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