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The INDEPENDENT, A p ril 25, 1990
™. INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley Published
monthly on the last Thursday of each month, by Public
Opinion Laboratory Ltd 1206 State Avenue. Vernonia,
OR 97064, as a free newspaper All material protected
under U S Copyright laws Editors and Publishers, Dirk
and Norn Andersen, (503) 429 9410
O p in io n
No good taxes, but try
to get something useful
Three measures on the May ballot deal with
money issues that directly affect this area - a tax base
for the new emergency communications district, and
increased tax bases for both the Vernonia School
District and the Columbia Education Service District
Ideally, they could all be approved by the voters,
but this isn't an ideal world and too many taxpayers’
pockets aren’t deep enough to handle additional
property taxes
District 4 /J has done some good budgeting, but
has also allocated an unseemly amount for extracur
ricular sports - not physical education, but extracur
ricular sports - the PE budget is elsewhere
An increase of $22,887 takes the high school
extracurricular sports budget to $92,687 . for fewer
than 200 students That doesn’t include $5,000 for
drug testing, that's budgeted in non-athletic student
activities
Non-athletic activities were reduced by $1.776 (but
who needs things like music, drama and art?), and
when the drug testing $5,000 is subtracted, there is
only $10,248 for non-athletic extracurricular activity
$2,000 was deleted from tuition money for Portland
Community College's vocational education and
advanced courses; the library budget was reduced by
$1,800 The budget for legal costs was doubled to
$15,000 for a possible lawsuit over drug testing
On the elementary level there is a total of $28,620
for extracurricular student activities $25,770 of that
amount is for sports and $2,500 for drug testing, leav
ing a total of $350 for participation in spelling bees,
science fairs and other ridiculous activities.
Anyone concerned about property taxes would be
well advised to approve the communications district
tax base That will eliminate a $40-50,000 a year
burden to the City of Vernonia
and we're more like
ly to need an emergency medical technician than a
defensive lineman.
Publication day changed
Starting with today's edition, The INDEPENDENT
will go to Wednesday delivery instead of Thursday
All local outlets will now receive the paper in the
afternoon on the last Wednesday of each month
Local mail customers will still get the newspaper
delivered on Thursdays
e tw e e n th e :
By Nancy Burch
City Librarian
If you’re anxious to read a best seller but
haven't the money or the storage space for
books, come in and see if our library has
what you're looking for.
We have the
newest novels by Janet Dailey, Rosamunde
Pilcher, Phyllis W hitney, Robert Ludlum,
Arthur Hailey, M K Wren, Robin Cook,
Judith Michael and LaVyrle Spencer. At
least one of these authors must have
written som ething that you've enjoyed
enough to want to read another by
h im /h e r.
Phyllis Whitney has been a favorite of
mine for years with her tales of romance
and suspense and her latest novel, "The
Singing Stones," combines these elements
while challenging our views of life and
death, destiny and love. When Lynn Mc
Leod, a clinical psychologist, is asked to
try and help the troubled child of her
former husband, she accepts, with m is
givings, and is drawn into old passions and
new m ysteries.
If you enjoy Phyllis
Whitney, put this on your list of books to
read.
An author I have recently discovered and
enjoyed is LaV yrle S p encer. "B itte r
S w eet,’ her latest tale of love and
postponed passion...of a forbidden reunion,
with choices both bitter and sweet...has
returned Ms. Spencer to the bestseller
list.
We also have two of her former
books, "Vows" and "M orning G lory," in
paperback. "Morning Glory" was my first
encounter with Spencer's works and after
reading it, I added her to my list of
favorite authors.
This is the story of a
love strong enough to endure the traumas
of a war and true enough to survive a
terrible crime
It is one of those stories
that makes you cry even while you're
enjoying every minute of it.
There is never enough space to elaborate
on more than a few books, and the ones
that I choose to write about may not be
your choice, so come in and look around.
You'll find som ething that suits your
reading taste.
L l b ra ry Hours: Monday and Friday 1-5 p m ,
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
L e tte rs to th e E d ito r
911 funding needed
To the Editor:
Funding for the Columbia
County Emergency Commu
nications Distnct is one of the
larges, problems tha, the Ver
noma City Council and I have
had to face
Last year C-Com charged
the City $44,000 for 911 ser
vices If the tax base election
fails, the new Com m unica
tions District may charge the
City as much as $50,000
Last year, to form the 1989
budget without asking tor a
levy, we had to strip every
spare dollar from the equip
ment budgets in the general
fund
There is no spare
money left this year in any of
the Police, Fire or Ambulance
budgets to help pay for the in
creasing costs of providing
911 services
If the tax base for the
Communications District does
not pass, the budge, for the
General Fund will face some
very hard times The Council
would have to consider ask
ing for a levy or laying off
some of our employees from
the Police or Fire D epart
ments.
I feel that voting for the tax
base is going to provide
some stability for the City's
future budget as well as pro-
vide an excellent 911 service
tor the county
Thank you for your time
Scott Sword, Mayor
City of Vernonia
Fireworks on 4th?
To Venonla Citizens:
Will there be a fireworks
display this July 4th?
The C ham ber of C o m
merce is no, going to sponsor
the fireworks display this year
unless there is money to pre
pay the fireworks
The reason is very simple
- lack of funds In the past,
the Chamber has had donat
ed firewood to sell, which,
with individual business do
nations and collections after
the show, paid for the display
and provided enough money
to assure the following year's
display
Last year firewood was not
easily obtained or delivered,
and for the second consecu
tive year, many of the dona
tion cans were stolen. As a
result, there is a balance of
$9 toward the $2,000 needed
for the display
l personally asked another
organization if it was willing
fo sponsor this function and
was turned down
My question to you as citi
zens is, do you want a fire-
works display, and are you
willing ,o pay for it? If the an
swer is "yes," stop by either
U S Bank or Farmers 8 Mer
chants Bank to make a con
tribution, or mail your check
to the chamber a, PO Box 7.
Vernonia, OR 97064
Will we have a fireworks
display in July? The answer
is up to you
Fred Klinger, President
Vernonia Area Chamber
of Commerce
911 affects ail
To the Editor:
I am writing in regard to a
subiec, tha, affects all Col
um bia C ounty re side nts
W iergency communications
The Inter-G overnm ental
C ouncil and M anagem ent
Team in November, 1989,
asked voters to change the
way 9-1-1 (C-CO M ) was
managed You, the voter, re
sponded and formed a com
munication special district
The next big step is to
obtain stable funding for
C olum bia C o unty's 9-1-1
center.
The former management
team recommended that the
new District Directors ask
voters for a tax base which is
projected to last for five years
More letters on page 21