,” Dallas police
Chief Tom Simpson said in
a press release about the
donation. “In addition, it
was a fun and rewarding
experience for our officers
who very much appreciat-
ed the honor and oppor-
tunity to distribute the
donor’s gifts to various
community members.”
The giveaway was kept
quiet until it was com-
plete. Simpson issued a
statement on Saturday
about the donation and
the impact it had.
“We would like to ex-
press our sincere thanks to
our ‘Secret Santa’ who
helped make this season a
little brighter for several
others,” Simpson said. “I’ll
add my personal apprecia-
tion to our hard-working
officers who enthusiasti-
cally took the extra time
and effort to help make
this a successful endeavor.”
ODVA awards
grant to
universities
STephanIe BlaIr/Itemizer-Observer file
One of the highlights of 2017 was the Great American eclipse on Aug. 21. Crowds gathered at riverview Park.
districts began to wonder if
they’d have to make up snow
days. perrydale School District
has called three snow days,
which exceeds the two snow
days built into the schedule.
perrydale will make up one
day.
Central School District has
called three snow days (the
Wednesday, Thursday and Fri-
day before Christmas break)
but should still meet the hours
requirement if there are no
more snow days.
See Year in review, Page 3A
wed
thu
fri
sat
sun
Join other pickleball
enthusiasts across
from roger Jordan
park each Wednes-
day for a healthy
game.
9 a.m.-noon. Free.
James2 Community
Kitchen provides a
meal to all who are
hungry at Dallas
United Methodist
Church.
4:30-6 p.m. Free.
Kick off the new
Year’s weekend with
the musicians at
Guthrie park Music
Jam, on Kings Valley
highway.
6:30-10 p.m. Free.
It’s a great day to
clean out a closet or
two to make room
for the new things
and donate the old
before year’s end.
Free.
This new Year’s eve,
make sure you
arrange for trans-
portation if you
make alcohol part of
your celebrations.
Don’t drink and drive.
Rain
Hi: 45
Lo: 39
Rain
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Lo: 41
Rain
Hi: 50
Lo: 40
Cloudy
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Lo: 36
Cloudy
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Lo: 37
SaleM — The Oregon
Department of Veterans’
affairs awarded grants to-
taling $1 million this week
to expand campus veteran
resource centers at 14 of
Oregon’s public universi-
ties and community col-
leges, including Western
Oregon University.
The purpose of the
Campus Veteran resource
Center Grant program is to
augment existing re -
sources by funding inno-
vative and impactful proj-
ects or programs.
mon
happy new Year!
The Itemizer-Ob-
server’s office is
closed today in
honor of the new
Year. May it be a
year filled with joy.
Cloudy
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Lo: 33
tue
northWest Senior
and Disability Serv-
ices will offer a bilin-
gual dining center
at Monmouth Sen-
ior Center.
11:30 a.m. Free.
Showers
Hi: 47
Lo: 35