Vernonia's voice., May 16, 2013, Image 1

may16 2013
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VERNONIA’S
volume7  issue10
reflecting the spirit of our community
www.vernoniasvoice.com
Cox to Retire as
Superintendent
The Timberbound Project:
Reviving Old Songs
Board Hires Him Back Half-time
By Scott Laird
Well it’s every living creature
is a part of what it seems,
And what’ll wake here every morning
is a child of last night’s dream,
As the sapling has been twisted
so the tree’s been turned around
And as I live and breathe and sing here
this poor boy’s been timberbound.
This is a story about musicians. Musi-
cians who have been separated by time and death.
Musicians who created songs for the sheer joy of
telling their stories. Musicians who are reinterpret-
ing those songs for just the same reason, because
these stories are worth telling and they sound great
when put to music.
This story starts in the mid 1970’s at the
end of Keasey Road about ten miles from Verno-
nia. John and Kim Cunnick were a young couple
who had moved to the area and were living a life
of subsistence in a small shack with no electricity or
running water. They hauled their water from Rock
Creek and grew some of their own food. John worked
in local sawmills, earning some money and learning
about local logging culture. Kim worked part-time in
a school.
Together they wrote music; John would write
the lyrics, inspired by what he saw at work or learned
from his co-workers or what he observed in his trav-
els. Kim gave his stories a tune. They wrote folks
songs for acoustic string instruments, songs in the tra-
ditional American/Appalachian style, songs that tend
to have a long life.
At the time there was a big amateur music
scene around the northwest Oregon region. Live mu-
sic and dances were happening in Vernonia, Banks,
Astoria and especially at Mist Mountain Farm, a large
and active commune near Clatskanie. “It was this re-
ally wonderful live music scene,” says Dee Vadnais
who lived in Vernonia at the time. “We had these
amazing dances with great, fast, live fiddle music. It
was a great swirl of people and music and dance.”
John Cunnick in the cabin in Keasey where he lived.
Musicians were drawn to the area, in part because of
Mist Mountain Farm. They traveled from as far away
as the Midwest and Appalachian region, bringing an
oral storytelling tradition, that, combined with the in-
strumentation style, led to great folk music, or what is
today called “old-time” music.
John Cunnick was a bard, a minstrel in the
surest sense. His songs were pure poetry, filled with
evocative language that captured the true spirit of
northwest Oregon at that time. Honoring the working
class men with whom he spent his days, John wrote
rowdy and sometimes bawdy lyrics for folk songs;
continued on page 10
Ve r n o n i a
School
Board
Superintendent Dr.
Kenneth Cox has
announced that he
will be retiring,
effective June 30 th .
Cox made
the announcement
at the School Board
meeting on Thursday
May 9, 2013.
Following
an
Executive
Session, the School
Board returned to
regular session and
voted to accept Cox’s resignation. The School Board then
voted to hire Cox back as a half-time Superintendent.
The move will free up approximately $55,000 in
an extremely tight district budget. The School
District Budget Committee met to receive the annual
budget and Budget Message earlier in the School Board
Meeting on the same evening.
Cox began his career as the Vernonia School
District Superintendent in June of 2006. His tenure was
marred by the December 3, 2007 flood which damaged
all three Vernonia school buildings. Cox has been
instrumental in the development and construction of the
$40 million dollar, new Vernonia school campus, which
opened in September of this past school year.
VHS Band Takes 3rd at State
inside
7
8
12
13
15
senior stars
scenic
bikeway approved
local author
coastal mountain
sport haus
school budget
The VHS Band placed 3rd at the 2A/1A State Band Contest in Corvallis on May 10. Photo courtesy of Joel Glass.
Vernonia Golf Club is Ready for Another Season
By Scott Laird
Now that the sun
is back and the weather is
warming up, it’s time to dust
off those golf clubs and hit
the links again. And the Ver-
nonia Golf Club is just the
place to head.
Owners, and broth-
ers, Nick and Bob Zavales
took over the nine hole club
just about one year ago and
have been doing a great job
sprucing up the place and getting
ready for another great season.
The brothers say they ap-
preciate all the support they have
received from the community during
their first year.
Bob and Nick say the course
is in “phenomenal shape” right now
after the extra dry weather this spring;
the greens are alive and put-
ting really well and things are
especially dry throughout.
An added bonus-there was
very little damage done to the
course during the mild winter.
Over the winter the Za-
vales’s thinned a number of
large trees which has opened
up the course quite a bit and
allowed a lot more sunlight to
reach the grass and dry things
out. “Our regular players tell
us it’s a big improvement,”
says Nick. That work was also in
preparation for the addition of a driv-
ing range, which will take another
continued on page 12