Sitting at a desk is nearly impossible for many high school students. And for some, it’s the biggest barrier to graduation – unless rescue arrives in the form of hands-on education. 
         
Just ask some community leaders whose academic disinterest once nearly crushed them: a board member from Central School District, a Polk County Commissioner, a Portland-based expert on learning outcomes who earned his doctorate from the University of California (UC), Berkeley -- but only after being saved from high-school boredom by getting involved in building and construction.
         
It comes as no surprise to any in this trio that students who have a hard time with traditional school are finding success at a program in Independence that provides a different route for getting an education. 

Located in a wing of the Henry Hill Education Building on 5th Street, it’s a hub of the Community Services Consortium (CSC), and twice a year it has a graduation ceremony for youth and young adults who otherwise might have fallen through the system’s cracks.  (See sidebar for more information about CSC.)

The Polk County CSC has multiple “partners” -- Central High School, the City of Independence, Oregon State University and Western Oregon University (WOU), among others -- and it’s helmed by Mona K-Hinds, who has been “in and out of education,” as she puts it, for all of her adult life.

From helping such entrants to clinch their general-equivalency diploma (GED) to assisting them in finding a professional course they’d like to follow, it’s work that is fulfilling but takes a lot of energy, said K-Hinds, adding that she plans to retire within the next couple of years.

There are currently about 100 youth or young adults in the program, ranging from the teen who wasn’t fulfilled in public education to one who suffers from anxiety by being in a traditional classroom. K-Hinds sees herself as a coach – she’s not a teacher, she said.

At the CSC hub, which is down the hall from the administrative offices of the Central School District 13J, there's a “maker space” with robotic equipment, including a 3-D printer, designed to ignite both the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of youth who use it. The facility also houses the lab for STREAM, an acronym for a place that mixes science, technology, reading, engineering, art and math. 

Acquiring skills by using the maker space and the lab can prepare participants for a workforce that increasingly asks for familiarity with technology that very first day on the job, K-Hinds explained. 
         
Covid put a damper on high activity in that maker space, which ordinarily buzzes like a hive, “but we are slowly reopening the space and creating smaller cohorts of people to do so safely,” said Josh Hjelmberg, the technology teacher at CSC who has managed the STREAM Lab maker space since the fall of 2018.  
         
Across the street, CSC has created a youth and community garden, where urban farming is done in raised beds. The harvest usually goes directly to one of two places: For donation, such as to the Ella Curran Food Bank, or for cooking classes in culinary arts. 
         
From learning a trade, such as masonry, to mastering restaurant cooking, the program has helped many students with challenges that can make it difficult to fit into a regular school setting; It has been described as a "life raft" by those who have seen it change lives.  
            
“We have a great partnership with CSC in supporting students that may struggle in a traditional public school,” said Jennifer Kubista, superintendent of Central School District 13J. “Our partnership has allowed students to not only earn their GED, but also continued to give students a pathway to earn their high school diploma based on our current model,” she said, adding: “We look forward to the continued partnership for the success of students.”

K-Hinds, who was named “outstanding senior” during her college days at WOU under the change-agent President Richard Meyers, became a “WOU ambassador” as an undergraduate, thanks in part to Meyers’ mentorship. Eventually, he named her director of student development for WOU.
             
Along the way to Polk County's CSC, K-Hinds was a senior director within Mary Kay Cosmetics, becoming such a successful saleswoman she earned a candy-apple red car. However, the lure of education kept recurring. After wearing several other job-related hats, including becoming the first woman president of the Monmouth-Independence Chamber of Commerce, she helped launch CSC in Polk County, a public non-profit anti-poverty agency that’s part of a nationwide network aimed to connect residents with resources. 
 
Polk County Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst said he considers K-Hinds remarkable in her efforts with at-risk youth, and he can relate to them. “Books and studying just weren't my thing," Mordhorst recalled. "Sitting at a desk -- I struggled with that," he added. The opportunity for such training is critical, he said. 
 
What made Mordhorst’s own high-school experience successful was his chance to learn a trade, specifically how to butcher and cut meat. Upon graduation, a grocery store hired him. That first job out of school can be hard to get, and training makes it so much easier, he said. "What's the first question you're asked? What kind of experience have you had?" Mordhorst observed.
 
Mordhorst, whose adult career primarily was spent as a manager at Les Schwab, was promoted to that position within eight years after joining the company. He attributes the swift rise to his work ethic, willingness to learn and self-motivating behavior, as well as the knowledge he acquired about tires, wheels and automotive know-how, he said.  

Central District School Board member Jerry Shinkle said he couldn’t agree more. Desk-sitting in class wasn’t his learning style either – he loved mechanical equipment. That kind of vocational learning propelled him all the way through California’s Fresno State as an agriculture major and, eventually, to UC Davis, where he got a teaching degree. 
 
As a teacher, he believed in offering experiential training, from learning how to run backhoes to bulldozers. However, “cost can be a substantial barrier,” he pointed out. 
 
But dollars aren’t the only stumbling block. As Oregon embarks on ramping up career and technical education (CTE), it will be a “heavy lift,” according to the new Oregon CTE policy guide, published by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) last summer. “The career exploration system across Oregon’s K-!2 landscape may be best described as a hodgepodge of programs, policies and practices that lack alignment across levels and often fail in preparing students from the critical transition from one schooling level to the next,” the guide states. 
  
Increased engagement in school by participants in CTE is one benefit. However, there are other significant advantages, said Steve Klein, who is part of a team consulting with the ODE to strengthen CTE programs of study development and promote more inclusive CTE across the state. 
 
By helping nail down what activities seem a good fit, the likelihood of "youth milling around” in the labor force without an idea of what they want to do as a career declines -- and the ability to make good professional choices improves, he said. 
 
Klein, whose graduate work was done at UC Berkeley, said that he found high school fairly boring a lot of the time, just as many current high school students do. Thirty years later, he’s still doing the kind of woodworking that kept him so engaged during those days. 
 
“We have to be careful about our messaging," said Klein, director of learning design and development for Portland-based Education Northwest, which helps schools and educational agencies improve learning outcomes through applied research and customized technical assistance. 
 
CTE has been a frequent topic at Central District School Board meetings, sometimes mentioned by Shinkle and discussed often by Kubista as well. 
 
CTE is "for everyone," not just youth at risk for dropping out of high school, Klein stressed. It gives students the opportunity for "authentic experiences," to explore different tasks and different jobs, he said. 
 
"We watch TV shows and think we know what work in a career entails," he explained. One result: college graduates who've sunk years and money preparing for a work life -- only to find that they don’t actually like the job for which they prepared. "We have to move away from this academic 'lock step' on the path to college," he said.

In a recently published study, Klein and two colleagues found that students who earned one or more class credits in CTE graduated from high school at higher rates than their counterparts without equivalent time spent in CTE. These students also had similar college enrollment rates within 16 months after graduation and, among those who enrolled, similar rates of college completion.On a recent day at CSC, a young man stopped in to meet with K-Hinds after deciding he wanted a way to seek wider employment opportunities. At the STREAM lab maker space, Hjelmberg supervised a user on one of the machines. Across the street, Nichole Rose, the youth garden crew leader, gave a tour of the garden to a visitor, calling it an outdoor classroom with a sense of temporary but private ownership.

At any time, there are three to a half dozen participants who get their own raised garden bed and learn how to grow everything from year-round kale to seasonal herbs, like rosemary, using "perma-culture" principles, she said.
 
They can visit any time they like, just to sit when they need the space to do so or to manage feelings, she explained. "Weeds are really good for that," she said. "You can just pull them when angry and it really helps,” said Rose, 
         
"I view gardening (for the youth) as a platform for life," said Rose, who has raised five children with the youngest two now in their teens. Everyone, including adolescents, can learn from tending a garden, she said – one lesson quite literally is that “you reap what you sow.”

A few blocks away, looking new and unsullied, was the sidewalk where Rose also served as a crew leader in a joint project that laid a concrete walkway by Berean Baptist Church. The program was funded in part by Independence, with technical oversight support from Allied Drilling and Concrete, as well as help from Willamette Workforce Partnership, which pairs businesses with this kind of opportunity. The project eventually was presented to the Independence City Council by Jamaika Quiring, who previously worked in culinary arts at CSC but then assisted with the sidewalk construction.
  
It is a struggle, at times, to keep all the “moving parts” in alliance, K-Hinds confessed. However, she’s happy to have such a robust program, especially now that she plans to leave it, she said. “When I got here, there was just a pile of dusty chairs.”

SIDEBAR: Information on the Community Services Consortium 
The Community Services Consortium (CSC) in Polk County is only one of many programs and locations of CSC operating across Linn, Benton, Lincoln and Polk counties. Headquarters are located in downtown Albany in the Two Rivers Market on Broadalbin Street.
     
The program in Polk County – often referred to simply as “CSC” – is part of a much larger CSC, a community action agency serving 75,000 community members annually providing services for housing, employment, education, food, energy services and other public needs across the region. 

By Anne Scheck

Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton hasn’t solved the risk of ensnaring trees at a part of the Willamette River that took one life and nearly claimed another over the past two years, but it’s not for lack of trying.

In an ongoing battle against the submerged trees at a spot between Buena Vista and Independence, branches have been cut away to reduce the threat of entangling limbs. Signs have been posted warning boaters to take a different route by Wells Island, a finger-shaped islet north of Buena Vista.

 “I am not sure how much that helped," said Garton. "As we were pounding in those signs last year, people came right by us (in boats), past the warning signs." 
           
At a time when far more trees have toppled into the river as a result of this winter’s ice storm, there is no extra money allocated for safety patrols during the peak summer months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Garton noted. And he’s worried.

Last August, deputies responsible for patrolling waters of the area rescued a young boy who became trapped in the unseen tree branches while floating down the river on an inner tube. He was exhausted and cold by the time he was taken out, Garton recalled. The year before, a woman in the same place wasn't so lucky -- she died while caught in the tangle, lodged below the surface despite wearing a life jacket.

The middle stretch of the Willamette River, which includes Independence, has become more heavily used during the pandemic in good weather, and it is expected to attract the same numbers or higher this summer. “Boaters and floaters,” as they’re called, are using shorefront launches from Riverview Park with more frequency, as evidenced by pop-up kayak vendors last summer.  Some traveled further south by car, to put out at Buena Vista, for an upward drift to Independence.

This kind of paddle-sport tourism has grown by “leaps and bounds,” according to Shawn Irvine, economic development director for Independence, who made the comment at a recent meeting of the city’s Parks and Recreation Board.

As a result, new “river steps” are being proposed – a 10-to-12 foot walk by the Independence Hotel at the terminus of C Street. It would be an “easy pathway” to a launch site, he said. The plan also was shared with the Independence City Council at a work session on capital improvement last week.

Asked about the growing popularity of the river in relation to the possible perils, Irvine observed that “it's important for anyone planning to recreate on a river to be aware of potential hazards before their trip and stay alert during their trip to avoid them.” 
 
As it stands now, full patrol coverage of the river by Independence and the surrounding area is provided Thursdays through Sundays during the summer; The sheriff's office has only four available watercraft, two boats and two jet skis, for patrolling. That no longer seems adequate -- more people have been using the nearby river for outdoor recreation than ever before, said Patrol Commander Lieutenant Dustin Newman.

There have been increased close calls along the stretch between Salem and Buena Vista. “The safety and well-being of all citizens and visitors is very important to us,” Newman said. “The Polk County Sheriff's Office will continue to look for ways to make the river a fun and safe place to recreate,” he added.
           
Wells Island is where at least a half dozen rescues have been necessary this past year. So, at the site, the Marine Board has provided signage that clearly warns against taking the route. "Often times when people put in at Buena Vista County Park, the current takes them down the west channel which is immediately downstream of the access," said Brian Paulsen, boating safety waterways coordinator for the Oregon State Marine Board.

“The main river channel, which is on the east side of Wells Island or river, right as you approach the island, is the safer side for boaters to navigate,” he stressed.
           
Funding for the patrols comes from the Oregon State Marine Board -- the county receives the money on a pass-through basis.                                                                    

Dangerous trees are part of Willamette River’s history, and early records indicate that trees below the water stopped many vessels during a period in which riverboats served as a main means of transportation between what is now Corvallis and Portland. In the mid-1850s, one of the most famous of these early steamboats, the Oregon, sunk after hitting just such a snag, an event reported nearly a century after it happened by the late author Randall V. Mills of Eugene.
                  
Almost 50 years after Mills wrote about these great steamboats, state river maps and guides warned of the same kind of obstructions, advising that if words like “snag” were printed on charts in vertical letters, it meant the wood could be seen above water, and slanted letters indicated the pile was below the surface, perhaps invisible. Today, the Marine Board has an online, interactive map that provides the same information – alerts for recreational boaters.
                              
Trees may be a navigational obstruction for any boater, but inner tubing can be particularly challenging to navigate due the lack of a paddle, Paulsen pointed out. Many who use inner tubes or any other pool-toy types of flotation, coupled with inexperience, are often “at the mercy of where the current takes them – they don’t have the same level of control as paddling or a motorized craft provides,” he explained.

Learning safety techniques is essential, according to Rob Blickensderfer, who’s known as one of the founding fathers of kayaking in Oregon. Since he began in 1963, he’s been emphasizing the need for proper training. This past June, Blickensderfer published “River Tales,” a collection of accounts from kayakers, canoers and rafters, including one about an encounter with a tree-root wad on the Willamette River.
 
Profits from the book go to a scholarship fund for an annual two-day safety workshop by the Willamette Kayak and Canoe Club, which will be held this year in Eugene. “I highly encourage all boaters to take ‘Safety Weekend’ or its equivalent early in their boating careers and periodically thereafter,” Blickensderfer said, reiterating the importance of knowing procedures that can help prevent accidents.

Removal can be a solution to extraordinary tree hazards, but trees can be extremely difficult to abolish. For example, the spot near Wells island is extremely hard to access and has significant current -- mitigation would require heavy equipment for eradication, making removal infeasible, according to personnel from both the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Marine Board.

There are other reasons that complicate tree riddance in rivers: Fallen trees and logs in the Willamette River are helpful for all kinds of fish, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).

“They provide cover from predators such as osprey, eagles, and otters,” explained Alex Farrand, assistant district biologist for the ODFW region stretching from Salem to Eugene. “They slow down the velocity of the river and create eddies and other areas of slow-moving water so fish can conserve energy.”               
                                      
Wood debris can create different flow patterns, even new channels, where juvenile fish species can thrive, he added.  It can turn a relatively simple river channel -- with habitats fit for only a few species -- into a complex system, where many more species of fish and other aquatic organisms are able to live, he said. Additionally, wood increases sediment, which allows for more subsurface flow, which in turn can recharge the groundwater. 

More than a century ago, Samuel Sampson wrote the iconic poem “Beautiful Willamette,” describing a river “leaping like a child at play” and dancing in tiny ripples. Sheriff Garton sees it from a different perspective.
            
The river often looks placid but there are currents and undertows -- and, along with the likelihood of more trees this year, there is danger, he said. "I have seen people with children who are down there (on the shore) and the kids are walking out into the water," Garton said. "I worry about that, too," he said.

CIVICS LESSON: Measuring the Worth of a Museum: It's Complicated 

Commentary by Anne Scheck

Before Covid-19 meant widespread closures of public spaces, a journal called "Museum Management and Curatorship" frequently published articles on how to measure the use and level of appreciation of museums. Around the time the city decided to move its own Heritage Museum from an old church to downtown, some Independence residents were calling for the same kind of analysis at the local museum. However, such determinations aren't easy, as  publications in the journal show.

How do you judge engagement and enjoyment? And for critics of the move by the Heritage Museum -- likely to be close to $1 million by the time the relocation is complete -- is it fair to make a claim that the museum is very rarely widely used when it has been off-limits to so many people due to the inaccessibility of hard-to-navigate interior stairs? As for supporters, is it right to condemn detractors out of a sense of passion and loyalty to history, without deep regard for the potential fiscal impact? In the above-mentioned journal, Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Art Gallery, grappled with what the future may mean, when doors are re-opened but in a different world than the one of the pre-pandemic years. "And then when we do settle on the other side of this pandemic, who knows what our ‘new normal’ might be?" she asked. "How might our audiences’ needs and expectations change? Will our structures and operations change? How might our impact change?" It may be that museums will be packed with pent-up demand for visitors, or that the opposite could occur. Ms. Feldman seems to call for a flexible response -- and she apparently is taking a wait-and-see attitude, a seemingly good plan.

