The independent., February 20, 2002, Page 2, Image 2

Page 2
The INDEPENDENT, February 20, 2002
You can help a child
There will always be debates about child welfare issues. When
*
is it prudent to remove a child from home? When is it
best to provide services to help to family overcome
their problems?
In many instances, it is a judge who makes the criti­
cal decision. Increasingly, judges are receiving help in
making an informed decision. That help is coming from
Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers
who are trained to speak for the best interests of
abused and nelected children.
CASA of Columbia County currently has 14 volun­
teers representing 37 children; the need for more vol­
unteers is great.
Being a CASA volunteer is challenging, but no par­
ticular background is required. If you are you looking
for a way to get involved in your community, consider
CASA.
Spring training for new CASA volunteers will start
March 9th. For more information, call CASA Director
Jan Martin at 503-366-7644
It’s not broke; don’t fix it!
An article on page one tells of a recommendation by
Columbia County Comissioner Joe Corsiglia that the
Regional Strategies/Rural Investment program be
eliminated and the money sent directly to each county.
Corsiglia thinks this would save the state money by
eliminating regional administrative costs.
The partial list of funds that have benefited Columbia
County and Vernonia show that most of the grants and
loans are relatively small. That is exactly the reason
the program works well. When a small town needs a
small amount of money, such a request gets lost when
compared to the amounts needed for large projects.
This program is geared to the needs of Vernonia and
Garibaldi, Rainier and Manzanita, Astoria and Tillam­
ook. This region works well together. A change might
not hurt but, when something works well, it’s foolish to
change it.
Would you rather use the current system, or go to
the Board of Commissioners whenever there is a need
for financial assistance?
C o r r e c tio n :
One of the West Oregon Electric Cooperative people
who helped when I rolled my car, was Ahron Barton.
Apologies, Ahron, for using the wrong name.
Salem Senna
By Betsy Johnson,
Pep., District 31
I voted no on SJR 50 despite my longstanding
support of a stabilization fund for our public
school system. I have several reasons for my
decision and none of them include opposition to
the concept of a fund to help our public schools
deal with periodic downturns in the economy.
The proposal contained in SJR 50 failed on
several counts:
Amendments to our state Constitution de­
serve more than a few minutes of thought and a
closed process before being sent to voters.
This measure does not appear to meet basic
constitutional tests of the single subject rule and
should have been presented to the body as a re­
vision rather than an amendment.
It failed to meet even the threshold require­
ments for an open, deliberative process aimed at
developing the best possible plan for a stabiliza­
tion fund. The bill was made available to me at
Letters
to the Editor
- .....-... —...—.............................. —
County needs better controls
To the Editor:
It's getting close to county budget time and we
keep hearing about the potential revenue short­
fall and possible reduction in personnel/services
because of this lack of revenue. I’d like to offer
some suggestions for cost reductions and wise
use of our money.
1) The County Commissioners need to spend
more time in the office. Even though they are not
the very last minute and there were no hearings
allowing the public or interested parties to partic­
ipate.
The measure includes a one-time borrowing
scheme that does not fit with the long-term na­
ture of a stabilization fund.
The funding source contemplated in the mea­
sure, the lottery, is under judicial review and is it­
self unstable.
I look forward to future Special Sessions
where we can have a full and open discussion,
debate and vote on this very important issue and
then go to our voters with a measure we can be
proud of and truly point to as an opportunity to
stabilize our school funding system.
Rep. Betsy Johnson
Salem: 900 Court Street NE
H-373 State Capitol
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: Salem 503-986-1401
Scappoose 503-543-4046
required to have a 9 to 5 job like the rest of the
world and make $58,500...oh, lest I forget, plus
benefits, they are required per state law to offi­
cially be in the office on Wednesday (meeting
day), but sometimes they can’t even manage
that! They are running around the state (and
country), supposedly “taking care of county busi­
ness,” but when’s the last time we received a
benefit of some degree because of all this run­
ning around? In addition, if the commissioners
stayed in the office more, they wouldn't need to
Please see page 3