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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2002)
Vol. 17, No. 16 “Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley” August 15, 2002 School board deals with varied problems A standing-room-only audi ence remained for the entire Vernonia School District board meeting, August 1, to watch or participate in discussion of three significant issues—air quality problems at Washington Grade School, drug testing of athletes, and out-of-district placement policy. None of the issues was directly related to school funding problems. Air quality com plaints at Washington Grade School anks Bar-BQ, Truck & Tractor Pull The 57th annual Banks Bar- BQ gets off to a good start Sat urday morning with horseshoe tournaments. Registration be gins at 9:00 a.m. at Sunset Park. Weigh-in for stock tractors begins at noon, with the Tractor Pull starting at 2:00 p.m. There will also be a Tractor Pull on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Registra tion starts at 3:00 p.m. for Sat urday night’s Pickup Pull. Saturday night also features a dance, with the Beer Garden open from 6:00 to midnight While waiting“for the Sunday morning parade, which starts at 11:00 a.m., there’s plenty of time to enjoy the Lions Club Breakfast at the hamburger stand in the park, go to the Brown Derby to sign-up for the parade, and join in the 9:30 a.m. Community Worship Ser vice at Kelly Field. At noon on Sunday, the fa mous Bar-B-Q sandwiches go on sale, kids’ activities start with the Kids Zone-Bale Maze, sponsored by F.F.A., and the Beer Garden opens. Then, de pending on your preferences, you can enjoy the Tractor Pull or take in an afternoon of Bingo with the Lions Club. The kids will be busy at the Greased Pole and Frog Jump, or the Kids Pedal Pull, spon sored by Fisher Implement. Closing out the weekend, will be the 4th annual Combine Demolition Derby! While you're in town, don’t forget to check out the Banks Merchants Sidewalk Sale on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The merchants have promised bar gains galore while you take time to see what Banks has to offer on the other end of town! City will hold Town Hall to discuss parks Vernonia City Council has scheduled a Town Hall meeting to discuss proposed agree ments and rates for the use of Parks Facilities, on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 5:00 p.m. in the An derson Park picnic shelter. Council and the Parks Com mittee want to standardize a fa cility use agreement and rates throughout the City parks sys tem and want to hear com ments from the public. This Town Hall meeting will be a potluck! Bring your favorite food dish and eating utensils. Superintendent Mike Fun- derburg reviewed actions in re gard to air quality at WGS. Be ginning with an Oct. 16, 2001, letter from the Oregon Occupa tional Safety & Health Division (OSHA) in response to a com plaint that employees and stu dents experience sinus infec tions, nausea and headaches in the WGS basement, Funder- burg traced the district re sponse. An Oct. 22, 2001, reply to OSHA cited the district’s at tempts to limit the use of the basement since 1996, and the recommendation of the long range facilities plan to retire the facility as soon as possible. The response included docu mentation of efforts to mitigate dampness and mold. In De cember, 2001, the district re ceived notice from OSHA that the complaint had “been inves tigated and necessary action has been taken to correct any hazards identified." In February, 2002, the dis trict contacted Clayton Group Services (CGS) and received a proposal for work to “determine the extent of possible mold-re lated issues in the school build ing and evaluate the current provisions for providing outdoor air to the occupied areas.” However, the district did not re spond to CGS and no analysis was performed. Funderburg praised the efforts of a parent, Marie Botchie, to make him aware of the problem. In a pos itive response, Botchie said that the goal should be to make the school as healthy and safe for all children as is possible. Since taking over as super intendent, Funderburg has asked OSG for a restatement of their proposal, talked with the Scappoose School District about their handling of a similar situation, and contacted Liberty Northwest (the district’s work ers’ compensation carrier) about conducting further air quality testing. He also contracted with CGS to complete the physical test ing, which was done July 24. Preliminary reports indicate that the problems are not relat ed to the flooding of ’96, but may be related to dry rot and the accumulation of water in the basement caused by over full gutters. CGS will issue a complete report by the time of the next board meeting. Liberty Northwest will also conduct air quality testing in September. The district’s new mainte nance supervisor, John Lewis (who started July 29th) spent a good deal of his first four days on the job cleaning the gutters at WGS and the high school. All of the affected drains have been cleared and are now working, according to Funder burg. Members of the Vernonia Education Association, the lo cal teachers union, said they had been trying for a long time to reach a resolution to the air quality problem, but have agreed to wait for results of sci entific testing before consider ing further action. Fiscal responsibility for a new school building was dis cussed by Botchie and Director Jim Krahn, with Botchie insist ing that the state had an obliga tion to pay for a safe and Please see paqe8