INDY HOP: SPRING SWINGS THOUGH IN SQUIRRELLY WAY 

Don't squirrels in Independence seem a lot more visible this spring? It's been speculated that the ice storm, which stripped  trees, caused more of their general scampering about. Several residents have wondered if roofs crashed by trees have created opportunities for the small furry creatures to take up residence in attics. The answer remains unknown, although it is the nesting season for several species of these little mammals and the Portland Audubon has posted a brief primer for helping deter the ones who sneak upstairs. "Place a radio set to a talk station in close proximity to the denning area," it advises. This is an effective method for causing a squirrel to leave because, apparently, human talk is annoying. Also, a one-way door "can be made very simply or purchased commercially," and once the squirrel exits for foraging, it seals tight, barring a return. For those who want to know what squirrel footprints look like, as opposed to those of other rodents, CascadiaWild has just completed it's annual photo contest of squirrel tracks (https://www.cascadiawild.org). The competition can be found on the website, appropriately titled, "Squirrelling Around."  --AS

Lines of people walked through Central High’s football field under a clear black sky Saturday night, in an outpouring of appreciation to show how much Van Holstad meant to them, how much he will be missed by the community that he served for so well and so long.  We were there to remember Mr. Holstad, a man who’s impossible to forget. As a coach and teacher at Central High School, his educational legacy will stretch far into the future, in the indelible impact he made on students.  But he affected many others deeply, too. I count myself among them. 

I met Mr. Holstad about a dozen years ago, when his wrestling team and my daughter’s swim team were feted one afternoon in an awards ceremony that I thought was a little too informal even for our small community.

Mr. Holstad and I sat at cafeteria tables and watched while the student athletes were presented their honors with what I considered an inappropriately low level of fanfare. It reminded me of my days on the high-school debate team, when trumpets blared for football players on morning announcements over the pubic-address system, but the debate squad’s successes were relegated to the last thing said before the sign-off, if our wins were included at all. 
 
But Mr. Holstad immediately lightened my mood that day with his general enthusiasm, and even more importantly, the way he and his young team interacted – making the time and place so much more special than I thought it would be. He was clearly adored, but he clearly adored being there. The tone he set was infectious, and soon I was clapping and whooping for kids I didn’t even know. 

Some teachers are popular with students because they blend so easily with them. Mr. Holstad wasn’t one of those—he was the A-plus adult role model, a figure regarded as an example of what a great grown-up could be. Nowhere was this more in evidence than the annual meetings of the Independence City Council that were held in the high school auditorium. It struck me he ought to be up there on the dais, too. 
 
Mr. Holstad was so simply and so reliably who he was, no matter where he was: Authentically Van the Man, whether he was speaking to a student, to a parent, to a fellow teacher or to a stranger. 
 
He never talked down to anyone, and I probably deserved it. We’d run into each other from time to time, and I’d always flag him down. It never occurred to me that this might be intrusive. My defense is that there are surprisingly few people who can make a chance encounter in a store parking lot or at a local gas station seem like such a stroke of good luck. Mr. Holstad had that effect. 

The great basketball coach John Wooden once said that “if you’re true to yourself you’re going to be true to everyone else.” It always struck me when I saw Mr. Holstad that his character was so ingrained that he didn’t know how to be any other way. True to himself was his natural state. 
 
Thank you for everything, Mr. Holstad. You touched so many lives here, and left us able to always feel your warm spirit. 

--Anne Scheck

By Anne Scheck

For 50 elementary school students in Central School District 13J, the possibility of sharing a classroom with other children became a reality last week, a moment anticipated for months after pandemic precautions made distance learning their only form of public education.

“Excited but nervous” is the way one mom described it, standing in front of Independence Elementary School – a view seconded by another mother nearby. However, for some parents, even carefully laid protocols to help ensure safety from the spread of the coronavirus aren’t enough – not yet anyway.
One of them is Josh Cronin, a dad with a new baby who is co-parenting a kindergarten-aged daughter from a previous marriage. He thinks it’s far better to finish the school year in remote learning and to spend the summer preparing for a return to in-person instruction.

Since Cronin’s infant daughter is frequently under the care of her grandmother, he worries about the risk of possible transmission if his older daughter goes into regular classes.

“I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have all school staff vaccinated and, at the very least, have senior citizens vaccinated, before returning to in-person schooling,” he said, adding: “That protects our most vulnerable and it’s very realistic that we can have those people vaccinated within the next two months.”

Cronin, who works for the U.S. Postal Service, is far from alone in his view. About a dozen parents like him have written to Central District 13J to express similar opinions, according to Emily Mentzer, communications coordinator for the school district. That’s about as many who have written in favor of school re-opening, she said.

But parents who don’t want to send their children back into school buildings haven’t been as visible: None seem to have testified at school board meetings, according to a recent review of those sessions.

In contrast, those who have advocated for lifting the school closures have publicly aired their views – and not just at school board meetings. A rally that called for district-wide school reopening was held recently; Parents and students carried signs at four corners of Monmouth Street by Central High School. 

They pointed to prioritizing vaccines for teachers, which made the shots available in recent weeks, and to infection-fighting measures that have been shown to be effective against the coronavirus spread.

But some parents remain unconvinced. “My kids are not going back for sure,” said Felix Oliveros, who lost his grandfather to COVID-19. He’s watched the epidemic “become politicized,” he said. “This has prevented our community to do what is necessary to keep everyone safe,” explained Oliveros, who is head academic advisor for the Arts and Graphic Design programs in the School of Arts and Communication at Oregon State University.

 “There are so many people that still do not wear masks,” he observed. “It would be impossible to know how many students are living in homes that do not practice safety measures,’’ he said.

The reopening – which involves small groups and limited in-person instruction – seems applicable largely at the elementary level, at least so far. It isn’t quite the “hybrid model” widely discussed at school board meetings in past months. Instead, it differs somewhat in restrictions on hours and cohort sizes. Additionally, it also means that some learning is still home-based.

The program arrives at a time when there has been recent optimism on the part of county health authorities about “school metrics” – infection rates that are used to assess the feasibility of a return to more traditional education. From early January until right before the district’s elementary Schools opened their doors again, the “positivity rate” was 6.7%.

“It’s trending downward,” observed Jacqui Umstead, Polk County’s public health administrator, who announced the findings at the last meeting of the Polk County Board of Commissioners.

Oliveros doesn’t dispute the data. However, though infection rates seem to have gone down, by re-opening schools the risk could rise again. “We are risking the lives of community members that live in multi-generational households,” Oliveros said, adding that, in his family, this is common.
         
In fact, the school district had to take decisive action after an outbreak last fall, near mid-November. The spread, which was linked to an off-site gathering of the youth, prompted a shutdown of extracurricular activities that lasted till nearly the end of that month.

"We know the impact that a pause on extracurricular activities has for our students, staff, programs and our community,” said Central High’s Principal Donna Servignat, in a statement about the incident posted by the district. In it, she also expressed gratitude that “our students were transparent with us about their symptoms and health status."

Since then, Superintendent Jennifer Kubista has reiterated that she wants an approach that would reduce the possibility of what is known as a “societal disappointment cycle,” a situation in which schools suddenly are shut down when positive cases surface. The district wants to avoid that “as much as possible,” she said during a recent school board meeting. 
        
However, one local educator isn’t certain this won’t happen, anyway. “All across the nation, where schools have opened up, they then engage in a see-saw of opening and closing as inevitably someone catches COVID-19,” said Melanie Landon-Hays, associate professor of literacy at Western Oregon University’s College of Education.
       
“Research has shown over and over again – pre-pandemic -- that children benefit from a stable environment where they can anticipate changes and feel safe,” she said. Bringing students back to schools amid the virus and before vaccination is complete, could mean children “will be caught in this loop that has been seen in other schools across the nation,” she said.
 
“Even limited in-person school does not provide the benefits of what students have known as school, and it does not negate the harms of the inevitable instabilities of a still-spreading virus,” she said.
  
In schools that have reopened for limited in-person instruction, Gov. Kate Brown has announced “resumption of outdoor contact school sports, with protocols in place,” according to her latest news release.

Some parents worry that such directives don’t leave enough room for teachers’ decision-making. “Another concern is for our teachers,” Oliveros said. “I don’t believe that by the middle of this month that all teachers will have both doses of the vaccine, as well as the time to have the full effect of both doses.”
   
In fact, this past week, the Oregon Health Authority announced the discovery of four “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 -- cases in which an individual tested positive for COVID-19 at least 14 days after completing their vaccination series.
           
Asked about limited in-person instruction, teacher Ben Gorman, president of the Central Education Association (CEA) for 2020, referred to a statement from the executive council of the CEA. It concludes: “We remain committed to serving all students of the Central School District in a way that keeps them as safe as possible while also providing for their social, emotional, and academic needs.”

  By Anne Scheck

A band of citizens intent on returning fireworks to the Fourth of July in this riverside city is doing it the way the first American flag was created – with something old, something new and in colors of red, white and blue.
                    
When Betsy Ross, who ran an upholstery business in 1776, was given a diagram of the flag, she famously told George Washington she had an easier way to make the stars. With a single snip of her scissors, she showed him how a five-point star could replace the six-pointed ones.  
          
Scaling back while maintaining the initial design of Independence’s signature holiday is just what a small cohort of volunteers is doing, too. The sky-high spectacle will be the same but presented differently this year. Still, the show follows the original pattern.

"This year our focus will be on bringing back fireworks," said Janice Thompson, chair of the Independence Days Commission, which is laying the plans. The idea, still being ironed out, is to have attendees see the pyrotechnics from parked cars, somewhat similar to the way pop-up drive-in movies were conducted last summer.

"I'm passionate about making sure everyone is able to go," said Thompson, who has been helming the group for the past decade. Keeping entrance fees low is a challenge, she said, but the commission is determined to do so. No one should have to forego the event due to financial strain, she said. One citizen, Dave White -- a fan of the annual night-time illuminations -- couldn't agree more. "Last year was the worst Fourth of July ever that I remember," he said. "Bring back the fireworks!"

 How can fewer than a dozen determined volunteers pull this off during a pandemic? "We are a small, well-oiled group," Thompson stressed. Another goal is a parade and, for social-distancing purposes, it may wind through neighborhoods for porch and driveway viewings – not follow the usual route of Monmouth Street.  
The overall aim is to help families celebrate together, "carrying on the tradition, building memories," Thompson pointed out.
           
“We hope to involve as many neighborhoods as possible,” said Independence City Councilor Shannon Corr, the council’s liaison to the Independence Days Commission. The event last year had no fireworks. It was staged in small “block parties,” which didn’t seem to confer the same city-wide spirit and “were an enormous amount of work,” Corr said. Also, it became clear that residents were “starved for the fireworks,” she said.

That’s the view echoed in downtown on a recent Saturday. When shoppers were asked about the special July weekend, they said they missed both the fireworks and the parade last year. However, many said they would like to see some of the substitutes adopted to deal with the coronavirus – old-time games that allowed children to social-distance with squirt guns and water-balloon tosses – made a permanent part of the program.

In past years, the Fourth of July has drawn throngs of tourists to Independence. However, studies by social scientists have shown that this holiday can be vitally important to the local population, establishing cross-town unity. In a study published a few years ago in the Journal of Politics, celebrations like the Fourth of July – nonpartisan, multi-generational festivities – were found to have a special bonding effect on communities, fortifying a feeling of universal camaraderie.

The heightened sense of national identity can help heal political divides, because “they come to see members of the opposing party as fellow Americans rather than rival partisans,” wrote Matthew Levendusky, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, in his article "Americans, Not Partisans: Can Priming American National Identity Reduce Affective Polarization?”
           
“Sociologists have long recognized the functional significance of collective ritual in both modern and early modern society,” agreed Peter Callero, professor of sociology at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. Among the most recognizable of these are annual town festivals, parades and school sports, all performed in a public space, he said. When widely inclusive, “collective rituals, such as parades, function to establish a collective identity, produce a shared meaning and enhance community solidarity,” he added.

The Independence fireworks will be different this year, that’s for certain, noted Nathan Junior, owner of Musical Independence on Main Street. "But it's to our advantage to plan for another covid-informed Fourth of July," said Junior, who’s also on the Independence Days Commission.
           
Junior’s vivid memories of Independence’s special holiday date back decades, while he was growing up in Salem. Since he moved to town a few years ago, after spending 20 years in Portland, he’s looked forward to the Fourth of July. Last year, he installed the sound system at locations for the block parties for a fireworks-free celebration; This year, he’ll help with the effort to put the colorful display back in the sky. 
           
“I am all for it,” said Polk County Commissioner Mike Ainsworth, who likened the Independence celebration to a town reunion. Some who grew up in the area, including his daughter Jena, come back for it every year. “What is more important than America’s birthday?” he asked.

The same sentiment was expressed at American Legion Post 33 in Independence. “I will always support celebrations of our freedom and the blessings this country has in being free,” said Billy Whisenant, an active member of the post and a combat veteran. However, the proposed celebration should comply with recommendations for safety “to help protect everyone from possible infection of a deadly disease,” Whisenant said.

Neal Olson, deputy chief for Polk County Fire District No. 1, who also serves on the Independence Days Commission, noted that planning is still in flux. “We are taking into account social distancing, limiting spectator crowd size, as well as finding a location that is highly visible for the community and fire safe,” he said.  
           
Independence Police Chief Robert Mason weighed in with reassurance when asked about the plans so far. “As I understand it, they are considering this ‘drive-in display’ venue to be the sports park off Deann Drive,” he stated. So, parking shouldn’t be a problem, he said. “The city has a lot of potential parking in that area,” he noted, adding: “There will be congestion for sure, but with one way in, and one way out, it will just be a waiting game and we would plan appropriately.”
           
As the Independence Days Commission moves forward to finalize a program that will resume fireworks, it seems a step ahead of the place where it all began. A call to the White House revealed that plans for the Fourth of July at the nation’s capital are still considered "very fluid" due to Covid-19. Asked about whether specific alternatives are being sought, a staff member stated that it is "way too early to know that answer."

The same inquiry to Thompson, who heads the Independence Days Commission, drew a different response. Commission members, who have developed an ease in communicating through friendly back-and-forth discussions about the Fourth of July, are "fine-tuning the details on logistics that can make it happen," she said.

By Anne Scheck

Second only to the frequent inquiry by people about whether fireworks are returning to Independence this Fourth of July is the burning question – make that the deep-fried question – of whether elephant ears are going to be available, too.  
           
Speculating on the overwhelming desire for this carnival food, Janice Thompson, chair of the Independence Days Commission, explained the reason elephant ears are such a vital part of the city’s holiday tradition. "They're thicker, fluffier, just the best elephant ears," she said.
           
In fact, the vendor at the city’s Fourth of July makes them “with a little more love,” agreed Aaron Wimer, also a member of the Independence Days Commission. “Their line every year has more than a four-hour wait,” Wimer said, adding that those big blobs of sugary fried dough seem to come with some “bragging rights,” as well. There’s real pride in clinching the pastry after making it through the horrendously long line, Wimer noted.

Elephant ears, otherwise known by their fancier French name, palmier, are really the result of an ultra-sweetening process applied to a Native American recipe for fried bread. The ones sold at fairs are much more robust than a classic palmier – huge, smothered in sugar and made from roll-out dough.        

“Interestingly, people often get funnel cake and elephant ears mixed up because they are similar fair foods,” observed Susan Graham, a tax attorney in Independence who’s known as a local culinary aficionado. “Funnel cake is different because it’s made from a thin batter, whereas elephant ears are made from a yeasted dough,” she explained.
           
Most people have no idea why they’re so good, except that they satisfy a sweet tooth like nothing else. When Monte Campbell, circuit judge for Polk County, learned that elephant ears were coming back, along with Independence Day fireworks, he pronounced the sugar-laden treat “really, really good.”
           
“Sugar, grease, bread – it doesn’t get any better than that,” said the judge, rendering the final verdict on elephant ears.

Polk County File Cabinet
 
Occasional news from Polk County government 
of presumed interest to Independence residents 
 
OUR MAN AT & IN THE 
COUNTY'S TREASURY
Steve Milligan, who voters selected for county treasurer in the last election, took office with ... no office. It was the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a time of refurbishment and construction on the courthouse. And Milligan was, for a while, a man without a desk. He got one, eventually, in a windowless office in a historic part of the building. Here he is in his office, at his computer. 

By Anne Scheck


The long and challenging year of 2020 is finally history, but some lesser-known happenings may influence the year ahead. Though not as newsworthy as coronavirus-related issues, these matters nonetheless have prompted a few predictions for the new year, thanks to findings from local experts. 

Do they reflect trends that will be seen throughout the state? It’s possible. From the sudden “smitten by a kitten” movement to recent results showing that potholes are far from the most pressing problem on city streets, Independence may lead the way in municipal forecasting. 

Abandoned vehicles are proving to be a public concern.
Though the pothole in front of the Independence Civic Center has sparked comment, probably because it is noticeable to anyone dropping by with a utility payment, potholes are far from the most common complaint to the city’s handy app for reporting citizen worries, Indy Works. Streets with cracked indentions may look like homes for tiny tadpole after a downpour, but Indy Works recorded far more car-associated calls. There were only three notifications for potholes compared with 58 for abandoned vehicles, according to Jason Kistler, the city’s information technology manager.
 
“Many of these abandoned auto complaints are regarding vehicles not being moved for time periods that range from weeks to months,” explained Robert Mason, chief of police for Independence. Calls came in for trailers, boats and recreational vehicles left on the street, as well as vehicles with missing parts, such as the lack of an engine.
 
Sometimes safety concerns prompt the contact. A vehicle parked close to a corner, stop sign or an intersection can block a driver’s field of vision, he said. “Our city code has language that a vehicle can’t remain unmoved on public property for more than72 hours, or on private property for seven days, with some exceptions,” Mason added.
 
