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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2011)
city news december13 Vernonia City News... At the November 21, 2011 City Council Meeting New Police Officer Takes Oath of Office—New Ver- nonia Police Officer Matt Brady was sworn into office by Mayor Josette Mitchell. Brady’s family was on hand for the ceremony and his wife Kris pinned on his badge. Council Denies Request for Temporary Use Exten- sion—Council denied a request from the Vernonia Community Church to extend a Temporary Use Permit for habitation of a recreational vehicle. The church re- ceived a temporary permit for six months which expired in July of 2011. The church requested an extension for another six months; city code restricts RV Habitation for any time in excess of six months. Council Sends Request Back to City Planner—Council heard a request from Floyd Linn to receive a Temporoary Use Permit for private use of a public right- of-way on Birch Street. Mr. Linn was requesting that he be allowed to tempo- rarily fence an unused portion of a pub- lic right-of-way to graze horses. After a forty-minute discussion, Council took no action on the request and sent it back to the City Planner to develop more options for action. Harrison Resigns From Several Com- mittees—Former Vernonia Mayor Sally New Vernonia Police Officer Matt Brady receiving his badge from his Harrison resigned from several city com- wife Kris. mittees she was serving on. Harrison sub- Council Authorizes Administrator to Issue RSOQ— mitted a letter to Mayor Josette Mitchell and the City Council authorized City Administrator Bill Haack to Council on November 9, 2011 resigning her positions issue a Request for Statements of Qualifications to se- on the Airport, Economic Development and Vernonia lect a Grant Administrator for CDBG Grant No. 6021. Community Learning Center Committees. Councilor The Grant Administrator will facilitate management of Bruce McNair publicly thanked Harrison for all her records for the grant funds which is for the Wastewater work on behalf of the City of Vernonia. System Upgrade project. Neither the City Administra- tor nor City staff are eligible to receive funds for this At the December 5 City Council Meeting purpose. Council Authorizes Mayor to Serve as Certifying Officer—Council voted to authorize Mayor Josette Mitchell to serve as the Certifying Officer to sign the Environmental Reviews for the final design of the Wastewater System Upgrade project. According to the report from the City Administrator this is standard practice. The City of Vernonia provides this WARNING to people making a decision to purchase a home or commercial building within the city limits: PLEASE! Physically inspect the building yourself or hire a professional to assess whether the building was flooded AND meet with City staff to make sure that the building is not subject to floodplain management rules. These rules may restrict a purchaser’s ability to modify the building if it is located in the floodway. In some cases where the Terry’s Gym TRAIN LIKE A CHAMPION! INBA World Champion Collin Moeller works out at Terry’s Gym - You can too! 503-901-1705 16720 Noakes Rd. Vernonia building was flooded, the building may be required to be elevated at the owner’s expense within a certain time period. If you purchase a building that has this requirement associated with it you will be required to fill out a flood plain development permit prior to having the city utilities turned on at the subject building. And if you fail to elevate the house in that time period, local Ordinance No. 851 allows for a daily fine of up to $500 per day to be levied. If you have any questions, please contact the City staff at (503) 429-5291. 5 made the suggestion to Council that he research and develop some alternatives, based on what other small towns are doing, as a way to promote construction of new single family homes in Vernonia. Currently the City charges $8424.00 in SDC’s for water, wastewater, parks, storm water and streets. SDC’s are fees that help the city build infrastructure that is impacted by new development and those fees can only be used by the City to build new capital projects; they cannot be used for maintenance. Council Authorizes Negotiation for School SDC’s— Council authorized City Administrator Haack to ne- gotiate an alternative SDC fee payment plan for the Vernonia School District for the new school campus construction project. Haack informed Council that the final SDC fees for the school have not been calculated. He proposed negotiating an alternative payment plan as a way to assist the School District in meeting its cash flow constraints as well as insuring that the City receive payment of the SDC’s. In his report Haack said it was not unprecedented for a jurisdiction to work with the developer of a large construction project in this way. City Committees Cancel December Meetings—The following City Committees have canceled their regu- larly scheduled meetings for the month of December: Airport, Library, Economic Development, Planning Commission, Unmet Needs, and Cemetery. Next Council Meeting is Tuesday January 3—City Council has canceled their December 19, 2011 meet- ing. City Hall will close at noon on December 23 and 30 and will be closed on December 26 and January 2, 2012. City Hall will reopen on January 3. The next City Council Meeting will be held on Tuesday January 3 at 7:00 PM. Council Authorizes Investigation of Alternative SDC Fee Payments—Council authorized City Admin- istrator Bill Haack to investigate possible alternatives to the System Develop- ment Charges (SDC) the City currently charges on City new development. Haack Building Buyers Beware 2011 of Vernonia, Oregon WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT Request for Qualifications The City of Vernonia is seeking qualifications from engineering firms qualified in wastewater facility work to provide design services for modifications of their wastewater treatment system and lagoons. The scope of work includes a pre-design and a final design, reports and drawings to be submitted to DEQ, City and funding agencies. This work is funded entirely by Community Development Block Grant from the State of Oregon Infrastructure Finance Agency. As such, all work, drawings, reports, and certifications must be complete by December 14, 2012. The City invites qualified firms to submit qualifications based upon the scope of work contained in the RFQ. A copy of the RFQ can be obtained by contacting the City of Vernonia, at City Hall at 1001 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064. Sealed qualifications marked “WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT” must be received by the City of Vernonia at 1001 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064 by 2:00 PM, Thursday, December 22, 2011. No qualifications package will be accepted after that time. Old, worn out and rusty? Need body work? Call... Meyer’s Auto Body •493 Bridge St• VERNONIA 503-429-0248
