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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2009)
8 city news november 2009 Vernonia City News... At the October 5, 2009 City Council Meeting: a Community Development Block Grant for a Wastewater for health reasons. Harrison noted that these resignations Facilities Plan Update. The contract is retroactive to Feb- leave two vacancies on that committee. Council Hears Update on Bike Skills Park Plan-- City ruary 13, 2009. Council Hears, Approves Airport Changes-- Council Council heard a presentation by Bryan Cole of McKay and Sposito, Inc., an Engineering Firm that has been con- Washington Avenue Paving Project Bids Lower Than was made aware that the Airport Committee has changed tracted to update the Vernonia Bicycle Skills Park Master Expected-- New Public Works Director Bob Ruhl told its monthly meeting date to the first Wednesday of the Plan and provide final engineering for development of the council that he has received a low bid of $36,003 for the month. Council later passed a resolution based on a rec- park infrastructure. Cole provided an updated diagram Washington Avenue Paving Project. The bids received ommendation from the Airport Committee to officially of proposed facilities including parking, restrooms, picnic were considerably less than the $96,000 originally an- change the name of the Vernonia Airfield to the “Vernonia pavilion and a bike wash station. Cole also discussed a ticipated, in part due to work performed by Ruhl and the Municipal Airport.” proposed timeline which would complete construction by Vernonia Public Works crew. Ruhl said he was currently researching whether the grant funds awarded for this proj- Police Updates-- Police Chief Frank Grace submitted a the fall of 2010. ect could be used to perform additional work. Ruhl also written report of recent police activity of note to Council, Council Approves Expenditure for VHS Yearbook-- provided Council with a report of some other items his which he then discussed. Among the items he brought to the attention of Council: All non-criminal detox cases will At the request of Mayor Sally Harrison, Council ap- department has been working on. no longer be held at the Columbia County Jail, but need to proved spending $100 for advertising in the Vernonia High School Yearbook and to help support students who Council Adopts Resolution to Allow Use of CDBG be transported to the Hooper Detoxification in NE Port- Grant-- After hearing from Dan Brown, Council adopted land. Grace noted that this is because of staff shortages at are unable to afford the cost of a yearbook. a Resolution that will allow use of excess funds from a the jail and will require additional local police time-out- Two Citizens Told Topics From the Floor Items are Community Development Block Grant awarded to Co- of-service when this occurs; a second cougar sighting has Out of Order-- Ed Johnson, who attempted to distribute lumbia County to be used within Vernonia city limits for occurred in the Vernonia area; a Resource partners meet- a handout and discuss a City personnel matter that he had property buy-outs and demolitions of substantially dam- ing was planned for October 28th to bring together poten- previously taken to City Administrator Bob Young, was aged structures during the flood of 2007. Brown reported tial partners for the city during major emergency events; a told his topic was out of order and that City personnel that both Columbia County and the City of Vernonia re- new Police Blotter format will be available on the police matters are not open to discussion in open City Council ceived a $500,000 grant. Brown stated it is unlikely Co- department website beginning November 1st; confirmed Meetings. Johnson was told if he was not satisfied with lumbia County will use all of the funds it was awarded that three juveniles were arrested on September 13th on Young’s handling of the issue, he would need to take it to and desires to use the remainder of the funds in Vernonia. the Middle School grounds with Molotov Cocktails, rope and a flashlight. Grace noted this is still an ongoing in- the County District Attorney. Clark McGaugh expressed his displeasure at this, and was reminded that State Pub- Council Declares Vehicle as Surplus-- Council declared vestigation. lic Meeting Law requires public attendance but does not as surplus a 1984 Dodge Pickup used by the Public Works Paving Project to Move Forward-- After an in-depth re- require public participation at City Council meetings. Department. port by Public Works Director Bob Ruhl, Council passed Council allows the public to speak at public meetings as a motion to award a paving contract to Hoss Paving, Inc., a consideration. Johnson was later told he could discuss At the October 19, 2009 City Council Meeting: for a planned paving project on Washington Avenue. personnel matters privately with a Council member, but Mayor Accepts Letters of Resignation