Bend and Portland have reported the same challenging situation of inoperable or discarded automobiles. Is Independence a town that now reflects an identical trend in less-populated cities? It may be. Although unlawful abandoned vehicles are defined by Oregon statute, there’s apparently no mandate for cities to publish data on them. 
 
Increased cat litters are causing a feline adoption explosion.
The tail-end of 2020 validated a pet-producing prediction by Independence veterinarian Robert Archer DVM, who indicated weeks ago that more unplanned litters were likely, due to the fact that veterinarians weren’t allowed to perform spay or neuter surgeries for a period of months after the coronavirus surfaced.  A representative of Hillsboro-based “Cat’s Cradle Rescue” confirmed that Archer’s forecasting was precisely on target, at least when it comes to the baby feline population.
  
There’s been a huge rise in shelter kittens, but it’s been matched by the soaring desire for these young cats, according to recent animal adoption data. Some have referred to this response as the “kitten smitten” phenomena of the pandemic – rates of kitten adoptions are the highest they’ve been in years.
  
Adoptees in local homes need special protection, cautioned Joe Hillesum, known in his Monmouth neighborhood as the cat whisperer. Owners should put collars on cats with contact information, he said, noting that some can appear to need help when simply wandering around. He recently thwarted a well-intended cat- napping from a passer-by who mistook a mewing cat for lost and homeless. 

The past few months have seen far fewer missing cat alerts, if their absence on social media is an indicator. In fact,
at the Independence Airpark, there have been almost no such notifications, in contrast with past years when they were numerous. Asked about this unusual development, the president of the Independence Airpark Homeowners Association (IAHA) said he couldn’t speculate on the underlying reason.

“I really haven’t paid much attention to that sort of thing,” explained Gary Van Horn, who heads the IAHA board, adding that it’s “nice to hear, though.”
 
Independence trees are gaining new residential respect.
Independence has earned a “Tree City USA” designation by the Arbor Day Foundation for several years, but 2021 marks a leafy new turning point. A tree census conducted by city staff and volunteers identified each and every bark-bearing plant inside city limits.

At a recent meeting of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), members looked over maps and lists of trees – and some HPC members picked their favorite. Seemingly tied for the biggest “wow” by HPC was a large flower-producing Japanese Pagoda and a massively branched Sugar Maple.
 
But the census didn’t occur without some controversy: One resident objected that pine trees weren’t being given proper recognition for their historic importance to the ancient indigenous people of the area. And White Oak trees failed to incite any special notice, either, despite being the emblem of the Independence-based Luckiamute Watershed Council (LWC).

However, the LWC symbolized the tree’s significance by placing a White Oak sapling in the Luckiamute State Natural Area, just outside Independence, in celebration of the LWC’s millionth planting. The little tree, named “Garry,” was toasted with champagne by LWC members as a naturally beautiful example of Oregon’s finest.
   
Asked about how the historic relevance of trees is determined, Independence HPC board member Curtis Tidmore said he is perhaps the worst judge of that because, while he favors protecting the city’s tree canopy, he doesn’t think it should be done “under the auspices of historic preservation.”
 
“I’ve got a specimen dwarf evergreen in my front yard – probably one of the oldest of its kind in the state – but no one would ever think to include it,” he said. However, there does seem to be one tree in town that everyone agrees is historic. It’s at the entrance of Mt. Fir Park.
 
It’s grown from the seed of a Ginkgo tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in World War II. Known as the city’s “Hiroshima Ginkgo,” it was planted last year as the centerpiece for a section there called the peace garden. Just before New Year’s Eve, the plant was checked – and found to be thriving. 
 
Independence is joining the self-monitoring motorist movement.
This year, drivers in Independence will get a chance to see how fast they’re going -- the result of new digital speed signs located in different parts of the city. It’s true that all cars have a speedometer that gives that information, but a frequent response to Independence Police Officers at traffic stops is that the person behind the wheel had “no idea” the car was traveling at the rate it was clocked.
 
If funds permit it and the city’s traffic safety commission approves, signs ranging in price from about $3,400 to $4,500 will be considered for busy thoroughfares that include Hoffman and Stryker roads.

Research on the signs was done by Independence Police Officer Lance Inman, the city’s first motorcycle patrol officer. The units have the capability of using solar power, but perhaps not during what has been called Oregon’s misty “mushroom-growing” times.
 
Officer Inman, who carefully researched the digital sign options, helpfully included a coupon from the manufacturer that would take hundreds of dollars off the price tag. It expired in November, but there is no reason to presume that this officer won’t find and obtain another money-saving one this year, observed Robert Mason, chief of police for Independence. 
 
Will last year’s sudden fad of exercise-walking in the rain persist?
With gyms and workout centers closed, “rain walks” gained some traction in Independence. That’s good news to research scientist Abram Wagner, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
  
He and several colleagues published “The Impact of Weather on Summer and Winter Exercise Behaviors” in a science journal two years ago. “What we found is that even somewhat mild weather, like rain, would push some people to exercise indoors, but a lot of people to just stop exercising all together,” he said, adding that the findings made him hope that people would find ways to continue exercising even during the rainy season. As it turns out, some inveterate walkers in Independence did just that. 

“Proper rain gear gives us freedom from being inhibited by weather,” said Debra Plymate, a longtime pilot who’s accustomed to weather-watching. The pandemic shut exercise facilities but “when the rain is light, the wind is light,” why not go for a walk? she asked. Plymate, who spent many years as an air traffic controller, said reading the direction of the rain may be important.

 If rain is blowing sideways, “it’s probably a cold front, and the wind direction is from the south,” she said. So when walking, “turn south and walk into the wind on your way outbound for your walk, and it will be much better on the way back with the wind behind you.”

“If you walk with the wind behind on the first leg of your walk, you will be sorry on our way back,” she warned. Also, “don’t bother with an umbrella,” she added – just rely on good weather-proof outer-wear. Aside from that “attitude is everything,” she said, noting that picking a specific time and sticking to it, rain or shine, is important.

Wagner is thumbs-up on Plymate’s plan. “I like the idea of rain walks,” the researcher agreed. However, there’s nothing wrong with indoor exercise, which could include short Pilates or yoga videos from YouTube, he said.

The battle of pretty flowers versus native plants seems over.
It never really was a battle, of course – but along the creek-side path in Inspiration Garden, several regular visitors began asking if the master gardeners were ever going to beautify the banks by Ash Creek. After all, the area above, which once resembled the untamed landscape of a foreign planet, had been converted by them to eye-captivating beds of flowers and trees, from a rose garden to a fruit orchard.

As a result of the indomitable force of nature, it appears the decision has been made. During the pandemic, the soil along the creek grew thick with native vegetation.

That’s just as it should be, according to Michael Cairns, the former project manager for the Luckiamute Watershed Council (LWC). The goal was to create a self-perpetuating riparian system that provides all the ecologically-enhancing “goods and services” within the small stream’s capability, an environment that fosters good water flow and a healthy refuge for young fish. “That type of riparian system can't function with significant manipulation, heavily used trails, and introduction of non-native plant species,” he said.

Kristen Larson, the executive director of the LWC, agrees. Though native plants might not be considered traditional landscaping choices, they are adapted to local conditions, so they require less work to establish and maintain – all the while improving and preserving conditions of streams like Ash Creek, she said.

So, 2021 appears to herald a wildly successful outcome for Ash Creek.
 
Convenience stores have buyers chomping for more than gas.
When chicken wings went flying out of Jimmy’Z during the pandemic, was it a trend-setting sign for places outside Independence?

This certainly was seen elsewhere, too. Customers in the pandemic seemed hungry for carry-out food from one-stop shops that provide gas, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), based in Alexandria VA. While fuel sales lagged at these store sites, the purchase of other items actually rose, NACS surveys showed.

At Jimmy’Z on Monmouth Street there was a noticeable uptick in the demand for food, which occurred after Oregon expanded the supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP), an action enacted by the state after the wildfires. Patrons began buying hot food with SNAP benefits, explained owner Jim Newbeck. However, keeping the cases stocked was difficult. “Our corn dogs were placed on back order and many times we were only allocated a few when we did get them,” he said.
 
Though his store “did fine” during coronavirus measures, there were manufacturing shortages. “So, it’s not possible to tell exactly what is up or not since we never really had a complete hot case,” Newbeck pointed out. For example, beer sales went up when bars shut down but “supply issues from manufactures made it a struggle to stay completely stocked up on everything,” he said.

It’s hard to predict whether or not the increased need for hot-case offerings will continue. The SNAP expansion was expected to expire at the dawn of the new year – and consumer tastes can be fickle. Two years ago, jalapeno poppers seemed to have a loyal following at Jimmy’Z. Last year it was stuffed spuds, according to an observant store employee.

Special section:    The Independent   (February 2021)
 
Parents Protest Continued School Closures by the Central School District, Call Remote Learning A Serious and Ongoing Problem For Some Students 
 
      By Anne Scheck
        
Some parents in Central School District 13J say they believe certain students will never be able to return to school normally again unless in-person teaching resumes soon. And they’re not talking about simply getting children back into regular classes – they’re referring to kids suffering so much from the shutdown that their losses cannot be restored.
         
Amid the continued closure, a group of mothers testified at the Central School District’s January board meeting that pandemic measures are causing serious emotional issues among some youth – inflicting a danger to children’s mental health that should be as worrisome to school officials as the risk from the coronavirus.

“My plea to Central, to the board, to the superintendent and to the teachers is that now that the metrics are not mandatory, we begin now to get our students back into the classroom,” said Janica Duncan, a certified substitute teacher for the district. Her five children span the K-12 spread, yet only her youngest is able to attend school – a preschool, Duncan pointed out.

 “I am so concerned about the mental state of the children in the district,” Duncan stressed. She was joined by several others who reiterated the same underlying message: for many, distance learning has been a colossal failure.
Incidents from other parents, as well as some students, indicate a rise in self-cutting to deal with the isolation, peer discussions of depressive symptoms that include thoughts of suicide and reports of children in beginning grades having sudden breakdowns.

“Suicidality, eating disorders are presenting a significant challenge,” confirmed OHSU Pediatrician Alex Foster at a public health forum held by Portland State University in mid-December. And even the childhood eating disorders are far from typical, he said – involving children who stop eating because “they’ve just given up.”

Gov. Kate Brown eased restrictions in late December for school closures, making statewide metrics “advisory” instead of mandatory, and allowing decisions to be made “district by district.” However, by last week, she was forced to announce that anticipated shipments of vaccine would be delayed, due to a “deception” at the federal level in the quantities available to be sent. Vaccination for educators is slated to start the end of January, but it remains unclear how many injections can be delivered and in what time period.
      
Asked about this, Duncan acknowledged that "there is some talk about waiting for the vaccine.” However, it could take far longer than anticipated to get school staff and teachers vaccinated, she noted. "Vaccination should not be what determines when schools open," she said.
          
Recent research seems to back up that assertion. In the past few weeks, studies in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that children at school don’t transmit the virus readily across educational settings.  However, the findings don’t involve a more contagious strain now being detected, which might be a complicating factor.

In a public meeting last month, Colt Gill, director of the Oregon Department of Education, alluded to the lack of evidence for students to be “super spreaders” – a quote that Duncan recounted to the board during her presentation.

Duncan is part of a committee for the district that's helping to plan for school re-opening – and she believes that schools are safe when mitigation measures are carefully followed and in place. She’s also the founder of "Let Oregon Learn," a Facebook group she started in September locally, which now has grown to include nearly 4,000 followers from across the state.

“Let Oregon Learn” advocates for the safe reopening of schools, but it also provides a way for parents to connect, and it has become a place to vent during discouraging periods.

When Duncan posted one day about worrying over two of her children's declining motivation, more than 150 other parents shared their own similar  concerns within minutes. In fact, finding like-minded moms was one of the benefits of signing up to speak at the school board meeting, said Leslie Lloyd, who has an outside job, a kindergartener and a second grader.

Finding out that she wasn’t alone, “was nice to know,” she said. Her family of four had relocated to Monmouth only last year, and she had been unaware of the advocacy group until only recently.

 The sudden departure from school was hard on her family, she recalled. They moved to the district in late February -- and a few weeks later, in March, the schools were closed.

At the  board meeting, Superintendent  Jennifer Kubista said re-opening is “our priority, too.”   
          
However, “we know that we still have high caseloads in our zip codes,” she said. “We’re continuing to monitor that.”

Kubista expressed concern about the positivity rate, which was expected to go higher in the aftermath of the holiday season. A few days after the school board meeting, the Oregon Health Authority issued data affirming that Polk County remains in the “extreme risk” category.

However, district personnel also are anxious to open the schools for in-person learning, according to Kubista. In fact, there are plans to start at the elementary-school level, with kindergarten through third grade.

Lloyd supports the phase-in approach suggested by the superintendent, she said. The youth have been out of school for months, and just as they had to adapt to being gone from classes "they need a period of adjustment for returning," she said. 
         
Following the school board meeting, Kubista and Board Chair Steve Love released a timeline; Late January is targeted for more intensive planning, with the goal of providing more details then about bringing staff back into buildings.
        
The teacher’s union, the Central Education Association (CEA), also released a statement on school re-opening. “We have many members who are eager to re-enter the buildings and instruct students in-person, and the CEA wants that to take place as soon as it is safe to do so,” the statement said. “However, we also have many members who cannot re-enter buildings but are willing to do the even harder work of instructing students virtually.“
         
The CEA acknowledged that the situation has been difficult for families, and hard on educators, as well. “We ask that you please support your community’s educators as we make the best choices we can in these challenging circumstances,” it concluded.

Amber Bacio, another one of the mothers at the school board meeting, said she recognizes there may be fear about the risk of covid infection by teachers, but "concessions" could be made for those who want to avoid exposure.  "Virtual learning is not working," said Bacio, who has three daughters in district schools. "Students need an active learning environment."
         
Duncan agrees. Classes online often lack the hands-on learning that is necessary to master some subjects, such as her teen's high school chemistry class, which has no lab, she said. And, with sports cancelled, some students lost a big part of what helps them stay the course, Duncan said.
         
Tiyah Lewis shared her own frustration about the adolescent need for regular school.

“I have a senior in 'Main Street Singers' at the high school -- and that group hasn't been able to sing together," Lewis said. When song practices ceased, so did the opportunity for that special kind of shared experience, she pointed out.

The high school senior class seems to be particularly hard-hit by the change, Lewis noted. The very milestones that many students look toward when finishing the last year at Central High – from homecoming to senior prom – are gone, with "virtual" substitutes as a disappointing replacement, she stressed. "They are just missing so much," Lewis added.

Yet, so far, the response she's gotten from school representatives about reopening is "lukewarm," Lewis said. However, she started a Facebook group for other parents interested in supporting it -- attracting nearly 120 followers in almost no time, she said.

Bacio said she’s growing impatient, too. “I was not meant to be a teacher," she said. With children of different ages, she's unable to provide needed instruction – and it's unrealistic to expect parents to do so, she said. Historic portrayals like "Little House on the Prairie" may make it look successful, but off-site, home-based education is a continual struggle "with everyone sitting on top of each other all day long."

Lewis said she worries about the increased screen time in distance learning. For children who already were spending a lot of time online before COVID-19 – for game-playing and in other internet activities – the pandemic meant even more hours interacting with technology instead of engaging with people.

What are the long-term effects going to be? she asked. “I am seeing ADHD- like behaviors in my third-grade son due to anxiety that’s very much screen induced,” she said. “Our pediatrician agrees that we wouldn't be experiencing these behaviors on such a level if he could be in a classroom.”

For many parents in Central School District 13J, a return to school cannot come soon enough.

INDY HOP and CIVICS LESSON will return next issue.

By Anne Scheck

After COVID-19 surfaced early this year, altering daily life in one fell swoop of pandemic-fighting effort, many in town wondered if normal conditions would ever return. But ordinary events actually never ceased – they rolled along as reliably as currents on the Willamette River.

Independence Police continued their traffic stops. Independence residents took their concerns to public meetings. Independence streets got repaired. Independence osprey mates Olga and Ollie, a source of community concern when their nest was moved, became the same home-abiding pair after the relocation. 

But even familiar routines have a way of drumming up drama. So, a review of 2020 inevitably includes some ups, downs and changes during everyday occurrences in the riverside city that residents call “Indy.”
 
EMBATTLED PROPERTY OWNER FINALLY PREVAILS.
Three years ago, it looked like Matthew Lind was going to lose his property, a former one-pump gas station downtown that was transformed into a barbecue-serving pub. Foreclosure loomed – by the City of Independence. In a desperate request, Lind publicly pleaded for more chances to meet his financial obligation. During one memorable city council meeting, he was ordered to be escorted away from the podium by the mayor, still beseeching the council as he was led off.

Lind was told his time was up in more ways than one. David Clyne, the city manager at the time, said the deed should be surrendered. However, after more negotiation, Lind came up with new funds, the city got its money, and the debt was paid.  Now during the pandemic ban on indoor dining, The Tap Station at 87 S. Main Street – with its spacious outdoor dining – is a popular spot.

However, “surviving,” is the way manager Cameron Dibble puts it. Andwhat about Lind? He is thriving as an attorney at OlsenDaines in Salem. “I have been fortunate to refocus my career back into practicing law,” he said.
          
