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The INDEPENDENT, June 5,1996
»INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published
twice monthly on the first and third Wednesdays of each
month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge
Street, Vernonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper.
Editors and Publishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen, (503)
429-9410.
Who is serving whom?
Members of West Oregon Electric Cooperative
understandably resent being treated as faceless,
nameless “consumers”, because they know they are
member/owners of the utility. Even the letterhead sta
tionery of WOEC emphasizes that fact with the slogan
“Owned by the members we serve’ .
Given that situation, the board of directors is to be
commended for making tentative efforts to do what the
slogan says. It is helpful to courteously provide infor
mation requested by members, without having to be
reminded that WOEC is neither a private utility nor a
little fiefdom. Autocratic behavior has no place in a
cooperative endeavor of any sort.
A similar situation exists in the administration of the
Vernonia School District. Here is an important endeav
or that is paid for by the people who use it. but who are
seldom consulted about operations. A case in point is
a letter n this issue of The INDEPENDENT that ques
tions why the district office was the first p!ace repaired
after the flood. Why wasn't priority given to
teaching'earning space, instead? The question is
valid and a response should be forthcoming. It s time,
too. for the school administration to stop acting as
though its a terrible chore to provide meet-ng agen
das. meeting minutes, or other information requested
by residents of the district.
Here, as in the case of West Oregon, people of the
district are not consumers, they are. in fact, called
"patrons’ by the d,strict and. as patrons, they provide
most of the income that Is used to operate the district.
The board of directors here. too. is working to tum
things around. That’s good, but here is one sugges
tion: Involve more of the community when you are
considering important administrative procedures, h r-
tng a orincioal. changing a policy or whatever.
Remember, cooperation goes two ways: to get it.
you have to give it.
Minority rule is great, but
only for the minority
Shoud every- acult citizen of the Unted States be
a «cwec to vote?
The va tofty of this hasn’t been questioned snce
— norites and women won the nght to vote
some
qjesdons a e now beng raised about ba »ots cast r a
ma etocton, by beopie who can neither make t to the
polls nor request an absentee ba tot when the election
conducted by m a t
question that cones to
m nd is. Who is actus y casting a those ~ a - r Pa
c t s ’’
Wflh a record tow turnout for Oregon r the May pri-
~ary—*ust over 37 percent of registered voters Poth
ered to cast a bafot—non-voters obvousy have
deeded that minority rule s ust xne with them And
the ~ norip who vote ce ria n y ha ye no reason to
ob«eet tc me power awarded them by default
Instead of oorrvertng a eechons tc ~ a - r Paftot-
n c ft may be wiser tc reoure that a A re -c a n s of vot
ing age pass a test of T n r u r competency. Tne
nfoi— a to r i— «grants have tc earn r ome’ to
become U S citizens m ight be a pooc place tc start
I W e
!
thought
we weae
in
GOOD H A N D S
Sy Da e H are ~ie~£>er
zaa\ IVafo- ieegue Ateha/em Valley Chapter
By the time you read this article, the second
weekend of stream trout season will have
passed I talked to some of the people that
toed the Nehalem River and Rock Creek dur
ing the last two weeks and the news sounds
pretty good. One friends stated “It was the
best fishing in recent years’ Their boat caught
around 80 fish in a six mile drift. Another re
port. from two fishermen drifting down Rock
Creek, was of about 50 fish apiece, one a 16
inch cutthroat and an unconfirmed report of a
steelhead: boy. I bet that was a tussle on light
trout rigging. Of course there was a lot of
catch and re ease fishing going on since the
trout - mrt is 5 fish. Everybody was claiming to
have caught nice see fish.too, ranging from 10
to 16 inches.
Water cordftions were the best in the last
decade The Nehalem looked like it might be
too high and muddy for the opener but cleared
.»us: in time, thanks to a let-up in the relentless
so-ng rams we have been experiencing. The
rivers were a little high and many boaters re
ported having a hard time troBmg large spin-
ners with a worm trailer and that they flew
through the holes too fast to cover them ade
quate^ Some of the better fishing was done
from noats that anchored and fished the side
wate-s w£h sm aler sptnner and worm combi
nations A gar anchonng to some of the better
holes was hard to do because of the strong
currents
-s h n g s h o jd continue to be good until the
nvws drop n e o * Poacmg levels After that it
w il be a che st wader show and should be
good fishng until the rvere warm up and the
fish - w e o u of the m a r “»»ere
Anglers oeec v use caution when planning
a drift tnp especial»» ? you're new to the area
~*rere w ere re p o rts of tre e s a c ro s s Rock
Creek, reghe- up and there is a tree across
the Nehalem at me pnoge about a mde north
of t o w •«toch was nassao*e ounn- high wa
le ’ but
nee pe as the rever drops) C-heck
w»it- = o c a r the ares that
p a ^ to fish to
melee sure r s passable Most of the -v e t be-
•ow V e rn o n « seems Tc be wnoe open; above
tow»- is prx»ac»k arothe* mane*
Ausc he caretj where you pare vour vet>-
c*e Uare tro p e s are usee as a u n c h n c and
landing sites and if your vehicle is parked in
the way, it could get dragged around by some
body’s winch. The wide spot just downstream
from the green steel bridge, here in town, is a
launching site. To avoid problems, please do
not park on the west side of the highway for it
impedes boaters from winching their boats up
from the river.
I haven’t had any reports from fishermen in
the smaller streams and would be interested in
knowing what you are finding in the way of
fish. Small tributaries of the Nehalem River re
main good fishing throughout most of the sum
mer, but require different tactics than the big
water. Drifted worms or crawdad tails work
good, as do rooster tails and assorted other
small lures. Flies also are excellent choices for
drift fishing, although a long fly pole can have
its drawbacks in a vinemaple patch. Small
creek fishing is a stalking game, one must
keep a low profile while approaching the holes
and then gently lower his bait or lure into the
head of the pool and drift it back to the waiting
fish. Pay particular attention to undercut banks
and roots, these tend to hold good fishing.
Also use a large piece of bait, for this will usu
ally discourage sublegal size fish from getting
hooked deep, which means unnecessary fish
kills. My favorite bait is a whole crawdad tail
fresh from the stream and peeled from its
shell. I fish this on a #8 or #6 hook with no
weight, the #6 hook will reduce hooking mor
tality while catching mainly bigger fish. 4 to 6
pound test line is required for keen sighted
cuts.
It is also wise to keep tabs on what the fish
are eating by looking at the stomach contents
of some of your first keeper fish, if they are
eating a lot of insects maybe the fishing would
be better with the fly pole.
Cutthroat trout fishing in our area may be to
doubt due to concern abut the sea-run species
of cutthroat trout There are proposals in front
of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
(ODF&W) commissioners to end the cutthroat
fishery’ until the sea-runs rebuild It would be a
shame to have this happen to such a tremen
dous fishery. but may be unavoidable Sea-run
c utthroat trout look the same as resident fish
and the juveniles stay instream until they are
about 10-12 inches in length That's where the
problem is - we are probably harvesting a lot
Please see page 7