The INDEPENDENT, February 19, 2004
Page 3
County dims hopes for annual rally race with Vernonia as the hub
By Noni Andersen
Although everyone involved
in last year’s Oregon Trail Rally
was saddened by the deaths of
one team, the gathering of
cars, racing teams, support ve-
hicles and personnel in Vernon-
ia was greatly enjoyed by the
community.
In turn, the hundreds of peo-
ple involved in the event also
enjoyed their July day in Ver-
nonia, so much so, that the ral-
ly group was considering an
annual event here, with a full
weekend of visitors.
But fire danger is great in the
forests during dry summers, so
Oregon Rally Group, which
brought their premiere event to
Vernonia last summer, decided
to move the event up to late
April.
In December, just as organ-
izer Mike Nagle was ready to
apply for permits to use some
Columbia County roads, the
group received a bill from John
Clouse, director of the county’s
Department of Emergency Ma-
nagement, for $3,292.44, pri-
marily for road work. Oregon
Rally Group had paid the coun-
ty $3,063.37 in advance, then
contracted with Matt Pihl to
make additional repairs re-
quested by county Roadmaster
Dave Hill. Nagle was under-
standably upset and seeking
answers.
At a meeting February 11, at
the Vernonia Fire Hall, Hill said
he was simply sending figures
Clouse requested and didn’t
know they were billed to ORG.
Clouse, in turn, said the
Board of Commissioners au-
thorized the bill. Commissioner
Tony Hyde didn’t dispute
Clouse’s statement, saying the
responsibility had to be with the
board. Commissioner Joe Cor-
siglia said he simply didn’t re-
member the incident. The bill
was verbally rescinded by both
Clouse and Hyde.
In spite of that, Clouse and
Hyde both strongly implied that
they don’t want rally in Colum-
bia County. Clouse repeatedly
Between the Bookends
By Nancy Burch, Librarian
Vernonia Public Library
Do you know how to tie
a bow tie? Can you list all
of the James Bond movies
with the year they were re-
leased and name the actor
and the Bond girl in each?
Did you know that some
countries have compulso-
ry voting and can you
name them? Can you
name the singers at Super Bowls numbers 1-
37? Did you know that 70 percent of the Miss
Americas have been brunettes, 24 percent
blondes, and six percent redheads? Would you
like to know how to say, "I love You" in 33 lan-
guages? A recent acquisition, Schott’s Original
Miscellany, contains all of this information and
much more. Also included in this book are such
topics as coffee shop slang, the menu of the last
meal served on The Titanic, a simplified version
of Braille, instructions for measuring bra sizes,
names of the seven dwarves, commonly mis-
spelled words, and earthquake scales. If you
have a question regarding some obscure sub-
ject, be sure to look in this fun little book.
Recent acquisitions by popular authors in-
clude Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi, The Last Ju-
ror by John Grisham, Blinded by Stephen White,
Aunt Dimity: Snowbound by Nancy Atherton,
High Country by Nevada Barr, Trojan Odyssey
by Clive Cussler, The Cat Who Talked Turkey by
Lillian Jackson Braun, Divided in Death by Nora
Roberts, and The Second Chair by John Le-
scroart. I’m really looking forward to reading
some of these and, hopefully, library patrons will
be pleased with these new additions to the col-
lection.
The two novels that I have most recently read
are by two of my favorite authors – William Kent
Krueger and Kris Nelscott. Krueger’s newest of-
fering, Blood Hollow, is his fourth to feature Cork
O’Connor, Aurora, Minnesota’s charismatic for-
mer sheriff. When evidence points to the guilt of
Solemn Winter Moon as the murderer of a beau-
tiful high school student, O’Connor fights an up-
hill battle, encounters prejudice, surprise twists
and miracles before the truth of the matter is re-
vealed. Nelscott’s enigmatic African-American
P.I., Smokey Dalton, and his young friend, Jim-
my, are still hiding their true identities as they try
to survive in Chicago in 1969. This is a Chicago,
torn apart by racial strife, gang wars, drug prob-
lems, and police corruption. Smokey is a lone
man trying to help make things right under al-
most impossible circumstances in Nelscott’s
fourth novel of this series, Stone Cribs. It contin-
ues to amaze me that Nelscott, a lady who lives
on The Oregon Coast can capture the issues of
this era in American political and racial history
and present them through the experiences of an
African-American man living in Chicago.
The book for discussion this month is Cold
Mountain by Charles Frazier. Date and time for
discussion of this book will be Tuesday, March 2
at 7:00 p.m. in the library. There is still time for
anyone wishing to read this book and take part
in discussing it.