Still, he’s worried about the place he once begged the city council to be able to keep. Seasonality makes Independence “a great summer run,” but more difficult in the winter months, he said. And “the Covid pandemic has been disastrous for small business, especially hospitality,” he added. 
 
A PETITION DRIVE FAILS TO HALT HORN BLOWS.
Ahmed Ahmed, a downtown area resident, was awakened nightly by the loud blast of a train horn. So were many of his neighbors, who signed a petition saying so, which he wrote to try to stop the piercing sounds from occurring in the early-morning hours.   
          
Ahmed testified before the city council that some three-dozen people felt the same way he did about the intrusive noise, and he had the signatures to prove it. Unfortunately, people’s sleep is no match for federal regulations. Despite taking the matter all the way to Polk County Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst, the county’s transportation liaison to the state, extreme sympathy was all that Mordhorst could provide.
          
“Federal guidelines are in place for a reason and this was created for the public’s safety,” Mordhorst said, adding that “these very strict nationwide requirements” are there to provide ample warning so that tragedy doesn’t occur.       
          
In the meantime, after hearing of the plight of Ahmed, former resident Gail Boyle wanted to issue a note of reassurance to all who hate the horn. Putting it in the context of coronavirus, she explained why she misses the sound of the train. “It meant things are normal, working as they should be, and there’s a routine,” she said. Even in the middle of the night? Yes, said Boyle. “All good.”
         
A STREETLIGHT STAYS DESPITE STRONG OBJECTION.
When Jim Wixson took his case against a streetlight pole in his yard to the Independence City Council, he was sure he could get it moved. The pole sits in front of Wixson’s home, and it’s gotten bashed by a delivery vehicle, he said. However, the city determined that the pole is by a driveway created to sit next to the one that was already there – and the original driveway was built as part of the residence.
          
Neither the city nor Pacific Power is prepared to pay the thousands of dollars to relocate the light pole, but Wixson plans to keep up the battle anyway, taking his complaint again to the city council. “I plan to do so until I can get a vote from the city council or the reason for deciding why they refuse to vote,” he said.
           
He may have gotten that reason already. When asked to respond to Wixson’s assertion that he would fight on for the pole removal and new placement, City Manager Tom Pessemier stated that “since there is no policy issue here it would be inappropriate for Council to take action.”
 
TREE-LINED WAY REPLACES MISSING SIDEWALK.
No one is sure why a former developer who owned what is known as the “old city hall,” a cement block building of onetime city offices at Second and Monmouth streets, tore up the sidewalks around it. However, signs of the destruction have lingered there for years, becoming the butt of jokes about the “rocky road” to needed repair.
          
Then Salem-based GoMacGo LLC, a development firm, bought the property about a year ago. Soon a new sidewalk was rising from the rubble.
          
The project was recently completed,  with streetlights that look like turn-of-the-century lamps and trees placed at earthen wells along the sidewalk. “Our streetscape is finally here,” said Ryan Booth, whose brewery business, Parallel 45, is housed at the site.
          
Incentives of $300,000, which were promised by the city to the former developer who demolished the sidewalks,
now are expected to go to GoMacGo LLC, Booth affirmed.
 
POLICE ADOPT SOCIAL-DISTANCING PRACTICES.
‘Tis the season for giving and, at the Independence Police Department (IPD), that means tickets – and zero tolerance for drunk driving. From December 16 through January 1, IPD officers waged a high-visibility campaign to identify motorists suspected of driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII), according to Sgt. Lyle Gilbert of the IPD.
           
However, in an era in which social distancing has become the new normal, officers are maintaining it when feasible,
Gilbert said. And they’re wearing masks when interacting with the public, he noted.  However, a suspected DUII requires being close to the person being tested.
          
As a result, the state has deemed the social-distancing rules don’t apply “to emergency situations or other situations
where the safety of law enforcement officers or others involved make contact within six feet necessary,” Gilbert said.
“Not only do we need to be close to the subject we are testing in order to appropriately administer the test, but we also need to be close enough that we can prevent a fall should they lose their balance,” he said. “In short, we are doing everything we can to keep our officers and the public safe within reason.”
 
WIDOW OLGA LOSES OLLIE BUT NOT LOCAL HOPE.
Apparently, the mystery hasn’t been solved over the disappearance of Ollie, the male osprey who never returned from a fishing expedition while Olga tended to their nest. Olga screamed from it for hours, mournful cries that were caught on camera, thanks to the city’s “Osprey Cam.“ Soon, Olga stopped caring for the eggs and eventually, she flew away.
           
It was hard to tell last summer who was more heartbroken, the mother bird or the Independence residents who’d watched her on the video feed. Ollie likely died from any of several possible causes, such as a collision with an electrical wire or a moving vehicle.

Now an ornithologist from Western Oregon University (WOU) has weighed in, with reasons for optimism that ospreys once again will take up residency above Riverview Park.
           
“It is likely that the surviving osprey will return next spring with a new mate,” explained Jeff Snyder, assistant professor of biology and ecology at WOU.  This is probable, though “not a certainty,” he added. “However, even if they don't return, then a different mated pair could nest there,” Snyder said.
 
LOOKING AHEAD: MINET, ROUNDABOUTS ON MAIN?
So far MINET seems to be on track to allow a reduction in the amount of subsidy paid this year by Independence, according to Gloria Butsch, the city’s finance director. Don Patten, MINET’s general manager, confirmed he’s in general agreement with that assessment.
      
Ms. Butsch explained that “we cannot comment on the total amount for this year since MINET will not know the amount required until April or May.” So, time will tell in 2021. By that time, the city’s new Transportation System Plan (TSP) may be nearing final approval, according to representatives of the Oregon Department of Transportation. At a virtual open house on the TSP, held on the city’s YouTube channel, 14 people tuned in to see the presentation and air their views in the chat room.              

Roundabouts suggested for different points on Main Street didn’t receive the anticipated opposition, perhaps because the city already has one that has been used without much incident. The recording of the open house has had 80 views, and more public participation is expected.

CIVICS LESSON: ‘Twas a Season of Battling News Releases
 
The 2020 holiday season will be one to remember – in fact it may go down in the annals of Oregon politics. After Thanksgiving, restaurants and bars were shut down again, prohibiting indoor dining, to deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases. Then came the counter-reaction: A call from the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce (OSCC) for immediate business reopening. Locally, the Polk County Board of Commissioners added their support – endorsing the move by the OSCC, which not only advocated reopening of businesses but called upon the governor and legislature for a relief program of $75 million to help restaurants and hospitality businesses recover. 

Jumping aboard the movement, Independence downtown developer Bodie Bemrose issued a letter of similar advocacy to his tenants and to other businesses, asking that Gov. Kate Brown and “those who force us to stay closed” be held accountable for their actions. Just before New Year’s Day, the governor announced that any business in defiance of the orders could face serious consequences, including fines or closures. Subsequently, Rep. David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford) sent out a public statement, demanding that the governor and democrats in the legislature prioritize COVID-19 vaccination distribution; He claimed that less than a third of the available doses have been administered. The news release with Rep Smith’s statement was published at the beginning of the first week in January. Right after Rep. Smith’s news release, another one came from Gov. Kate Brown, stating that “we must vaccinate Oregonians as quickly as possible” and calling upon the Oregon Health Authority to hit some new benchmarks.  

INDY HOP: It’s a Sign of the (Past, Perhaps Archaic) Times
                                                   
For anyone who’s found the antiquated sign at the fire station quaint and charming, this may be disappointing news. It looks like Polk County Fire District No. 1 may get a monument sign with messages that are easily readable from the road – unlike the current one, which occasionally has had words obscured by … well, who knows whether those smeared letters have been caused by rain, mud or bird droppings. The Planning Commission seemed ready to approve a new sign early this month, but apparently the permit calls for a special code change. So drivers who’ll miss it can still view the old sign in front of the fire station in Independence, at least for a few months.

By Anne Scheck


It was one of those days last week when a moist wind blew, occasionally spitting light rain. People and their dogs were in the Independence Dog Park, as they almost always are now during the day. Tom Brandt, who had walked there from his home nearby, sat on a bench watching Bear, his mixed-breed German Shepherd.
          
Bear put his nose on the grass, then along the fence and then into the air. “He always does that,” said Brandt. “He sniffs everything – that’s pretty much all he does.”
 
Except when Bear sees other dogs engaged in a scuffle. Then the dog stops what he’s doing and barks a special yipping bark.  “It’s like he wants it to stop,” Brandt said. Dog-on-dog conflicts seem to worry Bear, he explained. And Bear’s not alone. Several Independence dog owners say they’re concerned, too – such spats at the dog park have ticked up since last year.
          
“We did have an increase of dogs biting other dogs at the dog park,” confirmed Sgt. Lyle Gilbert of the Independence Police Department (IPD). After “zero” incidents in 2019, three have occurred so far this year, he said.
 
“This may be in part due to more people using the dog park, as more people may be working from home and around during the day,” he said, but the reason isn’t certain.
 
One theory is a growing dog population. A local indicator may be seen in the rising need for grooming care – business has increased by 50% at Jack’s World Pet Grooming and Supplies on C Street, according to Summer Hile, a groomer there. However, neither she nor her colleague, Jennifer Thompson, have noticed any behavioral differences in the dogs, except during the wildfires weeks ago by Salem, when smoky skies seemed to heighten anxiety among both animals and people.
 
Dogs have been a part of Independence since the trail wagons brought a small band of settlers to the river city in 1845 and, long before that, canines were part of life for the indigenous population, too.

Today, the statue of a dog named “Buddy” can be found on the town’s Main Street, next to one of Dan Weaver, in front of the former  antique store they both occupied. And, nearly each morning, a handsome Bouvier des Flandres – which looks like a cross between a labradoodle and a wolfhound – shows up at Ovenbird Bakery, for his daily lemon cookie. Dogs, not just people and places, add character to the downtown, residents say.
 
In fact, many dog owners – or “guardians” as they sometimes prefer to be called – don’t report physical dustups as a side effect of more dog encounters, according to some who use the pedestrian path in Riverview Park for walking dogs.
          
However, anecdotes about displays of dog hostility do seem more frequent. One resident had to visit a veterinarian after a bigger dog bit her chihuahua through a chain link fence during a walk. Others said dog “etiquette” – using a leash, giving wide berth to other dogs – seems lower in this time of COVID-19. However, the problems aren’t necessarily limited to Riverview Park or the fenced enclosure there.
 
When her poodle, Riley, was spending the same kind of leisure time that Bear enjoys – taking in sights and smells, gearing up for a walk – a bull terrier attacked him in the family’s own driveway, recounted Erin Hill of Independence. Riley was on a leash held by Hill’s mother, who was knocked to the ground, then bitten as she attempted to loosen the bull terrier’s grip on her daughter’s dog. “It ultimately took three people to pull the dog off Riley,” Hill said, adding that the injuries to her poodle required hours of surgery.
 
The attack was reported to the IPD, but Hill found the outcome disheartening. The bull terrier was found to be a dangerous dog, but beyond that not much else seems to have transpired, she noted.  “There’s definitely an issue in the town and the local officials need to step up to the plate,” she said.
 
Though dog bites on citizens are rare, mail delivery has ceased in one Independence neighborhood due to a mail carrier being bitten – and it isn’t the first time that’s happened, according to US postal authorities in the area.
 
However, findings from police data don’t show an increase in dog-related calls for service, at least not a significant one, according to IPD’s Gilbert. So, there are no immediate plans for substantial changes.
 
“We will continue to do our best when it comes to educating dog owners on their responsibilities to keep the community safe, and in understanding the local laws and ordinances surrounding dogs,” Gilbert said.
 
If there really are more canine conflicts, one reason may be the soaring number of dog adoptions during the pandemic. This spring, the Oregon Humane Society reportedly closed its online application process for new dogs temporarily, due to a diminished supply. Then, about two weeks ago, the organization assisted with the transport of nearly 600 shelter dogs and cats from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest, which was the “largest pet rescue flight in history,” according to the news announcement by the Oregon Humane Society.
 
“For a few years, Oregon has been importing stray dogs from out-of-state humane societies as well as from a variety of animal rescue groups with varying standards,” observed Robert Archer DVM, whose busy veterinary clinic on a corner in downtown Independence is practically a town landmark. Also, due to the pandemic and a slight nationwide undersupply of veterinarians, many veterinary practices aren’t accepting new clients -- only existing clients with new pets, he added.
 
One reason there may be more behavioral complications in dogs during COVID-19 probably has far less to with the circumstances of the pandemic than the source of available canine adoptees, agreed Ken Lindsay DVM, who recently retired from full-time veterinary practice in Monmouth.      
 
Oregon has become a destination for other states, even for other countries, trying to place dogs. For example, scores of them have arrived from Asia, he said.
 
One of these dogs, which went to a local family, "is a street dog behaving like a street dog," Lindsay said. Such dogs can have habits that are very hard to break, including an extreme wariness of people, he added. A shy or timid disposition often isn't a good characteristic in an adult dog, Lindsay said. It's the "friendly" ones that are usually the best candidates for taking home to a family, he said. 
 
"My advice is to get help from a dog trainer," Lindsay advised. How to find the right one? Interviews with former clients are one way to identify a skilled professional, he said.       
 
Dogs who grow up on the street have known the freedom of living entirely on their own and, for those, the adjustment to a home can be very difficult, concurred Catherine Comden, a certified dog trainer who lives in Independence. Rescued dogs have varying degrees of sociability – some simply aren't comfortable being housed with humans, she added. 
 
Choosing a dog who's appealing and cute doesn't guarantee a personality with easygoing traits, she noted. Aggressive tendencies may be the reason the dog is in the shelter. Behavior risks are something you may not really see fully "until about six weeks" after an adoption, Comden said. Genetics and life history play a big role, and most dogs are "who they're going to be by about four months of age," she said. 
 
Occasionally, she has accompanied a client to help them select a dog at a shelter or rescue operation. "We shouldn't be putting marginal dogs into the community," she stressed. 
 
Bear, a dog park “regular” and a rescue animal, did have some bad patterns originally, Brandt recalled. He’d zoom in on birds, terrifying them; He was jumpy, and staged many garbage raids. It took a few years to see a change, Brandt said.
 
“I think time and patience really helped,” Brandt said. Bear’s earlier life seems in stark contrast to that of Ivan, a little dachshund mix who was rescued by Ashley Rice, owner of the tailoring service “Ashley Sews” in Independence. Ivan’s the very picture of calm.
 
Rescued when he was only several weeks old, the puppy had a leg injury that took immediate veterinary attention. Rice remembers Ivan being clingy, so she carried him around in the crook of her arm. The day came when Ivan felt secure enough to move to the floor, and he has been a constant, sweet-tempered companion in the years since then, she said.
 
Are more dogs biting other dogs in Independence? It’s hard to tell. However, many may not come to the attention of police. Take Molly, a mid-sized mixed-breed dog who’s also a dog park “regular.” She was injured in a clash at the dog park a few years ago – and her owner, Don Peerson, paid several hundred dollars in vet bills. One day, after Molly had healed, they returned to the dog park and discovered the same owner with the same dogs.
 
“I had a copy of the bill, and I gave it to him,” Peerson recalled. Together, they made a trip to a local bank. “This guy came out with the money, and gave it to me, and we got to talking,” Peerson said. “He was a veteran, and he had rescued the dogs after a flood,” Peerson said. “So I told him ‘Here you go’ and I gave him back the money.” Molly, like Bear, remains a “regular” at the Independence Dog Park.

Independence Transportation Plan Possibilities Range from Roundabouts to a New Crosstown Street

By Anne Scheck

A proposed transportation plan to help ease traffic as Highway 51 enters Independence to become the city’s Main Street includes several alternatives, from roundabouts to traffic lights. However, Mayor John McArdle made it clear at a recent city council meeting that he favors an option that would put a new roadway through the Southwest section of town.  
 
“I know we’d have to fight with ODOT and the rail folks for overpass on the rail lines and getting through some wetlands,” McArdle said. But the other measures, including the suggestion of turn lanes at Monmouth and Main streets, likely will mean losing the historic and hometown character of the downtown area, he pointed out. So, despite the barriers to a new thoroughfare, “it seems like we are going to have to climb that mountain,” he said. 
            
The pronouncement came after a presentation by Matt Bell of Kittelson & Associates, the Portland-based consulting firm the city hired to conduct the traffic analysis and to offer solutions for the traffic increases on Main Street – increases expected to persist in the near future. More than 100 new apartments at Independence Landing are nearing completion on the riverfront and construction is continuing at Brandy Meadows, a subdivision in southwestern Independence.
 
There already are “failing intersections” along Main Street, noted Bell, who explained that this term refers to heavily trafficked areas in need of better management. The last Transportation System Plan (TSP) for Independence was completed 13 years ago.
 
Ideas for improving the flow of cars include the possibility of establishing turn lanes at the intersection of Main and Monmouth streets and also at Main and Polk streets. Traffic lights and roundabouts might be considered there, as well, Bell suggested. The Independence Bridge is another spot where traffic-control improvements appear to be warranted, he added.
 
