Vol. 18, No. 11
_________________ “Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
Senior and disabled
programs in flux
Hands
The Columbia County Coun
cil of Seniors has lost its fund
ing and, as of July 1, will no
longer be providing transporta
tion, advocacy, nutrition or
recreation programs for senior
and disabled residents of Co
lumbia County. Those pro
grams include meals in the
senior centers and meals on
wheels; they also include trans
portation.
Charges
and
counter
charges have been exchanged
between those who want a
changing of the guard and
those who want to retain the
Transportation
needs will be
meeting topic
and Lincoln Grade Schools also benefited from the students’ efforts. Instructor Dennis
DeWitt and Joe Batty supervised the effort and Loma Poetter, of Farmwoman's Nursery
donated many shrubs and flowers for the beautification effort.
National rally car race in Vernonia area
It has been four years since
the Sports Car Club of Ameri
ca’s rally series made a visit to
Columbia County roads. In that
time the organizers, Oregon
Rally Group, have grown their
premier event into a national
level championship rally. After
three years on SCCA’s national
schedule in April, Oregon Trail
SCCA Rally returns to Vernonia
on Saturday, July 12.
Upwards of 80 rally teams
will be coming to northwest
Oregon from all over North
America, just two weeks after
they compete at the world fa
mous Pike’s Peak Hillclimb and
Rally in Colorado.
Manufacturers’ teams will be
arriving in the area a week
June 5, 2003
ahead of the rally weekend, to
prepare their cars for top perfo-
mance. ProDrive manages
Subaru’s rally efforts in the
U.S., just as they do on the
world rally stage in the World
Rally Championship. Mitsubishi
is now bringing in the famous
Lancer Evo rally car to the U.S.
auto market, and their drivers
are at the top of the standings
this season. Ford Focus is a
rally inspired European Ford
creation and it, too, will be pre
sent, backed by the U.S. Air
Force Reserves. Mazda, Dodge
Neon, Audi will all be present in
rally livery when the teams set
up the service park at Vernonia
school grounds on Saturday
morning. Fans will be welcome
to walk the grounds and watch
the teams at work as the cars
come in for service stops
throughout the afternoon.
From a 10 a.m. start at Hills
boro Stadium, teams will go
west to forest roads in the
Tillamook State Forest. After a
few grueling stages, the cars
will make their way to Vernonia
for the first service opportunity
of the day. With 80 cars arriving
at two minute intervals, the
service park should be busy all
afternoon.
Fans can witness the rally
action at locations specified by
rally organizers for both viewer
safety and viewing vantages.
Organizers hope to complete
Please see page 20
County residents are invited
to participate in a discussion
about public transportation
needs of Columbia County.
Community meetings will
discuss the results of a county
wide survey on mobility needs
of Columbia County residents.
Specific community-level data
will be available for citizen re
view. The forums will provide a
platform for more in-depth dis
cussion of data findings.
Meetings are scheduled as
follows:
• June 10, 12:00-1:00 p.m. -
St. Helens - Scappoose Cham
ber of Commerce, 2194 Co
lumbia Boulevard
• June 10, 6:00-8:00 p.m. -
Scappoose City Hall, 33568 E.
Columbia Avenue
• June 11, 6:00-8:00 p.m. -
Vernonia City Hall, 1001 Bridqe
Street.
Meetings have been held in
Rainier and Clatsakanie.
For more information about
the CCCTP planning process
and survey, go to <www.co.co
lumbia.or.us/transit> or call the
CCCTP Comment Line at 1-
888-403-8344.
status quo, but a state notice
of decertification will effectively
remove the council from pub
licly funded activities.
Community Action Team is
being considered as the um
brella organization for most of
the programs, but apparently
not transportation - which is a
major concern to seniors and
disabled in Vernonia.
On June 30, most of the Col-
co Transportation vans and
buses will be turned over to Co
lumbia County. When asked
how seniors in Vernonia will get
to their doctor appointments in
Hillsboro or Portland, there
have been no answers forth
coming from county or state of
ficials except: “W e’re trying to
find another provider."
This could be complicated
by the fact that most Colco driv
er are paid minimum wage. As
of Tuesday, the county had no
interim provider and had not
sent out any requests for pro
posals (RFPs). According to
the assistant county counsel,
Cynthia Zemaitis, the county is
working with the public trans
portation division of ODOT in
seeking service, and with a
transportation planner (see arti
cle on left).
47J Budget plan
includes full year
In his 26 years as an educa
tor, Vernonia School District
Superintendent Mike Funder-
burg said, as the district Budget
Committee met May 15, noth
ing has been as confusing,
hurtful and devastating to the
system as the current level of
education funding. The budget
docum ent presented to the
committee was based on pro
jected enrollment and revenues
available as of May 1, but Fun-
derburg explained that project
ed fu n d in g fo r th e 2 0 0 3 -0 5
Please see page 12