July20 2017
VERNONIA’S
volume11 issue14
www.vernoniasvoice.com
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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
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good ol’ days
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vernonia
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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.”