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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1999)
Vol. 14, No. 24 “ Voice o f the Upper Nehalem River Valley”_______________December 15, 1999 City seeks funds to finish streetscaping What’s old is new again... • Photo by Judy Hill Only landscaping remains of the work needed to rehabilitate the old Scout Cabin, seen here as a stroller walks past it in Vernonia’s Hawkins Park. For more photos and infor mation about the building, please see page 6. B-V Trail extension uncertain By Noni Andersen The Oregon Department of Transportation, the City of Ver nonia and Columbia County just finished building a bridge over Rock Creek to extend the Banks-Vernonia Linear Trail to Vernonia Lake. Expenditures for the bridge were in the neighborhood of $200,000 but, at this time, it appears to be the bridge to nowhere. The city has an agreement signed by both ODOT and county representatives to com plete the job, but both ODOT and the county are dragging their heels. Even while cutting the ribbon for the opening of the bridge, ODOT said no to completing the job — unless the county places the trail ex tension ahead of work on Beaver Falls Road. The county road depart ment, reportedly without first clearing the project with the board of commissioners, ap plied for a grant to widen Beaver Falls Road, which lacks shoulders. They applied for funds under the same alterna tive transportation program be ing used by Vernonia for the trail. There are several differ ences in the two projects: The trail extension is needed not just for recreation, but to pro vide a safe bicycle route around O-A Hill instead of putting bikes on a narrow, curved section of Hwy. 47, which has no shoulders and is heavily traversed by trucks. The Beaver Falls project also is calling for a bike path on a narrow, shoulderless road, but it isn’t in a town and it does n’t adjoin a bike path at either end. It is a quarter-mile section of road that really needs work, but it’s a stretch to call it an al ternative transportation route. One argument used to justi fy the Beaver Falls project is that it is adjacent to county- owned park land, and it is. But it is undeveloped park land and the county, which is presently cutting back on park expendi tures, has no plans to develop Beaver Falls. In fact, some of the grant would be used to in stall a chain link fence to keep people away from the water falls. There are additional con trasts between the two pro jects: The linear trail is nearing completion and should be fin ished; repairs to Beaver Falls should be included in a com prehensive plan to improve ac- Please see page 22 The City of Vernonia has run out of funds needed to com plete the downtown “street- scaping" project, city Public Works Director Robyn Bassett informed the city council at their Dec. 6 meeting. Light standards for the north side of Bridge Street have been delivered to the city, but they can’t be installed until there is money to finish the un derground electrical work. The city also needs to purchase trees for the north side and complete a small part of the sidewalk. Using every bit of elastic available, the city stretched the funds allocated for streetscap ing the south side of Bridge Street and managed to finish most of the sidewalk and part of the electrical work on the north side. The council authorized Bas- sett and city Administrator Michael Sykes to request fund ing from the Northwest Oregon Economic Alliance, which helped previously with an $18,000 grant. The city added about $97,000 to the project, most of it from contingency. Following a public hearing held prior to the council meet ing, councilors approved an nexing 20 acres of city-owned property above Roseview Heights and rezoning it Gener al Residential. They also ac cepted a bid from John R. Wooden to appraise the prop erty. The city’s intent is to sell the 20 acres for residential de velopment outside the flood plain. The council also approved hiring Susan Knowlton as a part-time library assistant, and having Dan Brown build more library tables. Birthday ball INSIDE: Senior news..pg. 7 Bazaar & dinner photos., pg. 12-13 School board meetings... pg. 18 EMTs still help community pg. 21 Banks Council meeting.... pg. 22 Photo by Judy Hill Jamey and Greg Mailer of Vernonia celebrated Jamey’s thirteenth birthday shooting some hoops at the new, cov ered play structure at Washington Grade School in Ver nonia, Dec. 4, before heading out to a Winterhawks game.
