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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2016)
april7 2016 VERNONIA’S volume10 issue7 reflecting the spirit of our community www.vernoniasvoice.com Nicole DeWitt Ready to Run in Boston Marathon Vernonia resident Nicole De- Witt is getting ready to head east to run in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 18, 2016. DeWitt, who will run with 30,000 other runners in the 26 mile event, qualified to run in Boston with a time of 3 hours 27 minutes when she ran the Portland Marathon last year. She needed to run a 3:35:00 to qualify for Boston. Portland was the very first marathon she had ever competed in. “I set a pretty high standard for myself to qualify for Boston in my first free marathon,” says DeWitt. “I knew it was possible because I had run several half marathons over the last couple of years; that’s been my race of choice because they’re easy to train for. It takes a lot to train for a marathon, especially with a family.” DeWitt is married with two boys, aged 3 and 5. She works full time as a massage therapist - part time at Nike and part time in a private prac- tice. Formerly Nicole Franz, De- Witt is a 2007 graduate of Vernonia High School where she ran both cross country and track. “I’ve been running competitively for a long time,” she says. For those who don’t want to do the math, DeWitt’s time of 3:27:00 in the Portland Marathon equates to an average pace of 7 minutes 55 seconds per mile. DeWitt is hoping to lower her time to 3:15:00 at Boston and says so far her training times are encourag- ing and are pointing towards hitting continued on page 8 Where Are the Vernonia Police? Recently Vernonia area citizens have been expressing concerns on social media about the lack of a law enforce- ment presence in and around the Verno- nia community. The Vernonia Police Department (VPD) currently consists of four mem- bers: Chief Michael Conner, and Officers Shawn Carnahan, Matt Brady and Cody Pesio. Pesio is currently at Police Acad- emy, which lasts for several months, and is not available for duty. Chief Conner has continually updated the City Council on Pesio’s progress at the Academy. According to City Administrator Josette Mitchell, Chief Conner has been dealing with some family and health is- sues, and has needed to periodically take some extra personal time. Officer Carnahan has regularly been seen on duty and patrol. When asked about the status of Officer Brady, and rumors that he is on Administrative Leave, Mitchell declined to comment, stating that she could not openly discuss employee matters at this time. Mitchell confirmed that, since the VPD does not have coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it has been the policy of the VPD to not advertise or dis- cuss officer duty schedules. “We do have an intergovernmen- tal agreement with the Sheriff, so when we have officers who need personal time, or when we don’t have officers on duty, or when our numbers are down, we do have coverage from the county,” said Mitchell in a recent interview. “They won’t come for a barking dog. They will come when there is a threat to life or property.” “People also need to understand the difference between the City and the County,” continued Mitchell. “If you live in the county, our Vernonia Police are not your law enforcement. There is an issue with this. People think they have a Vernonia address so the Vernonia police should come when they call. Our insur- ance will not cover our officers if they go and respond to something, without back- up, in the county on a call that is not ours. Our guys participate and assist in major crimes and major incidents in the county, but if you live in the county, the Sheriff’s Department is your law enforcement that covers you.” Grace Fine Arts to Hold Auction Grace Fine Arts Academy will hold an art show and silent auction featuring the work of students on April 29, 2016. Each student’s work from the spring semester of classes will be on display and available for bidding at the Grace Family Fellowship church in the gymnasium. The auction will run from 7:00-7:30 pm; public voting for the show will also take place during this time. An awards ceremony will follow the auction. Kerri Boutwell, the instructor for Grace Fine Arts, says the auction will benefit two separate causes: CASA for Children of Multnomah, Washing- ton, & Columbia Counties and World Vision. CASA (Court Appointed Spe- inside 3 vrfpd needs our support 11 time to kick the butt 14 oregon legislative wrap up 17 what do our senior citizens need? to my students, that cial Advocates) are beauty and art is not adults who volunteer trivial and has great to assist children go- power to create posi- ing through the trau- tive change and do ma of the foster care good in the world, and system. this is a really practi- World Vision cal way for them to is an international see that. They’re go- partnership that helps poor and oppressed ing to make some- thing, give it up as a children around the donation, people will world. Boutwell says bid on it, and then that funds raised from the auction will specifi- money will go to help children.” cally go to help refuge Boutwell says children from Syria. “This is a perfect opportunity her idea was to focus on the humanitarian for my students to learn that art can be aspects of helping children. “What used for good,” says Boutwell. “It’s I like about World Vision is that the one of the main things I want to impart continued on page 10 Kerri Boutwell instructs some of her art students. Citizens Hear Update on Oregon LNG Project Despite several setbacks Oregon water. It could also rely LNG continues to be a concern on eminent domain to A group of mostly local citizens gathered in Vernonia on Thursday, March 31 to hear an update on the proposed Oregon LNG project. Approximately 20 people joined staff members from Columbia Riverkeeper to discuss the project that would transport fracked natural gas in a 36 inch pipeline from Canada to a terminal in Warrenton, on the Oregon coast, where it would be liquefied and shipped to foreign markets. The 85 miles of pipeline through Oregon would traverse Columbia County, crossing wetlands, forests, timberlands, and numerous salmon-bearing streams, including Rock Creek, four miles above the City of Vernonia’s intake for public areas around the terminal and along the pipeline, in force land owners to the event of an accident, have also played a role provide easements for the in the opposition to the pipeline. project. The proposed Local activists around mega terminal in Warrenton could export Warrenton and along the over 1 billion cubic feet pipeline route have been of gas per day, an amount vocal in their opposition to the project, which has greater than the entire already been rejected state of Oregon’s daily usage, and would require several times during its Dan Serres permitting process. over 1.2 million cubic of Columbia Riverkeeper Despite several yards of dredging in critical salmon habitat in the Columbia rejections on numerous levels, Oregon River Estuary. LNG tankers coming and LNG continues to appeal decisions and going from the terminal would disrupt appears to be intent on continuing to recreational and commercial fishing, an attempt to construct the pipeline and terminal in their proposed locations. important part of the local economy. Concerns about safety for the continued on page 7
