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
