PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 19, No. 10
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
May 20, 2004
County voters say
YES to 9-1-1 levy
Progress…
What many thought was an-
other wind storm, was actually
a county-wide sigh of relief
when the word went out elec-
tion night at 10:55 p.m. that vot-
ers had approved the 9-1-1
levy renewal.
Just under 53 percent of the
registered voters in Columbia
County cast ballots in the May
18 primary election, meeting
the 50 percent turnout require-
ment that had defeated previ-
ous attempts to renew the levy.
Final unofficial returns showed
that more than 70 percent of
the ballots cast supported the
levy renewal.
Washington County
Library levy fails
The work is noisy and inconvenient, but steady progress is being made on the Hwy.
47 resufacing project. A bonus for the area is that many local contractors and their
employees are involved in the work.
Road work will cause increased delays
While work on the first four
blocks in downtown Vernonia
has been relatively smooth,
substantial traffic delays are
likely during upcoming seg-
ments of the Hwy. 47 resurfac-
ing project.
Work on the narrow Rock
Creek bridge will require the
closure of one lane, with traffic
delays in both directions of up
to 20 minutes. This starts today
and should be done very soon,
if no problems develop.
A much bigger segment,
construction of the pedestrian/
bike path on OA Hill, from the
museum to the grade school,
will require 24-hour, one-way
traffic for a month or more.
Work needed to stabilize the
FREE
hill and construct a safe path-
way will require a lot of equip-
ment, including a pile driver.
Traffic delays of up to 20 min-
utes may be expected, and a
flagger will be on duty 24
hours.
This work will start June 1.
Local drivers are urged to use
Stoney Point or Pebble Creek
Roads whenever possible, to
avoid construction delays.
Curious bear visits Alder Street
Wildlife sightings are com-
mon in this area – deer, elk,
coyotes, raccoons, occasional-
ly foxes, cougar, even a bobcat
or two. But a bear on the deck
of a home within the Vernonia
City limits is not common.
Nevertheless, the Scheuer-
man family watched – from in-
side their Alder Street home –
as a bear investigated the bird
feeder on their deck this past
Sunday.
“It was a young bear,” Erin
Scheuerman said. When she
raised an upstairs window to
take a picture, the bear bolted
and climbed a tree. It later
came down and ran off.
“I know what to do with
cows, and I know what to do
with dogs,” said Vernonia Po-
lice Chief Matthew Workman. “I
don’t know what to do with
bears.” Fortunately, he didn’t
have to find out…yet.
Washington County voters
narrowly approved a levy for
Washington County libraries,
but with only 40.15 percent of
registered voters returning bal-
lots, failure to meet the 50 per-
cent turnout invalidated the ef-
fort.
and 16.7 percent for William
Daemke.
State Representative
District 31 and 32
District 31 Democratic in-
cumbent Betsy Johnson had
no challengers in the primary
election, and no Republicans
filed for the position. Unless an
independent candidate quali-
fies later, Johnson will be unop-
posed in the November Gener-
al Election.
The District 32 incumbent,
Elaine Hopson, is not running
for re-election, making this the
only contested legislative race
for this area.
Deborah Boone, who won
the Democratic nomination de-
cisively (66.46 percent to 33.54
percent) over Rosemary Bak-
er-Monaghan, will face Repub-
lican Douglas Olson. Olson
also won handily, 59.5 percent
to 40.5 percent, over Adam
Schwend on the Republican
ticket.
Results for Columbia Assorted results
In other contested races,
County Commission
Incumbent Joe Corsiglia de-
feated Gary Heide for Colum-
bia County Commissioner Po-
sition 1, with 52.5 percent of the
vote in the Democratic primary.
Colleen DeShazer edged
past Glenn Dorschler, 49.9 per-
cent to 47.67 percent, in the
Republican primary for Colum-
bia County Commissioner Po-
sition 1.
Position 3 incumbent Tony
Hyde was unopposed in the
Republican primary.
Rosemary Lohrke won eas-
ily in a three-way Democratic
primary for Position 3. Lohrke
received 51.7 percent of the
vote to 29.6 for Steve Sickles
Columbia County voters were
in agreement with state-wide
results, favoring presidential
candidate John Kerry on the
Democratic ticket, and Republi-
can Goli Ameri to challenge the
Democrat pick, incumbent
David Wu, for U.S. Congress in
District 1.
Republicans nominated Bet-
sy Close to face the Democrat
choice for Secretary of State,
incumbent Bill Bradbury.
In nonpartisan races, incum-
bent state Supreme Court Jus-
tices Rives Kistler and William
Riggs were both local and state
choices, as was incumbent Ap-
peals Court Judge Robert Woll-
heim.