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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2017)
July20 2017 VERNONIA’S volume11 issue14 www.vernoniasvoice.com free reflecting the spirit of our community Jamboree to Skip Logging Show This Year Jamboree Committee already planning to bring it back next year This year’s version of the Vernonia Friendship Jambo- ree will not include an impor- tant event. The Logging Show, an attendee favorite usually held on Sunday afternoon, has been cancelled this year due to a lack of volunteers to organize the event. “We are not having a Logging Show this year because events like this take people and right now we do not have the people to make that happen,” said Nicole Penney, the Jambo- ree Committee Chair this year. “It was a very difficult decision. I spent many nights trying to figure out a way to make it hap- pen, but in the end we just could not find the volunteers to do it.” Organizing and putting on the Jamboree is a complex effort. A team of community volunteers works year round to plan and implement the event, with volunteers coming and go- ing each year as they are able to participate. “This is a restructuring year for Jamboree and the Log- ging Show,” said Penney. “We have a lot of great names on board to help us make the 2018 Logging Show amazing and better than ever, and I can’t wait to see what happens next year.” This is Penney’s first year serving as the Chair. Pre- viously she had worked helping organizing a kids zone and as- sisting the vendor coordinator. “The people on the Jamboree Committee are doing the absolute best that they can,” said Penney. “There are a lot of us losing sleep over making this a success. There were some people who were upset that we didn’t announce the Logging Show cancelation earlier, but we were still trying to make it work and still trying to put something together.” Organizing the Log- ging Show takes a special group of volunteers that have techni- cal knowledge, equipment and access to resources. “The Committee reached out to as many people as we could, looking for vol- unteers for the Jamboree, as well as knowledgeable people in the logging industry to help organize the Logging Show,” said Penney. “If you’re just a lay person who doesn’t know anything about logging, it’s pretty hard to put it together. We needed people who actually know what they’re doing and have the contacts necessary to County Commissioners to Hear Public Comment on Port Westward Expansion Port of St. Helens resubmits proposal after remand from Land Use Board of Appeals The Columbia County Board of Com- missioners is hosting a public hearing on re- zoning 786 acres of agricultural land at Port Westward to industrial uses. The hearing will take place Wednesday, August 2 at 6 pm at the Clatskanie High School Auditorium, 471 SW Belair Dr. in Clatskanie. The hearing will focus on a modi- fied application originally submitted in 2012 by the Port of St. Helens and the Thompson family on land they own at Port Westward. The original proposal to the County Board of Commissioners included zoning 957 acres to inside 3 odfw seeks steelhead help 6 good ol’ days 9 vernonia little league 11 vrfpd a Rural Industrial Planned District (RIPD) and amending the county’s Comprehensive Plan to reflect the changes. The RIPD zone al- lows a broad spectrum of industrial uses. The change requires an exception to Oregon Land Use Goal 3, which is intended to preserve and maintain agricultural lands for farm use con- sistent with existing and future needs for agri- cultural products, forest and open space. The Port Westward Industrial area currently hosts three tenants. Clatskanie Peo- ple’s Utility District has a three-acre electrical substation. Global Partners LLC owns Colum- bia Pacific Bio-Refinery ethanol production and also exports crude oil on 43 acres. PGE’s Beaver Power Plant and two other natural gas power generation plants take up the remainder of the approximately 900 acre area. The Board voted to approve the zone change for 837 acres in January 2014 and to amend the county’s Comprehensive Plan. The approval contained 15 conditions for which an applicant wanting to site an industrial use must meet before the proposed development could be approved. After the County Board’s unanimous decision, appeals were filed with the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) by local mint farmer and business owner Mike Seeley and Columbia Riverkeeper. Their appeal listed ten grounds on which they contended the county erred in its decision. After reviewing the appeal, LUBA agreed with the appellants on four of the ten errors, and remanded the decision to the county. The appeal board determined that the county did not supply sufficient evidence to analyze and explain why current land at Port Westward as well as other industrial zoned areas can’t accommodate new rural industrial uses. LUBA also suggested the county narrow continued on page 5 put on a good show.” While the Log- ging Show will be missed this year, Ver- nonia’s Friendship Jamboree will still go on. Scheduled events include the Parade, a Rat Rod Car Show, Mo- torcycle Show, Library Book Sale, Lawn Mow- er Races, and the Ridge Riders Horse Gaming. A family concert is be- ing planned for Sunday afternoon in Hawkins Park to fill in the empty space left by the cancel- ation of the Logging Show. “We know that on the Committee we could have done some things differently this year,” said Penney. “This has been a learning year for all of us. Next year, with all the knowledge we’ve obtained this year, we should be able to make the entire experience of Jambo- ree better than it’s been in the past few years. We’ve had a lot of people step forward since we postponed the Logging Show and it’s great to see so many people who care about the Log- ging Show and really want to make it happen.” Oregon’s First Farm Conservation Program Passes Legislature On July 7, 2017 the Or- egon House and Senate passed a landmark bill launching a new farm and ranch land protec- tion program for the state. HB 3249 will create the Oregon Ag- ricultural Heritage Program, Or- egon’s first voluntary program to help farmers and ranchers con- serve working lands and the fish and wildlife habitat they support. The Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program bill (OAHP) was developed during a two-year effort by the following six state- wide organizations that represent agriculture and natural resource conservation: Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, Oregon Association of Conservation Districts, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Oregon Farm Bureau, Sustainable North- west, and The Nature Conservan- cy. “The diverse groups and bi-partisan support that rallied be- hind HB 3249 really speaks to the importance of Oregon’s agricul- tural heritage for all Oregonians,” said Representative Brad Witt (D- Clatskanie). “We have to decide whether we want to preserve those lands and their ecological benefits, or to allow them to be fragmented and sold off in a way that harms the agricultural and conservation purposes of these lands.” The program addresses key issues farmers and ranchers face in Oregon: the conversion and fragmentation of farmland and the challenge of planning for the next generation of farmers and ranchers. “The family farms and ranches in Oregon are something we have to preserve,” said Repre- sentative Knute Buehler (R-Bend) one of the chief cosponsors of the bill. “And they are under assault by two big factors: first, the ever- growing crush of urbanism, and the second is a lack of succession planning. The Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program helps to address both of these issues by providing voluntary tools for landowners.” In passing the OAHP, the legislature provided $190,000 over the next biennium to set up rules for the program and estab- lish the Oregon Agricultural Heri- tage Commission to administer future program funds. In conjunc- tion with the Commission, the program will be managed by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to provide grants to land- owners to protect their working lands, enhance natural resource values, and assist with succession planning. “Oregon’s working lands are not only a critical economic driver for the state, but those who work the land also steward im- portant fish and wildlife habitat,” said Representative Brian Clem (D-Salem), another chief cospon- sor of the bill. “I am pleased that the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program recognizes the vital con- tribution of both to our state.”