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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