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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 3, 2015)
community news september3 2015 Notes From the WOEC Annual Meeting The seventy-first annual meeting of the members of West Oregon Electric Cooperative, Inc. was called to order Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 11:00 am at the Cabin in Vernonia. • President VanNatta opened the meeting and appointed Charles Fadeley, Attorney, as the parliamentarian. • President VanNatta introduced the Board of Directors and General Manager Bob Perry. Perry introduced staff and the guest speaker. • Chuck Fadeley read the list of director candidates (District 1: Brian Baker; District 4: Dan Murphy; and District 6: Rosemary Lohrke). Fadeley opened the floor for nominations. Hearing none, nominations were closed. He reminded the members in attendance that if they had not already turned in their ballot they needed to do so now. • Guest speaker, Ted Case, from ORECA gave an informative speech of how rural electric cooperatives changed the course of history by engaging U.S. presidents over the past 75 years. • Oregon State Senator Betsy Johnson, gave a brief overview of what is happening with Oregon’s 2015 legislative session and answered member’s questions and concerns. • President VanNatta gave his report. He explained distributed generation and the impacts it would have on the cooperative. • David Western, Manager of Finance and Administration, gave the financial report. He provided a handout of WOEC’s current financials through June 2015. Western informed the members that in 2014 the Co-op ended the year with positive margins of $762,750 and noted that so far through six months of 2015 the Co-op is under budget by $20,243 and is staying very close to the projected budget for the year. Western explained that WOEC continues to watch spending and stay on a tight budget. WOEC received a clean audit report for 2014, as they have for the last 13 years. • Don Rose, Engineering and Operations Manager, introduced himself and gave the operations report. He explained that this year has a significant low number of outage hours due to increased tree trimming and maintenance. The crews have also done pole replacements and undergrounding lines when possible. Rose noted that he is trying to find ways to improve things as inexpensively as possible. • Bob Perry, General Manager, introduced himself and gave his report. He spoke of power supply and introduced John Prescott, from PNGC who answered member’s questions and concerns. Perry also introduced and showed appreciation to all the employees at the meeting for all of their hard work. He gave a brief report on the upcoming rate change and invited all the members to the Rate Hearing on September 16 th at the Vernonia Fire Hall. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm. • Q&A session: Board President, Robert VanNatta answered a member’s question asking how it would affect WOEC’s revenue stream if more and more people installed distributed generation. How would WOEC pay their bills if not enough revenue is coming in? Perry explained WOEC has certain revenue requirements that have to be met. WOEC would need to revisit their rate structure to make sure the cooperative remained sustainable if those financial requirements were not met. • Chuck Fadeley announced the election results: District #1 Brian Baker; District #4 Dan Murphy; District #6 Rosemary Lohrke were re-elected. Publisher and Managing Editor Scott Laird 503-367-0098 scott@vernoniasvoice.com Contributors Britt Bensen Steele Shannon Romtvedt Nate Underwood Grant Williams Photography Scott Laird Chase Tolonen Susan Wellington Want to advertise? Have an article? Contact: scott@vernoniasvoice.com One year subscriptions (24 issues) $35 Vernonia’s Voice is published on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. Equestrians Help With Trail Clean Up On Saturday, August 15, 2015 four members of the Columbia County Chapter of Oregon Equestrian Trails (OET) gathered at Dibblee Point Beach to collect litter from along the road leading to the beach and adjoining cottonwood forest. The workday demonstrates OET’s mission of establishing and maintaining trail for all users. Dibblee Point Beach is land that is largely Sandy Tetz, Nancy Trones and her dog, Rolo, and Karen Winterfield at owned by Oregon Department Dibblee Point Beach near Rainier, Oregon. Photo by Susan Wellington of State Lands (DSL) along left for the County to pick up as a part Columbia County owns land adjacent the Columbia River near Rainier. The of their normal care for Dibblee Point. to the DSL land which has a tidal fed area is open for public use and is a estuary that provides fish habitat. good spot for launching small boats Dibblee Point and Camp and jet skis into the river, beach Wilkerson Park are areas in the fishing, swimming, and other beach county where OET and the Parks activities. The forest that has grown Department work together to on the naturally formed sand spit enhance recreational opportunities covers double and single track trails in Columbia County. OET meets used by horsemen and women for on the second Wednesday of each recreational riding. month at the Moose Family Center The litter was gathered into at 51317 Old Portland Road, bags supplied by Columbia County Warren. Parks Department and the bags were 3 Vernonia’s Voice, LLC PO Box 55 Vernonia, OR 97064 503-367-0098 www.VernoniasVoice.com FERC Schedules Public Meeting continued from front page for each speaker. Speakers should structure their comments accordingly. Comments can also be submitted in writing or electronically. All comments will hold the same weight. Transcripts of the meeting will be available for review in FERC’s eLibrary under the project docket numbers: CP09-6-001 and CP09-7- 001 Cedar Side Inn Happy Hour Mon-Fri 4-7 Open Mic w/ Matt Bonora Saturday, September 26th Karaoke Live Music Taco Tuesday Sat, Sept. 5th Melody Butchers Every 2nd & Last Friday from opening until 9pm 3 hardshell or 1 softshell $4.25 Ladies’ Night every Thursday 6pm-close • Specialty hamburgers • 8 Draft beers & mixed drinks • 5 Craft beers on tap • Pool tables & satelite TV • Free Pool • Free WiFi • Specialty Pizzas iheck our Facebook page for daily specials and upcoming events 756 Bridge Street, Vernonia 503-429-5841 • Free Wi-fi • Beer & Kegs to go Sun - Thurs 11 AM - Midnight • 733 Bridge St, Vernonia “BIKER FRIENDLY” Fri - Sat 11 AM - 2:30 AM • 503-429-9999
