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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1997)
Easter Egg Hunt The annual Easter Egg Hunt at Anderson Park in Ver nonia will start promptly at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 29. Separated into age groups, each group will have a specif ic area for their hunt. Children must bring their own baskets or bags for the eggs. After the hunt, the Easter Bunny will hand out bags of candy to the children. The annual event is spon sored by the Vernonia Area Chamber of Commerce. Art Parrow unanimous pick for mayor In a unanimous vote of the city council, Art Parrow was ap pointed Monday night to fill the unexpired term of Vernonia Mayor Jim Jacobs’, who was transferred to another area shortly after being elected to the position. Three applications had been submitted for the vacancy, but Vernonia City Councilors Tim Williamson, Don Amundson and Gayle Shriver were left with just two applicants when former mayor Wally Vaughn withdrew his application in fa vor of Parrow. Parrow and city Councilor Julius Dalzell were interviewed in a public session. Each appli cant was given fifteen separate words or phrases and asked to respond in whatever way they wished. The words or phrases included Leadership, Fiscal Responsibility, Teamwork, City Fee Charges, City-owned As sets, Annexation, Land Devel opment Practices, and City Projects Inventory. Parrow, a retired Vernonia School District administrator with a strong record of volun teer service, was chairman of the city planning commission. He is also chair of the North west Region Education Service District and, in that capacity, dealt with issues involving more than 600 employees and 75 programs in a four-county area. Dalzell, who was appointed to the city council last month, also served on the planning commission, which now has two vacancies and is seeking new members. INSIDE: Vernonia Youth Corps— s e e p a g e s Change in Vernonia's name___s e e p a g e s Banks Auction time, BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia. OR 97064 Vol. 12, No. 6 “ Voice o f the Upper Nehalem R iver Valiev” Having fun with a 3-D Dinosaur Adventure on a Vernonia Public Library computer are Heidi Brown and her children, Rachael and Timothy. In the background, Jeannine Hall is surfing the ‘net on another computer. The computers and software were purchased with grants from the Meyer Memorial Trust. Weller takes leave, Hayes quits family trucking business with his father, Gene Weller. The directors decided on the 30-day leave so, if Weller decides to resign, they can start a search for his replace ment. This month, following pub lic complaints by some mem bers of the volunteer ambu lance crew, Paramedic Cyndy Hayes resigned. After an acrimonious, open meeting in late February, when some current and for mer emergency medical vol unteers accused Hayes of un fairly criticizing their work and \ Results of school, fire district elections The new dim ension... Major changes have oc curred in the Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District, leav ing only one of three employ ees on duty...clerk Gerri Fay- lor. Last month, the district’s board of directors authorized a 30-day, unpaid leave of ab sence for Fire Chief Steve Weller, starting March 1. Weller had requested a 60- day leave of absence. His written request also ex pressed uncertainty about whether he would return to the position. During his leave, Weller said, he will work in the March 19, 1997 having “a list” of people she wanted to remove from the volunteer service, an execu tive session was scheduled by the board of directors to further discuss the matter. No resolution was devel oped during the March 3 ex ecutive session. In addition to Hayes’ resignation, EMS Divi sion Chief Kathy Denckla, a longtime volunteer who sup ported Hayes, also resigned. Volunteer paramedic Kathy Robb has been named EMS Company assistant chief. Please see page 12 Vernonia School District In July, two new faces will be on the Vernonia School District Board of Directors. With 45-percent of eligible voters in School District 47J casting ballots, Kim Tierney defeated incumbent Steve El lis, 498 votes to 389, to as sume Position 6. In Position 1, with no in cumbent running, winning candidate Shelly Stevens re ceived 366 ballots, Gene Winningham had 220 and there were 285 write-in votes. Don Skinner had declared himself a write-in candidate, but the total number of write- ins were for all write-in candi dates, not just Skinner. A break-down of write-in votes is required only when a write- in candidate is a possible win ner. Positions 2, 4 and 5 were unopposed and will be filled by Carla Strand, Susann Ragsdale and Jeff Blum, re spectively. Banks School District Two new people will be on the Banks School District Board of Directors in July. Spencer Vandehey and Cindy Donoven both sought the open Position 1, with Van dehey tallying 579 votes to Donoven’s 502. Position 2 incumbent Willis Meeuwsen retained his seat, defeating Bob Schutte, 610 to 455. In Position 4, Joe Evers edged out incumbent John Medeiros with 538 ballots to Medeiros’ 525. Jewell School District In the only contested race for the Jewell School District Board of Directors, Matthew J. Samuelson received one vote more than Susana Ba con Gladwyn for Position 2, 103 to 104. The remaining positions and the elected directors are: Position 2, Carolyn Eady; Position 4, Jeff Bellingham; Position 5, Loren Jacobsen Northwest Region ESD The four-way race for Northwest Region Education Service District Zone 2, repre senting Columbia County and the Banks area of Washing ton County, was won by Can dace Cole of Scappoose, in a four-way race. Cole, with 2,553 ballots, defeated Jim O’Connor, Ted White and Art Parrow. Vernonia RFPD With two positions open and no incumbents running for the Vernonia Rural Fire Protection District Board of Directors, Lyle Barker defeat ed Bob Stacklie, 435 to 356, for Position 5. William Coffin was unop posed for Position 1. Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD There were no contested positions for the board of di rectors of the Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire Protection District. Re-elected were Paul Ramsey, Position 3; Randall Hansen, Position 4; Raymond Kyser, Position 5. Tri-City RFPD There will be no changes on the board of directors of the Tri-City Rural Fire Protec tion District, with two incum bents easily retaining their positions. Joe Evers garnered 467 votes to challenger Charles Station’s 384, in Position 1. Position 3 incumbent Du ane Spiering swept to victory with 539 votes, when chal- Please see page 10
