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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 2001)
Some fire districts have competition for positions Vernonia Fire District Two vacancies and three candidates for VFD. Don Webb has filed for re- election to Position 1. Steve Weller and William L. Cota will vie for Position 5. Weller, a former Vernonia Fire Chief, is a self-employed log truck owner/operator. Cota is a dump truck driver. Mist-Birkenfeld Fire District There is no competition here, with four candidates and four positions. Stephen Butsko, a forester and pulp buyer, has filed for a vacant Position 1. Bill deJager is seeking Posi tion 3; incumbent Paul Ramsey did not file. Position 4 incumbent Randy Hansen did not seek re-elec tion, it will be filled by Ernie deRoacher, who is self-em ployed. Raymond E. Kyser, Position 5 incumbent, filed for re-elec tion. He is a logger. Tri-City Fire District Tri-City Fire District has five candidates for three openings. Position 1 incumbent Joe Evers, a dairy farmer, is being challenged by Rodney Linz, a firefighter/EMT. Linz has expe rience with the North Plains City Council and Budget Com mittee. Evers is also on the board of the Banks School Dis trict. Steven Harr, who has 10 years with the district, is seek ing Position 3. Harr is owner/op erator of Champion Signs and has also served on the Banks Planning Commission. He will be challenged by Edmond Earl Evey, a logger and business owner. Appointee/incumbent Mark Schmidlin is unopposed for election to Position 4. He is a farmer and has served 15 years on the district’s budget committee. Elsie-Vine Maple Fire District No one filed. “ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley” Vernonia School District 47J There was no school on Monday, the birthday off Martin Luther King Jr., but the covered play structure at Washington Grade School was busy all day with rousing games of pick up basketball. WOEC modernizes switches West Oregon Electric Coop (WOEC) Engineer Steve Hursh showed the Board of Directors, at their January meeting, new computerized recloser switch es. Reclosers are like high- voltage, high-current, circuit breakers used in power trans mission and distribution lines. Hursh displayed three genera tions of switches. The oldest generation was hydraulically operated and the second gen eration added current mea surement. The newest switch es contain a mini-computer that measures voltage and cur rent, and estimates distance to a fault, if one occurs. It can telephone the office if some Grant awarded to V-Bat.... pg. 4 Banks’ council considers levy........... pg. 9 FREE January 17, 2001 School boards draw many candidates Hoop time By Jim Buxton You want to be on a school board?..... pg. 3 BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 Attn: Leslie Larson UO Library-OMP Voi. 16, No 2 INSIDE: thing noteworthy happens, such as a tree limb contacting the line. It can also measure kilowatt hour usage, and can be monitored from the office at any time. The switches will be installed at substations and other critical areas. The cost of the switches is expected to be recouped by providing more in formation about line health and faults before line crews leave the shop. WOEC also purchased equipment that filters insulating transformer oil while substation transformers continue to oper ate. The cost of the equipment was almost the same as having the service done by an outside vendor. Clean oil has a high di electric strength or high insulat ing value, and contaminants lower the strength. Substation transformers are very expen sive, and when the dielectric strength of the insulating oil drops low enough, arcing can occur, leading to possible dam age to the transformer. General Manager Russell Green reported that BPA’s im plementation of the slice, at present, seems to be less unfa vorable than previously feared. “Slice” is a term referring to a “slice” of the block of power purchased by a consortium of power companies. The slice is still an option for WOEC, with at least two opportunities in the future to change its mind. Vernonia School District vot ers will have a full slate to choose from, with races in four of the five positions on the March 13 ballot. Schann Nelson, Position 1 incumbent, owns and operates an electrical business with her husband. Her opponent, Rick Hobart is a meter reader for West Oregon Electric Co-op. Position 4 incumbent Leslie O’Leary is bookkeeper for Gwin & Sons Logging. She will be facing Randall Hansen, who is a log quality manager for Longview Fibre Co. Position 5 incumbent Cari Levenseller, a homemaker, will face contractor Peter Brock. Incumbent Kim Tierney did not file for re-election to Posi tion 6. The sole candidate for the vacant seat is James Krahn, ex-director of Oregon Dairy Farmers Association. Board chairman Jeff Blum has filed for re-election to Posi tion 7. Blum is an engineer. Also seeking Position 7 is Thomas Jones, a logger with Holce Logging Co., Inc. Positions 1, 4, 6 and 7 are four-year terms; Position 5 is a two-year term. There have been no filings to date, but all incumbents have indicated they will file for re-election ex cept Tierney, who has not indi cated her intent. Banks School District 13 Three Banks School board positions will be on the March 13 ballot. All positions are for four-year terms. Spencer Vandehey, Position 1 incumbent did not file for re- election. A three-way race has developed, however, with Dou glas A. Nordholm, Ann Krut- singer and Duane Lundsten all filing for the vacant spot. Nordholm is an account ex- ecutive/insurance agent with Waltz Sheridan Crawford, Inc. He is also a member of the dis trict’s budget committee. Krutsinger is a library assis tant at Banks Library and is treasurer of Friends of the Banks Library. Formerly self- employed, she is a homemak er and mother. Lundsten, an informations systems manager, is also on the school district budget com mittee and serves on the tech nology curriculum advisory panel of Banks High School. Incumbent Willis Meeuw- sen, a farmer and three-term board member, has filed for re- election to Position 2. Position 4 incumbent Joe Evers also seeks re-election. A dairy farmer, he serves on the Portland Community College agriculture advisory board and is a long-time member of the Tri-City Fire Board. Jewell School District Three positions will be de cided on the Jewell School board. Loren Jacobsen is the sole candidate for Position 1. In cumbent Joseph Budai is not seeking re-election. Position 2 incumbent Car olyn Eady is being challenged by Darren Berg. In Position 5, David Samuel son is seeking the seat held by Ulrich G. Schockelt. The next issue of The INDE PENDENT, on February 7, will contain more information, and so far as is possible, pictures of the candidates. February 20 is the last day to register to vote in the March 13 vote-by mail election.
