opinion
may7
2015
An Opinion: Vote YES on All Three Measures
By Scott Laird
Election ballots arrived in the
mail this week and local voters are being
asked to make a choice on three critical
ballot measures. I am encouraging
voters to support all three.
The Vernonia Rural Fire
Protection District has placed two
Measures on the ballot. Measure 5-245
is a ten year bond for the purchase of a
badly needed, new fire engine and would
cost taxpayers 26 cents per thousand
of assessed property value. Measure
5-246 is a five year levy to fund the
salary of a Training Captain to assist in
the administration of the Department,
mainly to organize the training of
volunteers, as well as respond to calls
when on duty. This would cost taxpayers
32 cents per thousand of assessed value.
The Vernonia Fire Department
currently has one paid responder, Chief
Dean Smith. According to Smith,
volunteerism at the District is at an all
time low and call volume is as high as
it’s ever been. State requirements for
volunteer training continue to increase.
On top of that the VRFPD remains
the lowest funded of any District in
Columbia County.
Smith and the Vernonia Fire
District are facing a perfect storm-a
community that is too busy to volunteer,
a limited training schedule to get
the small number of volunteers they
do have to meet state requirements,
limited resources to fund operations and
equipment, and not enough responders
to answer the larger volume of calls they
are receiving.
As Smith likes to point out,
he and his small band of dedicated
volunteers don’t just respond to fires.
They assist the local ambulance service
on EMS calls and also serve as the local
rescue unit. They handle anything
from extrications from motor vehicle
accidents, to providing traffic control, to
getting cats out of trees, and they have
to be trained for all of them.
Many times only a small
handful of volunteers are available to
respond to a call and recently Smith
had to head out on a call for a structure
fire by himself. When they do respond,
they sometimes have to worry whether
their aging equipment will get them to
the call and function properly when they
arrive.
Protecting our community is
the responsibility of each of us. We
are lucky to have such a hard working
and dedicated Chief in Dean Smith, as
well as a group of volunteers who give
up their valuable personal time to make
themselves available to answer our call
when we need help. If you are not
able to be a volunteer then you need to
consider doing your part by supporting
the Fire District and the volunteers and
help provide the resources they need to
do the job we ask them to do.
Measure 5-243 is asking voters
county wide to increase, by 35 cents per
ton, the Natural Resources Depletion
fee on gravel to fund road maintenance
and the Columbia County Rider public
transportation system. The fee currently
sits at 15 cents and has not been raised
in eighteen years.
This measure has been more
difficult to gauge. Contrary to what
some people would like you to believe,
CCRider is a well used transit system,
especially during commute times in the
mornings and afternoons. Many people
within our communities depend on it
to get to work, school, or to doctor and
other appointments. It has grown over
recent decades from what was basically
a taxi service for senior citizens to a full
fledged transit service, serving the needs
of a diverse client base. It provides a
reliable and much needed service in our
community.
Those opposing this fee have run
a loud and visible campaign to convince
voters to reject the fee increase. They
say they will lose business and will have
to lay off workers.
continued on page 17
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Britt Bensen Steele
Tom Coughlin
Michal Smith
Sonia Spackman
Grant Williams
Photography
Scott Laird
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