Roundabouts would require an effort in public education, observed City Councilor Shannon Corr, noting that in places where she’s previously lived many drivers found them confusing, with “fender-benders” as a result. As for putting one at Polk and Main, “I cannot even imagine that,” she said, adding that “many 18-wheelers go through that area.” 
 
“There is a learning curve about roundabouts,” agreed City Manager Tom Pessemier. He described the consultant’s report as a way of “really throwing everything out there as an alternative.”  
 
A TSP is a way for cities to meet their transportation needs for the future, by adopting the “three P’s” – projects, programs and policies – to help with the expected change and growth. And, in Independence, that growth comes from outside the community, as well, Bell pointed out.
 
During morning hours, commuters from Monmouth and other areas west of Independence take Monmouth Street to cross the Independence Bridge or to reach Highway 51 to head to West Salem or to the Salem Bridge. A reversal occurs in the early evening, as residents return from their jobs elsewhere, according to pass-through studies conducted by the consulting firm. Motorists from south Salem also travel through town, taking the Independence Bridge to reach Polk County destinations, and driving back the same way. 
 
Some of the proposed concepts for dealing with traffic along Monmouth Street seem to be a “cookie cutter” approach, Mayor McArdle said, explaining that he lives on Monmouth Street near downtown and sees on a basis daily how many cars drive past. He voiced support for the new “southern arterial,” as it is called, which is part of the Southwest Independence Concept Plan.
 
“The alignment does have costs associated with a railroad overpass and a bridge over the South Fork of Ash Creek that have made the road expensive,” confirmed City Planner Fred Evander. “We are looking at potential options for the roadway, including an at-grade crossing of the railroad, rather than an overpass,” he said.
 
Both the mayor and city staff have been working with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the railroad to determine the feasibility of that concept, Evander said.
 
In fact, both the mayor’s and the city council’s perspective are critical to the success of a TSP update, according to Michael Duncan, the senior region planner for ODOT who has been assisting Independence. “Elected leadership brings strong understanding of the story of the community, and that’s something that data and analysis don’t always capture,” he said. “It really takes both to illustrate the transportation needs and solutions for the next 20 years,” he said. 
 
The consultant’s analysis suggests the proposed “southern arterial” may alleviate much of the traffic on Monmouth and Main, Duncan noted. However, one other potential barrier to the “southern arterial” is the wetland component of the area – a topic that surfaced at the Independence Planning Commission meeting in October, when the city’s floodplain was discussed. Planning Commissioner Rebecca Jay observed there is a lack of definitive flood-prone mapping in that part of town. “It seems like we ought to have that information if you are going to have building and development there,” she said.

Others, including City Councilor Tom Takacs, have asked for a cost-benefit ratio on the different traffic improvements. Asked about the price tag of the various TSP alternatives, Evander acknowledged that “we do not have a scope of the cost of any improvements at this point.”
 
“We are attempting to whittle down concepts to financially feasible alternatives,” he said. 
 
Online open houses have been held to get public input for the TSP. However, Evander said the outreach fell short of what was desired. Another open house, this time on the city's YouTube channel with two-way interactions, is scheduled for early December. 
 
“There are another seven months or so before the city adopts the plan,” said ODOT’s Duncan. “I imagine that between now and then this project will land on a set of alternatives, which strike a balance,” he said.

CIVICS LESSON: Time to Rate the City Manager
 
Independence City Manager Tom Pessemier is coming up for an annual evaluation. How will it take place? He's planning to write a self-examining critique, which city councilors will go over together, seated around a table with him. Since  the city manager himself announced that Independence is doing well enough to give other employees cost-of-living raises when 2021 rolls in, it is likely that Pessemier will get one, too. In many ways, the Independence city manager is like many others across the state, according to a profile published by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Most are middle aged or older, most work in small cities, most are responsible for a wide range of duties, such as addressing public-safety concerns -- from potholes to crime control -- to managing services, including drinking-water maintenance and playground refurbishment. City managers are able do this far-flung job by overseeing different departments, like public works and law enforcement. So they have to be able to get along well with multiple individuals and to work well with groups of people -- the city council, for example. City managers are getting harder to come by, as their numbers shrink due to the continual retirement of their ranks, according to the ICMA. – AS

INDY HOP: And The Name Might As Well Have Been Mary Jane
                                                   
 Sooooo ... how did this happen? A mysterious mailed package of marijuana landed at the Independence Library, marked “return to sender.” There's a simple if troubling explanation for the unexpected content. The postage was insufficient to reach the true recipient, a destination in Virginia. A downtown address in Independence was used as a return address. Fake return addresses on parcels can be a tip-off that there's a reason for plant odor in packaging, according to an online guide for marijuana shipping (yes, this actually exists on the internet). Crossing state lines by mailing cannabis is illegal, of course. So mail inspectors are always on the lookout for phony return addresses. Using government agencies, like our own local library, in the "return address" spot on packages sometimes apparently succeeds in throwing postal investigators off the (pungent) scent. – AS

Dog world; the four-legged companions that served as examples, role models, participants and inspirations for the article “It's A Dog's Life: The Ups and Downs of Canine Interaction in Independence,” the main feature of this month’s issue of The Independent.

Photos: Top row (L-R): Jennifer Thompson and Summer Hile at Jack's World Pet Grooming and Supplies with Deb; Zeus; Ivan. Bottom row (L-R): Rooster; Daisy; Duke.

By Anne Scheck

It may be necessary to cry. Regular exercise can really help. However, the healthiest way to handle the painful, persistent struggle of the current pandemic is by connecting with other people.

That’s the advice from about a dozen parents at a busy playground in Independence, who last weekend offered tips and remedies for surviving COVID-19 – not for preventing the coronavirus infection but for battling the toll it’s taking
on families. And, in interviews all across Polk County, the same recommendations are being made. The general consensus: It doesn’t just take a whole village to raise a child, it also takes one to sustain an overburdened mother. Many are experiencing what some called “meltdown moments.”   

"It can be struggle," said Tonia Hill, who has two children distance- learning at Ash Creek Elementary School in Independence-based Central School District 13J. Internet problems – loss of connectivity, now referred to as “zoom boots” – can prove frustrating for her son, said Hill.

Social support takes the pressure off, she explained. In her case, that ranges from chatting over the back fence with a neighbor in the same situation to "face-timing" with other parents who are experiencing similar challenges. “I would say reach out to teachers and friends if you and your kids are struggling,” she said. In fact, her son’s teacher is a source of “great support,” she said, adding that "I try to give it to her, too – letting her know how great she is."

Hill and her husband Doug constantly tag-team to ensure their children are engaged online. To control the inevitable stress build-up, they stay active, taking walks as often as they can. Hill also makes time for her own workout, which
offers her a break and also provides a boost, she said.
          
Still, it’s staying in touch with other parents that give needed doses of reassurance. For example, when another mother at her school confessed to having "cry-in-the-closet" times, Hill recalled that hearing about such tension-releasing tears "makes me feel better." Another mom said she sometimes exits her living room to
sit alone in her car, where soft radio music and a short time away can prove quite calming. 
          
Though surveys show the duress of the pandemic affects all family members, working mothers have become a source of targeted study. In what is being called the nation’s first “she-cession” – a female-skewed recession – researchers have been documenting a distressing trend. Many women, like Hill, are doing double duty – meeting the demands of a job and overseeing remotely-delivered education to their children. Overwhelmingly, some of these mothers who work outside the home have opted to cut back on hours or drop out of the workforce completely.
          
There are two primary reasons why. Lockdown measures wiped out many jobs often occupied by women, from hair salons to food service. And, when schools closed, mothers left the workforce in high numbers to care for kids, according to the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research, which issued a publication about the new phenomenon in early September.

“I don’t recommend navigating motherhood alone,” said Justine Netcher, who has three small children. To provide the means for mothers in Monmouth and Independence to linkup, she co-coordinates “Mothers of Preschoolers &
MOMSnext Kids,” which has a strong online presence that allows parents in similar phases of life to meet up, both virtually and in social-distancing ways. She finds the role invigorating.  “I’ve fully embraced that I simply cannot pour from an ‘empty cup,’” she explained.
         
The underlying emotional effects of this pandemic were summed up recently in webinar sponsored by New Scientist magazine. In it, British psychologist Kimberley Wilson, author of “How to Build a Healthy Brain,” identified “three A’s” that have substantially risen: Anxiety, a state of heightened awareness that often causes a spike in stress hormones; Attention demand, the need to be hyper-vigilant, particularly about taking new precautionary steps; Adaptation, the focus of time and energy that’s required to establish different routines. 
          
The triple-A initials represent a good “umbrella” term that seems to reflect “that we all are anxious with changes, uncertainty, new roles, having to multi-task, work from home, juggling other responsibilities at the same time as work, and are socially isolated,” said Lauren Roscoe PhD, professor and department head of the psychological sciences department at Western Oregon University.
          
This past Saturday and Sunday, as parents sat on benches by the play equipment at Riverview Park in Independence, many said that getting outdoors – pushing their children on the swings or staging mock chases on    the surrounding grass – is a terrific way to unwind. Most of the fathers credited their partners or wives with, as one dad
put it, “holding down the fort.”
          
However, many of the women said they would be unable to face the winter ahead without the support of family members and their religious communities as helping them cope.                  

“Something that helped during the pandemic, and especially during the closures, was my faith,” Hill agreed. In fact, some Sundays she’d
tune in for two or three different church services. “It helped me feel connected and gave me that boost I needed to get through the week,” she said.
          
At a time when most church activities are confined to sermons online, attendance is entirely different. But though “the church buildings may be closed” the church is not, observed the Rev. Paul Doellinger, a former full-time pastor who now fills in for other clergy at pulpits throughout the mid-Willamette Valley.
          
Parents use many "tools" to deal with the various stressors in their lives, he said – and faith is one. “And so are things like jogging and regular exercising and being part of a self-help group,” he added. However, “my experience, after having been a pastor for the past 51 years, is that people of faith do have spiritual resources that they can and do call upon in times of crisis,’’ he said.

Additionally, some mothers are able to see a silver lining in the lifestyle change. Many reported more valuable family time.

“Remote learning is not an ideal situation and there are definitely subjects that are better taught in person than over Zoom, but I feel like our school and the teachers are doing the best that they can with adapting to this new situation and being responsive when we have a question or concern,” said Suzanne Teller, outreach coordinator for the Luckiamute Watershed Council in Independence. For her two sons, there have been a couple of benefits to online learning, she said.

What are those advantages? “First of all, being more engaged with what the boys are learning, knowing what their classwork is like on a day-to-day basis, and having more opportunities to partner with their teachers in their school experience,” she said. “Another benefit I have seen with their online schedule is that they have a full hour for lunch, rather than 20 minutes,” Teller said. “This gives the boys a real break from the classroom, and time for the brains to ‘turn off’ and rest for a good amount of time.”

That view was echoed by Ciera Atha, the executive assistant for the Polk County Board of Commissioners in Dallas. “I see that my son is getting more organized, learning how to manage himself,” she said.

“When he fell behind on assignments earlier, during this switch-over, he learned how important it is to keep up,” she said.

However, business owner Heather Kovalski, of West Salem, worries that one outcome may be a regression in social skills for children. As the mother of two girls, the loss of “that face-to-face connection” with friends has been troubling to her. In fact, she suspects it has been “a little crippling” for her older daughter. There is no way to know how this sudden separation from a social life will affect either of her children, she said.
         
That’s a fear shared by many parents. “You just don’t know what will happen,” said one mother, who asked that her concerns be reported but not her name. “We are in a whole new world now and can’t help but wonder if our children will fall behind academically and socially from all this,” she said.
         
That’s a question that should have historic answers, according to Rev. Doellinger. “I do wish that pastors in 1919 had kept diaries and passed them on down to us, so we can see today what resources they developed and used during the Spanish Flu epidemic,” he said.

Special section    The Independent  
                                      
 
Special Water District: The People Who Help Ash Creek Stay Healthy
 
         By Anne Scheck

An old-fashioned expression says that most worthwhile work doesn’t ever get the recognition it deserves. If that’s true, then there’s probably no better example in Polk County than the Ash Creek Water Control District. For nearly 70 years, this agency has toiled to improve the channel of Ash Creek – but you’d never know it from a recent Independence Planning Commission meeting. 

Worries over Ash Creek, the city’s signature stream, surfaced as new floodplain standards were discussed by the city’s planning commissioners – none seemed to know about the Ash Creek Water Control District (ACWCD), which provides oversight of the waterway. Rebecca Jay, a newcomer to the commission, voiced concern about old train trestles, which can trap trees and cause flooding. “Who does that kind of checking to make sure that stuff is cleaned up?” she asked. Answers popped up, ranging from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Oregon Department of State Lands. 

In fact, only weeks earlier, the ACWCD had removed an old train trestle by the creek near 9th Street – a trestle taller than many of the city’s downtown buildings. And, on the very day the planning commission met, one ACWCD board member had clambered down to the Ash Creek site where the trestle once stood, to check on new plantings there. 

Asked why the ACWCD’s efforts seem to flourish in such surprising obscurity, the board chair, Dan Farnworth, has a theory: “It occurred to me that one of the reasons the board is not more recognized is because the board has no regulatory power, no rule-making power, no enforcement authority,” he said. Also, there’s nothing glamorous at all about the work. "It's cleaning out the creek," he explained.

The district’s nine-member board is comprised of residents known colloquially as "stewards of the creek." Longtime board member Andrea Melendy, who lives on property the creek runs through, has known Ash Creek all of her life. She grew up in Independence when Gun Club Road was nothing but gravel, with so little traffic that she could lie down on it at night to stargaze, and not a single car would drive by.
 
 But, as the population grew, she began to see more debris appear in Ash Creek. She and fellow board member Donna Schuyler came up with a solution – to place garbage barrels at public points along the nearly three-mile waterway. It's worked well in many areas, particularly the bridge crossing at Riverview Park. Passers-by now plop snack wrappings and soft-drink containers into the conveniently placed trash cans, instead of tossing them into the creek as they walk by on the concrete path, she noted.
 
Despite the fact that the ACWCD wasn't mentioned at the recent meeting of the Independence Planning Commission, the City of Independence has been a frequent partner. City staff assisted on several projects with the ACWCD over the past few years, including the placement of the refuse containers and, also, on the trestle project, said Kie Cottam, Independence’s director of public works. 

Over the years, the district board members, who are elected to their unpaid positions, have tackled invasive plants like Japanese knotweed and reed canary grass that threaten to choke out other plants; protected creek banks from destruction by rodents like nutria; and tried to impart the importance of this waterway to a whole new generation, by giving grants to local teachers. 

One of those grant recipients is Dave Beatley, a sixth-grade science teacher at Talmadge Middle School. Under his supervision, students have explored the meandering creek, which passes by school grounds. Last year, the youth – protected by waders and armed with special nets – collected samples and then viewed them under microscopes. Numerous tiny creatures, called macro-invertebrates, could be seen – some looked like tiny dragons, others like curved worms. It’s the kind of hands-on education that Beatley likes to provide and that the students seem to love, he said. 

This year, with mandatory distance-learning underway, grant money from ACWCD is enabling Beatley to put cameras at places along the creek. The waterway is vital to local animal life, from black-tailed deer to great blue herons – even otters have been spotted playing in the creek at Riverview Park. Beatley plans to share the wildlife videos with his classes. 

The history of Ash Creek goes back thousands of years, stretching into a past that includes Native Americans, who once lit campfires along the banks. In fact, there are still remnants from a tribal encampment in a field near Ash Creek. In 1951, farmers frustrated with recurrent flooding along the creek formed the ACWCD. With this rich history, why does the district have such a low profile?

One reason may be that the ACWCD has no staff, no office and, until recently, not even a physical address, explained Board Chair Farnworth. After the state mandated that ACWCD had to have an actual location, "we got one at Indy Commons” on Main Street in Independence, Farnworth noted. 

The trestle removal was a big project for the ACWCD – with a cost that came in just under $70,000 – and it took years to complete, Farnworth said. All that's left where the structure once stood is a grass patch, the likely place for wild blackberries to grow, Farnworth observed, adding that blackberries are another invasive plant species targeted for abatement by the district. 

But these succulent berry-bearing bushes are one reason attorney Donna Byrne values the creek. In fact, she named her business after it: Ash Creek Tax Counseling and Legal Services. She considers the blackberries “delicious eating” during her creekside walks.

She plucks the fruit from the part of the plant high enough to escape territory-marking dogs and checks foliage for tell-tale signs of pesticide residue. However, it’s essential to replace invading plants with ones that naturally occur in this area of Oregon, according to Kristen Larson, executive director of the Independence-based Luckiamute Watershed Council. Native plants along Ash Creek are important in multiple ways, such as enriching and stabilizing the soil, which helps to prevent erosion of the banks. These native plants also offer important water-cooling shade for the creek, while providing a habitat for pollinators, like bees, which enable new generations of plants to grow and flourish along the corridor. Additionally, streamside plants buffer out pollutants from surface run-off, reducing sediment and toxins that end up in Ash Creek and the Willamette River, she said.
 
