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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1999)
INSIDE: Upward Bound excites students....pg. 7 Missing man found........ pg. 7 Racing news..pg. 8 Lots of enter tainment at the Fair..... pg. 9 Stress disappears in the calm waters of Vernonia Lake as a lone angler enjoys a pleasant day. BULK RATE U S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 Vol. 14, No. 14 Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley’ July 21, 1999 New jail and justice center gets underway Can you dig it... It was a long time coming, but official groundbreaking ceremonies July 9th finally sig naled the beginning of construction for a new Columbia County jail. Sheriff Phil Derby leads law enforcement officials and attorneys as they all dig in. Chronicle photo WOEC/PGE sale goes to PUC The proposed sale of PGE’s service territory in C olum bia County to W est O regon Elec tric Cooperative has taken the next step. PGE has filed an application with the O regon Public Utilities Comm ission, asking to transfer its service territory to W OEC. Such an application would nor mally require about six months for determ ination, but this re quest may take longer because of potential iniatives on the bal lot in Septem ber or November. Petitions being passed in the four Colum bia County cities that would be affected by the proposal-S cappoose, St. He lens, C olum bia C ity and R ainier-are seeking to be an nexed into a Public Utility Dis trict. Four of the petitions ask tpr annexation to the Columbia River PUD and a fifth petition being circula ted in R ainier seeks annexa tion to the Clatskanie PUD. FREE A public hearing on the an nexation petitions must be held by the Colum bia County Board of Comm issioners. The hear ing is scheduled for September 8 at 7:00 p.m. in room 308 of the county courthouse. The purpose of the hearing is to set boundaries for the pro- posed annexations. The bound aries used in the agreement be tween PGE and WOEC are the city limits of each of the four cities as of 1940. It is unclear w hether the com m issioners could change those bound aries, but it is highly unlikely that they would want to do so. Strand, Blum will lead 47J board Carla Strand will head the board of directors for Vernonia School District 47J during the 1999-2000 term, with Jeff Blum as vice-ch airm an. The two were unanim ously elected by their fellow board members at the board’s annual organiza tional meeting in July. The board accepted the res ignations of junior high school science teacher Kathy Kuskie and Vernonia Youth Corps teacher Kristi Hickox. Hickox has accepted a position with the Northwest Regional ESD. In other personnel action, Judi Gwin was approved for the position of secondary spe cial education teacher, a posi tion she filled in the spring se mester on a tem porary con tract. The board also approved the bargaining agreement for classified employees, with pre viously agreed upon modifica tions. Regular school board meet ings are held on the second Thursday of each month at 8:00 p.m. in the district office. The public is welcome to at tend. After almost a year of study, volunteers who formed an ad visory com mittee and worked arduously, both on their own and with a consultant, to deter mine what Colum bia County needed to replace its old, cramped and inadequate jail, agreed that the county Board of Commissioners should ask voters to approve a bond issue for a new justice center. In an era when most fiscal ballot measures have resem bled com ets heading beyond the horizon, Columbia County’s voters agreed that a new jail was necessary and approved a $13.9 million bond measure. Everything looked good until num erous snags interfered with siting the jail where county officials had determ ined was the best site. The site, on Port Road and Old Portland Road in St. Helens, was too large for the jail and the bank that had foreclosed on the property many years ago wanted to sell the entire 49-acre parcel, not just a part of it. So the county found a partner interested in lo cating on the site, but that fell through. The next arrangem ent didn’t work, either; nor the third offer. Finally, nearly 18 months af ter the advisory com m ittee was formed, the county was able to buy 11 of the 49 acres for $500,000. At the groundbreaking on July 9, about 100 people braved the 90+ degree heat to talk about the effort involved in putting the project together. Sheriff Phil Derby recounted those efforts and introduced many others involved, includ ing a happy jail manager, Lt. Jim Gibson. Construction is now under way, with a Decem ber 1 target date for com pleting site prepa- ration and pouring the concrete footings, floor and walls. The weather will be a factor in this initial phase, but once it is done, the roof can go on and construction can continue throughout the winter on the 46,000 square feet facility that is designed to hold up to 195 inmates. The current county jail has a capacity of 33 male and six fe m ale inm ates. It is usually overcrow ded, requiring the county to rent beds in other fa cilities and/or release prisoners before they com plete their sen tences. Because of the delay, what was initially a $13.9 million pro ject is now a $14.7 million pro ject, so the county will have to find ways to finance the addi tional sum. The county asked the City of St. Helens for a variance to de lay sidewalk construction at the new facility so the estimated $257,000 for sidewalks could be used on jail construction. The variance was not granted because others must construct sidewalks. Bill Greene, former county planner, dies Bill G reene, long-tim e head of Colum bia County Land Development Services, collapsed at his home Sun day evening, July 18. He was taken by Scappoose Fire District am bulance to Legacy Em anuel H ospital but did not recover. Greene, a retired Scap poose resident, had recently accepted a part-time posi tion as planner for the City of Vernonia. Few details were avail able at press time. A full obit uary will be in the next issue of The INDEPENDENT.
