The readerboard at Dale Collins Park, tucked into downtown Philomath at Applegate and 15th, reads “City of Volunteers — Dale Collins Park.” In a photo taken when it was dedicated in 2013, Dale stands off to the side, hands in his pockets.
That sign, and that posture, tell you most of what you need to know about him. And I wouldn’t be surprised if after he finished posing for photos, Dale went back to work.
Collins died June 14 at Evergreen Hospice House in Albany. He was 81.
He arrived in Philomath in 1972 with his wife, Mary Jo, and their daughters and, as near as anyone can tell, never stopped volunteering. Mayor, city councilor, Lions Club, chamber of commerce president, volunteer firefighter, master gardener, park board, downtown association — and that’s before you get to the Melvin Jones Award, two First Citizen honors and the park named in his honor.
I wrote a feature on Dale in early 2015 for the Philomath Express when he was 70 and recovering from back surgery. Mary Jo said at the time that she had to practically hogtie him to slow down. He told me he got cabin fever easily and needed to get out and do something every half-hour. That wasn’t restlessness — that was just who he was.
What struck me most from that conversation was how plainly he described his motivation. He didn’t talk about his service in grand terms. He talked about water systems and siren buttons and garden hoses. He described his first years with the volunteer fire department — six guys with phones in their homes and one button that set off the downtown siren — with the same energy he brought to watering plants along Main Street two days a week.
“My objective on it never was to change what people had done, but to make it better,” he told me. That philosophy carried through everything he touched.
He did have one worry he voiced plainly — that the culture of volunteering was slipping. “We’ve lost two generations already,” he said, referring to people who think they’re too busy to get involved. He said it without bitterness, just as someone who understood what a town like Philomath actually runs on.
It runs on people like Dale Collins.
He was a Farmers Insurance agent for 40 years but his occupation was almost beside the point. The Music in the Park concert series, the flower baskets downtown, the comprehensive plan that shaped how the city grew — community members point to his fingerprints on all of it.
“I’m just so proud of where this town’s gone,” he told me.
He leaves behind his wife of 62 years, daughters Lisa and Michele, and a granddaughter. And he leaves behind a community that is measurably better for the five-plus decades he spent showing up.
2. Crosswalk upgrade
A project scheduled to occur in the next few years promises improvements to the crosswalk on Main Street at 17th — a particular spot that can be scary for pedestrians wondering if motorists actually see you and will stop.
As a city councilor pointed out during a Capital Improvement Plan discussion at a June 8 meeting, the pedestrian can’t even be sure if the lights are flashing. City Manager Chris Workman said that’s by design. The goal is to keep people at the curb rather than stepping out the moment they press the button.
“We want you to push the button and then stand there and wait for traffic to stop before you go,” he said.
The improvements involve replacing the existing overhead yellow lights with a rectangular rapid flashing beacon. The project, estimated at $12,000, is scheduled for the 2027-28 budget year. The project is funded through Oregon Department of Transportation gas tax money, which requires the city to direct toward bike and pedestrian improvements.
The new setup will place rapid flashing beacons on either side of the crossing and in the median, making it far more visible to drivers than the current setup. Workman said ODOT standards also require additional overhead lighting whenever these beacons are installed, plus the spacing and the refuge island are considered — which is part of why the project carries a price tag beyond a simple light swap.
Workman also floated a related question for future discussion — whether the city should look at eliminating the left turn from 17th Street westbound onto Main Street as an additional safety measure. With only a couple of blocks of sight distance, it’s already a tricky turn — and adding crosswalk changes to the mix only complicates things.
Workman said he believes most people “go up to 15th Street and hop on the highway that way — but there’s some daredevils out there.”
3. Espresso surprise
After a week away on vacation, the family was heading home from Seattle on I-5 — southbound, tired, and in my case, desperately in need of caffeine. Somewhere around Centralia, Washington, my wife started searching for nearby coffee on her phone.
Ladybug Espresso came up. Next exit.
Now, we drove right past a Starbucks on the way there. I may have pointed this out. My wife, however, is a champion of small business, so we followed the GPS to the drive-through.
The place looked closed. The window was dark. I was scanning for an open or closed sign. Then the window slid open.
I reacted with a loud “Whoa!!!!”
The two baristas working the cramped coffee trailer were wearing bikinis. Very skimpy bikinis. In fact, one of them was entirely see-through. My jaw dropped.
I suppose at this moment, I could have driven off. I mean, our two boys, ages 8 and 6, were in the back seat. But, these young women were smiling, laughing and enjoying the show that they were putting on. They’re just doing their jobs, I reasoned. Besides, there was no line.
So, we ordered our coffee.
My wife struck up a friendly conversation with the baristas and wrapped it up with the comment: “When we drive away, our children are going to have questions.”
My jaw dropped a second time when I saw the total. More than $20 for two Americanos. I tipped, naturally — though I had no cash and had to put it on the card, which felt like it undercut the moment somewhat.
The stop provided interesting driving conversation almost all the way to the Oregon border. As for the Americano, it turned out to be pretty good.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
