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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2011)
welcome from the editor The dust is finally starting to clear from the last eight months of turmoil at Vernonia City Hall, and we are finally ready to get back to business. With three new City Councilors in place and Bill Haack back as City Administrator, I would like to take this opportunity to send out some kudos to the citizens of Vernonia as a whole. Over the last eight months the people of this town have rallied together and under very difficult circumstances, took a stand and fixed what they saw as a bad a situation. With three City Councilors acting in ways that did not reflect the will of the electorate, the citizens stepped forward, attended Council meetings, stayed informed about current happenings, spoke out publicly about their opinions and created the change they wanted to see. When Mayor Josette Mitchell and Councilor Randy Parrow asked for citizens to volunteer to sit on an interview panel to offer recommendations to fill three vacant council seats, twenty-nine citizens volunteered their time to be part of the process. And after three Councilors were recalled and the whispering around town was, “Who would want to be a City Councilor now? No one will volunteer for that position after what has happened!”, eight citizens stepped forward and offered to serve their community in an extremely important role, at a critical and controversial time. The last few months have been painful for Vernonia as a community and for our citizens. But if there are a few bright spots that have come out of this, one of them has to be that once again Vernonians have shown resiliency and courage, and have refused to give up. The last few months have produced a new found sense of civic engagement, and I have been proud to witness this community pull together during a difficult time. Everyone who stepped forward in the many various roles and capacities deserves to be commended. That being said, there a few particular people who I feel deserve special recognition: Mayor Josette Mitchell and City Councilor Randy Parrow—From day one when Mitchell took office this past January, along with two new City Councilors, it looked like this new Council was going to have trouble working together. Over the last nine months the Vernonia City Council has had to deal with an investigation into, and the firing of a police officer, the 2011 resignation and then reappointment of the Interim Police Chief, a job search for a permanent City Administrator , the firing of the Interim City Administrator, two separate recall elections involving the recall of three City Councilors, the appointment of three new City Councilors, and finally last week, the hiring of a permanent City Administrator. Through all this, long time Councilor Parrow stepped forward and assumed the role of elder statesman, taking some difficult and controversial stands, offering guidance to new Mayor Mitchell and calmly disagreeing with a majority of the Council when he believed they were making mistakes. Parrow was thoughtful and concise with his public statements and actually contributed an air of dignity to the Chambers at City Hall, at a time when it was clearly needed. Mayor Mitchell, who walked into a maelstrom in her first role in public office, has been nothing short of amazing. She has dealt with all the above mentioned turmoil with aplomb, grace, a sense of humor, and above all, professionalism—even though she is a volunteer. She has worked tirelessly, stepping into the role of part-time Interim City Administrator and has shown extensive leadership qualities. She has grown quickly into her role, has spent inordinate amounts of time educating herself and has not backed away from making hard decisions. She has come out the other end of a very ugly eight months looking like a real hero. She is a Mayor this community can be proud to have represent us and someone we can all rally behind. I expect her to do some great work for this community in the years ahead, now that she is getting back to the business at hand. Jim Johnson—Johnson has twice now come to the aid of our community in a time of need, filling the role of Interim City Administrator on two different occasions. He has brought a sense of professionalism, experience, and calm during some very difficult transitional periods and has helped this community work through some confusing issues and traumatic changes. His demeanor, insight, guidance and dedication to our community have been above and beyond what we could have expected from an Interim. We all own Jim Johnson a debt of gratitude for his continued willingness to adopt and assist us. Sharon Bernal—It is never easy for a business owner to take a political THE BIRK 7-10 PM Saturdays “Megan James Band” Country Rock “Michelle Drey & Branded Band” Sat, 10/1 “Kenny Lee & The Sundowners” Blues & Southern Rock “Step Child” Classic Rock Monday 10am-6pm Cafe Closed Tue-Wed 10am-6pm, Cafe 10am-5pm Thr-Fri 10am-7pm, Cafe 10am-6pm Sat 10am-11pm, Cafe 10am-10pm Sunday 10am-2pm, Cafe 10am-2pm (or call) stand. It is also not easy for anyone in a small community to take the lead on a controversial issue. Sharon Bernal has done both, on two separate occasions. In 2009 she took the lead and ran the campaign, helping pass the School Bond that provided the initial funding to start construction on our new school campus. Running a campaign to tax a community is never popular, yet Bernal did it, passing the Bond Measure by an unheard of 22% margin. This past spring, when it became obvious that something needed to be done about the majority of City Councilors who were not representing the majority of the voters in this community, Bernal again came forward and ran and organized two separate recall campaigns, winning both handily. Bernal has stuck her neck out professionally twice now—because she is a citizen of the community who cares about our future and because it was what was best for Vernonia. And the citizens have shown they have agreed with her with their response at the ballot box. Publisher and Managing Editor Scott Laird 503-367-0098 scott@vernoniasvoice.com Vernonia’s Voice is published on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. Bill Haack—Haack was appointed as Interim City Administrator in June of 2011, after having worked in various Vernonia’s Voice, LLC capacities within the community and PO Box 55 Columbia County in regards to flood Vernonia, OR 97064 recovery after December 2007. He had 503-367-0098 built strong relationships with many www.VernoniasVoice.com community entities and citizens, as well as important statewide relationships during his work on flood recovery, and with city staff during his work as Interim be rewarded for his allegiance to our City Administrator. He believed he still community. had work that he wanted to complete Scott Laird in Vernonia and had applied for the Editor and Publisher permanent City Administrator position, offering to fill the position at a salary way below current industry standards. No one would have blamed him if he had just waved goodbye to Vernonia and all our troubles when a majority of City Council voted to Need more room? terminate his contract in May of 2011. See us for He could have given up on us again when the lowest prices Council couldn’t agree on appointing GUARANTEED! a fifth member and remained split after Move-in Special interviews for City Administrator, 5x10 $25 leaving Haack and the other candidate 5x10 $39 10x10 $69 10x20 $99 dangling in the wind. Haack is a RV Storage $149 talented and respected individual who Outside storage available would have no problem finding work Totally fenced and gated somewhere else—at significantly higher Padlocks Available pay. He chose not to turn his back on 58605 Nehalem Hwy S. Vernonia, to wait for the situation to P.O. Box 292 work itself out, and is now back to Vernonia, Oregon 97064 continue the work he started. (503) 429-7867 He has shown humility, integrity 10-6 Tue-Sat, 12-4 Sun and especially loyalty, and will hopefully Happy Hour Mon-Fri 4-7 Lady’s Night Wed 5-12 “STILL BIKER FRIENDLY” LIVE MUSIC High Energy Country 11139 Highway 202 (503) 755-2722 3 Contributors Mackenzie Carr Jill Hult Gayle Rich-Boxman Chris Sedlemeyer Britt Bensen Steele Michal Smith Photography Jill Hult Scott Laird Gayle Rich-Boxman Want to advertise? Have an article? Contact: scott@vernoniasvoice.com One year subscriptions (24 issues) $35 Live Music at the Birkenfeld Country Store Sat, 9/17 Sat, 9/24 Sat, 10/8 september13 • Specialty hamburgers • Draft beer & mixed drinks • Pool tables & satelite TV • Special live music events • Free Wi-fi Sun - Thurs 11 AM - Midnight • 733 Bridge St, Vernonia Sept. 16 Third Member Sept. 23 Play It Again Karaoke Oct. 8 Birthday Bash w/ Third Member Gift certificates available Fri - Sat 11 AM - 2:30 AM • 503-429-9999
