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Happy New Year Wednesday January 1, 2025 | Volume 150, Issue 1

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2024’s most read stories in the Polk IO Staff Report

As we welcome in the new year of 2025, there are several ways to look back at the most memorable moments of 2024. For this year’s annual retrospective, the ItemizerObserver staff dove into the analytics of our website to discover which stories our readers found most compelling. Here then are the top 10 stories which garnered the most views at www.polkio.com.

1) County is in need of licensed ham radio operators: (8,346 views)

Ham radio enthusiasts from throughout the region were at the Polk County Fairgrounds on Oct. 26, drawn by the lure of the semi-annual swap meet. American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, once, while orbiting the Earth while manning the International Space Station, called ham radio operators in the United States. Scott Rosenfeld, section manager for the American Radio Relay League of Oregon (ARRL), was

among those to receive the signal from Lindgren. “I was eight years old. I had a shortwave radio and was listening to shortwave broadcasts from around the world,” Rosenfeld said. “I was amazed that these signals could somehow end up in my bedroom.” It’s an experience he and other operators want to share with the children of today. “One of the things that we’re pushing right now, and have for years, is reminding kids that this is the same kind of fun and expansive hobby that people have gotten into since 1915,” Rosenfeld said. “The color has changed, you know. The kinds of things that it does have changed. But the fact is that you send a signal out into space and somehow it ends up bouncing back down to Earth, and you can talk to somebody else.” This, at a time when interest in amateur radio, at least locally, appears to be waning.

FILE PHOTO

See 2024, page A2

Michael Barnes pictured inside the Amateur Radio Emergency Services mobile command center, which was on display at the annual swap meet.

C Cable celebrates 50 years and three generations of agents By DAVID HAYES Editor

In 1973, Carol Cable left his job as vice principal and head basketball coach at Central High School to pursue a career in real estate. His first job as an agent was with Al Noble Reality in Independence. Now, five decades after he and his wife Donna bought the business, C Cable Realty’s legacy lives on in the hands of the family’s third generation of realtors serving Independence. Their son Timm now runs the office, as Carol passed away in 2015 and Donna retired as the company’s bookkeeper this year. Timm transitioned from working for his parents to working with them in 1990 when he, too, became a licensed agent. “It was an opportunity that was always there for myself and my siblings. As it was, kind of, for me a second career,” Timm said, alluding to his prior experience in retail management. “It’s (now) the longest time I’ve held a job.”

His sister, Tanna, joined Cable as an office assistant in 2001 before becoming a licensed agent herself, in 2004. Timm said both his sisters, including Toni, worked in the office while they went to school. He credited Tanna’s experience working for another title company that broadened the knowledge base of C Cable’s agents. “It helps to have a better knowledge base. She brought a good base of experience,” Timm said. With the company in good hands, Carol retired as a licensed agent in 2002 but continued with his personal property management. Timm stepped in as the company’s managing broker. Another area the Cable kids inherited from their parents was their involvement in the community, giving them closer ties and relationships to their neighbors and

PHOTO BY KAREN SANKS

Three generations of agents celebrate C Cable Realty serving Independence for 50 years, including (from left) Timm Cable, Tanna Cable Girod, Donna Cable and Franki Cable.

See C CABLE, page A4

Police seek information on hit and run suspect Salem Police seek the public’s help identifying a suspect in a hit and run that left a man dead in West Salem Dec. 23. A preliminary investigation by the SPD’s Traffic Team determined a man found in the roadway on Murlark Avenue just north of Edgewater Street Northwest NW at about 8:30 p.m. was struck by a vehicle that left the scene. The victim, identified as Steven Craig Bishop, was pronounced deceased by responding paramedics. Video surveillance (viewable online at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=k61F2Z9TR90) near the area where Bishop was found

IN THIS ISSUE Voices Corrections Obituaries Puzzle Solutions Social Public Records Classifieds Puzzles

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showed a passing motorist minutes before the call to police was received. In the recording, a white vehicle was seen traveling eastbound on Edgewater Street Northwest as it approached Murlark Avenue Northwest. The vehicle appears to be a Jeep Grand Cherokee, possibly a 2015 or 2016 model year. Investigators ask for the public’s help in finding this vehicle of interest. If you are the driver, know the person driving in the video, or if you have information about the case, please call the Traffic Team investigators at (503) 588-8477.

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