Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1990)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, Feb n. 22, 1990 INDEPENDENT Serving the upper Nehalem River valley Published monthly on the las, Thursday o, each month by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd 1206 State Avenue Vernonia OR 97064 as a tree newspaper All material protected under U S Copyright laws I ditors and Publishers Dirk and Noni Andersen (503)429 9410 O p in io n P o sitive leadership honors volunteer work We are fortunate to have concerned and well- trained emergency crews throughout the upper Nehalem valley People who have been assisted by these crews for any reason - fire, accident or medical emergency - speak gratefully not only of their skills, but also of their compassion. Those of us who have watched them at work are impressed by their profes sionalism and have to remind ourselves that these are volunteers, not paid personnel. Our comments apply equally to both the Vernonia and Mist-Birkenfeld emergency crews There is a problem though. While the crews work very well together, some on the leadership level in each district spend a lot of time complaining about the actions or motives of the other district In a perceived need to protect their turt, they tend to lose sight of their only purpose To provide emer gency services to the people of the community The backbiting and sniping by these few is at best dis tracting, at worst destructive Total cooperation between the two districts will serve the community - and the taxpayers - far better than animosity The volunteers in both districts are hard working and dedicated Their efforts would be best recog nized by the same positive, upbeat attitudes on the part of their leaders Bond paper recyclable, can we start program? Press releases by the dozens come to The INDE PENDENT, as they do to all newspapers We use only those that have local application, a very small percentage of the total, the rest we throw away That paper, combined with the reams of bond paper we use for other purposes is recyclable, yet we don't recycle it because it's not enough for a special trip to a recycling center that will take it. There are others here who also use a lot of bond paper - City Hall, the schools. WOEC, the banks, etc - and most of that paper ends up in the landfill. Is there anyone who will develop a recycling pro gram for this sort of paper, as volunteers here have done with plastics9 It may not seem important, but if it saves our landfill space, it will also save our money Transporting trash is both expensive and wasteful By Nancy B urch V e rn o n ia C ity L ib ra ria n Upon comparing the best seller list in the Sunday Oregonian to our collection in the library. I find tha, we have fourteen of the twenty fiction selections (some in paper back. some hard cover). Check ou, our local library firs, before searching else where for that desired reading material. Some books that we have in addition to previously m entioned best sellers, are "Black Sand" by William Cauditz, "Billy Bathgate" by E L. Doctorow. "The Drawing of the Three" by Stephen King, and "Web of Dreams" by V.C. Andrews. The newest novel of suspense by Dean Koontz, “The Bad Place," is a recent acqui sition tha, has all the elements of good versus evil. A husband and wife detective team is hired by Frank Pollard to watch over him, to discover where he goes and wha, he does when he falls asleep As they attem pt to find the answ ers to such puzzlem ents as F ra n k s physical dis appearance and reappearance with blood covered hands, bags of money, and some strange frightening objects, their lives also become threatened by the ominous figure that is stalking Frank. This eerie tale will grip the reader and keep him guessing until the very end. We have recently received some very welcome donations. The firs, was two big boxes of books from Rian Ragsdale. These children’s books are being read and enjoyed by young readers as fas, as we can get them processed and on the shelves We all wan, Rian to know how much we appreciate his having given these books to the library for other children to enjoy as he did. The second donation came from The Vernonia Study C lub in m em ory of M athilde Bergerson and is a beautiful addition ,o the library. Entitled, "Western Images", it is a lovely collection of photographs of the western states by Ray Atkeson. We, the friends and co workers of Ora Bolmeier, would like to extend an open invitation to all to attend an inform al gathering in honor of her retirement. This will be Tuesday, February 27, from 2-4 p.m. in the library. Come and have some refreshments, visit and help us show our appreciation to this lady who has con tributed so much to the community. Library Hours: Monday and Friday 1-5 p ni Wednesday, 9 a m 5 p m . and Saturday. 10 a m -2 p m Preschool Story Time is every Wednesday from 10 30-11 a m to th e E d ito r The town’s a mess To the Editor: I am writing this letter to the children, residents and business people of Vernonia As a resident o, Vernonia for frtty years. I have become very concerned with all the lit ter and general unkempt ap pearance o, our community This las, summer I traveled over 10.000 miles and never did I see a town with as much litter in their business district as Vernonia I, you have walked through town you will see there is paper and debris from one end to the other I, students would either leave their papers a, school or make sure they get home, instead of somewhere along the way it those of you who purchase snacks and fas, foods would take your con tamers home or place them in the trash facilities up town in stead of tossing them on the street if residents would take a few mmutes each week or two to pick up their yards, wha, a difference this could make I also feel tha, all business people should be responsible for keeping the sidewalk in front of their business swep, and picked up In most cases this could be accomplished in ten minutes once a week I don', teel that this is too much to ask I, we would educate our children a, home and at school, they might some day turn into responsible adults, and the problem of littering could be much improved The State spends th o u sands of dollars each year to hire people to clean up our roadways I tind this a waste of money already debris is apparent over top hill which was picked up over Chris, mas I feel this money could be better spent on education We should no, have to hire people to pick up after others We need to learn to be re sponsible for ourselves and our actons Vernonia has a Io, going for i, a lake, a river running through our downtown, and several noe parks The trees and flowers along our main street have been a real asset, and several new businesses are real eye catchers for peo ple traveling through So I ask all of you to take some pride in your communi ty and make it the pretty little town it could be Our high schoo l has a m otto "V ernonia High School A School to be Proud 0 , " I wish I could say the same about our town As it is, I say "Vernonia, a Town to be Ashamed Of “ DeLorls Webb Vernonia A costly witch hunt To the Editor: Two Vernonia High School graduates wrote (Letters January INDEPENDENT) about how uninformed they feel I am regarding the drug problem a, VHS and how un fair I am for criticizing the written statements o, VHS teacher Ward Nelson I re ceived a similar letter per sonally, from another VHS teacher Except for minor details all three letters are so similar tha, they could have been written by one person Jill Budge. Craig Dailey and th e ir form er teacher agree with Mr Nelson's pes simistic assessment of edu cation and the "need" for mandatory, random drug test ing for extracurricular student More Letters on Page 15
