opinion
2011
An Opinion: Time to Move On
By Scott Laird
It is with a great sense of relief that I sit down to
write this, on the morning after the Recall election results
were announced. That relief comes, not from the fact that as
a community we came together and voted for change and are
replacing two City Councilors that we were unhappy with.
No, it is more a relief that comes from knowing that this sad
and ugly chapter is finally, hopefully over.
Now it’s time for Vernonia to get back to business.
Now that the Recall is over, it’s time for Vernonia to
move on, put what happened in the past behind us, and start
taking care of the work at hand.
After an acrimonious seven months, the people have
spoken, and now it’s time to begin working together again. It
is time to move on.
First on the agenda, replace three empty Council seats.
Then hire a permanent City Administrator. Then we can
start dealing with the big issues that face us: settling on a
plan to move the wastewater project forward; figuring out
what to do with the Senior Center, the Health Clinic, and
Vernonia Cares; continuing the partnership with the school
District and assisting them with the construction of their new
school campus and the deconstruction of the old campus;
managing our resources and efficiently running the day-to-
day operations of the City, while working within the strict
confines of a tight budget.
Somewhere along the way we will need to do some
healing. Somewhere along the way we all need to look inside
ourselves and consider what went wrong, what we could have
done differently, what mistakes we don’t want to personally
repeat. Sometime soon we will all need to sit down together
and talk about what we learned as a community and what we
can do so we don’t find ourselves in this
type of situation again.
A lot of damage has occurred over
the last seven months. Friendships have
been injured and even fractured, trust has
been broken, and hurt has been inflicted.
Some of these wounds will take time to
heal—some probably never will.
But for the future of Vernonia, it is
time to do what is best. It is now time to
move on.
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Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
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Mackenzie Carr
Gayle Rich-Boxman
Michal Smith
Photography
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Gayle Rich-Boxman
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