march21 2019
free
VERNONIA’S
volume13 issue6
reflecting the spirit of our community
UNWC Recaps Productive Year Vernonia SK8 Awarded
Upper Nehalem Watershed
Council completes numerous
restoration projects in 2018
The Upper Nehalem Watershed
Council (UNWC) has been an instru-
mental piece in the regional efforts to
protect the health of the Nehalem River
watershed.
The Nehalem watershed, from
its headwaters on the east side of the
Oregon Coast Range, through Vernonia,
and all the way to the Pacific Ocean,
has been seen as a high priority river
basin for restoring habitat as part of the
effort to protect and re-establish coho
salmon in their native streams in the Pa-
cific Northwest. The UNWC has been
instrumental in developing and manag-
ing projects as part of those recovery
efforts, including the replacement of
culverts that act as barriers to migrating
fish, working with private landowners
to plant trees and restore natural set-
tings along stream banks, and placing
large trees, with rootwads attached,
in streams to create natural habitat for
coho and other native species.
Vernonia’s Voice recently sat
down with UNWC Executive Direc-
tor Maggie Peyton to review the work
of the UNWC, now in its 22 nd year of
inside
9
lost knife returned
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loggerbots
compete
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vhs hall of fame
announcement
operation. Peyton discussed projects
that have been completed during the
last year, talked about current issues and
ongoing concerns about the health and
water quality in the region, and looked
ahead to this upcoming summer season
and the Council’s plans.
“The habitat in the Nehalem
watershed has not been totally degraded
and is seen as having a lot of potential,”
says Peyton. “We’re getting to the point
where we’re starting to connect some of
the dots. We’ve been doing projects all
around the region for twenty plus years,
but now we’re able to do some sub-ba-
sin treatments that address multiple fac-
tors in an area with road crossings and
enhanced habitat.”
According to Peyton, 2018 was
continued on page 10
$25K Tony Hawk Grant
Vernonia SK8, a 501(c)(3)
grassroots organization which has been
working hard to get a professional style
skate park built in Vernonia, announced
they have been awarded a $25,000 grant
from the Tony Hawk Foundation, and
are one big step closer to making their
dream a reality.
ging, Inc. of Vernonia, and many other
sizable donations from local Vernonians.
Vernonia SK8 has held six different fun-
draising events, and continues to receive
donations from businesses throughout
the community, along with donations
from big businesses like Intel and Auto
Warehousing Company. Local Verno-
Vernonia SK8 started this proj-
ect back in July 2017, spearheaded by
Wendy Sears, J.D. Vorheis, and Jer-
emy Simmons. The goal was to raise
$60,000 as a match towards the Tony
Hawk grant.
“The Tony Hawk Foundation
were the first people we contacted back
in 2017,” said Simmons in making the
grant announcement. “I was first intro-
duced to Alec Beck, project manager of
the Hawk Foundation and he’s helped
us since the beginning of this project.
They’ve given us the knowledge of what
we needed to do for this project.”
Over the course of about a year
and a half Vernonia SK8 has raised
$42,000 in cash, including a big cash
donation of $10,000 from Holce Log-
nian Javoss McGuire has committed to
donating his time and heavy equipment
for excavation on the project.
The group is now in the process
of applying for a Local Government
Grant from Oregon Parks and Recre-
ation Department, in collaboration with
the City of Vernonia. The group contin-
ues to work with two skate park design-
ers, Evergreen Skate Designs and Aaron
Spohn of Spohn Ranch Designs.
The group says they will con-
tinue to fundraise so they can build the
best skate park possible for the Vernonia
community.
If you’d like to donate contact them
at Vernoniask8.com or vernoniask8@
gmail.com.
VHS Spring Sports Preview
By Scott Laird
Track and Field – The Vernonia boys
team are the defending district champi-
ons and have many returning athletes
from that team.
Head coach John
Roady thinks the boys, with 19 com-
petitors on the squad, will be in conten-
tion again this year for the district title,
along with Portland Christian, Colum-
bia Christian, and Neah-Kah-Nie. Sev-
eral newcomers look like they will be
important contributors to the squad.
The girls squad looks like
they have a diverse and talented team
that Roady says has the ability to com-
pete for the District title. Roady’s 16
girls look especially strong in the field
events and in distance running events.
Early in the season coach
Roady, along with assistant coach
George Spaulding, have been work-
ing on conditioning and helping their
athletes find their best events. Roady
says Vernonia’s new facility, completed
last fall on the school campus, is a great
improvement for his teams, providing
locker rooms nearby, a real track sur-
face to practice running events, and
regulation field event facilities for prac-
tice. For the first time in decades Ver-
nonia will host their own meet at their
own facility on Thursday, May 2.
The boys will have senior
Jake Handegard leading the way
in the distance events after fin-
ishing 4 th in the 800 meters in the
district last year. Handegard will
run either the 800, 1,500, or even
the 3,000. Also running distance
events will be sophomore Wyatt
Jones and possibly exchange stu-
dent Abraham Kpirikai.
In the sprints, junior Josh
Rice is the top returning sprinter
in a group that includes sopho-
more Pete Crystal and junior Eli-
jah Thompson in the 100 and 200.
In the 400 senior Abram Martin, a
first time track athlete, has looked
very strong early, along with
Isabelle Coleman practicing the long jump
Kpirkai, and Jacob Pasko.
with track coach John Roady.
The boys should have
dent Radek Zikmund, who has shown
a competitive 4x400 relay this year
some great natural ability in several
that looks to include Handegard, ju-
events. Martin is trying out the triple
nior Kale Sullivan, Martin, Pasko, and
jump, along with Nick Costley.
Kpirikai.
In the throwing events, Sul-
Crystal, a very versatile ath-
livan is tops in the javelin but is be-
lete, is the defending district champion
ing pushed by Zikmund. Newcomer
in the pole vault after just picking it up
Dustin Carreon, who Roady says is a
at the end of last season. Crystal will
big and strong athlete who really loves
also be part of a strong group of high
the weight room, has looked raw but
jumpers, that includes Handegard and
shows a lot of potential in the shot put
Martin.
and the discuss.
Sullivan will lead the long
Roady says the boys team is
jump group, along with exchange stu-
continued on page 12