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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2012)
city news march13 2012 Vernonia City News... At the March 5, 2012 City Council Meeting: uled to present the Budget Message on April 3 rd . The Committee is then sched- uled to meet on each successive Tues- Council Discusses Water Rate Sched- day evening until they complete their ule Changes—After accepting a recom- work of creating a proposed budget to mendation from the City Public Works be adopted by the City Council before Committee, Council discussed the rec- June 30, 2012. All meeting are currently ommendation, made changes to the scheduled for 6:00 PM at the Vernonia proposal and asked City Administrator Community Learning Center. Bill Haack to provide them with more information. Council then scheduled a Council Adopts Emergency Plan— special meeting on March 12 at 7:00 PM Based on a recommendation by the to review the additional information. A current Emergency Preparedness Com- Public Hearing is scheduled for March mittee, Council adopted the Columbia 19 at 6:00 PM prior to the regular City County All Hazards Mitigation Plan as Council Meeting where the Council will the official Vernonia Emergency Opera- hear public testimony on proposed rate tions Plan. The current approved Emer- changes. (See article on front page) gency Operations Plan for Vernonia was written in 2005 and is out of date. The Council Discusses Budget Schedule— Committee has been working to update Council was presented with a proposed the current city plan, but agreed, with in- schedule for the City Budget process put from Columbia County Emergency for fiscal year 2012-13. According to Operations Director Peter Tassoni that the schedule, which is still being final- the County plan is more comprehensive ized, the City Budget Committee, which and would meet Vernonia’s needs in a di- is made up of the five members of City saster situation. According to Vernonia Council and five citizen members, is Police Chief Mike Conner, a member of scheduled to begin the process with a the Vernonia Emergency Preparedness preliminary meeting on March 13, 2012. Committee, the City does plan to contin- City Budget Officer Bill Haack is sched- ue work to update and eventually adopt their own plan. Council Establishes Emergency Pre- paredness Committee—Council passed Resolution 10-12 which officially estab- lishes an Emergency Preparedness Com- mittee for the City of Vernonia and pre- scribes its powers and duties. Mayor Appoints Brown to Emergen- cy Preparedness Committee—With approval from Council, Mayor Josette Mitchell appointed Mark Brown to the Vernonia Emergency Preparedness Committee. Council Adopts LEP and Section 3 Plans—Council adopted Resolution 07- 12, a Limited English Proficiency Plan, which establishes protocols for the City for communications with customers and vendors who do not speak or read Eng- lish with proficiency. Council also adopted Resolution 08-12, the Section 3 Plan, to comply with requirements by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 5 lic Works Committee, spoke against a recommendation from the Public Works Committee that was on the Agenda to be Discussed by Council during this meet- ing. Jim Tierney gave Council an update from Columbia County Flood Recovery (CCFR) on the impact on Substantially Damaged Structures in Vernonia after the 2007 flood. Accord- ing to Tierney’s report, 210 homes have been reviewed by CCFR, 134 were found to be Substantially Damaged and 90% of those are expected to be cleared by CCFR. Tierney expects 13 structures to remain that will require enforcement by the City of Vernonia. Council Meets Sheriff Candidate— City Council heard a presentation from Dave Fuller who is running for Colum- bia County Sheriff. Fuller is a twenty- eight year veteran of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department, where he has served as a school resource officer, on the Columbia Enforcement Narcotics Team, as a patrol deputy, as a temporary Sergeant, and is currently the Columbia Topics From the Floor—Sam Potter, River Patrol deputy. He lives in Scap- who is a member of the Vernonia Pub- poose. City of Vernonia Considers Changes to Water Rates continued from front page ing a meter multiplier that varies the base rate based on assess need for in/out of town differential, (5) assess meter size (e.g. 0.5”, 0.75”, 1.0”, 1.5”, 2.0”, 4.0” and need for stand-alone commercial rate, and (6) estab- 6.0”). The base rate will vary by meter size as will the lish a reserve and annual index. In addition, OAWU amount of water included in the base rate. The com- took analysis produced by the Public Works Committee modity charge under review is a flat rate that kicks in members Dale Webb and Roger Lindsley. after the base rate allowance is used and charges the customer by the amount of units used. OAWU reviewed the City of Vernonia ex- isting rate structure, and took as direction the City The Vernonia Public Library Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Council goals of estab- is pleased to announce the books The activities relating to this book are lishing a rate based on and activities that will comprise The a joint undertaking between Vernonia the following assump- Vernonia Community Reads for 2012. High School and library staff and will tions: (1) water fund bud- Funded by a joint grant from The include a food drive, discussions, and get of $550,000, (2) base Columbia County Cultural Coalition art projects. rate plus up to five tier and The Friends of the Vernonia Library, Adults will be reading Craig Lesley’s blocks, (3) incorporate the ultimate goal of the project is to books—especially The Sky Fisherman a meter multiplier, (4) create and perpetuate an ongoing love with Mr. Lesley reading from and of books, the arts and the humanities. discussing his writing Saturday, April Youngsters will be reading and 14 at 4:00 PM in the library. participating in an activity related Several copies of each of these to Addie Boswell’s book, The Rain titles are available in the library. The Upcoming City Council Meetings are scheduled for: Stomper. Ms. Boswell will be at the public is encouraged to read the selected library Tuesday, April 10 at 3:30 PM to books, take part in the associated Monday, March 19, 2012 do an interactive reading, talk about how activities and enjoy the art work and Monday, April 2, 2012 the book was made and lead a drawing projects displayed during National Monday, April 16, 2012 activity on character development. Library Week—April 8-14. Dates and Times subject to change due to conflicts of schedules Young adults will be reading The The demand charge or base rate comprises those costs associated with serving customers irrespec- tive of the amount of water used. The City of Vernonia water utility demand charges include meter reading, water billing, accounting, collections, maintenance, capital costs, metering, and management. “The City water service is the equivalent of managing the busi- ness of providing water,” says Vernonia City Adminis- trator Bill Haack. The commodity charge is a per unit fee based on units of water (one unit of water equals 1000 gal- lons). This charge captures system costs that tend to vary with the total water used plus those operations and maintenance expenses and capital costs associated with service to customers under average and peak load con- ditions. Typically commodity charges recover O & M expenses of supply, treatment, pumping, and distribu- tion. The alternative rate structure under review is similar in structure to the existing rate schedule, add- Upcoming Vernonia City Council Meetings Old, worn out and rusty? Need body work? Call... Meyer’s Auto Body •493 Bridge St• VERNONIA 503-429-0248 On the Shelves: What’s Happening at the Vernonia Library
