Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2008)
vernonia’s voice community june 2008 19 The Columbia County Fair - Something for Everyone By Scott Laird It’s been a long, hard winter. And as summer arrives, for people all over Oregon it means it’s time to get ready for their local county fair. This year the Columbia County Fair will be held July 16-20. The Washington County Fair will be held July 24-27, the Clatsop County Fair is July 29-August 2, and the Tillamook County Fair takes place on August 6-9. This year the Columbia County Fair and Rodeo will feature the usual activities and favorite draws. Highlights include the Rodeo, stock car races, Live Music, Talent Competition, 4-H events and Auction, the Carnival, and Senior Citizen Day on Wednesday. Some new favorites will also be featured again, including the “Dancin’ in the Dirt “concert following the Rodeo on Friday and Satur- day nights, and the ATV Rodeo. All residents, especially youth, are encouraged to enter in the exhibitor competi- tions. For more information about this year’s Columbia County Fair and Rodeo you can go to www.columbia- countyeventcomplex.com. This is the ninety-third annual Columbia county Fair and Rodeo, and it is expected that 26,000 people will at- tend. The theme this year is “Pirates of the County.” At the Columbia County fair grounds, use of the grounds doesn’t only happen during the week of the fair. The fair grounds have become a popular place to hold all kinds of events, functions and activities- in fact so many other events are held there that the fair grounds recent- ly began officially calling itself the “Columbia County Event Complex”, with the tag line “Home of the Colum- bia County Fair and Rodeo.” “People see me during the off season and say ‘This must be a slow time for you,’” said Rhonda Courtney, Fair Administrator. “They think we just put on the fair and leave. And that is just not the case. We have lots of groups use the facilities all year long.” Courtney mentioned some of the groups that lease parts of the seventy acre site for their activities, includ- ing: St. Helens Little League Baseball and Youth Soccer who use sports fields, the Columbia Racing Association who hold stock car races, the OSU Master Gardeners who maintain a demo garden all year round, and the Pomona Grange who care for the Farm Museum on the grounds. The Event Complex hosts an annual Easter Egg Hunt for the local community that includes 25,000 eggs each year. In addition to these regular users, the grounds are used for special events like a Kennel Show and a medieval reen- actment group as well as birthdays, anniversary parties, and weddings. The complex has a main pavilion with a full commer- cial kitchen capable of holding up to 600 people for a sit down event. “It is probably the largest space available in the county,” said Courtney. “And we are starting to see more outside groups coming in to rent the facility as well.” Courtney stressed that the Event Complex is run through the generous support of local volunteers, busi- nesses and organizations with donations of time, hard work and money. “People have the misconception that the fair is run with their tax dollars,” said Courtney. “And ac- tually none of our funding comes directly from the county. We are funded by state economic development funds, by the Oregon Fair Association through lottery funds, and with some funding from the Columbia Meadows summer concert series. The rest of our funds are self generated through gate receipts, lease payments and rentals and, of course, our sponsors.” The Event Complex runs on a bare bones staff during the off season- just Courtney and a maintenance worker, and then ads temporary staff in June as they gear up for fair week. “So much happens here because of volunteer groups- because of the community and their continued in- terest in this facility,” said Courtney. “We recently planted fifty trees around the site- all of them donated, and the labor was done by community service workers.” Courtney showed us another project taking place on the grounds, the replacement of the grandstands at the ro- deo arena. “We have a group called Friends of the Fair that really care about the rodeo. They have taken this on and are continually raising money, and then replacing sec- tions of the old wood floorboards with aluminum when they have enough money to do a section. Those kinds of efforts make all the difference to the continued success of this facility.” Every year Courtney sends out 25,000 fair programs to every household in the county. “That is our big out- reach to the community, our invitation to come participate in their county fair,” she said. Columbia County residents should watch for this year’s program and make a trip to support their county fair, because really, it belongs to each and every one of us. Vernonia’s Voice has three pairs of day passes to the Columbia County Fair and Rodeo for the first three people to call 503-367-0098 and say, “I’m a Pirate of the County.” DEQ and EPA Team up for Vernonia Watershed Clean up During the first two weeks in April, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safely removed and disposed of oil and other hazardous materials and containers that were left in place following winter flooding in the Nehalem River Valley in Northwest Oregon. During the winter of 2007-2008, two powerful floods occurred on the Nehalem River. The December 2007 and January 2008 floods scattered debris throughout the Nehalem River Valley with the majority of known damage occurring in the vicinity of Vernonia and Mist. Immediately after the December flood, DEQ had assisted the Vernonia com- munity by sponsoring a household hazardous waste collection event to manage flood-damaged hazardous waste and technical assistance and emergency permits for management of solid waste debris. In March 2008, DEQ began to receive reports from volunteers involved in removal of flood debris that they were encountering many barrels and containers of possible hazardous waste. DEQ, with assistance from EPA and many local community groups, initiated a 10-day recovery operation early in April to remove potentially hazardous materials containers from the river and floodplain areas. DEQ and EPA formed a Unified Command to conduct reconnaissance and recovery operations focused specifically on potentially hazardous materials such as tanks, drums, fuels, waste oil, household chemicals, paints, and propane tanks. DEQ, and its hazardous waste disposal contractor, were responsible for wa- ter and land-based operations to identify and then remove potentially hazardous containers. EPA and its contractor were responsible for characterizing waste and managed disposal of the recovered materials. EPA also sponsored a three-day Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collec- tion event in Vernonia. The tally of collected material includes: • 24 tanks larger than 55 gallons recovered (of which 5 were returned to the owners) • 65 steel and plastic drums (includes empty drums, drums filled with water/residue, and hazardous materials); • 516 containers 5 to 55 gallons in size; and • 2,157 containers 1 gallon or smaller in size. In total, approximately 2757 containers were handled for disposal. This total includes approximately 1485 items of Household Hazardous Wastes of which 1010 items were turned in at a 3-day EPA sponsored collection event in Vernonia and an additional 475 HHW containers were picked up from several ad hoc collection points established in the Vernonia, Mist, and Fish Hawk Lake areas. The remaining 1272 HHW items were collected from the Nehalem River floodplain areas along about 50 miles of the river. The majority of items were recovered in Vernonia and within a few miles down- river. Most of these containers were empty, but significant amounts of waste oil, paints, propane cylinders, and household chemicals were removed, protecting the watershed and local citizens. “This was a tremendously successful recovery operation,” said Loren Garner. a senior project engineer with DEQ Northwest Region Cleanup and Emergency Re- sponse Program. “DEQ appreciates the support of EPA as a partner to our removal operations and to the many local governments and community groups that partici- pated including the City of Vernonia, Columbia County, the Upper Nehalem Water- shed Council, and the Columbia County Flood Relief Center.” SATURDAY April JUNE 12th 14TH Saturday Texas Hold 'Em Tournament AT the Buckhorn Restaurant Registration at 5:30pm, Tournamant play starts at 6pm 50% of fees go to Local Charities. Cash Card Prize Payouts! To register or for more information contact: George Tice 429-3751 or Aaron Miller 429-6049. Presented by the Vernonia Lions Club Fishing Supplies and Sporting Goods Everything you need for the Lake and the River! Rods - Reels - Nets - Tackle Licenses - Chairs - Hats Family owned & operated for 38 years
