Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2014)
4 letters to the editor/community bulletin board march6 2014 Readers Lend Their Voices... To the Editor, This is not an advertisement. My wife and I would like to recommend Vernonia Service and Repair for any work you might need done on your car or truck. Aaron Milstein is such a great guy and he has always been honest and helpful in every way with us. I’ve talked to others about how their experience was at Aaron’s, and I’ve not heard anything negative from any of them. We’ve never met Aaron’s parents, but I’d say they are people with great Tracey Jordan values. Vernonia Stop by on your way out of town, meet Aaron, and see what he could To the Editor, do for you. Mark March 16th 1pm to 4pm on Thanks for your time reading your calendar. That’s the day a Spaghetti this. Feed by Chef Mario will be held to benefit the liver transplant of David Phil and Gerri Faylor Spackman. Those who know David and Vernonia Sonia know of David’s health problems. Those who haven’t had the pleasure of To the Editor, knowing them, David is a teacher and A few years ago, the people of councilor at the elementary school. Columbia County agreed to be taxed Sonia has had a wonderful column on in order to establish a hospital in the parenting in the Voice for some time. St. Helens area. To my knowledge, the On Sunday afternoon on the county folks received nothing in return 16th of March, at the Grace Family for their investment. Fellowship Church (formerly known I read that, when the newly as the Community Church) on State elected Columbia Health District Street, we plan to meet, eat, and enjoy board took office to finally shut off the the afternoon helping our neighbor. You flow of taxpayer funds and return the will also be able to buy meals to go, just money to the taxpayers, the paper trail in case. All meals are $5. There will also had disappeared. Even the auditor was be a silent auction of donated wonders. unable to get supporting documentation Hope to see you there. to perform a decent audit of the 2010- 2011 records. Sharron, Gayle, Janelle, Cathy, and Sally Although they were asked to Vernonia get involved, none of our elected county officials were willing to force the issue To the Editor, Thank you from a long time res- ident of Stoney Point Road to WOEC for its good work in upgrading and mainte- nance. With 35 years of residency here I have seen many weather related power outages. They’ve become less frequent in recent years, and though anticipating one during the last snow event, I was pleasantly surprised to maintain power for the duration of the storm. Thank you WOEC and maintenance crews. Town Hall with County Commissioners Tony Hyde, Earl Fisher and Henry Heimuller to discuss the reality of the possible county jail closure A citizen’s group has placed a bond measure on the May ballot to fund jail operations. Join Us March 6:30 pm at the Vernonia Scout Cabin 12 Learn the facts Make your voice heard Ask questions Inform yourself about this important issue Hosted and sponsored by Vernonia’s Voice to establish whether the funds were even managed responsibly. They didn’t bother to respond to my request and I’ve never heard any of them explain their lack of action. I thought certainly someone at the county level would jump on this issue, but no. In fact, if memory serves, we were told the remaining county funds collected were to be given to the city of St. Helens. Now the county wants more money and these same county commissioners are the ones asking for more money. The people have spoken many times on this jail funding issue and the heightened level of drama isn’t going to change my mind. Our commissioners might consider asking the city of St. Helens for the county funds to be returned and use it to remodel the jail in the basement of the county courthouse. By the way, what is the cost to the county for all these special elections? Another prudent use of taxpayer funds? Nancy Reed Scappoose, OR things to happen: • local people who do not like to play by the rules will be emboldened to flagrantly violate the law, knowing there will be no repercussions, and • we will attract the criminal element from outside our county, who will also be emboldened in the same manner. Crime will increase, and it will be felt. I do not know to what degree it will occur, but I am sure we will all know about more and more instances of lawlessness inflicted upon our community. Finally, at some point, there will be a call to fund our jail—only the cost will be roughly double to the taxpayer than it would have been if we had just kept it open all along. The reason is the federal prisoners who subsidize our jail (to the tune of $1.5 to $2.1 million per year) will all be gone, along with the revenue they bring in, and taxpayers who have gotten a state of the art, well-run, efficient and effective facility without paying the total cost of the operation, would then be forced to pay the entire amount. These are not scare tactics, but they are facts that are scary. It is not my intent to overdramatize the risks, or to “advertise to criminals” that it will be open season in Columbia County. The fact is the criminals already know these things. I believe it is my duty as your sheriff, to warn you what the future holds according to my many years of law enforcement experience. I am committed to executing the will of the people with the resources committed to our care, and we are prepared to close our jail if voters this spring decide not to keep it open with the additional taxes we need to do it. I want to thank those citizens who worked hard gathering signatures to convince our commissioners to give voters one last chance to keep our jail open. I fully believe that if our jail closes, and a year from now we look back at the vote in May, we will not be blaming the commissioners at all for giving it one last try. If you have any questions, you can contact me through Facebook or e-mail me at jeff.dickerson@co.columbia.or.us. To Columbia County Citizens: I am writing to you on my concern for the future of our jail and what I believe it will mean for our community. While no one can know for sure the degree to which the loss of the county jail will impact the way we live, I do believe with all my heart that it will be worse than most of us imagine. As we have seen our jail budget shrink over the last few years, and as we have publicized the early releases of inmates, there have been accusations of “scare tactics” being used to motivate voters out of fear. I will tell you that I am fearful of what is coming if our jail closes—for the following reasons: Taking people into custody on a wide variety of misdemeanor and felony charges will largely cease to occur. Last year, more than 1,200 local police arrests were lodged in our jail. Next year, police officers will still arrest and file charges, but they will not be able to find jail space anywhere to hold most law breakers, even for just one night. I believe this will cause two Jeff Dickerson Columbia County Sheriff Get all your Garden Essentials at the 1st Annual Vernonia Community Garden Fair & Plant Sale May 10th 9am-4pm at the Vernonia School Commons 1,000 Tomato Plants, vegie & flower starts plus many gifts for Mother’s Day Interested in being a vendor? Contact Penny Costley 503-429-0196 HOW TO SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Vernonia’s Voice welcomes and re- quests your thoughts, opinions and ideas. Please include your name, address and phone number, limit your letters to 300 words or less. Vernonia’s Voice reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted. We will print letters space permitting. Deadline is the 1st and 3rd Mon- day of each month. Email: scott@ vernoniasvoice.com or mail to: Letters, PO Box 55, Vernonia, OR 97064. find us on Facebook Vernonia’s Voice
