november16 2017
www.vernoniasvoice.com
IT’S TIME FOR TOY AND JOY!
Ambulance and Fire Volunteers
Help Local Families for Christmas
The Vernonia Ambulance Volunteer Association and
the Vernonia Fire Volunteers are pleased to announce the start
of their annual Toy and Joy campaign to assist local families
with toys for children this Christmas.
Bailey Wegner, an EMT with Metro West Ambulance
and a member of the Ambulance Association, will head up
this year’s campaign.
Each year Toy and
Joy collects dona-
tions of new and un-
wrapped toys, books,
and gifts for children
and then distributes
them to families that
sign up to receive the
assistance.
This is Wegner’s
first year running the
campaign. “For the
last two years that
I’ve been a volunteer
here in Vernonia I
helped with it,” says
Wegner. “I helped with the delivery the first year and last
year I helped with the wrapping and the application process.
This year they handed it all to me.”
Wegner says applications should be available begin-
ning Friday, November 24. Applications can then be submit-
ted by email to VernoniaToyandJoy@gmail.com or dropped
in Santa’s mailbox which will be set up in the front of the
Vernonia Fire Station at 555 E. Bridge Street. Deadline for
application to be turned in is Tuesday, December 12. Appli-
cations will be accepted for children age infant to 14. There
is also a Facebook page (Vernonia Toy And-Joy) for more
information.
A wrapping party is scheduled for Saturday, Decem-
ber 16 starting around 8:00 am at the Fire Station. Any in-
terested volunteers are encouraged to stop by and help out.
Delivery of the gifts is scheduled for Sunday, December 17.
“Since Christmas is the following week, we want to make
sure our volunteers still have time for Christmas with their
families, and getting the toys to the families in a timely man-
ner,” says Wegner.
Toy bins will be placed around town for donations
in the usual locations, including the Bridge Street Mini Mart,
Black Iron Grill, R&S Market, Wauna
Credit Union, and at the Fire Station.
free
VERNONIA’S
volume11 issue22
reflecting the spirit of our community
Campground and Trails
Closed at Stub Stewart State Park
Four-month forest thinning
project started November 1
Portions of Stub Stewart State Park
will be closed through late winter for a for-
est thinning project designed to improve for-
est health at the park, according to the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD). A
five-mile portion of the Banks-Vernonia State
Trail will also be closed the month of January.
OPRD will thin 550 acres - about a
third of the park - where Douglas firs are grow-
ing so densely that they could become hazard-
ous to visitors, buildings, and property. OPRD
hired Nevada-based Whisper Jet Helicopters
to log by helicopter 25 to 40 percent of the
trees in the project area. The company will use
local subcontractors for the operation.
“Our goal is to continue improving
this relatively new park with minimal disrup-
tion on the ground,” said Dan Quigley, Stub
Stewart park manager. “A natural landscape
can support a wide range of recreation, some-
thing the people of Washington and Columbia
counties and the whole region can enjoy.”
The areas selected for thinning con-
tain 15- to 35-year-old Douglas firs that were
initially planted very close together. Today’s best
practice would be to thin stands much earlier in
their lifecycle. That never happened, leaving the
existing trees susceptible to storm damage and in-
sect and disease infestation, which puts them at a
greater risk of falling on property or people.
These stands average 450 trees per acre -
three times the ideal density of 150 trees per acre.
The helicopters are equipped with technology that
allows the pilot to select, cut and extract one tree at
a time from above. The contractor will send larger
logs to a local mill to be turned into lumber; the rest
will be chipped for landscaping mulch or turned
into biomass material.
Because forest projects in state parks are
driven by forest health, rather than revenue, this
project is expected to break even at best. The $1.2
million in expected gross revenue will be used to
create minimal roads and helicopter landing areas,
and fund the materials and labor needed to harvest
by helicopter.
“Helicopter logging is ideal for this park,”
said Nick Morris, forester with OPRD. “Extracting
trees from above cause’s minimal on-the-ground
damage compared to traditional logging methods.”
Geoff Hall, CEO of Whisper Jet Helicop-
ters, who developed specialized equipment for
large scale thinning projects, hopes to expand the
company’s niche from removing trees near power-
lines to thinning dense swaths of public land.
“We see a huge need for thinning crowded
forests, both for disease and fire prevention,” said
Hall, a pilot with 12 years of helicopter logging ex-
perience. “Helicopter logging is the most effective
and nonintrusive method to restore the health of our
forests. We’re looking forward to getting our start
at Stub Stewart.”
Areas selected for thinning are located
continued on page 14
Council Approves Smoking Regulations in Parks
inside
7
the good ol’ days
11
vhs winter
sports schedules
19
spirit of christmas
schedule
The Vernonia City Council
voted at their November 6, 2017 meet-
ing to adopt Ordinance 914, which
regulates smoking in the City Parks
system.
The ordinance does not ban
smoking in the parks system, but in-
stead establishes designated smoking
areas in Hawkins and Spencer Parks;
creates smoke free areas at Anderson,
Airport, and Vernonia Lake Parks
which prohibits smoking within 50 feet
of any playground equipment, sports
fields, public restrooms, or food prepa-
ration areas; and does ban smoking in
Ora Bolmeier and Shay Parks.
The ordinance states that by
regulating smoking and the use of in-
halant delivery devices the City “...
creates a safe and healthy environment
for Vernonia residents, visitors, youth,
and children,” and protects residents
and visitors from secondhand smoke,
reduces the exposure of children and
youth to smoking and tobacco use and
discourages them from starting a harm-
ful habit that is difficult to quit, protects
natural areas from litter and potential
risks from fire, and does not alienate
citizens who smoke from accessing city
parks.
The adoption of Ordinance
914 ends a long and drawn out pro-
cess for the Vernonia City Council
that began in July of 2015 following
a presentation on Tobacco Free Parks
to the City Council by Ashley Baggett,
the Coordinator of Tobacco Preven-
tion with The Public Health Founda-
tion of Columbia County. Following
that presentation the Council referred
the issue to the Vernonia Parks Com-
mittee who returned to Council with a
recommended ordinance to ban smok-
ing in all park properties. Council re-
viewed a draft of the ordinance at their
August 3, 2015 meeting and suggested
some slight modifications. The Coun-
cil scheduled and held a Public Hearing
on August 17, 2015, at which three citi-
zens spoke in favor of banning smok-
ing in parks and two spoke against
it. When Council voted on the Ordi-
nance later that same meeting the or-
dinance failed to pass, with Councilors
Bruce McNair and Mike Seager voting
against it, and Councilors Jill Hult and
Kim Tierney voting to approve it, al-
though Councilor Hult did say she was
concerned about eroding personal free-
doms. Mayor Randy Parrow was not in
attendance at the meeting and Council-
or Tierney requested the Ordinance be
brought back for another vote when all
members were present. At the Septem-
ber 8 meeting Mayor Parrow stated that
he was not in favor of banning smok-
ing in all Parks and the Ordinance died
when no Council member made a mo-
tion to approve it.
In March of 2016 students
continued on page 5