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Vernonia City News...
At the October 17, 2011 City Council
Meeting:
Council Holds Water Rate Study
Work Session—City Council held a
joint Work Session with members of
the Public Works Committee to discuss
revised data for a Water Rate Study the
Council is considering implementing.
Based on information contained in the
study, the Council discussed the need to
implement a rate that combines a base
rate, plus a tiered usage rate. Council
asked for additional information and a
recommendation from the Public Works
Committee, which is scheduled to meet
on October 26; Council will discuss the
issue further at their November 7 meet-
ing.
15, 2012 to meet the requirements of
their Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and
complete the road access to their busi-
ness. The Conditional Use Permit had
previously expired and planning rules
forbid the Planning Commission from
granting further extensions. At the July
18, 2011 City Council meeting, Council
chose to allow DAD’S Recycling to con-
tinue to work to complete their project
and set certain requirements that had to
be met by October 16, 2011. DAD’S has
met all the requirements Council had es-
tablished, but the road is still not in good
enough condition and needs additional
improvement to meet the terms of the
original CUP.
will help the City of Vernonia determine
whether a biomass boiler concept is a
feasible component of the Rose Avenue
Project. The second contract would
assist the Vernonia School District to
develop a research and demonstration
boiler as a component of the school’s
natural resources curriculum. These two
design contracts are being paid for with
a $25,000 USDA Forest Services grant
that the City was awarded in September
2011.
City Administrator Outlines Process
for Emergency Declaration—City Ad-
ministrator Bill Haack provided Council
with a document outlining the process
the City would use if the need arose to
Council Approves Contracts for Bio- declare an Emergency due to a natural
mass Boiler Design—Council approved disaster event or threat. According to
Council Extends Deadline for DAD’S two contracts with International Wood- the process outlined, Council must meet
Recycling—Council agreed by consen- Fuels, LLC for the design of two bio- and pass an Emergency Declaration Res-
sus to give DAD’S Recycling until April mass boilers projects. The first project olution and then direct the City Admin-
istrator to follow
the process to
notify Colum-
bia County and
The City of Vernonia continues to review Quality (DEQ) National Pollutant Discharge Elimina-
the State of Or-
changes and improvements in their public works wa- tion System (NPDES) permit. Per their NPEDS Per-
egon Emergency
ter, sewer and stormwater facility plans.
mit, the City is restricted from releasing third stage
Management
At this time the City is embarked on a water water discharge into the Nehalem River for a period
Departments.
rate study that will lead to a modification of the water of time due to the differential in temperature between
utility rates. This discussion has been of interest to the lagoons and the river in the warmer months of the
the City Council since 2007 and the City has sought year. For the majority of the year, however, this is
Council Hears
professional input three times to support the work of not a problem for DEQ and the City discharges to the
First Reading
the City Engineer and the Public Works Committee.
river during those months of the year.
of Two Ordi-
Earlier this year the City engaged Oregon
This past week Jon Forrester, representing
Association of Water Utilities (OAWU) to take the the City contract engineer (HLB OTAK, Gearhart OR)
City’s ideas and put them into a framework for our made a presentation to City Council that described the
review.
City’s revised plan for the wastewater facility. Fol-
The core assumptions of the study are as fol- lowing a meeting with DEQ last month, HLB OTAK
lows:
has initiated a plan to redirect the discharge from the
• The base rate should cover 60-75% of the third lagoon to an underground sand and gravel lay-
annual operating costs for the water fund budget
er below ground. This is called hyperoic discharge.
• Rate structure should be fair and equitable After a meeting with DEQ it became clear that this
to all classes of users
model is a great use natural groundwater to cool the
• Rate structure supporting users outside of discharge prior to reintegrating with the flow of the
the City limits should pay a consumption cost com- river channel. The add information to the study of
mensurate with users who live within the City limits
this model, the City hired Shannon and Wilson, a geo-
• Rate structure should forecast future adjust- technical engineering firm, to bore test wells to assess
ments in the rate structure on an annual basis
the feasibility of this concept. The City hopes to have
• Rate structure should include reserve ac- their report in December 2011.
counts to make debt payments and to establish a capi-
Lastly, the City needs to develop a stormwa-
tal improvement program
ter management plan. It is clear that in developing
•Rate structure should be professionally re- the final plan for the wastewater facility we will need
assessed on average every five years by a third party to develop a related plan to better manage surface wa-
The members of the City Council and the ter that all too often finds its way into the wastewater
Public Works Committee are reviewing a draft water lagoons. The City will begin to address this by com-
rates schedule and plan to have a public hearing in the pleting an Inflow and Infiltration (I & I) Assessment
near future on the proposed changes.
in the next six months if we can secure resources for
As the City has reported in the past, they are this project. As is clear throughout Vernonia, dur-
actively working on a plan to modify the wastewater ing major rain events, this additional surge of water
facility to further their plan to both be a good steward can consume the capacity of sewer pipes resulting in
of the environment and to be in compliance with the home backups and overflows into creeks and surface
Safe Drinking Water Act.
streets. An I & I assessment will identify where the
The City is currently out of compliance with problems exist throughout the community.
the State of Oregon Department of Environmental
Water, Sewer and Stormwater Rates Update
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nances—Council approved the first
reading of Ordinance 878, updating
powers and duties of the City Budget
Committee and repealing the 1924 docu-
ment which had previously established
the Budget Committee. Council also ap-
proved the first reading of Ordinance 879
which repealed Ordinance 852 which in
February 2008 had been adopted to al-
low temporary structure to be placed in
the General Commercial Zone—specifi-
cally allowing FEMA to place units for
persons displaced by the flood of De-
cember 2007.
Council Approves Acquisition of
Two Flood Properties—Council ap-
proved the use of CDBG D08030 funds
and HMGP funds for the acquisition of
properties at 715 Maple Street (the old
WOEC building) and 2379 Mist Drive,
as part of Acquisition Project 2007
Flood Events.
City Receives Planning Grant—City
Administrator Bill Haack notified Coun-
cil that the City has been successful in
an application and been awarded a State
Technical Assistance Grant. The grant
funds will be used to augment the salary
of City Planner Carole Connell and will
allow the Planning Department to imple-
ment a rezoning project for properties
throughout the city. According to Haack
the project will start almost immediately.
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