Watershed Council will hear supporters of Measure 64
Guest speakers for tomor
row night’s meeting of the Up-
Hallow een Activities
Fall Festival: Christian Church,
410 North St., 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Haunted House: Corner of
Grant Avenue and A Street.
Reflective Goodie Bags: Mylar
bags for trick or treat will be
given to preschools and prima
ry grades. Also available free
from Chamber of Commerce
members.
per Nehalem Watershed Coun
cil will be James Musameci
and John Talberth, chief
co-sponsors of Measure 64,
who will present the propo
nents’ view of the anti-clearcut-
ting measure.
The meeting will be Oct. 22 ,
at 7:00 p.m. in the Washington
Grade School library.
Voris Probst, retired manag
er of the Boise-Cascade Ve
neer Mill in St. Helens, present
ed the position of those op
posed to Measure 64 at last
month’s meeting.
The Council will also ad
dress regular business at the
meeting. The agenda includes
a work session with an update
on the Portland State Universi-
ty/Nehalem Watershed As
sessment.
There will be opportunity for
local people and natural re
source agency representatives
to share their knowledge of the
watershed, including such in
formation as channel modifica
tions, locations of fish passage
blockages, large areas of
streambank erosion, water
quality data, landslides adja
cent to streams, fencing pro
jects, etc.
During the day tomorrow,
council volunteers will attend a
water quality/equipment train
ing session conducted by the
Oregon Department of Envi
ronmental Quality. Two three-
hour training sessions will be
held, at 9:30 a.m. and 1:00
p.m. in Anderson Park.
Meetings of the Upper Ne
halem Watershed Council are
open to the public, and com
ments are invited.
INSIDE:
Lots and lots of
letters--------pg. 2
MTC summer
work............pg. 4
Racing
finals.....pg. 5 ,1 3
High School
Sports., pg. 10-13
It’s spawning
time...........pg. 15
BULK RATE
U.S. Postage Paid
Permit No. 37
Vernonia, OR 97064
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
Voi. 13, No. 20
FREE
O ctober 21, 1998
— Opinion —
Election 1998
Business destroyed
This is the second part of The INDEPENDENT election en
dorsements and will cover, mostly, ballot measures.
Columbia County
Measure 5-49: County Jail Bond
A fire Friday night destroyed Neil’s Specialties, a cabinet shop located in the main
building at Storage, Too, on Highway 47 south of Vernonia. Smoke and water also dam
aged merchandise in Gypsy’s Thrift Shop, which is adjacent to the cabinet shop. There
was no damage to the self-storage rental units. Storage, Too is owned by Ken and Pen
ny Smejkal. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
WOEC looks at borrowing funds
since Linda Santucci left her
post last year.
By Jim Buxton
The West Oregon Electric
Cooperative Board of Directors
met Rural Utilities Service Field
Representative Dan Bowers
during their regular October
meeting on Tuesday night.
Bowers, who was born in Indi
ana, has twenty years of expe
rience in the electric utility busi
ness, most recently coming
from Idaho Power. WOEC has
not had contact with RUS
through a Field Representative
The board wasted no time in
passing a resolution asking
RUS to release approximately
two million dollars held back
from the five-percent interest
rate, hardship loan granted the
Coop several years ago. The
withheld funds were earmarked
for the possible study and im
plementation of a computer
ized control and metering sys
tem.
The Coop wants to use ap
proximately $1,000,000 to set
up a substation and metering
point monitoring system, and
another $450,000 to replace
the aging transformer at the
Timber substation. They would
use the balance for miscella
neous projects. Coop General
Manager Russell Green stated
that they would try to spend as
little money as possible, but
said he felt that the Coop
should not pass up the oppor
tunity to complete the loan.
W h e th e r a b s e n te e o r p o llin g p la c e , re m e m b e r to c a s t a v o te
Election Day is Nov. 3 for registered voters
who plan to go to the polling place. To find out
where your polling place is, look in Volume 2 of
your Voters’ Pamphlet.
Voters who have absentee ballots or perma
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nent absentee ballots, must return them to the
elections department in the courthouse no later
than 8:00 p.m. on Nov. 3. If you are concerned
about your ballot arriving late, you may leave it
at your polling place.
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After more than a year of study by ordinary citizens, law en
forcement professionals and government officials, the board of
commissioners placed a 20-year, $13.9-million general obligation
bond measure on the ballot. A new jail has been needed for many
years, but county government hasn’t wanted to ask residents to
fund it.
The jail is too small, it’s unsafe for officers and inmates, and is
in desperate need of modernization and repairs. The situation be
came much worse after voters passed a statewide mandatory
minimum sentencing measure and the legislature responded by
requiring counties to house prisoners who were sentenced to
less than a year in prison. Now inmates are being released ear
ly, being booked and released, or whatever is needed to prevent
a law suit over jail conditions. The county also rents jail beds in
Yamhill County. But none of that is adequate.
The only way there will be enough jail space in Columbia
County is to build a new jail. The cost in additional property tax
es will be approximately $38 per year per $100,000 of assessed
value. The choice is to pay a few cents a day for 20 years, or con
tinue to release more and more prisoners.
We recommend a Yes vote on Measure 5-49.
Measure 5-51: 9-1 -1 Levy
Most Vernonia voters already know what this ballot measure is
about. The five-year levy for $4,375,000 ($875,000 per year) will
be used to improve the emergency communications system. Vot
ers approved it in September, but not enough people voted, so
the effort was in vain.
Nothing has changed: Enhanced 9-1-1 is still needed; a safe
efficient building is needed, instead of the walk-in closet where
dispatchers now work. New equipment is needed. There is no
need to repeat the explanation in the Sept. 2 issue of The INDE
PENDENT, if anyone wants to read it, we’ll give them a copy.
This measure also adds to property taxes-approximately 33-
cents per thousand ($33 per year for five years on $100,000 of
assessed value). It’s still a better bargain than dialing 9-1-1 and
getting a busy signal.
Vote Yes on Measure 5-51 ...the life you save may be your own.
Statewide Measures
Measures 54, 55 and 56 are generally beneficial and have little
or no opposition. Though 56 has some negative financial impact,
54 and 55 have some beneficial financial impact. These should be
safe Yes votes.
For more on statewide measures, please see page 2
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