community
october11
Vernonia Grange Gets a Facelift
Members of the Vernonia tivities happening at the Grange building
Grange and other community members on North Street in Vernonia.
are excited by the some of the new ac-
A group of dedicated volun-
teers spent the weekend of September
23-25 prepping and painting the main
hall, constructing new covers for stage
front, cleaning out closets and generally
sprucing things up. Prior to that work
weekend, one of the restrooms got a
makeover with new paint, new trim and
handrail, and new sink skirt and curtain.
Next up is another workday
scheduled for October 22 which will fo-
cus on the kitchen. Volunteers are work-
ing to get the gas stove in working order,
clean up a newly donated refrigerator,
clean out the cabinets and generally or-
ganize the kitchen so it is available for
use by the membership and for commu-
nity events and for rental.
Several new community ac-
tivities have been taking place over the
last few months in the old hall, includ-
ing yoga classes taught by Britt Bensen
Steele, who has helped organize much
Vernonia Grange member Carol McIntyre of the clean-up effort. Three community
helped paint the interior of the
Contra Dances have also taken place; a
Grange Hall
9
2011
Grange and community members celebrated the spruced up interior of the Vernonia
Grange Hall with a potluck and Contra Dance on October 7th.
pot luck dinner was held before the
dance on October 7 th to help celebrate
the harvest season and the new look of
the Grange.
Grange members are hoping to
host more community activities and put
the building to good use.
“We look forward to the Grange
being an even more beautiful place for
us to meet as a community, as fami-
lies, and as a dedicated support system
for agriculture, community and the rich
and vital history the National and local
Grange can offer,” said Steele. “I am
so honored to have the expertise, dedica-
tion, and experience of all who have kept
this beautiful organization and building
in Vernonia alive.”
For more information about get-
ting involved with the Vernonia Grange
contact Britt Bensen Steele at bbensen-
steele@gmail.com.
ed building but Five Star Builders came
up with the idea of buying a portable saw
mill and milling their own lumber—sav-
ing the project about $44,000, and giv-
ing it a beautiful look. The timber used
in the project came from the property
of a local members and member, Clint
Jackson, did the mill work.
Farmer is also proud of the fact
that much of the interior furnishings and
fixtures have been reused from the pre-
vious building, including doors, toilets,
desks, chairs, filing cabinets and more.
Counter tops in one work area were fash-
ioned from solid wood doors that didn’t
fit in the new building.
According to Farmer the new
building was designed to provide a better
work flow for employees and contains
several amenities that had been missing
from the old facility. The new facility
provides locker rooms and showers for
workers, a separate lunch room, two
conference rooms and two futons for
overnight stays in the lineman’s lounge.
Farmer says the large confer-
ence room adjacent to the lobby will be
available to the community for meetings.
The truck bays were designed and built
with the idea that they could be used as
emergency shelter for the community in
case of a natural disaster. The facility
also contains an extra-large emergency
generator.
“The whole idea of this facility
is that it is not just for West Oregon Elec-
tric’s purposes—it is going to be for the
community,” said Farmer.
WOEC Hosts Open House
heritage. But it didn’t cost a lot of mon-
ey.”
Staff spent the first weeks of
September moving into the new facility.
WOEC currently employs twenty-four
people. Five Star Builders, Inc. from
Banks, OR was the General Contractor
on the construction project.
The building sits out of the flood
plain and has been built to new seismic
code standards and is designed to with-
stand a category 4
seismic event. The
old headquarters fa-
cility was flooded in
both 1996 and 2007
suffering over one
million dollars in
damages.
Farmer
ex-
plained that much
of the labor and
work on the new
facility
came from
The Lineman’s Lounge in the new WOEC headquarters
local
workers
and
provides a place for employees to take a break and even spend
Co-op
members
and
the night during long power outages
notes one example-
“People think this looks like an -Vernonia resident Alan McComb and
expensive building, and it does—abso- sons built all the cabinets and coun-
lutely!,” says Farmer. “We designed it ters.
One of the highlights of the new
to look beautiful. We wanted something
that the community, the Co-op and its building is the cedar siding on the exteri-
members can all be proud of. This is or of the building. Farmer explained that
a beautiful building and represents our the original plans called for a metal sid-
West Oregon Electric Coopera-
tive held an Open House on September
30, 2011, giving their members and
community a chance to see the interior
of their new headquarters.
WOEC General Manager Marc
Farmer proudly led tours of the facil-
ity, which was only recently completed.
According to Farmer the project was
finished on time and on budget,--at just
under $3 million.
We have ice cream!
Na
s
Owned and Operated by
Don & Kim Wallace
Open for
breakfast,
lunch & dinner
ce
Mariolino’s
Pizza & Grill
ath Health Se
rv
al P
r
i
tu
Dr. Carol McIntyre
Naturopathic & Chinese Medicine
503.481.4096
cccmnd@yahoo.com
naturalpathhealthservices.com
Serving Vernonia since 1970
721 Madison Avenue, Vernonia
(503) 429-5018
786 Bridge Street
Vernonia, OR, 97064
