march17 2016
free
VERNONIA’S
volume10 issue6
www.vernoniasvoice.com
reflecting the spirit of our community
Council Moves Forward
With Sewer Rate Change
The Vernonia City Council directed
staff to move forward with proposed changes
to current city sewer rates, following a Public
Hearing on March 7, 2016.
The proposed sewer rate change
would mimic the way water rates are cur-
rently charged, using a meter size multiplier
to figure individual customer’s base rate and
loan repayment fee. The proposed change
also adds a consumption fee which charges
each customer for their sewage that is sent to
the treatment plant.
At the Public Hearing city staff pro-
vided the City Council with a chart that out-
lined the sample charges under the proposed
changes, showed the meter multiplier rates,
as well as the consumption charges.
The City currently charges a base
rate charge of $36.00 and a loan repayment
fee of $57.00, for a total of $93.00 for sewer
usage.
Under the new billing proposal, for
customers with 5/8 and 3/4 inch meters,
which is the majority of City’s residential
utility customers, the base rate would be
reduced to $23.95 and the loan repayment
fee reduced $55.27. According to City staff
there are only 22 customers with meters larg-
er than 5/8 or 3/4. The consumption charge
that would be added to each customer’s bill is
$2.31 per thousand gallons of water used.
The new rates will reward those cus-
tomers who conserve and put less burden
on the treatment system. Those customers
whose consumption is higher will pay more.
Under this new rate structure, cus-
tomers with 5/8 or 3/4 sized meters who use
less than 6,000 gallons of water per month
would see a reduction in their bill and cus-
tomers who use more than 6,000 gallons
would see an increase.
The new rate structure shows that
customers with larger meters would see an
increase in the base rate and the loan repay-
ment fee but would pay the same $2.31 per
thousand gallons consumption charge.
In order to determine the consump-
tion charge the City will follow an industry
standard practice that uses each customer’s
wintertime average water usage. Customer’s
usage during the four winter months of No-
vember-February will be tabulated and aver-
aged and will be the amount used to bill the
consumption charge for the following eight
months. This excludes from the tabulation
continued on page 5
Loggers Win
State Championship!
The Vernonia
Loggers are the OSAA
2A boys basketball
state champions!
The Loggers
defeated the #1 ranked
Regis Rams 57-49 on
Saturday, March 5,
2016 in Pendleton and
brought home the first
state championship for
a Vernonia team in al-
most 40 years.
Winning the
state
championship
capped an incredible
season by the Loggers,
who finished with a
28-1 record. After
losing their opening
game to Clatskanie, the
Loggers reeled off 28
straight wins. “I was
encouraged to see this team show up each and every night throughout our
season and put teams away,” said fifth year Logger head coach David
Weller in an interview after the team returned to Vernonia.
continued on page 10
Oregon Legislature Earmarks $7.5 Million for Advanced
Manufacturing Research Center in Columbia County
Big news came out of the Oregon
Legislature with the announcement of $7.5 million
to be appropriated for the creation of an Advanced
Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC).
The facility will be located in Columbia County.
The project, built on the synergy of regional industry,
academia and government stakeholders, is based in
part on an AMRC apprenticeship model developed
by Boeing and the University of Sheffield in England
to address critical manufacturing challenges through
applied research and advanced technical training.
The state of Oregon’s investment will be added
to $9.4 million in bonding authority from Portland
Community College (PCC) to support educational
opportunities in Columbia County, for a total investment
of nearly $17 million. Additional sources of financial
support potentially include private and public investors
inside
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it’s good to be king
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the good ol’ days
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a cannabis vision
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school district
contemplates debt
and federal grants.
The AMRC will replace the proposed
education center that PCC had discussed constructing
in Columbia County for several years.
“This is an investment not just in high tech
manufacturing, but in our workforce, in regional job
growth, and our state’s economic future,” said Govenor
Kate Brown. “Today we are taking an important step
forward, developing a world-class community where
instruction, research, design, and manufacturing
intersect for the benefit of all.”
Initial efforts will focus on training for students
through industry-sponsored skilled apprenticeships
that lead to postsecondary credentials and family-
wage jobs. This will be led by PCC as the educational
accrediting partner. Advanced manufacturing research
activities will be led by local university and research
partners such as Oregon State University (OSU),
Portland State University (PSU) and the Oregon
Institute of Technology (OIT).
“As the state’s largest higher education and
workforce training institution serving a five-county
region, Portland Community College is thrilled to
collaborate with a consortium of local partners to
support this transformational opportunity,” said Sylvia
Kelley, interim president of PCC.
Additional stakeholders and potential
partners include Boeing and other regional metals
manufacturers, the Oregon Employment Department,
the Bureau of Labor and Industries, the AFL-CIO,
Greater Portland Inc., the Oregon State Building
and Construction Trades Council, the International
Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and
continued on page 6
Warrenton Denies Permits for Oregon LNG
An impartial City of Warrenton
Hearings Officer ruled on March 8,
2016, that the Oregon LNG terminal
project proposed to be built in
Warrenton would interfere with public
trust rights, violate local laws to protect
salmon, and periodically block public
access to traditional fishing grounds.
Oregon LNG has the right to appeal
the Hearings Officer’s final order to the
Warrenton City Council.
The City of Warrenton ruled:
“[T]he project will unreasonably inter-
fere with significant public trust rights
in the form of adverse impacts to fish
habitat in this portion of the Lower Co-
lumbia River Estuary . . .”
The Hearings Officer noted
the proposed dredging of the Columbia
River for LNG tankers and the exten-
sive filling of wetlands:
“Regarding the significance of the proj-
ect’s impact, again, the Officer cannot
credit the applicant’s attempts to mini-
mize the impacts of the 109-acre dredge
footprint and 35 acre permanent wet-
land impact, which state and federal
environmental agencies regarded as
significant.”
Oregon LNG proposes building
an LNG terminal in Warrenton, Oregon,
and exporting North American natural
gas to overseas markets. The project re-
quires building over 200 miles of new,
high-pressure gas pipeline through Or-
egon and Washington that would cross
salmon-bearing streams, including
Rock Creek above the intact to the City
of Vernonia water supply, the Colum-
bia River, farms, forestland, and close
to homes. LNG uses fracked gas, rec-
ognized as a significant contributor to
climate change.
Among the project’s many re-
gional impacts, the company proposes
dredging an area the size of 102 foot-
ball fields in the Columbia River. Or-
egon LNG selected the most popular
sport and commercial salmon fishing
area on the Columbia for its massive
dock and ship turning basin. The gas
pipeline requires using eminent domain
and restricting how landowners can use
property within the pipeline easement.
In 2013, Clatsop County denied a 41-
mile long segment of gas pipeline to the
terminal.
The state has not acted on mul-
tiple permits to build and operate the
LNG project.
Oregon LNG has fourteen days
to appeal to the Warrenton City Com-
mission.
