Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2006)
The INDEPENDENT, June 1, 2006 Page 3 Letters Spaghetti dinner will help fund fireworks To the Editor: The Buckhorn Restaurant is again providing a spaghetti din- ner as a fundraiser for Vernon- ia’s 4th of July fireworks. The dinner will be Thursday, June 22, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., and will include salad, bread, spaghetti and dessert. Prices are $8.00 for adults and $4.00 for children under twelve. Letters have been sent to businesses and some individu- als asking for donations for the fireworks, and cans have been placed in some of the business- es. We will also be collecting [donations] after the fireworks and your generosity will be greatly appreciated, as always. The fireworks cost approxi- mately $3,000.00, so it takes all of you contributing to reach this goal. De Loris Webb Vernonia Pride Once asset is gone, it can’t be replaced To the Editor: Although I live in Idaho now, I lived in western Oregon for the better part of my life. Ore- gon is a great state, where the citizens make sensible deci- sions more often than the norm. In the case of your Ver- nonia Airport that is in jeopardy, I am afraid the city may make a mistake that they will live to re- gret. A rural airport is an asset that, once gone, will never come back. I am the manager of a small airport in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Like your town, not everyone sees the benefit of the airport. In my town, I am fully aware that benefits includ- ing tourist trade, air ambulance access, fire-fighters’ landing site, emergency landing site, and “town color” are over- looked by most town residents. A recent vote showed that less than 40 percent of the town’s residents have any inter- est in the airport. In our town, less that 25 percent of the peo- ple use the city parks, and less that 5 percent use the tennis courts. Nearly every facility in town is used by less than a ma- jority of the residents. The air- port is no different. Clearly, it does not make sense to say that a majority of residents need to utilize a city facility in order to justify the facility’s pub- lic ownership or existence. Think about the future. In this day and age, the city would never be able to replace the air- port once it is gone. Especially those of you who have no strong feelings one way or the other, do you really want to en- able the airport to be taken away from future generations, just for the enrichment of spe- cial interests today? Please make the effort to understand the issues, voice your con- cerns, and do what needs to be done to protect the city’s asset. Sincerely, Reed White, Manager Lava Hot Springs Airport Idaho Airport is important in emergency events To the Editor: To the people of Vernonia: As a member of the local air- port commission, as a pilot, and as a recent passenger on Air Life, our airport is an important asset to Baker City and Baker County. We have one business, perhaps two, who are signifi- cant contributors to the eco- nomic base of the community and who would not be here if it were not for the airport. The air- port gives us quick access to medical services not available in our community. Even though it is a city owned airport, the county has twice now voted to support bond issues to main- tain and improve the airport. I would urge the city of Ver- nonia to reconsider declaring your airport surplus and to keep it as a city asset and work to improve it. Even though cur- rently a grass strip, it is the sin- gle best economic attractor the city has. In any survey of the items that a business looks for when locating to a community, the availability of an airport usually is at the top of the list. I understand that at one time the Vernonia airport was paying Between the Bookends By Denise Holmes, Librarian Banks Public Library Summer Fun at the Banks Library is ready to take kids on adventures in learning with Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales! Come in and sign up for special programs and the Summer Reading Program. Preschool & Grades K-6 Thursdays at 2:00 p.m. June 22: June 29: July 13: July 20: BJ the Clown Juggle Mania Reptile Man Furfest - For kids entering 4th & 5th grades. Space for this program is limited, so registration is required. July 27: When Animals Were People Aug. 3: Pink Pig Puppet Theatre Preschool through High School Reading Program June 1-August 31, 2006 June 1: Sign-up begins July 15: Last day of sign-up Aug 1: Turn in completed reading record and receive award book Aug 31: Last day to turn in reading record Developing an appreciation for reading at a young age provides positive and creative outlets for a child’s energy and imagination, as well as a strong foundation for their future. According to reading experts, kids who do not read over the summer lose about one-third of a grade level by the beginning of the next school year. Let your public library help your children maintain their academic skills while enjoying creative learning. Banks Public Library: 111 Market Street. Hours: Tues., Wed., Thurs., 12 - 7:00 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. 12 - 5:00 p.m. Preschool Story Time: Wednesdays at 10:15 a.m. Phone: (503 ) 324-1382 for information (503) 846-3245 to renew material Internet: <www.WILInet.wccls.lib.or.us.> Browse library resources, reserve or renew materials online. Call for information. its way and had a good airport manager who was working on improving the airport and then something happened. I would hope that Vernonia would form an airport advisory commission (including pilots) whose goal is to develop proposals for the de- velopment and promotion of the Vernonia Airport. It is much easier to keep a city asset like the airport than to get it back if you lose it. Sincerely, Jon Croghan Baker City Airport will be lost because of neglect To the Editor: Open Letter to the Vernonia City Council. As someone who’s been in- volved in aviation and airport is- sues for a long time, I was con- cerned when I heard about the proposed sale of Vernonia’s air- port to a private developer. So I decided to come out to the city council’s airport workshop meeting and see what the fuss was all about. It didn’t take me long to recognize a sadly famil- iar pattern: the city neglects the airport until it is no longer vi- able, then claims they can’t support it and puts it up for sale. Based on her statements at the meeting, the mayor seems to have made up her mind that the only way the airport can re- main viable is if it is sold to someone who can develop it. I must respectfully disagree with that assessment. Please don’t misunderstand me – I know little about the pro- posed developer’s plans or re- sources, and would very much like to think he could make a go of it. If I believed it was the only way to keep it open, I’d be the first to support the plan. But I’ve been around aviation long enough to know that privatizing a public airport is all too often the first step in its eventual de- mise. Short of an outright rever- sion clause which is very unlike- ly to get past any bank loan offi- cer, all the promises and restric- tions in the world won’t keep an airport from being converted to some other use if the developer can’t get insurance, falls on hard times, declares bankrupt- cy, or sells to some other entity with no interest in maintaining the land as an airport. Public entities nearly always have better access to the types of resources that are necessary to properly manage airports than do private ones, and con- trary to what the mayor would have us believe, there’s no rea- son the city can’t make their air- port viable. For proof one only needs to look back a few years, when the city had a competent airport manager who had a clear stake in the long term via- bility of the airport. The airport was self-sustaining (generating a surplus in fact), had tiedowns and a nice little camping area popular with flyers, was receiv- ing airport improvement grant funds from the state (is still eli- gible for them in fact, contrary to the mayor’s assertion at the meeting), and had plans for new hangars on airport land under a long term lease arrangement. Somewhere along the line that plan went off track, and it’s a real shame that it did. Be- cause in all likelihood you wouldn’t be talking about sell- ing it today if those plans had been allowed to proceed. Im- provement breeds improve- ment, and the measures pro- posed at that time – building modern hangars and paving the runway – would very likely have spurred more growth of the kind that the city is now talk- ing about selling the airport to achieve. When a city supports their airport and takes steps to improve it, aviation businesses are that much more likely to come in and lease airport land, adding jobs to the community and lease payments to the city. One needs only to look a few miles west to see an example of what I’m talking about. A few years ago the situation was much the same at Seaside: the municipal airport was falling into disrepair, the city was tired of spending money to keep it up, and there was talk of clos- ing it and making it into an in- dustrial park. But the Seaside city council took a different ap- proach. They formed a new air- port advisory committee, being careful to appoint knowledge- able and resourceful people from the aviation and local business communities. The committee’s task was simple: help the city make the airport Please see page 26