The INDEPENDENT, June 20, 2001
Salem Report
Between the Bookends
By Nancy Burch, Librarian
Vernonia Public Library
The Vernonia library’s Summer Reading Pro
gram is all set to “kick-off” with a “rootin’ tootin’
non-shootin’ western” with puppeteer Celeste
Rose pulling the strings of a dozen charming
marionettes. This presentation will take place
Thursday, June 21st at 1:00 p.m. and will be
made possible by the Oregon Library Associa
tion and the Children’s Services Division, who
have teamed with Metropolitan Group to secure
funding for another year of statewide Summer
Reading materials and program grants. Spon
sors this year include the Craig Berkman Fami
ly, Ford Family Foundation, Meyer Memorial
Trust, Oregon Public Broadcasting, and Wells
Fargo Foundation.
Other presentations will be as follows:
June 28 1 p.m. Crafts and stories
July 5 1 p.m. Leather stamping & stories
July 12 1 p.m. Native American games
and stories
July 19 1 p.m. Pioneer Crafts and stories
7 p.m. Cook-out and songs at
Anderson Park
July 26 1 p.m. Bicycle rodeo and stories
7 p.m. Native American presenta
tion by Bill White Eagle
Wilson
Aug. 2 1 p.m. Crafts and stories preparing
for “float”
Jamboree parade
Aug. 4 TBA
Adults as well as youngsters are invited to
participate and are especially encouraged to at
tend the special presentations.
Several community volunteers will be helping
with crafts, stories, etc. and prizes for reading
have been obtained from MacDonald’s, Dairy
Queen, and Lee’s U-Catch. The remainder of
the funding will be provided by the City of Ver
nonia and by a donation from the local Lions’
Club. Join the fun, encourage your youngsters
to read this summer, and be sure to thank the
sponsors and volunteers.
Hooray! Hooray! The eagerly anticipated goal
of having 10,000 library items entered and com
puter searchable was reached this past month.
Although the process will be ongoing, we have
met this important library goal that was set for
this year. This was all accomplished in less than
a year, mostly by volunteers, and at a savings of
nearly $5,000 if these items had been sent to a
company to be electronically converted, as most-
libraries have done.
Joann Glass, ably represented the library and
the Friends of the Library at the recent Vernonia
Community Business and Organization Expo.
She distributed Summer Reading flyers as well
as information concerning membership in the
Friends organization and their upcoming book
■I
I
»■■■
.... -
.I..
I I
■ ■
sale. This book sale will be held in the old city
hall building on Saturday, August 4th (Jam
boree) from 10-5. Donations are being accepted
at the library. In conjunction with the sale, a raf
fle will be held for new books and gift certificates
for books. The next meeting of the Friends of the
Library will be Tuesday, July 10th in the library.
Anyone wishing to promote and support the li
brary is encouraged to attend.
New acquisitions include The Last Time They
Met by Anita Shreve, The Skies of Pern by Anne
McCaffrey, Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James,
P is for Peril by Sue Grafton, and Chosen Prey
by John Sandford. Also new, and my recom
mendation for this month is Alice’s Tulips by
Sandra Dallas. Dallas’s other novels are The
Persian Pickle Club, The Diary of Mattie
Spenser, and Buster Midnight's Cafe. Each is
set in a different location and era and each is ab
solutely delightful.
Those of us who knew her well, met her
briefly, or just knew of her background and gen
erosity to the library were saddened this past
month to hear of the death of Margaret Mac
Donald Thiele Petti. It was through her generous
donation that the library was able to add some
money to the new library building project and,
most especially, to have such wonderful furnish
ings in the library. The server for the automated
library system, the Athena program, two com
puters, a printer, library tables, chairs, book
shelves, and window coverings were all made
possible by Mrs. Petti and her foundation, which
is administered by James McFarland. I still can
not get over my surprise, when, after writing a
letter to the foundation stating our needs, I re
ceived a phone call from Mr. McFarland saying
that $50,000 would be given to the library. That
has to be right up there with the most exciting
phone call that an ordinary person would ever
receive. It certainly was for me. Although Mr. Mc
Farland and his family came on her behalf, Mrs.
Petti was never able to visit the new library.
Since newspaper articles and letters expressing
our gratitude and pictures of various stages of
the building process and the completed project
were sent to her, we know she was aware of the
importance of her gift and of its impact on the
community. The entryway in the library displays
a picture of Mrs. Petti, tells a little about her life,
and contains a plaque designating the meeting
room as the “Margaret MacDonald Thiele Petti
Meeting Room.”
Vernonia Library 701 Weed Avenue
Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tues., Thur. 2 p.m.-7 p.m,
bat. iu a.m.-2 p.m.
Preschool Story Time, Mondays, 10:30 a.m.
Phone: (503)429-1818
......................... —
Letters to tbe Editor
Fair concerts would
be brief disruption
To the Editor:
I would like to go on record
in support of the use of the
Fairgrounds for concerts to
support our Columbia County
Fair activities. I have a per
spective I haven’t yet heard in
the debate over the concerts.
As a St. Helens downtown
resident and businessman, I
am regularly surrounded by ac
tivity during the Fourth of July
Fireworks, the three-day River-
test and the annual visit from
the Christmas Ships. In all in
stances, there is brief gridlock,
sometimes live music, a beer
garden, dancing, parades, out-
of-towners and loud noise. The
local police and Sheriff’s De
partment have the experience
to handle the traffic and
crowds. When we have had
problems, thèÿ have been mi
nor and have been resolved ef
Page 3
ficiently. It is a brief inconve
nience, but inconsequential
compared to the benefits from
keeping some cash at home
and providing local entertain
ment.
