city news
At the February 18, 2014 City Council
Meeting:
Topics from the Floor-Five members
of the Vernonia Health Board, Rachel
Langmaid, Wendy Sears, Olin Younger,
Brett Costley and Erika Paleck, spoke
about concerns that the Council and
the Health Board have not reached an
agreement on a lease for the property
at the Rose Avenue Project where the
Health Board intends to build a new
Health Center. Concerns mostly centered
on Council’s intention to charge rent for
the property, even though the Health
Board has been told they would only
be charged $1. Health Board members
expressed that the Council had not
negotiated in good faith and had waited
until the last minute to bring up the issue
of rent.
Vernonia City News...
community, but also reiterated that
they have an obligation to negotiate on
behalf of all citizens of the community.
Council noted that because they are
now partners with Oregon State Parks
for the trail from Anderson Park to the
Lake, they have additional maintenance
responsibilities for the trail. Through a
calculation that took into account trail
maintenance and legal fees the City
has incurred to obtain the Rose Avenue
property, Council reached consensus
that they would charge $15 per month
for each of the four potential entities at
the Rose Avenue Project. According
to Mayor/City Administrator Josette
Mitchell, this is the final issue in the
negotiations for the lease and that all
other issued have been resolved.
Council Discusses Rent for Health
Center-Although this item was not on
their agenda, Council discussed, during
the City Administrator Report portion
of the meeting, the Health Center lease
and rent that they should charge all
tenants of the Rose Avenue Project. All
Councilors expressed their commitment
to the project and the importance of
having health care available in our
Council Approves Purchase of
New
Billing
System-Based
on
recommendations from the Public
Works Committee and numerous staff
members, the Council approved moving
forward with a new Utility Billing
system through Muni Billing. The new
system is user friendly, less expensive
than the current system, does not require
a contract, allows for different paying
methods for customers, provides the
ability to produce useful reports and has
(approximately 540) one student who is
not attending but on the attendance roll,
can skew the data; several can skew it
significantly.
The fact that two years ago The
Oregonian pointed out Vernonia’s poor
absenteeism record does make a reader
wonder why the Administration and
School Board didn’t do something then
about the issue. But, as the Oregonian
article fails to acknowledge, two
years ago the Vernonia School District
was deep in the process of finishing
construction of the new schools campus
and preparing to move from their old
campus to the new one. And they were
also dealing with some big fundraising,
as well as yearly operation budget
shortfalls. In other words, they had
some fairly big issues already on their
agenda.
One could also easily believe
that, as the Oregonian article does
acknowledge, attending classes in
modular classrooms did have an impact
on absenteeism rates. The flip side is that
school administrators probably believed
that opening a brand new campus would
automatically help increase attendance.
The VSD has tried to address the
needs of students and boost engagement
through creative programing. The new
Sustainability curriculum is innovative
and progressive and the Forestry program
offers training in a regionally significant
employment field. A recent grant the
District received for $250,000 will help
address the lack of a shop facility and
expand technical training. These are all
factors that help keep students interested
in attending class.
A lifestyle factor the Oregonian
article
mentioned
as
impacting
attendance, hunting, should be taken with
a grain of salt. Oregon is an extremely
rural state and hunting is part of the
culture everywhere except Portland.
Kids take time off from school to hunt
with their families all over this state.
This should not be used as a reason that
Vernonia is behind other school districts.
In reading the comments
concerning the Oregonian article at
their website, I was impressed with the
thoughtful commentary that readers
brought forward. One concern was
bullying; kids won’t go to school
if they don’t feel comfortable and
a low initial installation cost.
Council Approves GIS Contract-
Council approved a contract with Ben
Fousek to provide GIS services to the
City including mapping, documents and
other related materials. The scope of
work also calls for working with the City
Administrator to create a Flood Plain
Management System. The contract
expires June 30, 2014 and is not to
exceed $10,000.
Council
Updates
Master
Fee
Schedule-Council adopted Resolution
5-14, Amending the Master Fee
Schedule including changes to Parks
Fees, Cemetery Fees and Administrative
and Planning Fees. The changes to the
Parks Fees included the implementation
of hourly, daily and weekend fees for use
of the Vernonia Horse Arena at Anderson
Park. Changes to the Cemetery Fees
included changes to the fees for Adult
Internment, Arrival at the cemetery
after 3:30 PM, Saturday Internment, and
Sunday or Holiday Internment. Changes
to the Administrative and Planning
Fees included the implementation of
Consulting Fees for GIS Services hourly
fees.
An Opinion: Oregonian Article continued from page 3
Council Adopts Supplemental Budget-
Council approved Resolution 6-14,
adopting a supplemental budget for the
General Fund. The supplemental budget
decreases Available Cash on hand by
$22,045 and Income from Property taxes
by $30,000 and also decreases Payroll
expenses by $6,751, Police Department
Expenses by $42,334 and makes other
adjustments to several line items.
Daylight Saving Time Starts
Sunday, March 9
Set your clocks ahead one hour.
Vernonia City
Council Meetings
and Closures
City Council Meetings are
scheduled for 7 PM:
Monday, March 3, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
There are no City Closures
scheduled at this time.
Dates and times subject to change
due to conflicts of schedules
School District can impact a parent’s
values is somewhat limited.
Following the flood in 2007 and
then the economic downturn, Vernonia
saw a large increase in students who
were, in fact, “homeless,” with parents
who had moved away to find work.
Numerous students lived with friends and
“couch surfed” without a strong parental
influence in their life. This factor also
had an influence on attendance figures.
The Oregonian
gives the
impression throughout most of the article
that the VSD is unaware they have a
problem and concludes that they aren’t
really all that interested in addressing it.
They only briefly touch on the progress
and improvements that has been made
this year, and ignore several important
factors unique to Vernonia.
While the Vernonia School
District needs to continue to improve
their efforts in confronting absenteeism,
they were attempting to address the
issue, even before The Oregonian so
harshly, and somewhat unfairly, pointed
it out. Let’s hope it remains a priority
and we continue to see additional
improvements.
Terry’s
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Polife and County personnel are required
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Vernonia
Dental
2014
an
FOR TOWING EMERGENCIES
IN AND AROUND THE
VERNONIA AREA
safe. This is also an issue the VSD
has attempted to address in a serious
manner. Students at Vernonia Schools
have received numerous professional
trainings and awareness programs over
the last several years, thanks in part to
the great work of, and funding from,
the Vernonia Prevention Coalition.
Certainly we can’t say that bullying has
been eliminated from our schools, but
the issue is definitely on the radar and
being addressed.
Another point raised in the
comments is the role of parental
responsibility. In the opinion of some
readers, our society has embraced the
passing off of raising our children,
and some parents no longer take
responsibility for student achievement.
This may be the biggest factor in
school attendance. As was noted at the
recent Vernonia School Board meeting,
school staff can only work with and
teach students if they show up. Parents
need to see the value in, and encourage
their children to be in class everyday, and
make sure they arrive at school ready to
learn. It needs to be a priority for both
the parents and the students. How the
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