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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2001)
Columbia County Fair open for family entertainment The 86th Annual Columbia County Fair and Rodeo in now underway at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in St. He lens. “The Best Little Fair in the West" will feature activities and entertainment including the perennial favorite NPRA Rodeo on Friday and Saturday nights, the 4-H livestock auc tion Saturday afternoon, log ging show on Sunday morning, and tractor pull (even a farm tractor pull) on Sunday after noon. the fairground’s 1924 Case Threshing Machine in opera tion. Yes, the carnival is going full bore and there are vendors with more types of foods than even a hungry teenager can handle in a single day, as well as concessions of all kinds. The fair opened July 18 and will run through Sunday, July 22. If you’re cost conscious, you can save $1.00 off the price of admission on Sunday, by donating a can of food to the A petting zoo that is certain to capture the fancy of all chil dren is open daily, and a Stilt Walker entertains throughout the fair grounds. There are tal ent shows, jugglers, bands, singers, square dancers and much more, including a Pee Wee Rodeo on Thursday. Both 4-H and Open Compe titions will be underway in cooking, art, photography, hor ticulture, sewing and more. You can wander through the open livestock barns and even watch county-wide Columbia Pacific Food Bank. Then you could spend that $1.00 on a ticket for the Hog Raffle; that way, you may win half a hog and the money will also go to the food bank. For a complete list of events, pick up Fair Events and Fair Premiums brochures, at The INDEPENDENT, Vernonia City Hall and other locations. Be sure to add this great family event to your list of things to do for this summer. INSIDE: Letters, lots of Letters.......... p g .3 &13 Landscape to help prevent fires......... pg. 8 Quail Valley seeks annexation to Banks...... pg. 9 PRESORTED STANDARD U .S . P o s ta g e P a id V e rn o n ia , O R 9 7 0 6 4 P e rm it N o. 37 Attn I £>c*lip t ^rertn UO Ubictry-OMP FREE i Vol. 16, No 14 “ Voice o f the Upper Nehalem River Valley” Lights out to save energy and money The Mist Store destroyed by fire. Only rubble remained of The Mist Store after it was destroyed by fire July 6. Built in 1888, the store continued in operation from horse and buggy days to the era of space exploration. For more information and old photos of the store, please see page 7. Madison Avenue paving getting started Rose Avenue was repaved; Adams Avenue was repaved, Weed Avenue was repaved and Jefferson Avenue was repaved. Next up...Madison Avenue. Special street improvement grants that help small cities have been used successfully in Vernonia for many years. They aren’t enough to do much at any one time, but they help. Madison was approved as the next project and work will soon start, then be suspended for Jamboree, and finish up in Hobart resigns before he’s even sworn in as school board member Instead of swearing in re cently elected board member Rick Hobart, the Vernonia School District Board of Direc tors accepted his resignation at their July 12 meeting. A job change made attendance diffi cult, according to Hobart’s let ter of resignation. Prior to changing jobs, he attended only one meeting. Anyone interested in apply ing for the vacant board posi tion may obtain an application from the school district office. Applications will be accepted until 12:00 noon on August third. The board will conduct in terviews and appoint a new member at their August 9 meeting. Please see page 5 July 18, 2001 August. Also on the schedule is seal coating for several streets and paths, including the linear trail extension and the path around Vernonia Lake. Exact dates are not yet set, but they will disrupt the regular use of the trails for a few days in August. Dedication date for Anderson Park work Dedication of the newly im proved facilities at Anderson Park is set for Friday, Aug. 3 at 1:30 p.m. The ribbon cutting ceremony will celebrate the completion of both new and improved facili ties for visitors and residents who use this popular park. See photos of some of the improve ments on page 4. After a presentation by Ver nonia Director of Public Works Robyn Bassett, and lengthy discussion by councilors, staff and audience, the Vernonia City Council approved a pre liminary energy conservation plan at their regular meeting July 16. The plan is not written in stone, the council and Bassett assured people at the meeting, when some reservations were expressed about turning off street lights, and there will be no hesitation about making changes as needed. Chief of Police Jim Walters said his department will also keep Bassett informed if it ap pears that some areas need more light. The city currently has 183 street lights and 104 of them are on the schedule to be shut off, leaving 79 lights on. Ap proximately every other light will be turned off in the down town area, in addition to a re duction in lighting around the city hall and library. A complete list of lights scheduled to be turned off is published on page 2 of The IN DEPENDENT. In residential areas, most of those included on the list are there at the re quest of residents, Bassett told the council. The council approved two limited exemptions to city ordi nances, allowing temporary residence in travel trailers. Desmond Hines, who is living in a travel trailer in the yard of a private residence on A Street, petitioned for permission to stay there while he pays off debts, including court fees, and gets his driver’s license back. Hines request was support ed by many A Street residents who signed an endorsement of his request, and by one, Betty Holsey, who spoke to the coun cil on his behalf. Chief Walters also approved the request, provided the police department retains oversight. The second request, from James Nichols of Sandy, Utah, was for permission to occa sionally use his self-contained recreational vehicle on proper ty he wants to buy. The proper ty is along the Nehalem River and lacks sufficient riparian setback to construct a perma nent building. The council was reluctant to set such a precedent, but agreed to try it for six months, with a 10 day limit for each 30 day period. In other business, the coun cil: • Appointed Michael Dickey to the city planning commis sion. • Set Aug. 6 for a public hearing on the Five-Year Street Rehabilitation Plan. • Set an Aug. 20 workshop on Spencer Park improve ments. • Accepted a bid of $2,800 for surplus property from Ro bert Kaufman. The only other bid for the property adjoining 893 E. Bridge St. was for $511.11. • Approved a resolution amending the Parks Master Capital Plan in order to apply for grant funds that could be used to improve Airport Park. If the grant application is suc cessful, improvements may in clude fire pits, parking spots and picnic tables at designated sites; ADA accessible camp sites; installing an ADA acces sible vault-type restroom; de veloping a hand-pump operat ed potable well; clearing brush and thinning trees to develop additional camp sites and es tablishing a formal caretaker arrangement to allow collection of user fees.