As Independence continues to grow – with a new and soon-to-be-unveiled transportation system – the creek seems likely to get renewed respect for its ability to receive and handle run-off; Traffic increases and road deterioration are associated with a higher risk of water-carried contaminants. 

And streets, particularly highways, can affect the water quality in creeks, through downstream run-off with composites from paved roadways, according to a report this past year by the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS report advises that, by implementing features like swales and detention basins, effective protection can be established against potential stream pollution originating from stormwater. 

In fact, a predictive tool by the USGS, which goes by the acronym SELDM,” shows promise for forecasting the possible impact on nearby waterways from new transportation construction, as shown by the results of the study, which involved Mill Creek near Salem.  
        “I do see SELDM as tool that can help with street planning,” said Adam Stonewall, a hydrologist at the Oregon Water Science Center in Portland. “It can also be used to estimate the quantity of stormwater pollutants being delivered from roads and other impervious surfaces into streams, and it can be used to plan mitigation efforts for those same pollutants,” he said. 
         In the meantime, thanks to the ACWCD, Ash Creek seems to be doing just what it is supposed to do. “It takes care of storm runoff, and it does it very well," Farnworth said.

CIVICS LESSON: Old Time Sheriffs Show Modern Grit

November is election month, but it won't make one iota of difference to the sheriff's office. Sheriff Mark Garton ran unopposed, just like many of his predecessors dating back to pioneer days. However, some of these early lawmen apparently had more colorful times in office. For example, early in the last century, Polk County had a sheriff who was wounded on the job – by dropping his gun on the wooden sidewalk in Dallas, where it discharged, sending a bullet into his ankle and causing him to miss days of work. A few years later, Sheriff John Orr made a monumentally easy arrest when he went skulking around back alleys to try to find producers of moonshine – and one purveyor of the home-made brew spotted him, mistook him for a customer, and sold him a bottle. But nothing tops the experience of Sheriff Hiram Plummer, who in 1898 had to deal with a case of suspected arson that burned down the county courthouse. He detected kerosene odors when he made his fateful visit to the torched building. The sheriff reportedly believed the foul play was related to records that literally went up in smoke, specifically taxes – obligations that proved hard to untangle. Thanks to author Dennis Johnson, the history of these sheriffs and many others live on in a three-ring binder at a waiting area in the Polk County Courthouse. But, like those tax records that perished, the accounts are printed on plain notebook paper. Some things never change ...  

INDY HOP: Candy Corn Has Long Sweet Halloween Legacy
                                                   

It's more than 100 years old, filled with sugar in three colors and a landmark Halloween treat. It's candy corn, and it spells nostalgia for Baby Boomers (but the Gen X group reportedly likes it the most.) Each year, some TV news outlets broadcast results of the "great candy corn debate," done in fun and mockery. Supposedly, there are those who prefer to eat the tiny part of the triangle first (the white tip) or conversely, the wide section (yellow). However, it turns out most people just like to go all crunchy on one whole  piece at a time, according to a very scientific survey by the website alwaysatreat.com. 

Introduction to guest editorial
                  by Anne Scheck, Trammart News 
        
They say all politics is local. I now know how accurate that statement  can be. Several weeks ago, I received an email from a long-time resident, Ingrid Cooper. She was dismayed, during this election to see that it seemed to be divided between a progressive slate and one labeled as conservative.

As Ms. Cooper so presciently observed, non-partisan positions on the council are designed to represent all citizenry.

I asked Ms. Cooper to write an editorial, and she did so –  succinctly and skillfully, and far better than I could.

                          -----Guest Editorial-----

This November, I am very glad to see a full slate of citizens willing step up and run for mayor and for council positions in our local town of Independence, where my husband and I have lived for over 40 years, as well as in Monmouth, and Independence.  Why?

A competitive race is healthy.  It brings in fresh perspectives.  It challenges the status quo.  It gives us a choice to vote for who can best serve our community:

To strengthen who we are,

To make sure we have a solid foundation for our essential services,
 
To make sure each and every person is respected, heard, welcomed, and treated equally at city halls and with all city services.
 
To broaden outreach to all citizens and community members and all neighborhoods,
 
To use our funds wisely and responsibly,
 
To encourage and support our local businesses,
 
To move forward responsibly.

Local city elections are non-partisan and non-paid.  Too often, over the years, the same people are elected year after year, simply because no one else is willing to run.  In this climate, those serving for a long time, often end up with tunnel vision, thinking they know what’s best for the town.  

I celebrate the interest of many talented, qualitied people who are willing to step up and serve and ask questions and listen and dig into the issues and bring fresh ideas.  This makes our towns stronger to welcome competition and to bring in new voices to serve our community.  

And, most importantly, vote during this election and every election. Remember to vote for mayor and council members.   You can make a difference with your vote.  It is an important right.

                                                                                                                                      Sincerely, Ingrid S. Cooper,  
                                                                                                                                      Independence, Oregon

This past Friday, as winds whipped fires east of Salem, it was all quiet on the western front – the offices of Polk County. It wasn’t that evacuation worries didn’t exist there, but county administrators seemed confident under the threatening conditions.
  
“We do have some people living in the foothills, and that would be a challenge,” said Dean Bender, emergency manager for the county. But if residents needed to pile into personal vehicles and exit, there are a lot of ways for doing that – detour opportunities on roadways – that could ease departure, he said. 

In Polk County, as well as across the state, Oregon has “route redundancy,” a term for planning that allows transportation to continue under circumstances when one route becomes congested or nearing capacity, said Michael Duncan, a transportation and growth management specialist who serves as a senior regional planner for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).

Route redundancy becomes incredibly critical in natural hazard mitigation, “whether there are windstorms, snowstorms, fires or floods,” Duncan said.

However, creating a network of safe thoroughfares with good traffic flow hasn’t been an easy task, at least for Polk County. ODOT and the county have worked together in a partnership that, at times, seems to have been bumpier than any of the roads – “pain points,” according to both sides.  
          
“My frustration had grown,” confirmed Polk County Commissioner Craig Pope, who served as the county liaison to ODOT for eight years. The bureaucratic steps meant glacially slow progress on some projects, and Pope was ready to hand over the role, he said. So, after Lyle Mordhorst was appointed county commissioner last year, he stepped in.

Confronting him immediately was the problem of traffic growth. The juncture at Highways 51 and 22 needs to be safer and more efficient, Mordhorst said. The total number of cars now traveling daily through the interchange is 36,000 with approximately 5,000 more cars per day heading west. "The biggest draw for tourists is the casino and the Oregon Coast," he explained.
  
Mordhorst quickly got the reputation as peacemaker. In fact, he's been referred to as "Lyle Mediator" for his calm demeanor in meetings.

It wasn't simply that meetings with ODOT could be contentious, but the strain meant they became unproductive, he said. "We went round and round about the roundabout," Mordhorst joked, referring to the proposed traffic circle at Clow Corner Road and Highway 99 that has been a source of near-constant public criticism.

"I pretty much concluded, from ODOT, that it was going to be that (the roundabout) or nothing at all, and there have been deaths there, deaths of young people," he said. "So, I just took the discussion off the table and said 'OK, let's agree with that plan, now how can we move ahead?'" So now meetings are focused differently – on how to make progress, he noted. 
          
Most of the transportation challenges have less to do with roadways than they do with personalities, Mordhorst acknowledged.
           
In the past few weeks, he’s faced county staff who took issue with an ODOT conclusion that there was ground movement on a West Salem hillside that could bar new road construction there; he's been contacted by a resident of Independence – representing neighbors on several streets in that town – about how to stop a loud train horn at night; he's been told by citizens all over the county that the roundabout planned for Clow Corner Road is the dumbest idea any government agency has ever had. 
          
It’s not surprising that transportation planning can be rocky – there’s a long history of it. In 1997, John Kitzhaber, then governor, proclaimed that ODOT should become a “growth management agency.” This concept – the marriage of land use planning and transportation engineering – was conflictual at the start, according to Portland attorney Edward Sullivan JD, who has published widely on the issue.
          
However, in Oregon, “a symbiotic relationship” developed that’s been mutually beneficial, he concluded in an article for the journal Urban Lawyer a few
years ago. 

New and productive talks have occurred in Polk County – and projects are moving forward, Mordhorst said.  
          
“We have developed an excellent working relationship with Commissioner Mordhorst that has been very productive,” agreed Louis Torres, ODOT’s public information officer for the area. “We’re very appreciative of his efforts as we work on a number of state highway projects in Polk County.”

Years of managing the tire-service center Les Schwab in West Salem taught Mordhorst that "it's really not about the tires as much as it is about the people." Even temperament in tense situations is "what it takes to get the job done," he said. "I found myself just asking questions and listening, that is how I kept up," he said. "It's not that different here, asking and good listening is key."

One key to listening is to remember "they're not mad at you, they're mad at the situation," Mordhorst added.

Recently, for example, Ahmed Ahmed, a resident of Independence, contacted Mordhorst about a sleep-disrupting train. Ahmed, who had a petition signed by more than 26 neighbors, asked ODOT, as well as the Portland and Western Railroad, to investigate the booming late-night horn, which he asserted is unnecessarily long and loud. He also took his complaint to the Independence City Council. None of these actions proved successful, he said.

But Mordhorst agreed to speak with Ahmed about possible alternatives, which he has done. So has City Manager Tom Pessemier. However, the likely option – a gate with flashing lights and bells – would be “trading one kind of noise for another,” Mordhorst observed.
   
Mordhorst’s listening skills will be needed soon for another reason: ODOT is setting up an online open house for the planned roundabout at Clow Corner Road. One part of the outreach will be providing an explanation of how this one differs from those that have made the wrong kind of headlines, those constructed with stop signs, signals and other complicating factors, said Torres.
  
If the roundabout finally gains public support, Mordhorst stressed that he doesn’t deserve much credit – that goes to the people that he’s been working with, like Torres, and to the people who paved the way, like Pope. "I didn't have to re-invent the wheel, I just picked it up and started rolling it," he said.

CIVICS LESSON: The Voting Booth Returns to Polk County
 
In a state that continues to make national news for its ease of mail-in ballots, some Oregonians can still cast their vote the old-fashioned way this November – in a voting booth. It may sound like a throwback to another era, but Polk County is getting ready to set up a few of them for the coming election. It’s all part of a state mandate that requires a “privacy” compartment for people who want to vote onsite immediately if they opt to pick up ballots at the Polk County Clerk’s office. In the past, such citizens were ushered into that office, and seated at a special table with a structure that looks like a library-study carrel. However, under COVID-19 restrictions, this won’t do, explained County Clerk Val Unger. Sanitation practices mean the area would have to be thoroughly cleaned after each use, and even if that challenge was met, the office itself is relatively small, making six-foot distancing potentially problematic, particularly as the deadline for final ballot-casting approaches. The county once had a few of these old-time voting booths, which look like tall desks topped by a boxy tent, but new ones had to be ordered, said County Administrator Greg Hansen. Fortunately, the county needs only three of the booths to meet the state requirement, which is based on population.  -- AS

INDY HOP: Comfort Consumption in the World of COVID-19
                                                   
Liquor and marijuana sales have increased substantially in the pandemic, according to national data. But there's skyrocketing demand for another kind of mood-heightening ingestible: Chocolate. It's now being purchased in unprecedented quantities, according to the National Confectioners Association. At Melting Pot Candy, on the corner of Main and C streets, owner Bonnie Andrews said she has seen a real upturn – she's finding it hard to keep up. A new treat: "sea foam," with caramelized brown sugar encased in thick chocolate. It was pronounced a "bite-sized dessert worth a million bucks" by one patron ... actually, an inquiring visitor from Trammart News  ...  who was asked to try a free sample.  -- AS

By Anne Scheck
        
There’s a pretty party gown that remains unused in the closet of Riley Zuck, a Central High School senior. It was bought for a prom that never happened – one of many missing milestones of the “lost year,” the title bestowed on 2020 by parents and students alike this fall. 

The dress isn’t likely to be worn at any school dance this year, either – there’s no end in sight for “distance learning,” Zuck said. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, with her courses all on computer, Zuck is evidence that some youth are showing signs they’re learning how to knock down the stumbling blocks tossed at them. 

She’s one of six captains of the varsity cheerleading team – and gone is any possibility of having a homecoming football game where crowds of alumni and students cram into the stands.

"It's hard knowing I’m not going to have those experiences," Zuck said.  However, it isn't the lack of such
events that's really painful, she noted.
 
"It's the interactions, the stuff that just happens at school," Zuck said. Central High School (CHS) isn't just a collection of classrooms for learning but a place filled with people, she said, where many of her deepest friendships have formed, including those with adults, such as cheerleading coach Megan Smith.   
          
The recent wildfires, which made air unhealthy, were particularly difficult, Zuck recalled. The squad was prohibited from their practice sessions, which have to take place outdoors under current restrictions. But on the "night of the red," as she called it – when a scarlet haze from fiery smoke blanketed the sky – some of the cheerleaders met up for "Taco Tuesday" together. The restaurant, which had been set up for social distancing, was perfect for the meet-up, she said. "It really helped me get through that time," she stressed.

Zuck is one of many her age who is showing a spirit of resilience that leaves the adults in their lives awestruck.

“These are amazing kids,” said Tina Andersen, manager of the Polk County fairgrounds, which became a sudden regional shelter for animals and people alike during the recent wildfires. Livestock management was undertaken largely by adolescents from 4H and the Future Farmers of America (FFA). Scores of teenagers showed up, and many from FFA made a habit of getting there in time for the 7 am feedings. Andersen said she was in a barn earlyone morning “when two of them popped up out of an empty water tub.”

It turned out they’d fallen asleep before daybreak – the two teens had made sure to arrive before dawn so they’d be there in time for the first round of chores. 

Chores seem to be a common distinction among youth who are adjusting
to this circumstantial sea change. “I think it has something to do with that – chores,” Andersen said. “With these kids, they’re used to getting things done, sticking to a schedule, working hard.”

Zuck, for example, works behind the counter at Petals & Vines, the Monmouth floral and gift store. She provided a glimpse of why the link to work responsibilities and well-being may be true. She works at the shop several afternoons a week, in a business owned by her family – her mother, Martha, is often her boss. 

Growing up watching customer transactions, seeing the hard work of her mom and her grandmother, Maggie, gave her a keen sense of values that she uses now as a paid employee – and as a person, Zuck said.

"I think you learn how to structure time, and how important that can be," she said. Once shy about answering the phone, for instance, "I found out how to handle those calls. I had been a little bit afraid of the phone," she explained, adding that her generation doesn't use it in the same way as older adults. The verbal back-and-forth – answering questions, taking flower orders – has taught her to be a good listener and communicator, she said. And, she has become more adept at planning. Putting a bouquet together isn't just a creative process, but one that takes thought and experimentation, she observed.  

If it sounds like work hours for teenagers are beneficial, recent research certainly supports that view. Studies over the past few years show that “early chores” can be an advantage. However, that hasn’t always been the case. Outside employment by high-schoolers once was seen as a risk factor for dropping out, according to a flurry of studies about two decades ago. A closer look at these findings suggests that it was intense work – not the lighter, part-time kind – that interfered with academics. 

In the 1990s – which many identify as the start of the “childhood self-esteem” movement, stemming from a California task force by that name – there was a parallel decline in chores for children. At the same time, the phenomenon of “helicopter-parenting” took hold, seemingly out of necessity.

College entrance had become more competitive, with both admissions and scholarships going to those who
had more extracurricular activities. But the “traditional parenting” practice of making kids do chores now is being linked to good outcomes in a rather dramatic way, according to a report this past spring by a group of  researchers from the University of Virginia. They studied nearly 10,000 kids who entered kindergarten about a decade ago, children now being followed as they attend school. By the third grade, the chore-performing youngsters showed higher academic success and more self-confidence. 

Standardized tests were used, but so were the children’s own viewpoints on how they got along with peers or how much they wanted to help others. “Our study is unique in that we looked at how early childhood chores relate to development from a child’s perspective,” said the study’s senior author, Elizabeth White MD, in a webinar presented by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Some parents in Central School District 13J, based in Independence, need no convincing. Riley's mother is one of them. Her daughter is a self-starter – and she was raised to be one, said Martha Zuck. "Bad things that happen are like having a chair right in front of you," she said. "Leave it there and you won't go anywhere or you'll trip over it, so you've got to kick it out the way." Riley's job in retail has helped reinforce those skills, she said. 

Olivia Ojeda-Hayes couldn't agree more: Holding her children accountable to complete any task to the best of their abilities is something she's always stressed, too.  No one has to prod her son Aaron, a Talmadge 8th-grader, to fire up his computer in the morning, to begin his school day at home, she said. And Aaron, who plays piano and alto saxophone, feels a sense of commitment to playing well – he sets goals to accomplish this, she said. 
          
"He has always been super-motivated," said Ojeda-Hayes. A strong work ethic is a big part of parental expectation for her son. Completion of chores around the house is a must, the responsibility of being part of the family, she explained. 
          
Aaron previously got an allowance for doing those duties but, after he turned 10 years old, he began pitching in without pay – loading and emptying the dish washer, mopping floors. Having a regular schedule, pursuing his interests and having goals "keeps you on track," he said. So does "a supportive family,” he added.
 
