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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1995)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, Oct. 25,1995 ihelNDEPENDENT Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice monthly on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 B rid g e S tre e t, V e rn on ia , OR 97064, as a free new spaper. E ditors and P ublishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen, (503) 429-9410. I W ish rue se/wrote y/ouLb Ltyt UKt (¡i Fo* M lIlU *** K/4/û °r The INDEPENDENT moves downtown Nearly a decade after starting publication, The IN DEPENDENT now has a location on Bridge Street. The new office is at 725 Bridge Street, between the Joy Theatre and C rabtree’s Pub-Deli. The phone number will remain the same, however: 503-429- 9410. There may be some glitches while becoming ac customed to the new phone/fax system, but they will be ironed out as soon as possible. Another change coming up is a change in the days of publication, from the second and fourth Wednes days of each month to the first and third Wednes days. That change will begin on December 6, the first Wednesday in December. Community needs school facilities plan Vernonia School District facilities are old, over crowded and in need of repairs. Their age is a factor not simply because of normal deterioration, but be cause the needs of educational facilities today are very different from the needs at the time these build ing were constructed, even the newest of them. By Dale Webb, member Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter Something sure is smelling rotten in our lo cal rivers lately and I like it! We have had a very good return of summer Chinook salmon this fall and they are a little ripe right now. The Nehalem Valley Chapter conducted surveys for the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODF&W), again this year, and all of our sur vey areas saw big increases of fish over last year. Our surveyors counted over 275 fish this year, compared to about 100 last year. Water new attitude toward these weary travelers; many people now defend these fish from un scrupulous behavior. I did catch one young man, while on my survey route, with a fishing pole in hand. Though he assured me that he was only after harvest trout, we both know that a steelhead pole with twenty-pound test line is just a little heavy for trout. I hope our lit tle dist iion helps change his mind about havi’ little Tun” with such a valuable re source. I want to thank local landowners for access When Vernonia High School was built in the early 50s, there was no reason to consider the kind of elec trical installations needed for a computer lab or satel lite television hookups. Today, it is educationally negli gent to ignore those needs. The biggest barrier to meeting the district’s needs is, of course, money. It’s a forgone conclusion that not all the needs will be met. The questions remain, how ever: What should be taken care of first; what are the priorities; what can safely be postponed? The long range facilities planning now underway is meant to point the district in the right direction. In or der to do that, the community must be involved— not just parents, either. Whether or not you have children in the schools, these plans will affect you. Why not put on your think ing cap and attend the next facilities meeting? it will be on November 8 at 7:00 p.m. The meeting room will be announced later. In the meanwhile, there is time to go to the district office and pick up the packet of information that has already been generated. Review the information and see what conclusions you reach. Then attend the next meeting and express your ideas about what needs to be done and how to do it. A vital part of long range planning is consideration of as many points of view as possible. Our children are the future and your participation is needed. A salmon prepares a nest for her roe. conditions were very favorable for the salmon this year and helped contribute to far-reaching distribution of the fish. This is where some of you readers can help: We know fish were spawning in Rock Creek all the way up to Cookie Polos* and as far as Ralph Bergerson's on the Nehalem Riv er, if you saw any of the big chinook spawning above these locations, give me a call at 429- 7193. Salmon put on quite a show as they complete their 90-mile-plus river journey home to spawn. My favorite viewing spot is at the lit tle falls at the mouth of Rock Creek where, when the fish are running strong, you can see up w a rds o f tw e n ty fish an hour passing through. We also are very pleased with the public's Photo by Dale Webb across their lands to conduct these surveys, plus a special thanks to those who helped conduct surve ys w h ile som e of us lucky hunters were off in eastern Oregon. These surveys are valued by ODF & W since they are the only surveys of the upper Nehalem River summer chinook. The N ehalem Valley C hapter received some good news in the form of a $1500 grant from the Restoration and Enhancement board for our stream-side tree planting project. These moneys will buy a new brush cutter and pay for trees for the next two years. Caven- ham Forest Products has graciously agreed to supply our Douglas fir trees for this year’s Please see page 3
