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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 2017)
August17 2017 www.vernoniasvoice.com Wyden Announces Disaster Relief for Columbia County Oregon Senator Ron Wyden announced during a Town Hall meeting in Verno- nia on August 9, 2017 that Columbia County will receive previously denied disaster re- lief funds from the Federal governement. Wyden said the White House will grant a partial fed- eral disaster declaration for a few days of winter weather- related losses across the state this January. The decision is a re- versal of an earlier denial of federal disaster relief for the state. The disaster declaration will allow local governments to seek much-needed federal relief for damage caused by winter storms from January 7-10. But the disaster funds are likely to fall far short of the more than $17 million in damages from flooding, mud- slides and structures that col- lapsed during winter storms that impacted a wide swath of Oregon from January 7-20. Oregon’s seven fed- eral lawmakers wrote to the White House in March in support of Governor Kate Brown’s request for a state- wide disaster declaration for significant weather-related costs, as well as more target- ed help in the form of public assistance grants for Baker, Columbia, Curry, Deschutes, Hood River, Josephine, Mal- heur, Multnomah, Union and Washington counties. Under the new de- cision the entire state will be eligible for some level of federal relief. Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River and Josephine counties will be eligible for public assistance grants, and the rest of the state will be eligible for hazard mitigation grants. Approval of public assistance grants for Malheur, Multnomah, Union, and Washington counties are still pending, and will be de- termined at a later date. “This partial disaster declaration is a good first step toward providing desperately needed relief from the costly damage caused by the massive winter event that hit our state in January,” the delegation said in a joint statement. “As lawmakers, we understand the Oregon communities af- fected by these prolonged and historic winter storms still need more resources and we will keep working to direct federal aid to help in their re- covery.” After the initial de- nial of the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration in March, the lawmakers wrote to the administration in sup- port of the state’s appeal. Additionally, in a May letter, Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley and Represen- tative Greg Walden pushed the Federal Emergency Man- agement Agency (FEMA) for more transparency in the agency’s process for granting federal disaster declarations. inside 11 car show rebuilt 12 vernonia improvement project 17 eclipse news 19 jamboree highlights free VERNONIA’S volume11 issue16 reflecting the spirit of our community New Lake Pump is Operational A project to upgrade the pump system at Vernonia Lake has been installed and is now operational. The project was a collaboration between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), the Vernonia Lions Çlub and the City of Vernonia. Robert Bradley of ODFW was in Vernonia on August 2, 2017 to celebrate the completion of the project. “This proj- ect was initiated by the Vernonia Lions Club and brought to our attention, and then we worked together over the last two and half years to get to this point,” said Brad- ley. The project consisted of the instal- lation of three new pumps, plus a concrete pump house, that will allow the City to maintain the water level of the lake. Bradley assisted the Lions Club and the City in making the application for grant funding through ODFW’s Restora- tion and Enhancement Program. Those grants are funded through surcharges on license fees with ODFW. “The idea is that those fees go back into projects that ben- efit anglers, which is what we expect to happen with this project with the ability to control the lake level better,” explained Robert Bradley of ODFW with Vernonia Lions Club members Randal Harvey and Don Webb. Bradley. Bradley said the grant from The new system allows the City to use one, two or ODFW was for $69,000. The Lions Club contrib- three pumps as needed to maintain the level of the uted $960 in cash to the project and also contrib- Lake. The City Public Works crew should be able uted time to act as the administrator for the grant. to reduce the time they spend down here monitor- The City of Vernonia contributed labor and use of ing it.” heavy equipment to install the pump house and Vernonia Lions Club member Don Webb, pump system. who has helped maintain the Lake over many “This is a replacement for the old single years, thanked ODFW and Bradley for their help. pump system that the City can operate on an an- “Robert has been a lot of help and we couldn’t nual basis,” said Bradley. Bradley explained that have done this without him,” said Webb. Webb while the old system could pump 1,200 gallons noted ODFW previously assisted the City in the of water per minute from the Nehalem River, the installation of the two fishing docks and recently new three pump system pumps less water and used another ODFW grant to install the safety draws less from the Nehalem. rails on the docks. “The old system pumped too much water “This really was a cooperative effort,” and had to be turned on and off as the Lake would said Bradley. “It’s good to know that we could do get full,” explained Bradley. “The pump also our part.” needed to be removed from the river each winter. Citizen Files Pending Tort Claim Against City of Vernonia David Sterner, a citizen of Ver- nonia, has filed a Formal Notice of a Tort Claim against the City of Verno- nia, the Mayor, City Administrator and the rest of the Vernonia City Council. Sterner sent notice of his claim to the City on August 4, 2017. He also notified Vernonia’s Voice of his claim, as well as posting the entire claim to Facebook. The claim names Vernonia Mayor Mario Leonetti, City Adminis- trator Josette Mitchell, City Councilors Bruce McNair, Jill Hult, Mike Seager and Susan Wagner, and the City of Vernonia, and seeks compensation of $180,000 and attorney’s fees for “ dam- age to his personal and professional reputation, intentional interference in prospective economic relations, and the resultant lack of economic opportuni- ties thereafter.” Sterner had sought approval from the Vernonia City Council on February 13, 2017 to place a retail food trailer at a city-owned location. Council met in a workshop on March 13 to specifically discuss food vendor carts. The development of Food Cart Vendor Site was on the agenda for the City Council meeting on April 3 when Sterner abruptly withdrew his request and began the process of filing several ethics complaints against members of the City Council with the Oregon Eth- ics Commission (OEC). Sterner filed an ethics com- plaint against Mayor Mario Leonetti, which claimed that Mayor Leonetti had failed to identify a personal “conflict of interest” in the discussion. That com- plaint was initially found to have “no merit,” by the OEC, but the OEC did later open a preliminary investigation which is currently pending. Councilor Susan Wagner has confirmed that Stern- er has also filed a complaint against her on which the OEC has not yet taken any official action. In his notice of intent to file a tort claim Sterner contends that the City’s refusal to allow him to place his food cart on public property, “consti- tuted discrimination against him, as well as defaming his personal and busi- ness reputation, and that it occurred - in part - because of the Mayor’s improper attempts to discredit Claimant and his business proposal - not because of any legitimate public policy purposes - but in attempt to curtail and in fact prevent direct competition, which might ad- versely impact his own, personal, busi- ness interests.” continued on page 5
