Attn. Leslie Larson
UO Library-O M P
1299 University Of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1299
Vol. 18, No. 2
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
Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley
FREE
January 16, 2003
Park utility fee will
be on city water bill
An ordinance approving a
$1.00 per month utility fee for
park use and maintenance was
adopted by the Vernonia City
Council at their January 6
meeting. The fee will be includ
ed as a separate item on the
monthly water and sewer bill
and will go to all residential
units and businesses in Ver
nonia. In situations where a sin
gle address is used to bill utili
ties to multiple residential units,
such as a mobile home park or
an apartment house, the fee
will still be $1.00 per month per
residential unit.
Because many local busi
nesses are owned by local res
idents, the draft ordinance pro
posed waiving the monthly fee
on one of the bills, but three
people who would have quali
fied for that waiver, testified
during a public hearing prior to
the council meeting that such a
waiver did not seem right, es
pecially since well-maintained
parks were good for business.
The ordinance takes effect
immediately and will show on
the utility bill for January. The
first bill will be accompanied by
a letter explaining the change,
a sticker for a resident vehicle
and two cards that can be used
by residents when they go to
the parks without a vehicle.
Nonresidents
will
be
charged varying fees for park
use, ranging from $16 per night
for full RV hookups to $2.00 for
day use. An annual family pass
for nonresidents will be $20
and seniors may get a $12 an
nual pass. Children under age
18 are exempt.
Varying fees have also been
established for group reserva
tions and uses such as picnic
areas, group camping and ath
letic fields. A complete fee
schedule may be obtained from
City Hall.
surprise! State will cut In city watershed 0-A Lumber Company office on
Vernonia officials were dis
mayed to find out that the Ore
gon Department of Forestry
has approved a logging plan
that includes clear cutting at
the headwaters of Selders
Creek, a tributary of Rock
Creek, which supplies water for
the city, and that a “proposed”
property swap with Longview
Fibre Co., which includes the
301.5 acre parcel is, for all
practical purposes, approved.
The major reason for the dis
may is the absence of notifica
tion. According to District
Forester Tom Savage, from the
ODF Astoria office, the timber
on the Selders Creek parcel
was sold at auction in August,
2002. Additionally, ODF has
been working with Longview Fi
bre on the 40,000 acre land
trade for three years. A public
hearing on the exchange was
held December 16 in Astoria,
but the City of Vernonia was
not contacted until January,
2003.
Savage met with local offi
cials at Vernonia City Hall last
Monday, January 13, when
there were just three days left
in the public comment period.
Concerns expressed by Direc
tor of Public Works Robyn Bas
sett, City Administrator Mike
Sykes and Councilor Glen
Purvee dealt primarily with how
logging, especially clear cut
ting, affects water quality for
both human consumption and
fish habitat, how flood and
drought are both affected by
the presence and/or absence
of older trees, and why ODF
didn’t inform the city earlier in
the process. Maggie Peyton,
director of the Upper and Low
er Nehalem Watershed Coun
cils, also attended the meeting.
Savage couldn't say what
impact the operation may have
on the quality or quantity of wa
ter in Rock Creek, except to
say the job will be done in com
pliance with the state Forest
Practices Act (FPA), and that
the city should form a Water
shed Protection District for
Rock Creek. He didn’t know
whether the state or Longview
Fibre would be in charge of the
harvest.
The “Written Plan” (ODF
uses quotation marks around
Written Plan) for Harvest of
Selders Creek describes the
creek as a medium Type F (fish
bearing) stream with a small
Type F tributary. The plan says
that approximately 1,200 feet of
the stream requires protection.
The FPA describes the width of
Please see page 3
national list of Historic buildings
The former office of the Ore
gon-American Lumber Compa-
ny in Vernonia, long used as a
museum, is now listed on the
National Register of Historic
Places. The listing was an ex
citing event for the group of vol
unteers who have been work
ing to make improvements at
the museum, at 511 East
Bridge Street.
“There were many matters to
consider to get us on a firm and
true footing to make us worthy
of having the Oregon-American
Lumber Company Mill Office
placed on the National Register
of Historic places," said Enid
Parrow. “It’s been long in com
ing and many thanks go out to
Ann Fulton for her untiring work
in making it happen.”
Fulton, author of Vernonia: A
Pocket in the Woods, is Adjunct
Professor of History at Portland
State University.
All costs associated with the
listing procedure were donated
by Art and Enid Parrow.
Nominated at the recom
mendation of the State Adviso
ry Committee on Historic Pre
servation, the building was list
ed by the National Park Service
on December 5, 2002. The Na
tional Park Service maintains
the National Register under the
authority of the National His
toric Preservation Act of 1966.
The Register is the official list of
the nation’s cultural resources
and includes districts, sites, ar
chaeological sites, buildings,
structures and objects of na
tional, state and local signifi
cance.