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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2001)
> 1 1 ! / r i i < i t i t I i l I I I I i l ! ! ! ! ) I > ) ! t 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 Attn; Leslie Larsen UO Ubrary-OMP 1209 University Of Oregon Eugene OR 97400-1299 ! ! ! ! ! FREE ¡g&i 1 Voi. 16, No 23 “Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley’ December 5, 2001 Coleo defended by local senior citizens Joyous carols... p Vernonia High School Choir members chased away the frigid air with warm renditions of traditional Christmas carols for the lighting of the community Christmas tree on Satur day. From left, in front are Abby Nelson, Julie Hales, Lacey Schilling, Rose Peets and Melissa Grebenc. In the back row are Shawn Robertson (hidden), Shawn Hillyer and Jake Brock. Choir director B o b Jstedjsjtn gh t. When Columbia County made a second request for the Vernonia City Council to adopt a resolution in support of form ing a public transportation ser vice district, a number of senior citizens attended the council meeting to make their position very, very clear. The message was both sim ple and eloquent: Replacing Colco Transportation with an other system based elsewhere, may be fine for communities on Highway 30, but the service that Vernonia needs simply would not be provided by a dif ferent type of transportation system. The Board of Commission ers first raised the possibility of a transportation service district in March, when it asked all cities in the county to adopt the resolution noted above, be cause, a letter from County Counsel John Knight ex plained, they were concerned about Colco’s financial condi tion and wanted to prepare a contingency plan, ie., be ready to institute a transportation ser vice district, if Colco was un able to continue. Sellers Rd., B-V trail crossings concern planners Preliminary planning for the Sellers Road realignment was the focus of the Banks Plan ning Commission at their No vember 27 meeting. The inter section at the north end of town is extremely complicated, with Hwy 47, Sellers Rd., Banks Rd., Cedar Canyon Rd., the Banks- Vernonia Linear Park and the Port of Tillamook railroad all crossing at the same point. Traffic traveling on and off of Sellers road is completely unre stricted, with no signs requiring a stop to enter or leave High way 47. This creates an ex tremely dangerous situation for traffic from Banks Road. School buses, which cannot legally stop on a railroad track at any time, must pull all the way up to Highway 47 before stopping, effectively blocking Sellers Road. Log trucks and other long vehicles create the same problem. The preliminary engineering study has been funded from a variety of sources. Oregon De partment of Parks and Depart ment of Transportation, the Port of Tillamook, Washington County and the City of Banks each has an interest in the completion of the trail and the road realignment. The presen tation of the preliminary plan required no action by the plan ning commission. Dick Yano, with the engi neering firm of OTAK, present ed the preliminary plan with the trail extension divided into three sections. The first section is from the current end of the trail to the intersection, the sec ond section is composed of the intersection of Sellers and Banks Roads, and the third section extends from Banks Road to the railroad depot. The proposal for the first section includes a 10-foot paved pedestrian/bike path, with a parallel four-foot eques trian path. The preliminary de sign jogs onto the railroad right- of-way for about half of the dis tance, where the abandoned railroad grade reverted to the original owner. However, Dale Evers, the property owner, said Please see page 11 It appears the drought has ended! November 13 had 2.31 inches of rain. There were four more days in November with an inch or more of rain in 24 hours, including 1.91 inches on Friday, November 30. Vernonia’s council felt such an action was premature and did not adopt the resolution. In the meantime, Colco Transportation and its sponsor, the Columbia County Council of Seniors, have both had in creasing financial difficulties, due, in part, to major changes in personnel while the council has tried to find the right ad ministrators. The State of Oregon, which administers federal public transportation grant funds, has expressed concern about the Council of Seniors’ ability to get the situation in order. Repre sentatives of the council were in Salem on Monday, and hoped to be able to show ade quate progress at solving the problems. Among the ponts made by Vernonia senior citizens were: • Vans must be located in Vernonia because a service that relied on sending vans here from some other location would be inadequate. • The local vans go to Port land and Hillsboro taking peo ple to medical appointments, and go to St. Helens so they can access necessary ser vices, including food stamps. • Every morning a van picks up children whose parents must go to work, and takes them to either child care or to school. Then, in the afternoon, the children are picked up at school and taken to child care. • Colco round trip rates are reasonable - $2.00 in town, $13 to St. Helens and $15 to Portland. Before making any decision, the city council agreed to ask County Counsel Knight to at tend the first council meeting in January so they can get more specific information. They also want to know what the state de cides.
