PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 19, No. 2
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
January 15, 2004
Microwave system for
9-1-1 nears completion
Winter Beauty
Public test of vote
counting equipment
Major “blind” spots in radio
communications for Columbia
County emergency services
will soon be part of history. Bad
weather and a couple of snags
have caused some delays, but
the county-wide microwave
communications system is
nearing completion.
After waiting for the osprey
to fledge from their nest atop
the AT&T tower on Corey Hill,
excessive lease demands from
AT&T to share tower space re-
sulted in a decision to build a
new tower adjacent to theirs on
the city-owned property. AT&T
has a $400 monthly lease with
the City of Vernonia, but asked
Columbia 9-1-1 for $960 a
month.
Until construction of the tow-
er can be completed, Day
Wireless is loaning a single-
pole tower to serve Vernonia
and a large part of the upper
Nehalem Valley. The building,
equipment and electrical instal-
lations are all in place, but the
unusually severe weather has
delayed installation of the tem-
porary tower. The site is now
expected to be operational by
mid-February, at the latest. If
there are no further delays,
The public certification test
of Columbia County’s vote
counting equipment will be on
Tuesday, January 27, for the
February 3, special election.
Testing will begin at 2:00
p.m. in the county Elections
Department at the courthouse
in St. Helens.
Ballot drop sites for area
voters who do not mail their
ballots will be as follows:
• Vernonia Library during
regular hours, plus extended
hours February 3 from noon to
8:00 p.m.
• Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire
Dist. Main Station during regu-
lar office hours. Hours for Feb-
ruary 3 will be 8:00 a.m. to 8:00
p.m.
A building needed for the microwave communications sys-
tem was delivered to Corey Hill in December, before ice and
snow temporarily halted progress.
Falling like a silvery curtain, icicles formed a man-sized cave by hanging from a rock
ledge on the south side of the Nehalem River, at the confluence of Rock Creek.
Blood donors swamp Red Cross
Joel Glass, still pale after re-
covering from major injuries re-
ceived in a hunting accident
this past fall, couldn’t hide his
elation or his gratitude at yes-
terday’s turnout for a communi-
ty blood drive in his honor.
“Giving of yourself is the
most personal and blessed of
gifts. It has been the most hum-
bling experience of my life to
receive such a gift from so
many people,” Glass said, as
he expressed thanks on behalf
of his family, the Red Cross vol-
unteers and himself.
With a turnout of 50 people,
not only was the goal of 30
units reached, but another 15
people were referred to the
February 25 blood drive that
will be held at Vernonia High
School.
FREE
Marguerite Nice, El Donna
Williams and Angie Budge or-
ganized the drive.
American Red Cross blood
drive coordinator Koren
Karlovic and Joel Glass
make the message loud and
clear.
Vernonia and Mist-Birkenfeld
fire districts will be connected
in late January. Vernonia Police
Department is scheduled for
connection in early February.
“The City [of Vernonia] has
been absolutely wonderful to
work with,” said Sally Smith, di-
rector of the Columbia Emer-
gency Communications Dis-
trict, “and we have been fortu-
nate with the grants we’ve re-
ceived, or we wouldn’t be able
to do what we’re doing.” Most
sites are locally owned by gov-
ernments or local companies
who see the value of public
safety, she added, noting that
Evenson Timber, which owns
Benson Point, is charging noth-
ing for use by the 9-1-1 district.
The Benson Point site, in the
northern end of the county, was
complicated by trees blocking
the microwave path between
Benson and Columbia Heights,
leaving a choice of harvesting
the trees over the next couple
of years or having them imme-
diately removed at much
greater cost. For now, the mi-
crowave dish serving that path
is temporarily located on a Ver-
izon Wireless tower in order to
make the site operational.