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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2000)
Lists of candidates develop as filing deadline nears INSIDE: There will be at least one contested race for commis sioner in Columbia County. As of Tuesday morning, Feb. 29, three candidates had filed for Commissioner Position One, currently held by Jack Peterson. Democrats Mike Avent, of Rainier, and Susan Easley, of St. Helens, will face each other in the May primary election. On the Republican ballot, Colleen DeShazer, Scap poose, Is currently unopposed Illegal dumping is costly.... pg. 4 in the primary election. She, or another Republican will meet the winner of the Democrat pri mary in the November general election. Peterson told The INDE PENDENT yesterday that he has made no decision, but is leaning toward not seeking re- election. There are no filings, as yet, for Commissioner Position 3, currently held by Tony Hyde. Hyde has said he will file for a second term. Other positions on the May ballot include Columbia County Sheriff, Treasurer and Survey or. Sheriff Phil Derby has filed for re-election, as has Treasur er Paulette Kuiper-Hall. There is no candidate, at this time, for county surveyor. Betsy Johnson, a Scap poose Democrat, has an nounced her candidacy for the Oregon House in District 1, to replace Jackie Taylor, D-Asto- ria, who has run up against term limits. District 1 includes most of Columbia County and the area along Hwy. 30 in Clat sop County. Elaine Hopson, D-Tillamook, has filed for re-election in Dis trict 2, which includes Vernonia and most of the Nehalem Val ley, part of Washington County, and most of Clatsop and Tillamook Counties. March 7, 2000, is the final date to file nomination papers. Vernonia Head Start......... pg. 5 The Cookin’ o’ the Green., pg. 7 Consumer Complaint list........... pg. 11 BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 Voi. 15, No 5 Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley March 1, 2000 Citizens complain of police harassment Dig it... With lots of willing hands (not to mention legs and backs), and two days of nice weath er, a large selection of native flora was planted on the banks of Bear Creek between Ver nonia City Hall and the Public Library. The sides of the creek that was once contained in a culvert that was removed in 1998, were planted with ferns, Oregon grape, salal, vine maple, elderberry, red osier dogwood, huckleberry and rush. The Upper Nehalem Wa tershed Council coordinated the cooperative effort by Vernonia Youth Corps, Hire the Fishers program, and the Izaak Walton League. West Oregon Electric Co-op is donat ing wood chips for mulch, and the City of Vernonia has agreed to water the plants throughout the summer. The plants were all dug from Longview Fibre or BLM lands. A nearly full house attended the Feb. 22 meeting of the Ver nonia City Council, with many of those in attendance express ing dissatisfaction with meth ods used by the Vernonia Po lice Department. Most of those who spoke to the council were particularly in censed by officers who use a “burned out license plate light” as a reason to stop a vehicle, then detain the occupants, of ten for 45 minutes or more, while conducting a computer check on the driver and pas sengers. If no other problems were found, some said, they were cited for the license plate light violation instead of being given a warning to get it fixed. At least one person said his li cense plate light wasn’t even burned out, but he didn’t real ize it until he started to fix it. Kerry Lyon, owner of The Lyon’s Den, was the first to ad dress the council, following up on a letter he had sent them which detailed an incident that occurred when he was a pas senger in a vehicle driven by A full agenda lengthens council meeting The Vernonia City Council heard three presentations, sev eral citizen complaints (see re lated story at right), and sever al staff reports in a four-hour meeting on Feb. 22. Will Glessner of the Oregon Trails Volkssport Association, told the council that the Cedar Milers club is sponsoring two 10 kilometer walks in Vernonia on April first and anticipates that 300-400 people will partic ipate. Vernonia Rural Fire District Chief Paul Epler gave the council draft copies of the Ver nonia Emergency Operations Plan, and briefly described how it would function in an emer FREE gency. The plan provides a framework to guide the City in efforts to respond to emergen cies, prepare for them or recov er from them. Copies of the 80 page plan are available at the Fire Station. The council reviewed a pro posed ordinance governing ve hicle weight limits on residen tial streets and, after discus sion, referred it back to staff for some clarification. A public hearing on the ordinance will be held March 20 at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall. A contract was approved with Century West Engineering to conduct an evaluation of the city air field and develop a plan for appropriate development of the field. The project will in clude data collection and re view, drawings, planning evalu ation, a five-year capital im provement plan and a technical report. Administrator Mike Sykes updated the council on talks with the county regarding costs for the Justice Court. The council concurred with Sykes’ recommendation that the City terminate its present agree ment and negotiate a new agreement that will not require the city to pay any costs for the county court. City planner Julie Coontz re ported that Jim Holycross, of Toni Candiello. According to both Lyon and Candiello, who spoke later, the officer was grossly out of line (He was lat er terminated by Police Chief Jim Walters.) “...business in this town [has] dwindled to the point where there’s hardly a car on the street after 9:00 p.m.” Lyon said, “I attribute this directly to overly aggressive police on duty at night.” Another resident said his parked car was hit by an out-of- state, uninsured pickup, but the driver wasn’t arrested and the officer who responded didn’t fill out a police report. One man said he’d been stopped several times and his vehicle was stopped, although no laws had been broken, even when someone else was dri ving. The most serious charges were made by Jay Mahn, who has filed a Tort Claim with the City stemming from an incident last summer. Mahn, who is un der indictment for assault two, unlawful use of a gun and men acing, said that he is not guilty of the charges and claimed that the two Vernonia officers who arrested him lied in the police report and to the Grand Jury. Several speakers empha sized the need for an ongoing training program for officers. Also suggested was a citizens advisory/review board. Chief Walters, was not at the meeting, but he later told The INDEPENDENT "We have made some changes and we will continue working to correct the situation.” the county Land Development Services, had received an ap plication for a zone amend ment within Vernonia’s Urban Growth Boundary, from R-10 to Mobile Home Residential. In accordance with the City/County UGB management agreement, Holycross inquired whether the city would extend water and sewer for the re quested change. Because the city had no communication from Chris Liu, the proposed developer, and could not deter Coontz’ evaluation. mine whether he planned to Councilor Gayle Shriver re “meet or exceed” Vernonia’s ported that a committee formed design standards, Coontz rec to develop a bicycle ordinance ommended denial of the re Please see page 14 quest. The council agreed with
