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
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97064.
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