Vol. 16, No 6
“ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
March 21, 2001
Three honored by Council for
contributions to the community
Don Webb was presented with a plaque Monday night ex
pressing appreciation for his lengthy volunteer services on
behalf of the community. Mayor Mario Leonetti presented the
plaque.
Donna Gehrke was awarded a plaque of appreciation for her
unstinting efforts on behalf of the community. In addition to
Mayor Mario Leonetti, Councilor Shirlee Daughtry spoke of
the reasons for honoring Gehrke.
Council is “cream of the
crop, ” citizen proclaims
The Vernonia City Council is
doing such a good job said Jet
ta Gomes at the March 19
meeting, that she doesn’t at
tend meetings because she is
n’t worried about actions they
will take. Gomes was respond
ing to a letter from Councilor
Glenn Purvee that was pub
lished in The INDEPENDENT
on March 7, chiding city resi
dents for an apathetic attitude.
Mayor Mario Leonetti and
Councilor Shirlee Daughtry
care deeply about the commu
nity, Gomes said and always
try to do their best; Randy Par-
row, though new to the council,
“comes from good stock,”
Gomes teased. Councilor
Cindy Ball always has good
questions, she continued, and
“from your letter, I can tell I
don’t need to worry about you,"
she told Purvee.
“Our council is the cream of
the crop, so I can do other
things beside coming to coun
cil meetings,” Gomes said.
The city has been awarded
a conditional Community De
velopment Block Grant of
$15,000 to complete a study
for a new senior center. The
grant is conditional because
the state doesn’t yet know
what changes there may be in
the U.S. Housing and Urban
Development agency and
whether the funds will be avail
able.
Vernonia Airport Manager
Mike Seager reported that the
preliminary Airport Master Plan
is complete. It will be reviewed
to be certain it meets federal
and state criteria and, if need
ed, modified at that time.
Former Mayor Art Parrow
and former volunteer firefighter
Don Webb were honored Mon
day night by the Vernonia City
Council for their many years of
volunteer efforts on behalf of
the community. Also honored
was Donna Gehrke, a relative
newcomer who has lived in
Vernonia for only a few years,
but who has thrown herself
wholeheartedly into community
endeavors.
Parrow, a retired educator
who served first as principal
and then as superintendent in
the Vernonia School District,
has volunteered his time and
expertise for the 30-plus years
he has lived here. He is a long
time member of the Lions and
most recently served on the
city planning commission, then
as mayor.
Webb has lived in Vernonia
much longer, and was a volun
teer firefighter for forty years.
Now the retired logger serves
on the board of directors of the
Vernonia Rural Fire District. He
is an avid outdoorsman and
has worked especially hard at
making improvements at Ver
nonia Lake. Webb was the dri
ving force behind the handi
capped-accessible
floating
piers recently installed at the
lake.
Gehrke is in good company,
but she got there through hard
work. Her name is on the
adopt-a-highway sign on N.
Mist Drive and on the adopt-a-
Former Mayor Art Parrow accepts congratulations Monday
night from his son, Randy, who is now a city council mem
ber, and Mayor Mario Leonetti. The picnic table and benches
shown here have been installed behind City Hall in honor of
the senior Parrow’s extensive volunteer efforts.
block plaque next to Buds &
Blooms. She works with Ver
nonia Pride and is spearhead
ing the 2001 Make Vernonia
Shine day on April 21. Gehrke
also is videotaping many com
munity functions for showing
on the local cable television
channel.
The efforts of Don and
DeDe Webb will receive offi
cial recognition in a few
weeks when the recently
completed Linear Trail exten
sion is formally dedicated as
Webb Way
Final District election results
Vernonia School District
Board of Directors will see two
new directors in July as a result
of the March 13 election. Rick
Hobart was elected to Position
1, which is currently held by
Schann Nelson, and James
Krahn, who was unopposed,
was elected to Position 6.
Incumbents Leslie O’Leary,
Cari Levenseller and Jeff Blum
were re-elected to positions 4,
5 and 7, respectively. Chal
lengers for the three positions,
in the same order, were Ran
dall Hansen, Peter Brock and
Thomas Jones.
There will be one new direc
tor on the Banks School Board,
with Doug Nordholm winning
Position 1 over Ann Krutsinger
and Duane Lundsten.
Incumbents Willis Meeuw-
sen in Position 2 and Joe Evers
in Position 4, were unopposed.
Evers was also re-elected to
Position 1 on the Tri-City Fire
District Board of Directors,
barely holding off a tough chal
lenge by Rodney Linz.
Steve Harr was elected to
Position 3 over Ed Evey and
Mark Schmidlin was unop
posed in his re-election bid for
Position 4.
In the Vernonia Fire District,
former fire chief Steve Weller
won over Bill Cota for a vacant
Position 5. Don Webb was un
opposed for re-election to Posi
tion 1.
There was no opposition for
directors positions in the Mist-
Birkenfeld Fire District. Steve
Butsko will hold Position 1, Bill
DeJager in Position 3, Ernie
DeRocher in Position 4 and
Ray Kyser in Position 5.
As has been the rule in re
cent years in the Elsie-Vine
Maple Fire District, no one filed
and the positions were filled by
Please see page 17