Rampaging auto invades house
DO DROP IN — The impact created by
Joe Banzer’s car as it crashed into this
Joe Banzer, 20, drove his Mazda RX7
into a house on First and Bridge Streets
early New Year’s day. Banzer’s car
sustained minimal damage, according to
the police report. The house which was up
on blocks and beams undergoing repair,
was pushed down the hill behind it at
least 20 feet and split in half. “It’s the
damndest thing I ever saw,” one observer
commented.
Apparently, Banzer, a local resident,
was driving up First Street on a foggy
night after celebrating the new year. He
crossed Bridge Street and smashed
directly into the old house, knocking it off
house moved the structure 20 feet and
split the building in two. FREE DOM FOTO its blocks and down the hill, where it split
due to impact.
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The Nation's Health
See pa9e 7
V ernonia ^
25 t
According to the Vernonia police
department, Banzer, son of former county
commissioner Joe Banzer, came in the
next day and reported the accident. The
Vol. 3 No. 9
Thursday t January 8,1981
Serving the Nehalem Valley
F reedom
department commented that there had
been an unsuccessful attempt to remove
the car.
The house belongs to Cecil Huff and is
one of the original mill houses built here.
Huff, stated that he wasn’t surprised,
considering the circumstances, although
it was an unusual event. “It was an awful
foggy night,” he said. “And New Years
on top of that. Add a little whiskey and
anything can happen,” he added.
Huff isn’t sure what he will do next. “It
looks like a piece of junk, now,” he said.
“I haven’t had time to really look it over.
I think I’ll salvage the house and build a
new one.”
Because Banzer reported the accident
himself, there will be no criminal charges
against him. Cecil Huff is expecting
Banzer to help pay for the damages. “The
boy has insurance,” he said. “Someone’s
going to help pay for it,” he added.
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DEQ bows to protest, lifts permanent backyard burning ban
The Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) has imposed a permanent
ban on backyard burning effective Dec.
31, 1980. The ban was also placed on
Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington
counties. The four counties are part of the
Metropolitan Service District (MSD), an
area that has experienced air pollution
problems, particulary in the tri-county
area surrounding Portland.
The ban was suggested by a citizen’s
committee studying the air pollution
problem, according to Tom Bispham, of
the Northwest Regional branch of DEQ.
“The first problem the committee looked
at was backyard burning,” he said. “The
DEQ commission imposed a backyard
burning restriction in June of 1979, then
granted an extension to Dec. 31.,” he
New city council
holds first meeting
The first meeting of the newly elected
city council saw Mayor Henry Anderegg,
council president Marge Dunay, and
members Mike Fetherston and Wally
Vaughn assuming their seats on the
council with veteran member Ron Adams.
Adams promptly resigned, on the
grounds that he had moved from town,
and felt that he was no longer legitimately
a citizen of Vernonia. “It isn’t right for
me to be here anymore,” he said.
Sally Harrison, an employee at the
Washington Grade School cafeteria, was
appointed to fill Adams’place.
Mayor Anderegg appointed and
confirmed chair and committee heads,
committee members, department heads,
and city employees, with a stem warning
to the latter group that they would be in
“strict contact” with the employees, to be
sure they were “not wasting the
taxpayers’ money,” he said.
A proposal was made by the police
department for walkie-talkie radios. In
case of emergency, officers have no
contact with central dispatch when away
from their patrol cars. The department
has asked for two walkie-talkies and a
base station. To facilitate acquisition and
payment for the radios, the officers and
continued on page 2
continued. “The purpose was to set
boundaries for the ban, because there
isn’t a problem in some areas, especially
Columbia County,” he added.
In a hearing held Dec. 15, the decision
to impose the backyard burning ban was
made. Bispham felt that the commission
In a conference call to county fire
districts and between commissioners on
Jan. 2, the commission granted a 180 day
extension in Columbia County for
backyard burning. During that six month
period Bispham and his staff plan to work
to find alternatives to the burning ban
Response to thé ban in the county has
been quick. A spokesperson for the
Vernonia Fire Department said that the
county fire departments were hoping to
gain an extension immediately, then get
the ban removed permanently. Cindy
Deakin, Vernonia resident, expressed a
did not have enough information,
and establish newbpundaries for., the
great deal of concern over the matter,
question of boundaries was overlooked in
the hearing. We didn’t have our study
concerning the areas completed and the
commission didn’t get to it. We tried to
bring it up at the hearing, but things just
didn’t mesh,” he said. “It was an
oversight, ’ ’ he added.
imposition of the ban. “There isn’t a
problem with burning or pollution in
Columbia County,” he said. “The ban was
not meant for Columbia County. It was
aimed mainly at the Portland
metropolitan area where an air pollution
problem does exist,” he added.
saying, “I don’t know what we’ll do if we
can’t burn.”
A member of the DEQ Northwest
Region staff commented, “If you could
hear all the people screaming and yelling
in my ear, ‘Why can’t we bum?’ you’d
know why they lifted the ban. ”
Chimney fire brings New Year in warmly
A build-up of creosote and soot caused a
chimney fire in the home of Don and
Barbara Bergerson of Timber route on
Jan. 2.
According to a fire department
spokesperson, the build-up created a plug
in the lower part of the chimney.
He also pointed out that the age of the
chimney had contributed to the problem.
“We’ll just put it out,” he said. “We can’t
clean it, it’s too rickety. The best we can
do is advise them to get their chimney
cleaned out and rebuilt,” he added.
The Bergersons have resided in their
home for 24 years. Don Bergerson was
bom there, making the house, in
Barbara’s estimation, at least 48 years
old. “I knew not to put water on it,” she
said. “That would crack the bricks. The
chimney’s not sturdy, anyway,” she
added.
Bergerson was alerted to the fire by the
firefighters Greg Port and Don Skinner
hose down the inside of the Bergerson’s
Regular chimney cleaning can help avoid
danger from winter fires.
FREEDOM FOTO
smell of smoke. “I kept smelling smoke
and I said to my son, Ted, “do you smell
something?” I went around and checked
on things,” she continued. “Ted went
upstairs to his room and said, “you’d
better come up here.” I went upstairs and
saw smoke pouring through the cracks in
the chimney,” she said.
“I know what you take first,” said
Bergerson, recalling her reaction to the
fire. “I grabbed my kids’ pictures. I made
three calls, the fire department, then my
husband, who was in Mist, then my
neighbor. After that I got out of there,”
she said. “My first thought was that I
was going to lose my house. ’ ’
Eric Olson, volunteer fire fighter,
commented, “We have a lot more trouble
with chimney fires than we should have.
People’s chimneys get old and this
happens,” he said. “The problem is,
people can’t afford to have their chimneys
fixed. Even so, they should keep them
clean,” he continued. “You can run a stiff
chimney brush up and down, or I know of
some who take a burlap bag and fill it, tie
a rope to it and run that up and down the
chimney,” he added. “Anything is better
than nothing,” he said.
The fire department warns that keeping
chimneys clean is a must. Further, the
department cautions against burning
green wood, which causes heat loss and
accelerated build-up on chimneys.
“Woodstoves are the greatest thing
around for heat,” said Olson. “They can
also be very dangerous if they’re not
taken care of,” he added.