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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2012)
free march13 2012 V E R N O N I A’ S reflecting the spirit of our community volume6 issue5 Logger Pride! VHS Takes 4 th Place at Pendleton The Vernonia High School Loggers won their final two games at the 2A Boys Basketball State Championship in Pendleton on March 1-3, 2012, bringing home the fourth place trophy. After a heartbreaking defeat to Regis by a score of 38-36 in the State Quarterfinals, the Logger boys bounced back to defeat Central Linn 34-32 and then Weston-McEwen 46-37 to win the Consolation Bracket and finish fourth out of the sixteen teams that qualified for the tournament. nament and Cutright was named Second Team All-Tournament. Hundreds of Vernonia fans made the trip to Pendleton to support the Loggers, including the VHS Pep Band, who received several com- ments about their performance from the radio announcers and other fans. “I talked with some of the organizers of the tournament and they were very impressed that so many of our fans were in attendance,” said coach Weller. “They said our fans really added to the atmosphere of the tournament.” Against Regis, the Loggers lead the entire game un- til the final minute and a half. “After the way we played in the first three quarters, I really thought we were off to a great start for the tourna- ment,” said Coach Weller. “But that’s The VHS Boys Basketball team brought home the 4th place trophy from the what happens in a 2A State Championship in Pendleton. Photo courtesy of Sue Blair “After that first loss to Regis the guys tournament like this—you are playing the best were pretty upset with themselves,” said first teams, they all play really good defense and year head coach David Weller. “It would have we’ve all been well scouted.” been easy for us to fold up. So I was really im- Paul Jiranek led the Loggers in scoring pressed with how they bounced back. ” in the loss to Regis with 11 points and had 9 re- It is the first time in seventeen years bounds. Austin Cutright added 10 points and 11 Vernonia has won a trophy at the State Champi- rebounds and Austin Edgar had 8 points, 7 re- onship. The Loggers were 2A State Champions bounds and 4 blocked shots. in 1977 and 1978 and finished second in 1995. The Loggers only had fourteen hours Logger Paul Jiranek was named the before they had to be back on the court for their Most Valuable Player in the Regis game; Aus- second game after a very disappointing loss. tin Cutright was named MVP of the final two “The team knew how much effort the commu- continued on page 17 games. Jiranek was named First Team All-Tour- inside 10 lions honored 11 band champs 11 loggers in pendleton Vernonia Awarded $4 Million for School The Oregon Legislature has voted to included $4 million in their recently approved budget to help complete construction of the new Vernonia K-12 campus. Details of how the funds will be provided to the Vernonia School District are still being worked out. It will be the final decision of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber whether those funds will be in the form of a loan or a grant. Oregon State Senator Betsy Johnson was in Vernonia for a School Town Hall Meeting on March 8, 2012 and another Town Hall on March 10, to discuss the school project and the decision by the Legislature to include the funds for Vernonia in the budget. “I had started out asking for a loan,”explained Johnson, who has been part of the Oregon Solutions process working to help Vernonia rebuild after the 2007 flood. “We needed a little bit of bridge financing to bring us to an opening in September of 2012 , which is what we promised this community. But we were lacking two things to get a conventional loan. We had no collateral and no cash flow.” Johnson explained that, through hard work, personal visits to several key legislators and some creative thinking, a framework was created which will allow funds to be used by Vernonia for its school, based continued on page 17 St. Patrick’s Day Parade! March 17th 1:00 PM everyone welcome starts at Pat Knight’s House (across from the school) City of Vernonia Considers Changes to Water Rates The City of Vernonia City Council is considering changes to the way it charges customers for water usage and has scheduled a Public Hearing for March 19 at 6:00 PM to hear Public Testimony before making any proposed changes. The changes under consid- eration are based on rate schedule adjustments prepared by Tim Tice, a consultant and city project manager from Oregon Association of Water Utilities (OAWU). At their March 5, 2012 City Council meeting, the Council accept- ed a recommendation for proposed changes from the Vernonia Public Works Committee. Council later dis- cussed the recommendation, made modifications to it and asked for more information from Tice and OAWU to be considered at a special meeting that has been scheduled for March 12 at 7:00 PM. At that meeting Council hopes to finalize a proposal and new rate structure to present at the Public Hearing on March 19 th . (Because Council is wait- ing for additional detailed informa- tion concerning the proposed rates they will be considering, the sched- uled meetings are subject to change. Please watch the City of Vernonia webpage or the Vernonia’s Voice Facebook page for any changes to the schedule of meetings.) The Public Works Commit- tee has been meeting and discussing this issue for several months as they have worked to develop an accept- able proposal. Their meetings have included several workshops with the City Council. The recommendation from the Public Works Committee includ- ed a tiered rate schedule that would grow progressively higher as water consumption by an individual cus- tomer increased. Council instead is choosing to consider a flat rate for consumption. The current water rate struc- ture consists of two components: de- mand charge or base rate, and a com- modity charge per 1000 gallons used. The current base rate the City charges is $35.00, plus $1.25 per 1000 gallons used after the first 2000. For customers outside the city limits the base rate is $34.38, plus $2.50 per 1000 gallons of water used. The base rate for commercial and out-of- town customers did not include any water in the base rate. The City is considering changes to both the base rate and the commodity charge. At the March 5 th City Council Meeting, Council agreed that they wanted to consider changes to the base rate starting at $35 and going up to $39. Changes to the commodity charge would then be structured to allow the City to meet their water fund budget demands. continued on page 5
