6
city news
january11
2011
Flooded Homes Returned To Green Space
What begins as the acquisition
of a severely flooded home, ends in
the demolition of the home and the
property returned to green space forever.
Community Action Team, Inc., (CAT) is
working with the demolition contractor
as their liaison with the city, county
and federal agencies in completing this
process. In submitting a Request for
Qualifications, the City of Vernonia
and Columbia County required the
demolition contractor be able to show
that they were able to recycle as much of
the materials as possible. The contractor
that won the bid for these homes is
Custom Excavating by Dean Larson
and their sister company Trails End
Recovery. The team, out of Warrenton,
Oregon, is known for their commitment
to reducing waste in the landfill. They
have projected that they will be able to
recycle, on average, 90% of the materials
coming from these homes.
The staging area at the millsite
that was pictured in the December 2 nd
issue of the Independent showed a pile
of wood from three of the homes being
demolished. That pile of wood only
covers about 1/6 th of the cemented area
it sits on. This staging area is where
ALL the recycled materials are sorted,
so EVERYTHING on that cement pad
will be reused or recycled in some way.
When you see how much material is
being stored there, you can appreciate
the amount of materials coming out
of these homes that is NOT going to a
landfill.
It’s important to note here
that the big transfer bins outside of
the homes or at the millsite are NOT
garbage bins for everyone to dump their
stuff. Custom Excavating and Trails End
Recovery (CE-TER) sort the materials
as they go and, while some things do go
to the landfill, most do not. Simply put,
dumping garbage in these bins is illegal
and known as “theft of services.” This
additional material adds to the cost of
labor and time to sort it and dispose of it
properly. So CAT, CE-TER and the City
of Vernonia are asking that people do not
dump their garbage in the transfer bins
and for neighbors to keep an eye out for
such behavior.
CAT and CE-TER have received
inquiries and requests as to what was
going to happen to a specific item on one
of the properties, so CE-TER has initiated
a process to allow our local citizens to
take items that do not have a particular
market value attached to them. And if
they do have a value attached, CE-TER
is willing to work with local residents to
come to some sort of agreement. Either
way, CE is doing their best to give back
to the community and they intend to
do so until the project is finished. CE-
TER is also interested in recycling as
many materials locally as possible and
using local labor, resources and stores as
needed. In order to preview any items
available, CE-TER requires you sign
a Letter of Indemnity, which basically
translates to “enter at your own risk.”
You will need an approved, itemized list
before picking up any items. You will
also need to negotiate with the Field
Manager a designated time to preview
or pick up any approved items at the
properties or the collection sites, as it is
a liability issue to be on the site when
they are working. There have also been
numerous instances of vandalism on
these properties, so if stopped by the
local police, you will need to prove you
belong on the premises by having the
documents CE-TER provides with you.
For additional information on
how to preview or request items from
the contracted properties, please contact
the CE-TER Field Manager at (503)
741-6867 and leave a voicemail. Or you
may also leave a message at the main
office at (503) 861-6030.
We want to thank the citizens
of Vernonia for all the assistance and
patience you have shown in making this
a smooth and successful process. Look
for the next article “Deconstruction
and Demolition,” explaining the
methodology of the deconstruction and
demolition process.
Student Project Hopes to Help With Flooding
The last Vernonia utility bill included some
extra sheets of paper. One of those extra sheets was a
survey called “The Social Impacts of Flooding: A Case
Study on Vernonia.”
Maybe you didn’t notice this extra sheet in
your bill, or maybe you haven’t opened and paid that
bill yet. But we would like to encourage you to take
ten minutes when you finish reading this article and go
find that survey, fill it out, and return it to the City of
Vernonia.
The survey is part of a project being conducted
by three sophomore students from Westview High
School in Beaverton, which will be entered into a
competition in the Intel Science and Engineering
Fair. The project is not part of the students’ required
coursework, but is something they have chosen to do
on their own time.
The students, Adarsh Patra, Sidharth Sengupta,
and Raghav Tripathi, have been working with Vernonia
City Administrator Bill Haack, Dan Brown from
Columbia County Flood Relief and Sean Pickner with
the Vernonia GIS Project, to capture information from
local citizens about the impacts from
the last two flood events in Vernonia
in 1996 and 2007. They are asking
for help in compiling information
directly from those impacted in the
There is the potential for a quorum of the
form of the survey. Completing the
Vernonia City Council
survey takes less than ten minutes and
during the months of January, February,
is very simple.
The students will enter
March, April, May and June, 2011.
the results of their project in the
The Mayor and all Councilors
competition and compete against
other student projects in the Beaverton
will be attending meetings to gain
School District. If their project is
knowledge and understanding
chosen, they will move on to the
state level and, from there, they could
so they may better serve the community.
compete at the international level.
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The group has been working with Portland
State University Professor of Geography Dr. Heejun
Chang who is mentoring them with their work.
But the students are not just interested in
winning a competition. They also hope to provide some
real benefits for the people of the Vernonia community.
“In the end, we hope to help the people of
Vernonia,” says Sengupta.
“The Vernonia community is in a non-ideal
location and is currently very vulnerable,” says Tripathi.
“We hope we can offer some potential solutions.”
As part of their project, the students will
be using computer programs to simulate various
precipitation events as well as maps of where water
goes during flood events. One intention of the project
is to create models for how future cities could be
developed, taking into account new weather patterns
that are developing because of global climate change.
“We need a new model for protecting cities,”
says Sengupta. “We are hoping that what we learn
about Vernonia could be translated to other cities.”
The students are using GIS data about Vernonia
streets, streams, parks and other landmarks. They have
spoken with Washington Grade School Principal Aaron
Miller about how the floods have impacted Vernonia
schools. Patra says they have also been in contact with
Weyerhaeuser and received soil data they have been
using in their modeling.
“We believe the FEMA model for helping
communities in the kind of disaster Vernonia
experienced is very outdated,” says Sengupta.
“It’s a one-size-fits-all, which doesn’t always
work,” added Tripathi.
The students, though only sophomores in high
school, have varied but exceptional interests as they
continue their learning. Patra says he is interested in
aerospace engineering and biotechnology. Sengupta
continued on page 7
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