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The INDEPENDENT, October 5, 2006
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Assoc. Editor Noni Andersen, noni@the-independent.net
Opinion
What is truly important?
It seems a loss of both time and concern occurred at
the latest Vernonia city council meeting. Our reporter
suffered the loss of time while listening to long-winded
debate over waiving or not waiving a relatively minor
fee that is required by an ordinance regarding the city’s
option to buy back unwanted cemetery plots. The own-
er hadn’t even requested that the fees be waived.
The council suffered a loss of concern for wasting
time on this issue, then approving a motion to take on
a loan of $25,000 to cover operating costs for the poor-
ly planned Learning Center. They didn’t even pause to
ask a question or show concern about how, or even if,
the Learning Center can provide the $500 a month to
cover the loan. We are not implying that the loan was
either good or bad, only that it should have been pub-
licly discussed. If the Learning Center can’t pay it back
we, the taxpayers, will foot the bill. Is the loan a wise
plan at this time? The $9,600,000 sewer project is al-
ready underway and, at this time, there is still only one
sure way of paying for it – doubling the current sewer
fees, we have been told.
Before the September 18 meeting, some city staff,
council members and public took a guided tour of the
sewer
project.
Some
present,
including
Kennedy/Jenks engineer Preston Van Meter and pub-
lic works employee Jeff Burch, tasted water that was
stated to be waste water that had been treated through
Level 4. Afterward, information circulated that the wa-
ter tasted was actually tap water and that the whole
thing was a “joke.” At the October 2 council meeting,
City Administrator Dick Kline took responsibility for the
“joke” which, apparently, was orchestrated by a public
works employee and Van Meter, for visitors on the
waste water facilities tour. Councilor Randy Parrow
stated his agreement that he understood it to be a
joke, because he said, “Everybody laughed at the
time.” Others who attended clearly did think it was
treated water, as stated. More information is included
in the article on the Council meeting in this issue of
The INDEPENDENT . (Van Meter had not returned our
calls by press time.)
What can anyone believe?
We can question authority, but can we believe the
answer? Maybe it’s all a joke. After all, what is truly im-
portant?
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
Well, did everybody
survive the water curtail-
ment? It sounds like the
water curtailment notice
did save a considerable
amount of water according
to the water plant person-
nel; water production at
the plant was way down.
Thanks for conserving; I’m
sure the fish thank you. One thing that was
learned though, was that the water curtailment
ordinance needs some work and the process of
determining the water levels needs to be stream-
lined. The water curtailment process is sup-
posed to be a graduated approach with the vol-
untary reduction of water usage being the first
level of the ordinance. The new city administra-
tor assured me that he is not going to let this is-
sue go away, change for the better is coming.
On an interesting note, both of the areas that
my Father and I visited on our trip to eastern Ore-
gon in August, suffered fires. The one in the
Murderers Creek area was especially large and
caused concern for residences in the Dayville
and Mount Vernon area. This fire burned
through areas that we have hunted in the past
and three of the camp sites that we have used
over the years burnt in the fire. It will be interest-
ing to return to this area in the future to see the
dramatic change. While the immediate effects of
the fire may be detrimental, the long term bene-
fits will be enormous for wildlife in the area.
Mother Nature was showing us who was boss
this year; let’s hope we learn from this. The cost
for the Shaketable fire (Murderers Creek) was
$12.5 million dollars.
Archery hunters owe Longview Fibre Compa-
ny a big thank you for keeping their lands open
for the entire bow season this year. Things got
pretty iffy just before the rains fell, but Longview
Fibre held tough and kept access open. It was
awfully hot for the archers this year and success
on the westside of Oregon seemed to suffer
more than the eastern half of the state, even
though fires curtailed hunting in some areas in
the east.
I don’t hold out much hope for this year’s buck
hunting in the Saddle Mountain unit, deer num-
bers still seem to be suffering, the weather is def-
initely looking dry for the beginning of the season
as I write this article. The 2005 harvest in the
Saddle Mountain unit fell back down to only 416
bucks, with a success rate of 15% for hunters.
This is a far cry from years past when 1600
bucks were harvested a year and success rates
were in the high 20’s. There are pockets of deer
and those hunters who know about these spots
can do well, but overall in the unit things will be
slow.
A recent study by the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife is shedding new light on the
damage that cougars are doing to wildlife popu-
lations. An innovative new method of tracking
elk cows and finding calves at the time of birth
Please see page