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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2001)
47J Budget gets Committee approval; hearing set The Vernonia School District Budget Committee last Thurs day approved a proposed bud get for 2001 -02 that adds a half time teacher at the first grade level, a half-time teacher at the sixth grade level, and a certi fied half-time media specialist at the high school. The position of curriculum specialist will be increased from half to full time, with addi tional responsibilty for grant writing. Classified staff will also in crease slightly with full time Special Ed classroom aide and a half-time person in the cafe teria. People are already em ployed for these last positions even though they were not in the 2000-2001 budget. Also included in next year’s budget is an increase of ap proximately $20,000 in the high school athletic budget. It is not anticipated that the whole amount will be used but, be cause of changes in how extra duty compensation will be han dled, it was deemed wise to in clude every extra duty position that has ever existed in the dis trict. The next fiscal year will also bring relief to teachers who bought supplies - again and again - for their classrooms. There will be about $20,000 more for supplies in the coming year. The total budget for the dis trict, including general fund ‘‘Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley” Voi. 16, No 12 The pioneer Burn Road Cemetery is a two-acre island in a sea of a replanted commer cial clear c u t . _______________ Dity adopts budget with little flexibility The total budget - general fund and all special funds - is $2,676,691. Of this amount, the general fund, which is basi cally the only fund available for discretionary expenditures, is $729,916. The General Fund is allocat ed as follows: General Operations $75,285 Buildings & Grounds 30,280 Police Dep’t. 348,218 Library 57,117 Administration 143,634 Non-Departmental 75,382 Sewer rate increase Vernonia City Council, Mon day night, adopted an in crease of $6.00 on all City of Vernonia sewer bills, effective July 1, 2001. Goal is healthy watershed ........... pg- 5 Leather-clad angels.......pg. 7 School news pgs. 8,10,11,16 Banks water user fee approved ....... pg. 10 June 20, 2001 Burn Road Cemetery logging controversy Lonely guardians... A very tight budget adopted y the Vernonia City Council saves all employee positions ntouched except one. The po- ition of clerk in the Vernonia olice Department will be re- uced to half time for the 2001 - 2 fiscal year, but, in an effort > make the loss of time less ainful, there will be no loss of enefits. The budget includes in- reased costs of health insur- nce for all employees, but a ost of living increase of 3.4 ercent is included only for on-union employees. Con- act negotiations are still un- erway with two unions and, ntil they are poncluded, union mployees’ compensation will smain unchanged. monies and special funds is about $5,870,000. The budget hearing will be June 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the dis trict office. That is the time for anyone interested to present questions. A copy of the budget may be obtained at the district office between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Following the budget hear ing, the Board of Directors will convene a special board meet ing to adopt the budget. INSIDE: Special (non-discretionary) funds in the budget include Streets, Parks, Water, Public Works, Stormwater, Sewer, Cemetery, Airport, Community Development, Housing Reha- bilation (This is actually a re volving loan fund that is admin istered through Community Ac tion Team, Inc. When a job is done and a loan is repaid, it be comes available for use again.) and equipment reserve funds. Vernonia Town Hall Energy and Water Conservation Monday, June 25 7:00 pm, City Hall “Deep in the woods lies a tiny cemetery with remains of 58 souls.” This quotation is the first sentence of “A Day to Remem ber” written by Faith Reynolds for Memorial Day, 1998. Mrs. Reynolds’ essay gives a brief history of a small group of pioneers who settled near the community now known as Mist, and reminds the 65 de scendents who gathered to vis it the cemetery that day of the values held by their ancestors. The United Brethren in Christ Cemetery, the original name, has long been known as the Burn Road Cemetery. It was established in 1889. In 1984, the cemetery was trans ferred to the Vernonia Evangel ical Church, now called Ver nonia Community Church. Over the years, commercial timber companies bought the land surrounding the cemetery and it has been clear cut in the last two or three years. An application for a permit to clear cut the two acre ceme tery was filed May 15 by Steve Weller, on behalf of the Ver nonia Community Church, but the descendents of those 58 souls, led locally by Lee En- neberg, are strenuously object ing to the proposal. Weller said he had been hunting in the area and noticed the treed area in the middle of the clear cut. When he inquired about it, he said, he was sur prised to find out that it be longed to the church where he is an active member. Of the four members who signed the papers at the time of transfer, two (Carl Holsey and Ben Westbrook) are still active in the church, but Weller thinks the transaction was sim ply forgotten over the years. A meeting May 30 brought representatives of the descen dents and the church together with Mirra Meyer of the state Pioneer Cemetery Commis sion, Jay Worley of Oregon Department of Forestry, Dou glas Trotter of Oregon State Parks and Verne Ferguson of the Mist-Birkenfeld Historical Society. Pastor Grant Williams and Gordon Bronleewe repre sented the church. There were seven descendents, including Reynolds and Enneberg. “They built a church and a school in the midst of this untamed land. They dedi cated this tiny 2-1/2 acre plot for their cemetery... ” No consensus was reached at the meeting; ODF has no ju risdiction over cemeteries; the Cemetery Commission has no jurisdiction; state parks has no jurisdiction; descendents do not own the property; the church says it wants to log and restore the cemetery. The church has not devel oped a plan, Weller empha sized, and wants to work to gether with the descendents to restore and fence the ceme tery. He feels that there will be heavy loss of trees from blow down because Longview Fibre has clear cut its timber all around the cemetery. Reynolds and Enneberg fear that heavy equipment will further obliterate graves that have lost their markers. In many cases, an oblong de pression in the ground is the only sign of a grave. They do not want the tree canopy re moved because that would de stroy the deeply peaceful at mosphere in the cemetery. The church isn’t likely to log, according to Weller, if an agreement can’t be reached. The descendent group has suggested the cemetery be transferred to the Mist-Birken- Please see page 14