from Cemetery Council also authorized the City Administrator to take not in open Council session. Committee-- Mayor Sally Harrison accepted letters of necessary actions to maximize use of available funding Council Approves Signing Grant Administration Con- resignation from two members of the Vernonia Cem- sources. The city has received a grant for $96,000 to do tract-- In a housekeeping matter, Council approved sign- etery Beautification Committee-- from longtime member the work, and accepted a low bid of $36,003 from Hoss ing a contract with Community Action Team to administer Ralph Keasey and from eight-year member Ellen Meyer Paving, Inc. Police Promotions on Schedule to Take Effect The promotions of Vernonia Police Sergeant Mike Kay and Officer Mike Conner, that were announced during the October 5 City Council meet- ing, are still scheduled to take effect, according to Vernonia Police Chief Frank Grace. Grace, in a recent in- terview, confirmed that he is still in the process of finalizing the job descriptions for both positions that will establish responsibilities and tasks. “I am looking at November 2,” responded Grace when asked when the promotions were ex- pected to take effect. The promotion cer- emony of Kay to Captain and Conner to Sergeant was sched- uled to take place, according to a pre-distributed agenda, dur- ing that October 5 City Council meeting. Mayor Sally Harri- son, with approval from a ma- jority of her councilors, asked that the pinning ceremony be delayed so she could have some questions answered. At the beginning of the council meeting, Harrison confirmed that the promotions would still be taking place. Grace, in his interview, explained the need for the pro- motions. “Everyone in the Department, obviously, does patrol,” said Grace, “but there is a need to have a Captain’s position, as authorized by the City Council, to do more of the administrative tasks. Actually, a lot of our tasks (the Captain’s and Chief’s) will be parallel to each other.” Grace said the job de- scriptions would be available when they were complete, and also confirmed that when es- tablished, the Captain’s posi- tion would be an “exempt po- sition,” meaning it is not part of the union that represents the rest of the officers in the de- partment. Grace said he is refer- ring any questions about per- sonnel and officer backgrounds to the City Attorney. Vernonia Chamber To Host First Annual Conference The Vernonia Area Chamber of Commerce will host an all-day conference for its members on November 14th at the Vernonia Community Learning Center. The theme of this year’s confer- ence is “Pay it Forward,” and the cost is free to all current or new prepaid members. Attendees will enjoy a Continental Breakfast, a series of workshops including business economics and finances, a training on the Chamber’s new website-- learning how to manage your own business page, up- loading pictures, adding maps, or updating customers, customer service, and the Ver- nonia Mainstreet Program. The conference will include a planning session on ways to meet members’ needs. Attendees will also be treated to a presentation on stress reduc- tion by Carol McIntyre, ND, LCa. The Pay It Forward principle is simple… do something for someone with no expectation but that they do something for someone else. In these economic times, that have left many small businesses across the country struggling, the local Vernonia Area Chamber has decided to support their member businesses by providing tools to help them navigate through this storm. Attendees will enjoy a catered lunch and the conference will conclude with a dinner that will kick off this year’s “Holi- day Bucks” program. This event is open to everyone in the Vernonia Area Chamber of Commerce service area, but due to space limitations, will be limited to the first thirty RSVP’s. For more information, contact the Chamber at 503-429-6081 or via e-mail at: Info@vernoniachamber.org. “Holiday Bucks” Helps Support Local Businesses It’s “Holiday Bucks” time again and The Vernonia Area Cham- ber of Commerce will once again be sponsoring this local promotion. The number one purpose of the Holiday Bucks program is to reward customers for shopping locally and supporting local businesses and the local economy. Participating in Holiday Bucks is easy. During the promotion, pick up a card at any participating local business. Your local merchant will stamp your card once for every $5 you spend. Each time you fill a card, turn it in for a chance to win in the weekly drawings. The more you shop locally, the more cards you fill-- the more more cards you fill, the more chances you have to win! Holiday Bucks will run from Friday, November 20th to Satur- day, December 19th. Early bird draws on the following Saturdays at Noon for $25 gift certificates: November 28th December 5th December 12th Grand Finale Drawing for 3 more Gift Certificates (amounts to be determined) on Saturday, December 19th.
