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The INDEPENDENT, May 21,1997
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n. INDEPENDENT
I MAS tHlA/KIA/6
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.
sw r
Opinion
Need for volunteers
is greater than ever
When The INDEPENDENT started, more than ten
years ago, one of the first articles published was about
the role filled by volunteers in a small town. Some
things have changed in the last decade, but not the
need for volunteers in a small town.
Local governments - city, county, fire district, school
— all have a constant need for volunteers because
they can’t hire enough people to take of everything
that needs to be done.
At the city level only, volunteers compose the city
council, planning commission, cemetery committee, li
brary commission, airport commission, etc. Volunteers
fill additional needs by serving on special projects that
are more limited...or sometimes broader...in scope.
Good examples of special projects are the budget
committee, charter review committee, municipal build
ing committee and the 30-40 people who show up reg
ularly for the strategic planning process.
At the school level, volunteers toil on the curriculum
committee, budget committee, facilities committee,
site councils, as classroom aides, chaperones, chauf
feurs and advisors, to name just a few.
Fire districts in this area couldn’t function without
volunteer firefighters and medics, who often work long
hours without any thought of compensation.
County government uses even more volunteers:
budget committee, solid waste advisory board, plan
ning commission, parks committee, surface mining
advisory committee, etc., etc., etc.
, That sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But it does
n’t even touch the volunteer workers who keep the
community feeling, well, like a community.
In Vernonia, a special event for more than 40 years
is the Friendship Jamboree. It started as a way to re
new friendships that were being torn apart by the clo
sure of the big mill, which forced many people to move
elsewhere.
Jamboree has grown since that time, but many fa
vorite events continue: the logging show and parade,
especially. Both have always been part of the commu
nity celebration.
Planning for the 1997 Jamboree has gotten off to a
slow start this year, but for a very good reason—the
pre-planning was well done.
Now, as Jamboree draws closer, it’s time for all
those who thought last year’s event was lacking in
some ways to show up. The only thing it lacked was
enough people to carry the workload.
Last year, so many people were still working on
flood recovery that they couldn’t add much else to
their schedules. That isn’t the case this year.
There will be a dozen or more events at Jamboree
this year, and a dozen or more people will be needed
for each of them. But don’t forget the committee that
does the overall organizing, the publicity, orders and
cares for the portable privies, runs the parade, assigns
vendor locations and just generally works hard before,
during and after Jamboree.
Call 429-4380 or 429-4006 and volunteer your ser
vices, or ask how you can help. You’ll enjoy it.
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The Josi Report
By Rep. Tim Josi
Oregon Representative, District 2
Two weeks ago, legislative leadership con
ducted a press conference offering their plan
for salvaging our State Park system. The plan
offered a proposal that would give away the
state’s most profitable parks to private con
tractors and close as many as 190 parks that
do not pay their way, if no local government or
private contractor stepped in to run them. The
financing plan consisted of selling bonds
which were to be backed by lottery revenues,
coupled with income from the sale of new li
cense plates.
What a surprise this was to me and several
other legislators! At the beginning of the leg
islative session, the House and Senate both
created special park committees chaired by
freshmen. Not much happened in those com
mittees and when asked what their plans were
for saving our state park system the answer
always amounted to, “Trust us, we’re develop
ing a plan that everybody will support.” I also
received somewhat the same answer from the
Speaker of the House when asking him the
same question.
It was easy for me to trust Speaker [Lynn]
Lundquist for two reasons. First, when we
were confronted with the closure of 62 state
parks last fall, legislators including myself
heard a very clear message from our con
stituents: “Don’t close our parks. They are all
precious to us and help define us as Oregoni
ans.” The public outcry at closing some of our
parks resulted in the expenditure of $1.8 mil
lion in Emergency Fund dollars to keep them
open until the end of this biennium, which is
June 30. At that time, legislative leadership
also told the public that when the legislature
convenes, lawmakers will provide the money
to maintain state parks and keep them open.
The second reason for trusting the speaker
was his history of working in a bipartisan effort
to develop a plan to save our coho salmon.
He was true to his word. And when he said,
“Trust me,” when we asked him about a fund
ing package, he delivered in a spectacular
way. He talked the timber industry into paying
for almost half of the cost for restoring our
coho salmon.
So how could it be that a half-baked plan
was unveiled in a press conference with both
the Speaker of the House and the Senate
President taking part in the conference? It
started with the two freshman chairs of the
parks committees. They had been working pri
vately on a plan and thought it was time to un
veil what they had done so far, while empha
sizing that more work was needed. The House
Majority Leader was notified of the pending
press release and thought it would be prudent
to inform the Speaker of the House and ask
that he be present. Of course the Senate
President, when he heard that the Speaker
would be at the press conference, decided to
also attend.
At the somewhat impromptu press confer
ence, Speaker Lundquist spoke of the parks
proposal as being a bi-partisan effort. He then
asked the Democrats watching the conference
to join him. When they declined he realized,
for the first time, that things were not quite
right. When the news media started asking
questions it became evident that neither the
Speaker nor the Senate President had read
the House Bill which detailed the plan for sav
ing our state parks. The next day legislative
leadership went to the press and distanced
themselves from the park bill.
Unfortunately, what happened amounted to
a com edy of errors. My fa ith in Speaker
Lundquist’s ability to find solutions to difficult
problems remains high. He has been very
busy working on the state and school budgets
and has yet to focus on the State Parks fund
ing problem. When he does, I feel confident
he will include the Democrats in a bipartisan
effort.
Rep. Tim Josi may be reached at
H-491 State Capitol
Salem, OR 97310
Phone: (503)986-1402
FAX: (503)986-1575
E-Mail: Repjosi@oregoncoast.com