september14  2010
V E R N O N I A’ S
reflecting the spirit of our community
volume4    issue17
The John Brown Project:
Turning Vernonia Memories Into Songs
Musicians take book of local poetry and make music with Vernonia at its core.
They will be performing at this year’s Salmon Festival on October 2nd.
By Scott Laird

There has been something special in
the air around Vernonia this past spring and
summer. It’s music-- music with its roots in the
hills and trees and the logging camps. Music
with its words and notes inspired by the town,
by the people, by the mill and by the history of
Vernonia. Words and songs and stories that were
written years ago, but are finding new life and
new audiences. Music that is being revived as
Vernonia celebrates and honors its history.

In July, Hobe Kytr and Dave Berge,
who once played together in a band called
“Timberbound,” returned to Vernonia to perform
songs from their “Dog Salmon and Rutabagas” CD--
songs about the Pacific northwest that relive the logging
camp days. This summer, a reunion was also held in
Keasey where the members of “Timberbound” reunited
after almost thirty years to record songs written by John
Cunnick and his wife, Kim. Kim returned from Costa
Rica to join Kytr and Berge and Mark Loring to play
the songs that were conceived when Kim and John lived
in a cabin in Keasey in the 1970’s before John’s tragic
death in a car accident. More recently, musician Joe
Seamons, who grew up listening to the music of Kytr
and Berge and who has also been inspired by John and
Kim Cunnick’s music as well Woody Guthrie’s songs
that he wrote about Oregon while employed by the
BPA, performed with his band “Renegade Minstels” in
Vernonia.

And at the Vernonia Friendship Jamboree this
year, a new band arrived on the scene-- “The John
Brown Project,” which has taken the poems of long-
time Vernonia resident John Brown and recorded them
as music. It seems like music and magic is in the air all
around Vernonia.
inside
9
local
saw mill
12
world
champion
18
hello kitty
free

Change at the
Vernonia Health
Clinic: What Does
It Really Mean?
By Scott Laird
Eric Kotila and Kris Stuart of The John Brown Project

The first time I met Eric Kotila and Kris Stuart,
the two people most responsible for “The John Brown
Project,” was in the lobby of the Vernonia City Hall.
I was making a quick stop before heading to help set
up the May 2010 First Friday-- Vernonia’s monthly
celebration of the Arts. Eric and Kris were standing and
talking with some city staff and introduced themselves
as musicians who had written songs about Vernonia and
were looking for places to play their music. I asked
them if they might want to stop by First Friday later that
evening and play. Which they did.

And that was how I was introduced to “The John
Brown Project”-- what has become an almost mystical
collaboration of words, music, and relationships.

I don’t know where whistles go
when mills have to shut down
but Vernonia lost it’s heartbeat
When it lost that familiar sound
-”Mill Whistle”
continued on page 10
School Town Hall Sept. 28
In the August 24th issue of Vernonia’s
Voice, we included a message from the Vernonia
Health Center Board of Directors (VHCB)
concerning their exploring the possibility of ending
their relationship with Providence Health Services
and entering into a new partnership with Coastal
Family Health Center as a Federal Qualified Health
Center (FQHC). This change in health care service
providers could be significant for many reasons
and has raised numerous questions and concerns
among local residents who access their health care
through the local Providence Clinic. It also raises
the question of what will happen to local jobs that
are currently held by local Providence employees.

The following is more detailed information
about why the VHCB may choose to end its
relationship with Providence Health Services,
what is required for the VHCB to enter into a new
partnership, and more information about Coastal
Family Health Center and what they expect to
bring to Vernonia.
Who is the Vernonia Health Center Board?
The Vernonia Health Center Board is made
up of Vernonia community members: Carolyn
Keasey, Marie Krahn, Bob Wagner, Wendy Sears,
Darlene McLeod, Barb Ervin, Cynthia Watts,
Ralph Keasey, Phillip Darrah, Rebecca McGaugh,
and Heather Lewis. Debbie Snook is the Executive
Director.

The mission of the Vernonia Health Center
is to participate, as far as circumstances may
warrant, in any activity designed and carried on to
promote the general health of the community with
highly qualified primary and preventive health care
services and a professional medical staff; to do so
without concern of individual’s financial situations.
at 7PM Vernonia School Cafeteria
continued on page 15
Local Watershed Council Busy with Projects
By Scott Laird

The Upper Nehalem
Watershed Council (UNWC),
based in Vernonia, has spent a
very busy spring and summer
coordinating numerous activities
and projects. A few projects
were focused on the East Fork
of the Nehalem River sub-
basin and were scheduled to be
completed throughout the fall,
helping the council meet its goals
of the protection, preservation,
enhancement and restoration of
the Nehalem River Watershed
and also reminding the Council
of their roots.

According to Executive
Director Maggie Peyton, the
recent projects that the UNWC
have helped facilitate have been
made possible, in part, because of
all the temperature and turbidity
survey work the UNWC Council
has documented over the last few
years. Turbidity measures the
amount of sediment in a stream
and is a simple test of water
quality. River monitoring over
the last few years has shown
that the Nehalem River shows
elevated levels of turbidity and
becomes too hot in the summer,
potentially endangering the
ability of juvenile Coho salmon
to survive. This work, in
addition to data collected using
Rapid Bio-Assessment surveys
to assess summer rearing and
over-winter survival numbers in
the basin, is validating the need
for the projects that the UNWC
is promoting and implementing.
Workers place a new 24 foot wide culvert with a
natural stream bed bottom on Elk Creek.
continued on page 19