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
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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.
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