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
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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
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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
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503-429-5841
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