At a recent session of the Oregon Health Forum, one characteristic repeatedly referenced about Gen Z, the name of the cohort from ages 14 to 24, is their reliance and ease with technology. YouTube is their number-one website choice and they have never known a world without mobile communication systems, according to the profile offered at the forum.   
          
Still, concern about youth confined to Chromebooks and online platforms has been a recurrent topic at meetings of the Polk County Board of Commissioners. The county health department, which oversees statistical health markers for COVID-19, cannot advise reopening schools unless there is a reduction in incidence to less than a 5% positivity rate and less than 30 cases per 100,000 people, according to Jacqui Umstead RN, interim public health administrator for the county. 
          
The commissioners consider that level hard to reach during this academic year. In this time of remote learning, “thirty percent of the kids will be okay,” said Commissioner Mike Ainsworth. “Thirty percent will struggle and come out of it,” he added. As for the remaining forty percent, “we are looking at a loss,” Ainsworth predicted. 

“They are losing opportunities,” agreed Commissioner Craig Pope, the board’s “point person” for public health. It isn’t just diminished learning, “we are talking real isolation in some cases,” he said. For students who reside in outlying areas, “this may be a problem anyway, and now you take away school.”

Carter Marsters, a freshman at Perrydale High School, knows exactly the feeling described by Pope. It all "feels odd," he said. Marsters was a middle linebacker for the school’s football team; He played catcher on the baseball team.  
   
On his last day of school, he “kept hearing more and more” about the coronavirus, along with the plans for a middle-school dance later that day. “We finished the school day but the dance got called off,” he said. He hasn't been back to a classroom since.
 
But he’s adjusted. Though school occupies most of his day, he regularly works for his parents by doing clerical duties for their 24-hour care facility for disabled adults. Also, since the pandemic, he’s helped them with some remodeling. 
          
Thanks to that activity, “I learned I love working with my hands,” as well as figuring out dimensions and plotting by numbers, said Marsters. “I may want to go into mechanical engineering,” he said. 
         
Zuck feels similarly due to her work with flowers at Petals & Vines. The CHS cheerleader now sees design as her calling. "I discovered what I want to be, right here," she said, sitting at a table in the shop. 
            
However, examples like Marsters and Zuck don’t offer a full  dose of comfort to Commissioner Ainsworth, a CHS grad and caller-commentator for football and basketball games at his alma mater. “I know we have great kids,” he said. “I have seen them at the high school, I have seen them out there on the fairgrounds recently. But what about the others? I worry about them. I really do.” 

Publisher’s note. Voices from the community are an important part of coverage by The Independent, the monthly print edition of Trammart News, which also publishes The Linking Letter, covering the city; The Linking Loop, covering schools; Public Health Points, covering updates in the pandemic. Sometimes, citizen opinions come from residents asking to air their views in a commentary like the one below. Other times, they are invited to do so. 
 
When Natascha Cronin gave public testimony at a recent Independence City Council meeting she received just such an invitation. She accepted it, and it is published with very little revision from the text she prepared for her recent address to the Independence City Council. Trammart News wishes to thank Ms. Cronin for her commentary, as well as all who contribute to the discussion and discourse that help us recognize the viewpoints of our mutual community. 

Guest Editorial Essay
 
 
By Natascha Cronin
 
As a naturalized citizen I feel it is my obligation and responsibility to speak tonight. My naturalization process is riddled with examples of white privilege, and I want to acknowledge that for some the financial burden and bureaucracy of naturalization makes the opportunity I was afforded out of reach for many. My choice to become a United States citizen was intentional and I hold sacred our ideals of democracy, our right to freedom of speech, and take very seriously our obligation to hold free and fair elections.
 
I have lived on three different continents, traveled extensively, and visited almost every state in this vast and glorious country. I mention this because I want to make it clear that I live in Independence for a reason. I could have chosen to live anywhere, but I chose to live here.
 
Our national politics have become a nightmare. For a long time, racism lived in the dark and in the shadows, unfortunately seen mostly by those effected by the hatred. Recently, the light switch on racism and racist actions was flipped on, and instead of scattering into the shadows, racists have become emboldened and have escalated their ability to spew hate and misinformation. This hatred and misinformation has sneakily wiggled itself into the hearts and minds of those who may not even consider themselves to be racist.  Now, it seems these ideas of intolerance have come to light in our community. We have to ask ourselves. Do we stand by while hate and misinformation are disseminated throughout our community? Or do we speak up and call out those who need to open their hearts and minds to what makes this community great.
 
Truth is the accordance of fact or reality. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal. This applies to all men and all women of all abilities, regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, income, or level of education.
 
Freedom is not about the individual; it is about a community and a country as a whole. None of us are absolutely free until everyone is free. Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or
restraint. But this right of speech without hindrance or restraint comes with immense responsibility. Your freedoms should be used to lift others up, rather than tear them down.
 
United: Agreeing for agreements sake is very unamerican. Our country was founded on debate and differences of opinions. I mean, if we never disagreed this country would still only permit white men with property to vote. Respectful disagreements are what move our country forward. We are the United States of America, and although we may all have vastly different ideas and opinions, the fact remains that we are inherently united through the origins of the founding of this country. The vast majority of Americans did not descend from American Indians, rather from immigrants to this land seeking a better tomorrow.
 
The truth of the matter is that speaking truth and upholding freedom can unite us, and it should. I ask my fellow community members to think critically, deeply, and with proven facts about the actions you choose to make and the words you choose to speak. I urge everyone in Independence to complete and submit their census and to vote in November.

By Anne Scheck

On a field just outside Independence, Danny Jaffer stands on sunburned grass flattened like parchment. The ground is bone dry. But deep below him are layers of clay and shale that hold a liquid as essential to life in the Willamette Valley as oxygen – water. 
           For the past eight years, Jaffer has been president of the board of directors of the Luckiamute Domestic Water Cooperative, which serves an area spanning 170 square miles across this agricultural land.
           With four wells and 1,100 individual meters, it’s a water district that suffers from periodic line breaks, power outages and personnel struggles. But those are relatively minor issues, according to Jaffer. What worries him is the “drawing down” on the water supply – he thinks about this the way some people  do about spending beyond their income level. 
           Drier winters have become "the new normal,” threatening needed replenishment of the subterranean water table, Jaffer said.  Yet the public presumption is that water “will always be there," Jaffer noted, adding that drinking water is a commodity that is almost totally taken for granted – unless there’s a shortage. "If somebody loses power, they'll usually just wait it out," Jaffer said. "But turn on a faucet without water, and you have something that's seen as an emergency."
           Oregon has been called “the webfoot state” for its seeming abundance of water. But even the City of Independence has been urged to take steps to increase its municipal water supply – a 2015 water-management report for the city found there is "potential inadequacy of existing source capacity." Next year a new well will be built to add more potable water, and the city also recently obtained surface rights to a part of the Willamette River. The purchase means well-drilling can be expanded closer to the shoreline, explained Tom Pessemier, Independence city manager. 
           Serious water-shortage worries throughout the region began about five years ago, when the US Environmental Protection Agency reported that 25 counties in Oregon were in a “drought emergency.” Since that time, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has published accounts warning that the groundwater supply – which includes the co-op’s aquifer – is potentially imperiled. Multiple attempts seeking comment from the USGS on these findings failed to elicit a response, but several academic publications have listed the dire possibilities.
           Groundwater is easy to steal, said Isaac Castellano PhD, author of “Water Scarcity in the American West,” a book published this year about the unauthorized use of water and its future implications.   Portland attorney Souvanny Miller wrote an analysis three years ago for the journal Environmental Law asserting that wells are drying up and water tables are dropping in some of Oregon’s groundwater-dependent regions – and attributed this “overdraft risk” to lax oversight by the state. State law prohibits this “groundwater mining,” according to Miller’s study, but the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) policy “runs afoul of that prohibition.”

           Just as Miller states, adequate enforcement is key, according to Castellano, an assistant clinical professor at Boise State University’s School of Public Service. However, in a recent case, the OWRD’s effort to regulate certain groundwater wells – by shutting them off within 500 feet of a waterway in the Upper Klamath Basin – went down to defeat. 
           The court ruled that the agency had exceeded its authority, a decision seen as likely to prevent the same action from being taken again. The attempt was described as part of a “smothering blob” of unnecessary interference and “regulatory over-reach” in a recent newsletter by Sen. Dennis Linthicum, who represents the state district where the wells are located.    
           The recent court ruling suggests that a “critical groundwater designation” is needed for successful regulation, but so far OWRD doesn’t have a timeline for establishing it, according to Racquel Rancier, the department’s senior policy coordinator. The OWRD believes water conservation is important, she said.    How much groundwater is available now? That was a question asked this past January at a forum that featured a panel of water utility directors – including Jaffer – co-sponsored by the Independence-based Luckiamute Watershed Council (LWC) and held at the Monmouth Senior Center.  Conservation practices “are something that we’ll be looking at in the future,” said Kristen Larson, LWC’s executive director.

           Some local residents already are doing that. Yards with native drought-resistant plants and rock gardens are far more common in Independence now, as shown by one neighborhood of about 50 houses in the north part of town – two of the lawns have been converted to decorative gravel over the last few years.
           One of those homeowners, Mary Woolley, said she cut her water bill by at least a third when she replaced grass with stones.                
         Even bigger water savings are being attained by Quail Flats Farm in Independence, which is known for "zingy" tomatoes achieved by “dry farming.” Plantings are placed five or six feet apart rather than the typical two-and-a-half-foot distance, which forces crops to “take water already in the soil,” explained Brandon Wagner, who co-owns the farm with his wife Andrea. The process results in a “flavorful” taste, he said. 
           Currently, the Luckiamute Domestic Water Cooperative (LDWC) is taking its own water-conserving steps, such as only allowing watering for gardens up to half an acre. Those pumping significant amounts of water out of the ground onto their fields or large gardens are doing so from their private wells, the kind used for irrigation, Jaffer observed. 
           But springtime snow melts aren't as large as they once were. "It doesn't get cold as early and it doesn't stay cold as long," said Jaffer, who was elected to his unpaid volunteer position in 2011 and chosen president by the board a year later.                   
           He grew up in the area and knows many of the nearly 3,000 residents served by the LDWC. Generally, the underground water tapped into by the LDWC provides drinking-quality water straight from the ground, Jaffer said.  However, sodium hydroxide and chlorine are added. The former is a chemical that helps prevent metal – copper or lead – from leaching out of household pipes; the chlorination is a requirement of the state to prevent organic contaminants in the water, he explained. So, purification doesn't pose a challenge.        
           “It’s the best water I have ever tasted,” said Joshua Brandt, whose water comes from the LDWC. He’s lived in a lot of places, he said, including Portland, where “Bull Run” water from the tap is touted as the best. “It’s not,” said Brandt. “It tastes better here.”                                                   
           More than 50 years ago a small population comprised largely of farmers identified the need for drinkable water – water that would be delivered to their homes, Jaffer recalled. That’s how the LDWC was formed, he said.                 
           "Water, clean water, is a precious resource. We should all treat it as such," Jaffer stressed. That’s a view also strongly held by Rep. Paul Evans, who grew up near Jaffer and who represents both Independence and Monmouth in the Oregon State Legislature. “There is nothing more important to our community growth and sustainability than our groundwater,” he said.      

THE CIVICS LESSON: City Recorder is Golden Lark Winner
Trammart News, publisher of The Independent, gave its “Golden Lark Accolade” for community education this year to Independence City Recorder Karin Johnson, who was recommended for it by citizens from both Independence and Monmouth. The honor comes with a cash award, which Ms. Johnson donated to the Oregon Association of Municipal Recorders.  
           City recorders are considered essential to a city’s success. There are so many aspects to the job it’s probably best described by the late Harvard scholar William Bennett Munro PhD:   "No other office in municipal service has so many contacts.”  City recorders serve the mayor, the city council, the city manager and all of the administrative departments. The continuous workload takes a multi-tasking individual with “versatility, alertness, accuracy and no end of patience,” Professor Munro stated. 
           How does Ms. Johnson manage to cheerfully tie up so many loose ends on a daily basis? Over the past several years, technologic gains have helped her immeasurably, she said (See below, Behind Scenes at Civic Center: City Recorder’s Magical Management). However, some of those who brought her name forward for the award say it’s her personal style that is key to her success in the position.
           “I see my role is that of public servant, in the best sense of the term,” she said. “I genuinely like to help people,” Ms. Johnson said.   --AS

INDY HOP: The Great Dandelion Divide, Friend or Foe?
It's time for the great dandelion debate. The yellow-headed plants are sprouting around town. Are they a weed in need of eradication or a flower helping pollinators thrive? A lawn is a “highly managed ecosystem,” noted Suzanne Teller, outreach coordinator for the Luckiamute Watershed Council. Dandelions are full of nectar and pollen, so they’re good for bees. And there’s a tall, thin one native to the area – its growth can signal compacted soil, said Karin Stutzman, manager of the Polk Soil and Water Conservation District. So, is there a way to settle the divide between dandelion defenders and detractors?  Not likely. Whether to whack it away or welcome it “is up to the individual,” Ms. Stuzman said. Dandelion deterrence can be a dirty decision ... -- AS

The Success of Distance Learning Depends on Staying Connected 
 
Due to patchy internet service and the relative isolation at her home in Kings Valley, Central High School sophomore Cassandra Ainsworth discovered a character that helped her clinch the top grade in her English class, when her teacher asked students to write an essay comparing themselves to someone fictional.
          She chose Anthony DiNozzo, who can’t be found in any search of classical literature. Ainsworth, like so many during the pandemic, happened upon him while watching some fairly old episodic television, which she viewed with her parents. "We all watch NCIS now," she explained, referring to the long-running series about US Naval investigators that began in 2003.
           When her teacher, Ben Gorman, made the assignment Ainsworth knew that “Tony” from the TV show – a guy who’s always trying to please his boss,  
makes corny jokes and is lovable despite his flaws – was someone with whom she truly identified. Asked why she considers herself like him, she said she always wants to please her parents and tries to inject a little humor into every situation she can. Her humor is paying off – the internet remains problematic.
           As youths like Ainsworth transition to “distance learning,” the new normal for Central School District 13J in the pandemic, some students struggle – interruptions in internet service like those in the Ainsworth household can be one of the challenges. In fact, it’s a fairly frequent occurrence for those who live in a more rural parts of Polk County, explained Ainsworth’s dad, Jeremy. Videos freeze during zoom meetings; Online access slows or shuts down. However, the losses from switching to internet-based education aren't limited to technological problems. 
           "This is isolating to kids who are in formative years, when there is a lot of interpersonal development," he observed.
             Separating adolescents from peers could have effects that aren't yet recognized, he suggested. They’re missing out on ordinary, everyday teenage events, from chatting with friends at school to participating in extracurricular activities, like job-shadowing to learn about different professions, he said.   
             Central School District has done a good job of trying to fill in the gaps where internet is unavailable, but it has been a rocky transition just the same, according to interviews with district educators. What’s the impact of an online “virtual learning academy”? Significant differences in pupil support for learning were present before COVID-19, but  now new strategies are needed to address them – some students lost the engagement they may require, such as hands-on lessons, according to a recent investigation by the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank that surveyed nationally representative samples from K-12 public schools this past spring. 
           Measures such as distance-learning are considered a necessary alternative in this pandemic, but it isn't simply academics that suffer when the switch is made to more computer-based education, in the opinion of some parents. From the loss of team sports to the lack of hallway interaction, "for kids, it's like when adults lose their jobs," said Shane Cyphers, a counselor at Central High School (CHS). And, for youth, the absence of these daily routines with peers isn't just a hardship – it comes at a time when they are finding their way to adult identities. For those who already were facing emotional challenges and needed the stability of school, "this just exacerbates it," he said. 
           “It's certainly not what's best for kids," said Gorman, a CHS language arts teacher. "But it's the only way to keep them safe, and that is our highest priority."
           Students like Ainsworth and his own son Noah, also a CHS student, like to dive into books. They’re able to flourish in this new learning environment, Gorman explained. But for students who need in-person interactions, "this has been incredibly difficult," he acknowledged.
           And, as a teacher, the loss of personal contact creates challenges in ways he couldn't have predicted  – gone are the visual and auditory cues that enabled him to stay attuned to students. Even silence on the part of a student in his classroom could be a tip-off, he said. "Maybe you'd see someone being really quiet, looking at the ground, and you'd know something was wrong that day," he said. 
           Gorman doesn't believe the much-discussed hybrid model would be better. "We falsely compare the traumas our kids may face at home to the safety some felt at school before. But this would not be normal school. I'd be standing 12 feet away from some of my students and wearing a mask. And imagine if some of their teachers or peers got sick and died. It would just be a different kind of trauma," he said.
           To connect students to online learning programs, Chromebooks were issued by Central School District 13J. A grant of nearly $240,000 from Oregon Business – initially announced by MINET with the City of Independence as the fiscal sponsor – aims to implement municipal broadband to those who need it.
           Last year, in an effort to do just that, the district provided “hotspot” units on buses – transportable hubs that provide wireless internet service to users who live within range of them or drive and walk to a destination where the system can be accessed.
           Polk County, like many other counties with small cities and large agricultural zones, has areas without internet connection. In survey results published last year, the Polk County Board of Commissioners determined that many of these locations largely are in hilly regions, from Prospect Hill by Independence to the rolling landscape near Pedee.
           Working to provide internet connection to help fill in this rural divide now is a goal, noted Commissioner Craig Pope, who helped initiate the survey. It showed that more than 25% who responded had service below standard internet access, in terms of speed and function, and almost 90% were well below the federal definition of broadband service. 
           "I’ve been working on this for nine years," said Mr. Pope. "We specifically wanted to know where the weakest spots are, and we found them." 
           It turns out that lack of internet access occurs largely in two ways: spotty connectivity or none at all. By working with entrepreneurial providers, like Alyrica Networks in Benton County and Salem-based Adaptive Broadband, some outlying areas have been provided with a connection that was presumed to be highly unlikely.
           In one case, for example, a family with two teenagers in the hills outside West Salem – where secure reliable internet access wasn't thought possible – found themselves in a critical need for it during the onset of the pandemic. Adaptive Broadband, through creative engineering, was able to utilize some of the existing technology in the area and now the family has it, Mr. Pope said.
          Commissioner Pope added that the situation is one that "the market could fix over time, but government intervention can expedite this," he said. As a result, the county is expecting to use about a million dollars of CARES Act money to get WIFI throughout the county where it is needed, he said.
           For CHS student Ainsworth, reliance on a keyboard is complicated by the fact that she broke her ring finger practicing softball, determined to keep up her skill as an outfielder in the sport she loves. But it hasn’t stopped her. She's staying active mentally -- reading the iconic young adult novel The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin and writing daily entries in her journal.
           The two habits – physical activity combined with mental stimulation – offer a successful way to cope with this stressful time, according to the research. However, staying connected to others online is essential, too, said Peter DeWitt EdD, whose popular syndicated blog “Finding Common Ground” has been addressing education in the pandemic.
A recent poll that he conducted – answered by more than 100 students in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – shows they all want the same thing, to be able to converse with others. In a recent podcast, he summed it up in three words: “dialogue is good.”
           Whether it is a zoom meeting or a chat room, “Students learn better when they engage in dialogue with other students,” he said.  --AS

