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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2009)
8 city news december 2009 Vernonia City News... At the November 2, 2009, Vernonia City Council Meeting: Conner Promotion Ceremony Takes Place-- Verno- nia Police Of- ficer Michael Connor was publicly recog- nized for his promotion to Sergeant with a Pinning Cer- emony during the City Coun- cil Meeting. Vernonia City Administrator Vernonia Police Officer Mike Con- Bob Young per- ner was promoted to Sergeant. formed the hon- ors of pinning on Connor’s new badge. Council Starts Meeting with Executive Session-- In a somewhat unusual move, City Council began their meeting with an Executive Session. The session re- quired everyone, except City staff and Media to be removed from the chambers. Following the return to open session, City Administrator Bob Young noted that there were supposed to be two pinnings during the ses- sion, because he has approved the promotion of Ser- geant Mike Kay to Captain, but that at Kay’s request his ceremony was postponed. “There have been some things-- he is in the union right now and the union at- torneys are dealing with it,” stated Young. Young then made a public statement which he said came from the Executive Session: “Because of some accusations, I asked our attorneys to look into the background and some things about the accusations and Mike (Kay’s) background. The result has come back from the at- torney’s investigation. Based on the information, they said, ‘I find no evidence of deceit or untruthfulness in the information we have received. Mr. Kay appears to have disclosed all matters during the pre-employment background investigation that he was asked to disclose. Therefore, I conclude that Mr. Kay has not been deceit- ful or untruthful during the recruitment process. I find no basis for the city to conduct any further investiga- tion of Mr. Kay, or even to pursue discipline under the VHS for one year, is collective bargaining agreement.’ In other words, he’s living with Randy and cleared. I just want to say that publicly.” Sharon Parrow. Miss Mukhtorova, dressed Council Amends Ordinance 842-- Council approved in traditional clothing minor changes to Ordinance 842 that established the from her native coun- city Public Works Committee. try, made a presenta- tion to Council about Council Establishes Police Officer Training Fee-- life in Tajikistan, dis- Council passed Resolution 23-09, amending Resolu- cussing geography, tion 14-08, establishing a Police Officer Training Fee food, clothing, and whenever Columbia County Justice Court imposes resources. fines. Fees of $25.00 for any traffic violation and $50.00 for any criminal violation would be included Council Approves in any judgement and shall be collected and credited to Christmas Lighted the City general fund for the benefit of police depart- Parade Route-- ment training and training-related expenses. Council approved Anisa Mukhtorova, a foreign ex- a one-way route change student from Tajikistan, At the November 16, 2009 City Council Meeting: through Vernonia on introduced herself and her coun- Bridge Street, begin- try to the Vernonia City Council. Kay Promotion Takes Place-- With a standing-room- ning at California Av- only crowd looking on, Vernonia Police Sergeant Mi- enue and ending at City Hall for the Lighted Parade chael Kay was promoted to Police Captain. Kay’s scheduled for December 5th. Vernonia Pride, who is grandfather performed the honors during the pinning organizing this year’s parade, had originally requested ceremony, and his mother was also in attendance. the parade begin at City Hall, turn around at the schools and return through town. Council Attempts to Settle Sewer Back-up Issue-- Vernonia resident Dennis Weller spoke during Topics from the Floor and requested Council resolve a sewer back-up problem that had occurred at his residence on October 28. According to Weller, sewer water flowed into his home, damaging carpeting and other personal items. According to Weller, a contractor was sent to his home and began work. Weller was then told by the City Insurance company, CIS, that the city was not re- sponsible for the damage and that CIS would only pay $1,000 for clean-up. Weller asked the city to resolve Mike Kay was promoted to Police Captain. Kay is pic- the issue. tured here with his grandfather, Hal Looper (left), who Council later adjourned to Executive Session. Upon pinned on Kay’s new badge, and his mother (right). returning, Council approved a motion to pay Dennis Weller $2,300 for damages, plus $1,000 from the insur- Council Meets Foreign Exchange Student-- Coun- ance company, with an agreement written by city attor- cil had a chance to meet one of Vernonia’s foreign ex- neys that the city would not be held liable in the future change students, Anisa Mukhtorova, from Tajikistan. unless the city is found negligent. Weller said he would Miss Mukhtorova, who will be attending school at have an attorney look over any agreement. Vernonia Council Selects Wastewater Treatment Plan Vernonia City Council has ap- proved selection of an updated waste- water treatment system for the City of Vernonia at their November 16, 2009, council meeting. The Vernonia Public Works Committee had reviewed a num- ber of alternatives for moving forward with treatment plans and made their final recommendation to Council, which was accepted unanimously. In a report presented to Coun- cil, City Administrator Bob Young and Consultant Jim Johnson summarized the actions taken over approximately the last five years regarding wastewater treatment. According to the report, a Fa- cilities Plan was completed; funds were borrowed; construction was completed on Phase 1 work on the wastewater sys- tem; the flood of 2007 occurred; a Com- munity Development Block Grant was awarded to update the facilities plan; Brown and Caldwell engineers was hired to assist with an update of the fa- cilities plan; and Public Works reviewed the alternatives. The selected plan was the least costly option and is projected to cost $4.53 million. Actual costs are expect- ed to be somewhat higher once the plan is refined. Johnson stated that the city would need to borrow money for con- struction and that his hope was to keep the increased cost to Vernonia ratepay- ers at less than $25 per sewer customer per month. Construction is expected to begin in Spring of 2010. The facility is being built to handle population growth of up to 3,000 people. Council made their selection of a preferred plan with the stipulation that all regulatory agencies approve the plan in writing before the city arranges for any financing and construction. The selected plan would use the existing lagoon treatment ponds, which would be significantly reduced in size, with dam containment walls that are raised about two feet. Lagoon treatment and a natural wetlands system will be used to treat the city’s wastewater, pro- ducing a Class A level of water. That water could be discharged into Vernonia Lake to help keep water levels high or used to irrigate crops for human con- sumption. Johnson addressed concerns that DEQ would not allow use of the current lagoon system. “I don’t think they have any legal ability to stop us, because we have an existing situation and permit with those lagoons,” said Johnson. Reducing the size of the lagoons opens up the floodplain so in the event of a future highwater event, floodwaters could flow more easily and reduce the impact in the residential areas surround- ing downtown Vernonia. According to Johnson, the Army Corps of Engineers is paying for a hy- draulic study which would model the effects that removing part of the lagoon would have on flood mitigation. John- son said the city is also looking at the effects that lowering sections of the bike path along Webb Way might have on future flood events. “This could allow flood waters to flow through by the la- goons and back into the Nehalem,” said Johnson. “We’re going to try to prove that there is a beneficial impact on fu- ture floods if we make these changes.” According to Johnson, the potential for flood mitigation from the project could lead to federal assistance with the costs associated with the wastewater project. The new natural wetlands sys- tem, which would be created where the lagoons are removed and used as filtra- tion, would be funded by the Vernonia School District. The District must miti- gate for wetlands on the site where their new facility will be built. Information about the new wastewater treatment plan will be pre- sented during a Town Hall Meeting as part of a Two Year Flood Anniversary on December 3, at 7:00 P.M. in the VHS cafeteria.
