PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 21, No. 10
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
She’s safe!
V H S w in s l ea g ue
s o ft b al l t it le
The Vernonia High School
Softball team won a playoff
game Tuesday against Clat-
skanie, 7-1, to claim the
Northwest League champi-
onship and head to state
competition.
The first game for state
will be at VHS on Wednes-
day, May 24. Time TBA.
Vernonia High School catcher Miranda Nutting is safe at the plate as the ball skips past a
Warrenton infielder. The Lady Loggers won both games of the doubleheader at home.
Low voter turnout defeats law enforcement levy
By Noni Andersen
In a remarkable display of in-
ertia, most Columbia County
voters were unable to summon
enough energy to fill in the little
oval spaces on their ballots, put
River Fest 2006
See Opinion, page 2
the ballot in the secrecy enve-
lope, sign the mailing envelope,
and either put a stamp on the
envelope and mail it, or take
the ballot to a drop site. It was
just too rigorous.
Voter turnout was 44.3 per-
cent for Columbia County. Ver-
nonia voters, however were
outstanding, managing just
slightly more than 41 percent.
Please see page 5
May 18, 2006
Mayor clarifies potential for
future Vernonia airport uses
A petition signed by 186
people who oppose the sale of
the Vernonia airport, was pre-
sented to the Vernonia City
Council by Mike Seager at the
beginning of the May 15 coun-
cil meeting. Later, during a
scheduled workshop on the air-
port, Mayor Sally Harrison said,
“We are not going to get rid of
the airport.” She went on to say
that she wants the community
to continue having a public air-
port.
Harrison outlined four op-
tions for the airport: 1) maintain
it as it is now, 2) sell the prop-
erty to have it developed, 3)
form a partnership of some
kind where the city controls the
airstrip and someone else han-
dles the property, or 4) lease
the property.
Both Mayor Harrison and
City Administrator Robyn Bas-
sett spoke of keeping the asset
of the airport, while finding a
way to establish light industry
there to provide family wage
jobs so more residents can
work and live in Vernonia. Tim
Bero, a local resident and busi-
ness owner, handed out a page
showing his idea for purchas-
ing the property and having air-
port services (fuel, telephone,
transportation), plus light in-
dustrial space on the site.
At the end of the airport
workshop there appeared to be
general agreement that getting
as many proposals or options
as possible, before making a fi-
nal decision, would be best.
The City will solicit proposals in
order to broaden the options.
Council (Councilor Parrow
was on vacation and did not at-
tend.) reviewed a consultant’s
report on drainage problems on
private property on Mist Drive.
The report indicates that the
land is jurisdictional wetland
and that a permit from Oregon
Division of State Lands will be
needed before the property
owner can make any modifica-
tions to the drainage. City staff
was directed to notify the prop-
erty owner and work with him
on the permit process.
As a continuation to a work-
shop held last October, a re-
quest from Clark McGaugh
asking the council to restrict
fireworks at Vernonia Lake was
Please see page 4
Public invited to
M-B Health Fair
The public is invited to a free
Health Fair on Saturday, May
20, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m., at Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD
Main Station, 12525 Hwy 20,
Mist.
There will be 20-plus pre-
senters, plus door prizes each
hour. The grand prize drawing
at 4:00 p.m. will be from the
people who have stickers from
all of the presenters.