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Wednesday November 6, 2024 | Volume 148, Issue 45

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Independence cuts the ribbon last Iconic Bay week on its new neighborhood park House moving to

Monmouth

By DAVID HAYES Polk County Itemizer-Observer

Kimberly Compton was happy to attend the ribbon cutting officially opening Sunset Meadow Park in Independence on Oct. 29. After all, the green space converted into a public gathering space, is just beyond her backyard fence. “We’re very excited. The kids just have to go out our back gate to play,” Compton said while her son Wyatt, 10, swung ever higher on one of the park’s two new swings. More than 20 community members and contributors gathered to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony, hosted by Independence Mayor John McArdle. He first thanked Mother Nature for holding off on the forecasted rain then listed off a litany of guests who helped bring a vision to fruition, nine years in the making. “This park is a reflection of our community values and it’s been in the planning stages since 2015. Part of the city’s master plans,” McArdle said. “The residents of the area had a chance to put their ideas for an accessible, beautiful park. It guided our design going forward.” The 1 ½-acre park, he said, offers perfect blend of space and recreational amenities. The Independence

Jeremy C. RUARK Country Media, Inc.

PHOTO BY DAVID HAYES

Independence Mayor John McArdle (center) officially opens Sunset Meadows Park with the help of Ethan Fink, 7, and Annabeth Najar Alverez, 8, to cut the ribbon held by T-Mobile regional marketing manager Gary Buckholtz (left) and Oregon Parks and Recreation manager Mark Cowen (right) whose organizations contribute grants to the park’s construction. City Council authorized a bid of $457,112.20 from GT Landscape Solutions to construct the park, located between Maple and Chestnut streets. And to help pay for the project, McArdle thanked the organizations who contributed.

Oregon Parks and Recreation donated $75,000, T-Mobile’s Hometown Grant program donated $50,000, Pacific Power donated $3,500 to pay for the tree installation, Marr Brothers provided the bark dust and AARP rounded out the donations.

“We were able to leverage the system development charges (SDCs) to make this project happen,” McArdle explained to the crowd of about 30 cheerful onlookers. “Those charges See PARK, page A3

Dallas renews its Japanese Garden By DAVID HAYES Itemizer-Observer

Mike and Victoria Mathis first discovered the Dallas Japanese Garden while driving through the area to meet family in the 1970s. “We didn’t realize this park was here,” Victoria recalled. “We started driving into the park, and realized it kept going and going. And we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is gorgeous.’” Originally from Montana, Victoria met Mike, a Los Angelos native, in California. They drove north to Dallas to visit his aunt and uncle, current City Councilor Larry’s Brigg’s mother and father. “We just fell in love with the park. We should get married here, so here we are,” Victoria said. Now, 49 years nearly to the day after they were married in the Dallas Japanese Garden (Oct. 11, 1975), Mike and Victoria were among the more than 100 community members in attendance to witness the park’s reopening on Oct. 26. Emcee Jennifer Ward, city Administrative Services Manager,

PHOTO BY DAVID HAYES

Community members explore the newly restored Dallas Japanese Garden on Oct. 26. welcomed the visitors to the refurbished garden, featuring a completely new, red pedestrian bridge that crosses over a tributary flowing through the Japanese Garden. The aging and unsafe pedestrian bridge was an unfinished project she inherited when Ward first joined the city staff three years ago.

31 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS TOWN!

“It’s enormously gratifying to see this project transition from drawings and notes on paper to the beautiful garden you see today,” Ward told those assembled in and around a large tent brought in to hold back the ever-threatening rain Saturday. “There is so much about this garden that I love, not the least of which is the history it embodies.”

LLAS OREGON DA

The Dallas Japanese Garden was originally built and designed in the 1960s by Art Higashi, a JapaneseAmerican businessman living in Dallas at the time. Ward explained that the garden came about after Higashi was interned in World War II camps like most other Japanese Americans.

Steve Wilson and his wife Maureen OCallaghan are on an adventure. Since 2005, Wilson has been the owner and operators of the Bay House, an iconic restaurant that was nestled along the Siletz Bay in Lincoln City since 1979. The site is now the location of the Pelican Brew Pub after the property owner decided to sell the location to the Pub operators. The Pelican Brew Pub opened in the spring of 2022. At that time of the property sale, Wilson said he had another “fabulous location” to relocate the Bay House. “Originally, we had planned to move into an estate home along the Siletz River,” Wilson said. “That’s when the pandemic got in the way. They weren’t doing public meetings to get a food server’s permit, and then of course, hospitality was put on hold because of the outbreak of the pandemic.” During that time, Wilson said the operators of the Salishan Coastal Lodge had reconsidered his original proposal to relocate the restaurant at the Lincoln City resort. The Bay House opened at the resort in Aug.2020. The partnership “I am very excited after 20 years to have a partner,” Wilson said of OCallaghan. “Someone who has the vision that we share regarding the quality of hospitality, the quality of food and beverage, and basically the quality of the experience, and the memories that we make for our long-time cliental. It will be very energizing to be in a place where we get the opportunity to expose what we do to even more people.” Wilson said the Willamette Valley is the key market for the Lincoln City area of the Oregon Coast and many of the restaurant’s guests live in the Willamette Valley. “So, being closer to them is another bonus,” he said. O’Callaghan said the Bay House website illustrates a “very visual” description of the new 5,000-foot restaurant location with a roof deck in Monmouth.

See GARDEN, page A2

Tree Lighting

See HOUSE, page A3

Parade Christmas Town Information

Holiday Market

CHRISTMAS TOWN Santa!

DECEMBER 7

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

A4 A4 A6 B2 B2 B6 B8 B8

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