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Th« INDEPENDENT, August 6.1997
m S ,h® Uf? er Nehalem R^er valley. Published twice
monthly on the first and third Wednesdays
each
Street', Vernonia
?2S Brid9e
Editors and Publishers, D ir, k No^i
a X X X j
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Are public meetings
public without ears?
Though citizens claim that their elected representa-
month ?h°,r h ” 1° d° a" S° rtS 01 ,hi" 9s’ lhe bairns ?as,
X
«no, L y ernonia Ci,y Council had failed to pro
vide enough information about the municipal buildino
project were truly astounding.
9
The current project recommendations are the result
of a study initiated nearly a year ago by a large citi-
L ì Tre ft H
m
®"® fl ,"1 and
"1 ' h 6 every
6' T h S
com
it
, ee numerous
was chaired meetings
by Jan
Miyasaki
one
of m
their
was Public. Is it the fault of the committee or the coun-
fhe m S i 2 ?Of Vem° nia ,hat ,he “pub,ic” did" '‘ attend
a f2 X u
W6re alS° ra'Sed about ,he need tor such
of
question isn’t as surprising as the claims
a i X h t e 'r ,Oima,lon' 'bough the information has been
| e able far longer...which may be part of the prob-
By Julius Dalzell
Vernonia City Councilor
n it» /ianUary’ 1985, ,he ,irs* issue of The INDEPEN-
t £ ,
reported on structural problems with city hall
hat report included the comment by former Columbia
County building official Bob Eidem, that the back wall
was in condition to be condemned
That report was the catalyst for expanding the fire
hall in order to move the ambulances out of city hall
into a safe building. That expansion took several years
tainino7hP f ^ r t T * i ? V C'tizen volunteers' both in ob
taining the funds for the work and in performing a lot
f?e d lw c t
W6re aid6d by b° ‘h *he city and ,he
y
in Citv HaHm^ , t the POliCe department was not located
" c ‘d H Sib *
ln space ren,ed from »he Vernon
ia Federal Credit Union. As money became tighter it
e h ® o ® l00kin9 fo r 0,her practica
e 1 ,®as' Someone mentioned cable. An-
I. 3 , . L person su99ested a “Town Crier”
1 but that’s a bit much.
Once in a while a major issue comes
along that demands broad city involve-
t ment. Such a case is the planned con-
i s*ruction of the new Vernonia Building
(M unicipal Building). We are at key
stages in design and financing. The is-
!h® . ° i need is s ,i" b e in 9 b an te re d
about by a few, although development
of the project to date has been over
P a r t ^ h e ^ n SS37 t0 m° Ve ,he POlice depar»ment into
assoc a h o n W th
y occupied by the ambulance
association. With that move, the city was once aaain
placing employees in a building that was unsafe.9
twn di« recan,ly’ . in 1996- city hall was inspected by
that
hGr!Len9'" eerin9 ,irms- One of them reported
c o u id it brUlld,ng ®hould be replaced. The other said It
S In i!
.1® ' SOrt 0,1 by (1) rePlacin9 the roof and
( ) replacing the walls. This study was reported and
oW, thed~
d ,n C0UnCil meetin9S- It was another part
of the cautious approach by city government to be ab-
r ? i® ® d
!he municipal building was necessary.
The INDEPENDENT has chided the council when
they seem to ignore the value nt
1 when
dropping by the board while downtown
,
seen by a com m ittee of the public.
ose committee meetings were both
announced and open. Because of con-
w is h e f ,qU®s tio n s ’ ,he C ity C o u ncil
! L° ° St a Town Hal1 m eeting
dedicated to this subject. The time tar
geted is late August or early Septem-
‘
£
For this event, we will broadly com
municate the meeting purpose, date,
location, and time. Several organiza
tions and individuals have offered as-
sistance in aettinn tho
r