february6 2020
free
VERNONIA’S
volume14 issue3
reflecting the spirit of our community
Deep River Explores Logging, Fishing
in the Lower Columbia Region
City Council
Considers Parking Plan
Author Karl Marlantes
makes appearance in Astoria
The Vernonia City Council
held a Public Hearing on January 21
to hear a report from City staff and
public comment on a proposed revi-
sion to City Zoning Codes that ad-
dress downtown parking standards.
The revisions under consideration
were proposed by the Vernonia Plan-
ning Commission and would require
new businesses to waive current
parking requirements in the Down-
town Zone and instead pay an annual
Downtown Parking Fee.
City Planner Matt Straite
presented the staff report to the
Council and explained the need to re-
vise the current zoning codes. Straite
told the Council under current code,
when a property in the downtown
zone wants to change its use – as
an example from office space to a
restaurant – the new business is re-
quired to obtain a land use permit, go
through a design review, and address
any city code previsions. Buildings
that have sat vacant for more than
one year also require a design re-
view to obtain a new land use permit.
These parking requirements are only
for the Downtown Zone, specifically
for new commercial development or
properties undergoing a change of
use, and does not affect current busi-
nesses already operating or residen-
tial properties.
Straite noted that the City
has been discussing Downtown park-
ing since the mid 1990s, primarily
centered around a need for additional
parking during the peak summer
tourist season. In a recent review of
the current code, the Planning Com-
mission found that parking in down-
town Vernonia has been a challenge,
specifically for some of the older
structures that have no property be-
By Scott Laird
Washington author Karl Marlantes
made an appeared in Astoria on January 21
as part of the Columbia Forum speaker se-
ries, and discussed his recent novel Deep
River.
Deep River is a
family logging epic, set
in the early 1900s around
the mouth of the Colum-
bia River, and tracks the
lives of the Koski fam-
ily of siblings, along with
other Finnish immigrants
who work in the logging,
fishing, and canning in-
dustries in Astoria and
southwest Washington.
At over 700 pages long,
the story chronicles the
immigrant
experience
and their communities
in the Pacific Northwest,
life in gypo logging camps in Washington
between the Columbia River and Willapa
Bay, fishing on the Columbia River, the
quickly growing cannery business in Asto-
ria, bootlegging in the 1920s, and the start
of organized labor unions and the violence
it provoked, including the formation of the
Industrial Workers of the World, (IWW) –
also known as the Wobblies.
Marlantes grew up in Seaside,
where he worked in commercial fishing
with his grandfather. He graduated from
Yale University and was a Rhodes Scholar
at Oxford University before serving as a
Marine in Vietnam. In addition to Deep
River, Marlantes is the best-selling author
of the novel Matterhorn based on his expe-
riences in Vietnam, and What It Is Like to
Go to War, a non fiction book about sol-
diering and life after military service.
Marlantes spoke for about 45 min-
inside
3
our forests’ future
12
vhs winter
sports report
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valentine
classifieds
utes at the Liberty Theater before taking
questions from an interested audience of
about 200 people.
Marlantes, who comes from Finn-
ish ancestry, used his own personal stories
from his parents, grandparents, and other
relatives, as background material, along
with extensive research into the Nordic
immigrant populations
who chose to settle in
the Lower Columbia
region. He said his fa-
ther’s first language was
Greek, and his mother,
who was born in the
U.S., didn’t start speak-
ing English until she
started attending school
in the first grade – her
first language was Finn-
ish. “My mother’s fa-
ther spoke Norwegian,
my grandmother spoke
Finn, and divorced him
and married a Swede,
so I grew up hearing
five languages. But I can’t speak any of
them, although I can say ‘Pass the cook-
ies,’ in all of them! But my grandparents
wanted us to grow up and speak English.”
Marlantes said his Norwegian
grandmother was a communist and an
atheist, two themes that show up in Deep
River. “I remember her looking out the
window at the Columbia River and I asked
her if she thought there was any kind of de-
ity, and her answer was, ‘If there is, it’s the
river.’ She had a special relationship with
the river, and that was what I was thinking
about when I first envisioned the idea for
this book.”
Communism and workers organiz-
ing for better rights plays a central role in
the book, in fact famous IWW organizer
Joe Hill makes a brief appearance in Mar-
lantes’ story. “I remember when we would
continued on page 11
yond the structure footprint when the
only property owned by the applicant
is the structure; the current zoning
code requires the property owner to
provide off street parking for almost
all uses. The Planning Commission
also found that having to provide
parking is a disincentive to economic
development within the Downtown.
“If a business can’t provide the park-
ing required in our code, we can’t
make the findings to approve the de-
sign review and the use gets denied,”
explained Straite. “Without the park-
ing, there is no use. That’s why this
is so important.”
The City owns vacant prop-
erty from various FEMA flood buy-
outs from the 2007 flood which have
been acting as make-shift parking lots
since the structures were removed –
one lot is where the old West Oregon
Electric Cooperative headquarters
was located at the corner of Adams
Avenue and Maple Street (gravel),
and another is the paved lot across
the street. On FEMA buyout proper-
ties the buildings were demolished
and the property now has very strict
requirements from FEMA regarding
what can, and can’t be done to the
property. They must remain vacant.
They also are not permitted to have
any modification that effects the wa-
ter runoff.
Straite told the Council those
lots make ideal parking areas in
Downtown for business that cannot
provide their own parking. Straite
said the 2007 flood and the result-
ing buyout properties with FEMA
restrictions has changed the parking
discussion, and the desire to renovate
parking-less structures in Downtown
created a need for this proposed park-
ing revision. As an example, Straite
continued on page 8
Digital Newspaper Archive Project Accessible Online
Vernonia Library has
made some historic local
newspapers available
The Vernonia Public Library
has been working with the Oregon Dig-
ital Newspaper Project (ODNP) since
2017 to make historic and current Ver-
nonia newspapers available
online through their website
https://oregonnews.uoregon.
edu/.
Vernonia
Library
Director Shannon Romtvedt
decided contributing con-
tent to the Historic Oregon
Newspapers website, pow-
ered through the University of
Oregon Library, was the best
way to make Vernonia history
widely accessible and to pre-
serve a local history resource.
Current newspapers available
on the site include: The Inde-
pendent (2003-2012, some issues) and
Vernonia’s Voice (2007-present). She
said volunteers are in the process of
uploading The Vernonia Eagle (1939-
1956), and said she hopes to have sever-
al other newspapers that were featured
in the community for a shorter period of
time also on the site in the future.
Romtvedt says she is excited
to have these historic newspapers
available to the public in an easily
accessible, on-line and digital format.
“I
found through processing the
newspapers for uploading just how
interesting our history is. I really hope
people will just read Vernonia history
for fun, or research families,
or old businesses, or local
groups that might spark their
interest. It was just fascinating
going through the old papers
and seeing the progression
of the community, the boom
and bust, the rise and fall of
the economy, and the social
issues. I think it will be a great
tool for students to research
things they are studying in
school, and get a chance to
look more locally and see
how world events impacted
continued on page 6