Vernonia's voice., November 02, 2017, Image 1

november2 2017
VERNONIA’S
volume11 issue21
free
reflecting the spirit of our community
www.vernoniasvoice.com
Martin Arms Opens Storefront
New gun shop offers a variety
of services and weapons
Martin Arms has opened a
storefront on Bridge Street in down-
town Vernonia.
After initially opening their
business at their home on the outskirts
of town last spring, Dennis and Pe-
tra Martin, along with Dennis’s son
River, now have a visible and easily
accessible location to sell their guns,
knives, ammunition and other servic-
es.
“We’ve received a lot more
traffic since we moved into town,”
says Dennis Martin. “As a result
we’ve been able to increase the
amount and variety of guns we can
carry, the amount of optics, and other
accessories.”
Martin Arms sells a variety
of new handguns, shotguns, and rifles
and also takes consignments. Occa-
sionally they will buy used guns or
take them in trade. In addition Martin
Arms recently added pocket and hunt-
ing knives, including Havalon knives.
Dennis says he had a Fed-
eral Firearms License (FFL) before
he moved to Vernonia and has been
Dennis and Petra Martin
building AR rifles for several years as
a hobby and a side business. The shop
carries a full range of accessories in
stock for ARs, including stocks, grips,
and hand guards. “We have all the
parts and pieces if someone wants to
build their own AR,” says Dennis.
After starting out the business
in a shipping container, the Martins
are happy to be on the main drag and
have been able to expand what they
offer. “We started out with no hand-
guns, no knives, just a dozen or so ri-
fles and a bunch of
ammo and some
accessories,” says
Dennis.
Dennis’s son
River had previ-
ously worked in a
gun shop in Hill-
sboro as an ap-
prentice gunsmith
and joins the Mar-
tin Arms team as
an AR armorer,
building and re-
pairing guns. Den-
nis is a certified
Glock
armorer.
River Martin is an armorer and can provide
Dennis says Mar-
some gun repair services.
tin Arms has sev-
inside
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read the voice
9
graveyard dash
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eral gunsmith affiliates they can use
for more advanced repairs when need-
ed. “If you want new sights put on,
we can do that,” says Dennis. “As an
armorer we can put a new trigger on
it, we can mount scopes, we can put
a new barrel on your rifle. We don’t
thread barrels, cut barrels, or cham-
ber barrels. Anything that requires
machining work, we send that out to
experts.”
Dennis is especially proud of
the Martin Arms website, www.Mar-
tinArms.org. “Small town gun shop,
big time website,” says Dennis. “We
have a better website than any shop in
Portland, hands down.” Dennis says
his customers can order guns, ammu-
nition, and accessories from their site
and pay no shipping if it’s delivered
to the shop, where they can fill out the
required paperwork and pick it up.
Dennis Martin grew up in a
small town in Washington and moved
to Oregon after graduation. Petra also
grew up in a small town in Washing-
ton on the Columbia River. Both of
them grew up hunting and around
guns. “I’ve always been interested in
guns and enjoyed them,” says Dennis.
Dennis left the construction
continued on page 13
Baska Sentenced in Sex Abuse Case
Former Vernonia police
officer Gene Baska pleads no
contest to attempted sex abuse
and luring of a minor
Vernonia resident Gene Baska
was sentenced to 270 days in jail and
five years probation after pleading no
contest in Columbia County Court on
Friday, October 20, 2017 to charges he
inappropriately touched two teenage
girls and attempted to lure another girl
into having a sexual relationship.
The sentencing brings to an end
a long and drawn out ordeal for the vic-
tims and their families and friends.
Baska, 64, is a former Vernonia
police officer who served in the com-
munity for 30 years before retiring in
2003.
Baska was sentenced after
reaching a plea deal with the Columbia
County District Attorney’s office this
past June. Baska was arrested in Janu-
ary 2015 after the mother of a 13 year
old girl reported Baska had sent her
daughter a sexually explicit message
on Facebook. He pleaded no contest
to two counts of first-degree attempted
sexual abuse involving two other teen
girls, and one count of luring a minor.
All three charges are felonies. He will
serve 90 days for each of the felonies.
He will also be required to register as a
sex offender.
A standing-room-only crowd
packed the courtroom at the sentencing,
many people there to show their support
for Baska. Numerous witnesses gave
testimony on his behalf, including his
wife, his sister, and several friends and
acquaintances.
Assistant District Attorney John
Berg, who prosecuted the case, said the
complaint about the explicit Facebook
message wasn’t the first time police had
heard accusations from a young girl
about Baska’s behavior. One of Bas-
ka’s granddaughters, Alexis Baska, had
claimed he had touched her inappropri-
ately when she was 14 years old, but no
charges were filed at that time after an
investigation. Berg also mentioned the
separate incident that occurred with an-
other teen girl. The three victims also
had a chance to speak in court during
the sentencing.
“This will help bring closure
after six years of nothing being done,”
said Alexis Baska, in an interview with
Vernonia’s Voice following the sentenc-
ing. “There are people that did not be-
lieve me and called me a liar. Others
didn’t know what to think or believe.
But I finally had the chance to look my
grandpa in the eye after all this time and
tell him, and everyone else, what he did
continued on page 3