Behind Scenes at Civic Center: City Recorder’s Magical Management           
  
The Golden Lark Accolade  is an award given to an outstanding community educator. This year’s choice is Karin Johnson, City Recorder.
          Independence City Recorder Karin Johnson was selected by local residents who value her quick responsiveness and organizational skills. How does she manage both people and documents so deftly?
           “I genuinely like to help people – I think that’s probably the one item cities should look for when hiring a recorder,” Ms. Johnson said.  For example, if someone comes to the Civic Center in Independence, and is “angry, loud or belligerent, I know that, very likely, it’s not personal to me, that they are frustrated with the situation they are in,” she said.
“One of my favorite things is to help them, get a resolution and have them leave satisfied – and if I get a smile from them at the end, my day is made!”  --AS

By Anne Scheck
 
A $32 million budget this year for the city shows pandemic-related belt-tightening that includes merging positions to save money and applies a safeguard to the looming future obligation of the public employment retirement system (PERS).
            
This doesn’t just avoid dipping into the PERS account – a temptation for cities under financial strain – but Independence is setting aside money to prepare for expected increases in that financial commitment to retirees.
          
“If we continue to save at the current rate the city will be able to cover a large portion of that future increase” of PERS, according to Tom Pessemier, Independence city manager. However, cost-of-living adjustments for non-union employees have been eliminated for at least the first half of the fiscal year, which began this past month. 
         
The drafting of the budget began with “optimism in regard to growth” but the onset of the COVID-19 crisis and the “rapid dive into recession caused the staff to re-analyze the effects both in the short-term and over the next year,” he said in his statement on the 2021 budget, which was adopted this summer.
          
The Independence budget of roughly $32.3 million, which runs July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, puts Independence significantly below the budget sum of its sibling city – it’s about $38.2 million for the City of Monmouth, according to Monmouth City Councilor Laurel Sharmer.

Independence’s paring down is because “we are yet to know the full extent of the impact or how long it will take to recover,” Mr. Pessemier said, noting that staff cuts are a possibility next year if the effects of the current recession are significant. Staffing has increased from 39 full-time equivalent position to 53 over the past decade, according to
the city’s comprehensive annual financial report. 

This budget, seemingly unlike previous ones, identifies serious challenges that may lie ahead, including costs for stormwater and transportation infrastructure – though the city’s utilities in general have proven self-sustaining, with only small annual rate increases. 
              
Another change in the budget, at least to some – including City Councilor Marilyn Morton – is that city spreadsheets no longer look like a jumble of confounding interfund transfers. A few years ago, Councilor Morton asked for more fiscal transparency, particularly in an area that seemed confusing to almost anyone who didn't have deep accounting knowledge: those interfund transfers. 

Interfund transfers refer to taking money from one account and placing it in another, in order to have the necessary funds available when needed. The city has many funds – water & sewer are familiar ones – and movement among accounts is a fairly common practice by cities. However, back when Councilor Morton made the request, "a lot of this interfund lending wasn't clearly disclosed," she said. 

Interfund transfers are seen as a problem in other cities, too. Nan Willis, Monmouth’s outgoing budget-committee chair, disparaged them, calling the practice a “shell game,” at a recent city council meeting. The City of Dallas has taken steps to cease interfund transferring altogether. 

To some extent, Councilor Morton’s past calls for more transparency fell on deaf ears. "I think that has changed with a new administration," she said, referring to the hiring of Tom Pessemier, city manager. Interfund transfers still occur, but "it's improved," she said, adding that there is more clarity that makes money easier to follow. "Now we have more information about when the (interfund) loans are made, where they go, and when they are closed (repaid)," she said.

Additionally, borrowing money has gotten less expensive for the city with the change to a streamlined document. This was taken into account by Standard & Poor’s (S & P), an international bond-rating agency, when the city recently refinanced bonds. The rating, which went from an A- to an A, put the city in a higher confidence ranking; The highest grade, triple-A, is the most desirable – but it’s uncommon for local governments, according to a state authority.  
          
One weak spot identified in the bond report by S & P was the relatively high level of debt payments the city is making, which were judged to be consuming a potentially worrisome chunk of the budget. Asked by City Councilor Shannon Corr if that was “the issue, the cost of the debt?”
          
Gloria Butsch, Independence finance director, affirmed that it was cited as an area that needs improvement by S & P. Asked about the overall debt, now at $43 million, Councilor Morton said she believes it’s being managed effectively.     

Another reason for the uptick in the city’s bond rating was tied to  Independence Landing, where apartments and townhomes currently are under construction, with some ready for occupancy.

"In earlier years, much of what was highlighted centered on the contribution of MINET and how leveraging our high-speed internet capabilities has been an integral part of our economic development program," according to Ms. Butsch.  

More recently, emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of property for Independence Landing. “This time, however, we were able to demonstrate that this was a good risk,” she explained, showing S & P “all of the positive results, along with the improved financial outlook for the Urban Renewal Agency.”

 
COMING: NEW CITY FISCAL POLICIES
City financial policies are scheduled to be reviewed this year, and revisions will be presented to the Independence City Council periodically. More frequent reports on spending also are planned, according to Independence Finance Director Gloria Butsch, who referenced these coming changes during city council sessions this year. 

The city will be seeking approaches that reflect current “best practices,” she said. The announcement came at a time when the Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast, published this past June, confirmed a deep recession. However, even before the bleak pronouncement, one new protocol for accounting practices was established. The aim is to avoid the kind of error that was found during an audit of the city’s books a couple of years ago. At that time, the city’s outside auditor, Merina & Co., detected an error called a “material deficiency.”
 
That is a term which generally reflects an omission, and it requires a “plan of action” to help prevent it from happening again. The plan is required to be filed with the Oregon Secretary of State. The city councilors agreed in 2019 to contract with an independent consultant in the future, to look over the documents of the initial audit. It was carried out by the firm Smith-Wagar Brucker Consulting LLC. A member from the company reviewed the closing entries and draft the financial statements for the audit, Ms. Butsch said. So it is now in place.   --AS                           

The CIVICS LESSON: Redefining Emergency Legislation?

A group called “No Fake Emergencies 2022” has announced they're beginning circulation of a ballot initiative that seeks to reform the way emergencies are handled in the state legislative process. The petition was the subject of a news release by state Rep. Mike Nearman (R-Independence). The initiative, which is being spearheaded by two other Republican legislators, asserts that by declaring a bill to be an emergency, the legislation not only takes effect upon being signed by the Governor, it removes the ability of the public to subject the legislation to a referendum, where it can be effectively vetoed by the people. “This process is being abused by being applied to bills which are not emergencies, but to avoid the referendum process,” according to the statement. The change would require a two-thirds majority vote on most bills declared to be an emergency. The campaign needs to gather 149,360 signatures by July of 2022 to make the November ballot of that year.  -- AS

INDY HOP: Recent Survey Finds a Few Nameless Roads

Over the last two decades, Polk County has increased by more than 60 miles of roadway, reaching 470 miles of road. Sadly, some of the lesser thoroughfares have remained nameless, according to Polk County Surveyor Eric Berry. These unidentifiable byways make up only a tiny percentage of the road count, but still...they have no distinguishing moniker, he said.

What to do? Perhaps naming rights could be sold to raise a little money for county coffers, joked   Mike Ainsworth, commission chair of the Polk County Board of Commissioners. After all, he paid $1,800 about a decade ago to have his wife's name, DeAnn, appear on a street by the Willamette River in Independence. It was for a charitable cause, he explained – and he said he's only kidding about doing the same in the county. So the road-name challenge remains. --AS

MASK REQUIREMENT:
                 A VARIABLE INTERPRETATION 
    
When Mike Lodge, a longtime resident of Independence, stopped in a few weeks ago at the liquor store a couple of blocks from his home, the sign on the door surprised him. “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service,” it stated. Lodge was wearing both, but he had on a mask, too – and he’d expected that requirement to be listed. “There I was, with one on my face,” Lodge said. “But not the guy inside, at the counter.” 

The clerk said the mask isn’t required, Lodge recalled. So, Lodge started driving about 10 miles -- to Dallas or West Salem -- when he wanted to buy his cocktail mix. At those liquor outlets, postings at entrances clearly stated that masks are necessary. “My feeling is that everybody needs to cooperate on this issue, whether they believe it works or not – it helps us all,” Lodge said. “And the risk far outweighs the inconvenience.” 

A small, gray-lettered sign on the liquor store's front door states "face masks required" then adds that "if you are not wearing a mask, Independence Liquor will assume you have a Federal ADA medical condition that prohibits it. (Per Federal ADA laws we cannot ask customers why a mask is not being worn)." The store owner indicated inquiries about business practices weren’t going to be answered.
 
In fact, masks are mandatory for retail employees in liquor stores, unless an employee needs to be provided an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. “In that case, the retail agent could provide an employee with a face guard instead of a mask,” said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC). The liquor store in Independence has been the focus of several inquiries to the OLCC, he noted.  
            
Yet masks, as well as other measures against the spread of COVID-19, appear to be a significant source of questions -- and complaints, according to the Oregon office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Since March, the state’s OSHA has received almost 8,300 complaints about non-compliance, compared with the roughly 2,000 that occur in a typical year, said Michael Wood, OSHA administrator. 
In Oregon, OSHA is moving forward to create a “temporary rule,” which would extend the pandemic provisions beyond the legislatively imposed deadline this month, to February next year.  However, in late July, the Freedom Foundation, a non-profit conservative group, filed a legal challenge with the Oregon State Court of Appeals against Gov. Kate Brown’s order on masks. A decision is pending.
 
The divide also can be seen in Independence, though it’s been a fairly uncommon sight, according to merchants. In one incident, a frustrated customer told another patron, a stranger, loudly and angrily about the alleged ineffectiveness of masks while the two waited for their take-out. The owner politely ignored the outburst and so did everyone else.     
              
"It should, at this late date, go without saying that the science says it (mask-wearing) will hasten control of this pandemic and save lives," said David Clyne, a resident of Independence and the former city manager. In addition to providing a safeguard against coronavirus infection, "the mask sends a message that I care about your well-being, not just my own."  
Some people are simply confused, said Sue Barker, who manages the city’s Riverview Farmers Market. “When they’re outside, some people don’t think they need to cover their face at all,” she said. However, when within six feet of someone else, they do, she noted. Most are agreeable when she tells them they need to either put on a mask or increase their personal space, Barker added. She has a pool noodle she playfully uses to keep mask-less customers at a six-foot distance. “It works and they think it’s funny,” she said.

At Jubilee, the dessert shop at Main and Monmouth streets, owner Dana Heuberger feels similarly. “Most people (not wearing masks) are very nice when I tell them -- and they step outside,” she said. Then a cupcake, or another of her creations, is delivered curbside.

“I do feel sorry for business owners,” said Craig Pope, a member of the Polk County Board of Commissioners and the designated “point person” for the county health authority. “Should we be expecting them to enforce this? In some cases, it’s difficult,” he said. Recently, while dining out, he saw a group of young men and women seated closely together at a table. “What’s the restaurant manager supposed to do? Go over and ask if they’re actually family?”
 
The answer to that question appears to depend on the state agency. Though Oregon’s OSHA has indicated an intent to focus on outreach and education, “if complaints are voluminous or significant enough it may issue fines with the first reported violation,” according to an analysis by Davis Wright Tremaine, a law firm in Portland. Conversely, the Bureau of Labor and Industries “may investigate, fine or even bring a lawsuit against businesses that discriminate on the basis of disability by failing to accommodate either customers or employees, if accommodation is possible,” according to the legal team’s advisory.

It’s true that masks can feel constricting to some -- but now there are face shields, observed Kate Schwarzler, president of the Independence Downtown Association and proprietor of Indy Commons, a shared worksite space on Main Street. This newer form of face protection offers the benefit of allowing facial expressions to be fully seen, including smiles. “I think it’s a good alternative,” she said.
 --AS  

August 2020 Guest Editorial supplement to The Independent.  
 
Masks have proven to be far more divisive than health authorities could have predicted. Gov. Kate Brown's orders, that face coverings need to be worn indoors in business establishments and outdoors when a six-foot distance cannot be maintained, are a continuing  subject to debate for some, even though President Trump has begun encouraging their use when social distancing isn't possible. In this essay, by two citizens known for their volunteerism in the community, they discuss why pandemic control measures like face masks are so essential in a time that’s affecting us all. --AS
 

The World of Face Coverings

By David Clyne and Peggy Clyne, Residents of Independence
 
The two of us feel pretty lucky. We no longer need to work to survive (though at times working to thrive may occur) as we are both retired from public service positions. While at many times our work was both challenging and quite stressful, neither of us is envious of those left trying to make a living in these incredibly stressful times.
            
While neither of us are native Oregonians, collectively we have lived in this amazing place for 65 years and feel  qualified to call ourselves semi-natives. Why does that matter? It doesn’t, but one thing we both learned is that this is a special place occupied by special people with a unique ethic of truly caring for each other. “Do you need help” could be the State slogan.
          
Well the answer is now “yes.” We need help. We need help from all of us keeping Oregon a special place where our neighbors can safely venture out, where we can start seeing our families again in care facilities, hospitals, and yes even at funerals.
          
We also need help for our business community. They have suddenly become a battleground over the wearing of face-coverings. Putting aside for the moment the issue of why wearing a mask is the correct thing to do, let’s chat about why it is the only responsible thing to do.
          
Before going further with this, let’s also put aside the notion of whether
it is the politically correct thing to do. If folks want to politicize their masks with political messages displayed prominently on them, please do so. After all, this is of course election season. It makes no difference (short of a few obviously offensive symbols) what the messages read, just that they are worn at the appropriate times.
          
Back to our business community. Every business has the challenging mission of providing services, products, jobs and making a living. Tough job indeed even in the best of times for downtown retail.
          
In this new world, they have also become law enforcement by no choice of their own other than their choice to reopen responsibly in the middle of a pandemic. Not all businesses have succeeded in doing so and some that we know won’t succeed at all or have already called it quits.
         
The law is clear for these businesses; mask yourself, your employees and your customers or face steep fines that they can ill afford. We are sure if you ask the owners of any of our small downtown businesses if they are looking forward to a call from OSHA that the answer will be “no.” Any business, small or large, can receive a fine of up to $10,000 for not complying with state guidelines. Is it fair to our businesses to ask them to assume this risk?

But why else should businesses comply with the law? Because they are Oregonians and they care. They care for our health, they care for their employees’ health, they care for their own health and they care for the health of all the people that will be in contact with those same folks. That’s a lot to care about, but it's what Oregonians have always done.
          
We all want to see this come to an end sooner rather than later. We are asking that we all do our share by at least masking up and giving our businesses a chance to survive without having to “pick sides.”
          
For those businesses that are making their own “statement” against masks, please think again. We are all in this together. The science is overwhelming. It is not a political choice, it is a public health and customer service one.
          
Finally, for those businesses that are unwilling to confront their customers that are unmasked, we ask that you too think hard about what is at risk. We do so when we try to shop with you.
          
These are truly tough times. Let’s remember our Oregon values and get through this together.