Pre-School story time continues to be held on
Monday mornings at 10:30 and the Reading En-
richment Program is held on Mondays at 3:30 on
days when school is in session.
The library has quite a nice collection of books
on cassette, as well as some in CD format. The
diverse video collection is being supplemented
with some DVD’s. Many of these items have
been donations, but there is quite a nice selec-
tion of both audios and videos. Microfilm of Ver-
nonia’s newspapers may be viewed and printed
with the microfilm reader. Interest in Vernonia’s
past continues to be of importance to many area
residents and former residents. The library has
copies of The Oregon American Lumber Compa-
ny—Ain’t No More, Vernonia, the Town that
Wouldn’t Die, 75 Years of Nehalem Valley Histo-
ry, and Vernonia, A Pocket in the Woods.
Videos of “Ring of Fire”, “The Vernonia Incident”
and “The Flood of 1996” are also available.
This is “your” library. An ongoing attempt to
provide materials that “You” want to use is one of
the most important goals of the library staff. Sug-
gestions are always welcome.
Vernonia Public Library: 701 Weed Ave.
Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Tues., Thur. 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Sat. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Preschool Story Time: Mondays, 10:00
a.m., when school is in session.
Phone: (503 ) 429-1818
raised problems the county had
had with Hood to Coast events
— clogging public roads, inade-
quate emergency services, cre-
ating public nuisances — which
didn’t apply. Rally runs on
closed roads, hires their own
security, has professional
emergency services (and hires
local emergency personnel),
etc.
Hyde was somewhat more
subtle. He just kept implying
the timber companies didn’t
want rally on their roads and he
didn’t want to alienate them,
particularly since negotiations
are underway with Hancock to
purchase the Columbia Main
Line for a linear trail from Scap-
poose to Vernonia.
The local timber company
representatives at the meeting
agreed that they didn’t want ral-
ly, citing damage to roads as
their primary concern. They
seemed somewhat surprised,
and some seemed to be inter-
ested, when a representative
from Simpson Timber in Shel-
ton, Washington, recounted his
company’s many years-long,
beneficial association with
ORG.
The Simpson forester relat-
ed that the company has had
no problems and has the rally
group fix only the roads the
company plans to be using,
noting that rally cars can run on
roads with grass growing on
them from disuse. He also
spoke of major economic bene-
fit to the community, especially
Letters
Vernonia Lions not
Raft & Craft sponsor
To the Editor:
There have been state-
ments in two recent issues of
The INDEPENDENT that the
Vernonia Lions Club is spon-
soring a Raft and Craft Festi-
val.
This is a mis-statement. The
Lions Club is not sponsoring
this festival nor are we supply-
ing start-up funding.
Our only agreement has
been to provide a Polish
sausage and kraut concession
for the event.
Sincerely,
Bill James, President
Vernonia Lions Club
The INDEPENDENT gladly pub-
lishes information about local
events and organizations, but we
can be only as accurate as the in-
formation provided.
large donations to the food
bank, with twice yearly rally
events.
Vernonia’s economy could,
obviously, benefit from the
presence of an annual event of
this sort. Non-profits could
make money, as well as com-
mercial establishments. Whe-
ther that will happen is debat-
able.
Oregon Rally Group has
many years of experience and
knows what fees to expect. If
Columbia County is going to in-
sist on exorbitant fees, ORG
will take their money else-
where.
What is Rally?
Rally racing is a 2-person
team event, with a driver and
navigator, racing against the
clock on unfamiliar, closed
roads. They navigate with a
map.
Teams may be either am-
ateur or professional, with
sponsors ranging from local
auto shops to Mitsubishi or
Subaru.
Rally is an international
sport. Teams in Vernonia last
year came from Europe,
Japan, Canada and nearly
every state in the U.S.
Erik Kesterson
Honors planned
at VHS, March 10
A public gathering will be
held March 10 in honor of Erik
Kesterson, the 1992 Vernonia
High School graduate who lost
his life in Iraq when his helicop-
ter crashed. He would have
been 30 years old on March
10.
The commemoration will be
in an assembly at Vernonia
High School and Erik’s mother,
MJ Kesterson said that the
family would welcome a few
words from local people who
knew Erik. Anyone who would
like to speak is asked to call
Mayor Cindy Ball for more in-
formation. She may be
reached days at 503-397-4555
ext. 100, or leave a message
for her at Vernonia City Hall,
503-429-5291.
Erik’s brother, Tim Mahalak,
is planning the event. He may
be reached at 541-954-1269,
or by email: <timmahalak@
cmfsg.com>.
Arrangements are not yet fi-
nal. Additional information will
be published in the March 4 is-
sue of The INDEPENDENT.