Vol. 18, No. 1
‘ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley'
January 2, 2003
Vernonia Credit Union
will merge with WFCU
Vernonia Federal Credit
Union board has agreed to
merge into Wauna Federal
Credit Union.
Vernonia Federal Credit
Union serves the Vernonia
community with a base of more
than 700 members. VFCU cur
rently offers limited services
with limited hours. Wauna Fed
eral Credit Union has ex
pressed a commitment to mak
ing the Vernonia Branch, in its
current location, a full service
branch, with full service hours
and an ATM.
According to a press release
from Wauna Federal Credit
Union, the range of new servic
es that will be offered include,
but are not limited to: Checking
Accounts, Debit Cards, Visa
Card, Internet Banking, 24 hour
telephone account access, and
30 year mortgages, in addition
to a large variety of low interest
High winds cause area power outages
The wind blew hard and
trees fell throughout the area
served by West Oregon Elec
tric Cooperative - Buxton to
Necanicum and Mist to Yamhill,
keeping line crews working
around the clock for nearly 48
hours to restore service. The
crews started removing trees
and restoring lines at 3:30 a.m.
Friday, Dec. 27, and continued
until midnight on Saturday,
Dec. 28, according to opera
tions manager Steve Hursh.
Most of the damage was
caused by trees falling through
power lines, Hursh said, but
line crews also had to spend a
lot of time removing fallen trees
that blocked roads and pre
vented trucks from getting
through.
In some areas, particularly
along Johnson Road, falling
trees stripped insulators off of
poles. Fallen lines caused two
small fires, one at Vernonia Air
port, the other in Yamhill Coun
ty-
Buxton, Timber, Keasey and
Elsie had extensive outages
caused by the loss of the Bon
neville Power Administration
transmission line to the Timber
substation, WOEC transm is
sion lines and local distribution
lines. The Gaston area was
also hard hit.
Power was out in Mist for
about an hour, while Chapman,
Vernonia and Necanicum had
only brief outages.
Council sets two public hearings
After a year of consideration,
workshops, discussions and a
public hearing, the Vernonia
City Council will hold a second
public hearing and make a de
cision Monday, January 6,
whether to adopt an ordinance
that would finance the city’s
parks with a $1 charge added
to the monthly water and sewer
bills. Most of the people who
spoke at the public hearing in
December felt that such a pro
cedure would be the fairest and
most efficient way to establish
a consistent source of revenue.
Monday’s public hearing will
be to consider the proposed or
dinance. It will start immediate
ly following a 6:30 p.m. public
hearing to consider vacating a
city-owned portion of O kla
homa Avenue adjacent to
Spencer Park.
rate loan products. Wauna Fed
eral is rapidly being recognized
as the Lender of choice within
its communities.
“The VFCU board of direc
tors is pleased with the merger
decision because Wauna Fed
eral shares similar values, an
ongoing com m itm ent to the
com m unity we serve and a
wide range of financial services
and products,” said Randall E.
Holce, VFCU manager.
The board and staff of Wau
na Federal are excited and
honored to have the opportuni
ty to service the community of
Vernonia, according to Manag
er Linda Ray. “We look forward
to offering a continued expan
sion of services,” Ray said.
VFCU members will receive
more information at the annual
meeting in a few weeks, in ad
dition to details of the merger
timeline.
Legislators, school officials
discuss mutual concerns
The Northwest Regional Ed
ucation
Service
District
(NWRESD) held a dinner and
forum for school board mem
bers and local legislators, in
December, to discuss issues to
be dealt with in the upcoming
legislative session. The twelve
legislators attending answered
questions about school funding
and effective working relation
ships.
NWRESD serves 20 school
districts in Clatsop, Columbia,
Tillamook and W ashington
Counties; these districts serve
more than 107,700 students
and are represented by 125
school and ESD board mem
bers. In turn, the counties are
represented at the state level
by 21 legislators (8 senators
and 13 representatives). With
term limits gone, legislators
said that they hoped to develop
long-term working relationships
between parties.
Bipartisanship needed
The legislators in attendance
indicated that bipartisan agree
ment could be obtained for a
multi-faceted approach to solv
ing Oregon’s funding crisis. The
legislators largely agreed that
the budget cuts already taken
in school districts may not have
been noticed by the public, but
that the expected failure of
Measure 28 will be an “alarm
ing wake-up call” to the citizens
of the state, as Rep. Betsy
Johnson (D-Scappoose) said.
Real cuts with genuine effects
of huge magnitude will leave
Oregonians “shocked and an
gry,” Johnson continued. Using
a phrase that was periodically
picked up by other legislators
throughout the evening, John-
Please see page 10