When the people opposing
the concerts at the Fairgrounds
say, “How’d you like to have
something like this in your
backyard?” I hope they remem
ber whose backyard they are in
when they enjoy the fireworks
or Riverfest. If the downtown
residents and business owners
throughout Columbia County
adopted the same narrow and
pessimistic attitude as the new
ly formed “Friends of Good
Planning,” we would have none
of our community events...no
Scappoose Sauerkraut Festi
val, Clatskanie Heritage Days,
Vernonia Friendship Jamboree
or Rainier Day in the Park. I
feel strongly that when you live
in a community, you need to
contribute to that community
and that contribution can in
clude tolerance in favor of the
greater benefit.
I also want to add that I sup
port Evelyn Hudson’s judge
ment and her ability to manage
a large festival. An example is
the work she did on the Sauer
kraut Festival that has been
such a positive event for the
Scappoose community. Adding
more activities to the Fair
grounds events is good busi
ness and supports a great
county-wide activity, the Fair.
Paul Pulliam
St. Helens
Let kids play noisily,
it’s their own home
To the Editor:
This letter is not in response
to the last issue of the paper
that covered the council meet
ing. I had intended for it to be in
that issue, but they did not
have enough space. While this
letter was delayed because of
From page 2
-cessitate long, expensive, le
gal battles over an issue about
which the courts have already
decided.
There is a bill being brought
forward to extend the voting
deadline to include ballots that
are postmarked by midnight on
Election Day. I have worked
against this concept in that it
discriminates against rural ar
eas that don’t have post offices
with staff on those nights to
even post mark mail. This seems
to be a solution to a problem that
isn’t a problem. Hopefully, it will
be sent back to committee for a
deserving burial.
It appears we will be work
ing straight through until we
are finished. This means that
issues will be run through the
system or dropped from sight.
If there are issues you are par
ticularly concerned about, now
is the time to be heard as the
end is in sight.
Rep. Elaine Hopson
900 Court Street NE H376
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503)-986-1402
email:
ehopson.rep @ state.or.us
Letters to tbe Editor
Visitors impressed rade. The parade will begin
with neat, ’ clean town Hall
f°ri?in
g ,at7-»°p»m'
and will get underway at
To the Editor:
My husband and I visited
our son and daughter in law in
Vernonia last month and were
so impressed with the cleanli
ness and neatness of your
town and around the lake, that
we felt compelled to write to
your newspaper, which we also
enjoyed. And, of course, we
were proud to see the Black-
smithing work of our son on the
flower holders on the bridge.
While there, we attended
the Community Church and
were made so welcome by
Pastor Williams and the con
gregation. Also, the stores of
Vernonia were so friendly and
nice.
You should be proud of your
town. We will be back!
Patty and Rhea Sizemore
Mohawk, Tennessee
Plans continue for
annual July 4 parade
To the Editor:
We are hoping that Uncle
Sam will lead our 4th of July
parade down Bridge Street to
Washington grade school.
Come out and join us in the pa-
lack of space, the family has
since received a citizen citation
from the owner of the Inn for
the daughter starting a 4-stroke
bike on a Sunday morning at
10:00 a.m. When reading the
following article, I now feel it is
of utmost importance that you
take this into consideration and
think of how you would feel if it
were you in the same situation
as this family.
Two years ago, I decided to
come from working in Scap
poose, to working in Vernonia,
since it was such a nice town
and so close to home. After
coming to work here, I found
that this was a very warm and
giving town, people work to
gether here to help each other
out. There was one particular
individual that was very helpful
to me, found me a car, intro
duced me to a lot of people,
generally made me feel at
home. From what I have seen
in this town, the same individ
ual is employed by one of the
most well known businesses in
town, is one of the most knowl-
edgable, well known, well liked
7:30 p.m. We will disband at
the school and wait for the fire
works at dusk. The Booster
Club and the Cub Scouts will
be selling hot dogs, hamburg
ers, pop, snow cones, popcorn
and cotton candy. Glow sticks
will also be for sale at the
Booster Club stand. Please
join us for an evening of fun.
Lew’s Place will be holding
a Spaghetti Dinner, including
salad, bread and dessert Tues
day, June 26, with all proceeds
going to the fireworks fund.
Look for the ad about the din
ner elsewhere in this newspa
per. Hope to see you there.
Donations are being accept
ed to help pay for the fireworks.
Look for the jars in downtown
businesses or send to Vernon
ia Pride c/o Enid Parrow, 842
2nd Avenue, Vernonia. We will
also be collecting donations at
the fireworks on the 4th of July.
One last note: Please leave
your own fireworks at home.
They are not allowed at the
school grounds that night. With
all the people gathered there,
someone could get hurt. Let’s
make this a safe 4th of July.
Thanks.
Enid Parrow
Vernonia Pride Member
people there are. Everyone
calls on him for help from mow
ers, cars, bikes, tractors, etc.,
and he would give the shirt off
his back to anyone, if it was
needed. In that time, I have
also become very close^o his
children. They are very good
kids; stay out of trouble, don’t
hang out in town, etc. Over a
year and a half ago, he bought
a little place on Madison Av
enue.
When you buy a home, you
assume, as I would, that your
children are allowed to use
your property after a decent
hour in the morning and till it is
dark at night. This does not
seem to be true, in this case,
though. There is an Inn that is
next door to their home that
seems to have a problem with
his children using their land to
ride bikes, play, etc. I cannot
understand, for the life of me,
why a business such as an Inn
would be in city limits, with no
land purchased around them to
ensure privacy and silence;
expecting neighbors to have no
Please see page 12