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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 2000)
anks Bar-B-Q Q all ready for 55th year of festivities The tractors are tuned up, the pulling sleds are weighted down, the horseshoe pits are ready for competition and plen ty of charcoal has been stock piled. Obviously, it’s time for the Banks Bar-B-Q and tractor pull. The activities will start on Saturday, Aug. 12, with regis tration for horseshoes at 9:00 a.m. Singles will start tossing at 10 a.m. and a drawing at iOO p.m. w:" ^ Qcide doubles play. Tre ........ start practice for the big pull at 11:00 a.m., and stock tractors will compete for an hour at 12:30. Pickups register at 3:00 p.m. for their 5:00 p.m. pull. Food and beverages haven’t been forgotten, either. The hamburger stand opens at noon and the beer garden will be open from 6:00 p.m. until midnight, with dancing from 8- 11:00 p.m. Sunday morning starts with parade registration (there’s a cash prize for the ugliest car) at the Brown Derby, 9-10 a.m., a community church service at 9:30 at Kelly Field and the Grand Parade at 11:00 a.m. followed by flag raising in Sun set Park. At noon the “World Famous Bar-B-Q Sandwiches" go on sale, the Kids’ Zone and beer garden will open, and there will be gospel music. The ham burger stand will be open all day. The truck and tractor pull will start at 1:00 p.m., and finish when everyone is done. There will also be Bingo from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Kids’ Games will start at 1:30 with the under-18 crowd involved in a greased pole climb, frog jump and Pedal Pull. Completing events for the day will be the second annual Combine Demolition Derby... you’ve never seen anything like it, folks! This unique demo lition derby will start at 5:00 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13. uon:~Le^ 6 “ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley” 4-H Fair awards.... pg. 11 Fire hits cafe........ pg. 13 Logging Show results.... pg. 16 Dale Webb leans into preparations for a floating pier at Lake Vernonia. Concrete will be poured into two forms to use as “anchors” to attach handicapped-accessible fishing piers. One pier will be built on the east side and one on the west side of the lake. WOEC holds annual meeting People were not in a rush to leave after the meeting, prefer ring to relax in conversation or to stroll in the park. The meet ing was, all in all, a pleasant experience. During the business meet ing, Chairman of the Board Robert VanNatta discussed the issue of restructuring. He told the group that electric coopera tives are exempt from restruc turing under Oregon law, effec tively preventing the sudden doubling and tripling of rates, as happened recently in San Diego, from happening to WOEC members. In his opin ion, electricity prices would be expected to rise until additional generating facilities are built. In the meantime, the cooperative lobby would continue to keep legislators informed about the harm certain actions could im pose on rural customers. Financial Officer Royce Hagelstein reported that FREE August 16, 2000 One vote overrules 47J board majority That clay is hard! For the first time in recent memory, West Oregon Electric Cooperative held its annual meeting during the summer rather than during a fall hunting season. A warm, sunny day greeted those who attended the meeting at the recently re furbished Scout Cabin in Ver nonia. More than 60 people were in attendance. The early arrivals could watch an elec tricity demonstration on the grounds or join in conversaion on the porch, leisurely sipping refreshment. Inside, attendees sat at tables on padded chairs. In addition to the regular busi ness, there were the usual drawings for door prizes, which this year included a stereo system and a Chris Burkett print. After the one hour busi ness meeting, attendees were treated to a delicious buffet prepared by Patty Ogden and her Simply Delicious crew. Alien life in Lake?... pg. 2 BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 Vol. 15 No 16 By Jim Buxton INSIDE: WOEC did well last year. There were no storms and the coop operated within its budget. Substantial amounts of money have been spent on plant im provement, resulting in an in crease of equity of eleven per cent over the last several years. General Manager Russell Green compared the health of WOEC today with seven or eight years ago. He said that today we have more equity in the system, it is in better shape and there is money in the bank. He cautioned that we have not yet arrived, however, we have improved. He stated that WOEC would still benefit from the sale of the PGE territory near the Columbia River even though it was sold to two PUDs. PGE will pay WOEC two million dollars in a trust ac count over a three-year period. WOEC expects to receive the Please see page 4 An unusual set of circum stances combined to allow a single member of the Vernonia school board to overrule the will of the majority — and not just once, but twice — at the board's regular meeting on Au gust 10. Board rules, which are de cided by the directors each year, require a minimum of four votes in order to either approve or disapprove an action. There were only four board members at the Aug. 10 meeting, Four composes a quorum of the seven-member board and is the minimum number required to hold a legal meeting. There are presently two va cancies on the board: Susann Ragsdale resigned last month because she moved out of the district. April Whitworth re signed effective Aug. 1 be cause she will be moving out of the district. One of the five re maining board members, Tim Titus, was not at the meeting. The votes referred to above involved two separate requests for exceptions to district policy. The first was from the Coun cil on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) to place a student from the Canary Is lands at Vernonia High School, with Earl and Lani Vandehey as host parents. CIEE representatives Paul ette Reid and Sue Bailey, both formerly at Banks High School, explained they had met with VHS councilor Jill Griffin on Feb. 15, and asked about school policies regarding ex change students. They said they were told they had missed the deadline of Feb. 2 to apply for approval and were given a student handbook and other material, but were not told there is a written policy. After meeting with Principal Mike Durbin in late June, they at tended the July board meeting, when they were offered a copy of the policy. On reading it, they realized there is no Feb. 2 deadline; but there were other timelines they didn’t meet, part ly because they weren’t told in February about the policy. Lani Vandehey also request ed an exception for the student. Three members voted to ap prove the exception - Jeff Blum, Debbie Johnston and Kim Tierney - Director Carla Strand voted against it. The mo tion failed. The second request for an exception was to allow early en trance to kindergarten for Caitlin Paleck, who will be five on Sept. 7. District policy uses a cut-off date of Sept. 1. Ben and Suzanne Paleck, Caitlin’s parents, said they un derstood the district’s reasons for outside evaluation before such a request is considered, but that they didn’t find out about the requirement soon enough to obtain the test before school started. They first spoke with the elementary special ed ucation teacher in the spring and were not told of the require ment at that time. They found out about it in June and were given the names of two testing places, both of which had long waiting lists with a cost of as much as $1,000. Superintendent Larry Mc Clellan said he felt the district was remiss in not researching the subject and finding more testing resources. Principal Kirk Sherrill said he was uncomfortable with early entrance without test results. Again, three members voted to approve the exception - Jeff Blum, Debbie Johnston and Kim Tierney - Director Carla Strand voted against it. The mo tion failed.
