The INDEPENDENT, May 3, 2007
Page 3
Letters
Thanks for publicity
To the Editor:
We at St. Mary’s would like
to thank you very much for find-
ing the space to put the article
about our Rummage Sale in
two editions of the paper. We
feel it helped to make the sale a
success.
Judy Budge
Business Manager
St. Mary’s
Preparation time for
local summer camp
To the Editor:
Summer is fast approaching
and it is time for Echoing Ever-
greens Day Camp (located at
Camp Wilkerson) to begin
preparing for this year’s fun.
Our first volunteer meeting
will be held May 15, 3:00 p.m.,
in Room 1 at the Vernonia Mid-
dle School. Babysitting will be
available during the meeting.
General camp and volunteer
information will be available at
this time. Volunteer opportuni-
ties include working with age
specific groups and activity sta-
tions. We are also interested in
hearing positive input that peo-
ple from our community have in
order to continue this camp’s
success.
Camp will be held August 6-
10. Volunteers are needed for
the week, the day, or just a few
hours.
Sincerely,
Kathy Ward
Katie Poetter
Robin Dennis
Co-Directors
“Great Food Drive”
is greatly appreciated
To the Editor:
Vernonia Cares thanks US
Bank for their participation,
along with KGW television, in
The Great Food Drive. Vernon-
ia Cares Food Bank appreci-
ates your efforts and the prod-
uct it yielded. It’s nice to add
these groceries to the food box-
es. We also appreciate the fact
that the food drive helps keep
people aware of the grocery
need in our area.
Cares works to provide three
days worth of emergency gro-
ceries, once a month, for our
low income clients. An average
month shows we assist about
100 families containing 250-
300 people. It’s interesting that
about one third of our client
base is children; with senior cit-
izens representing another 11
percent. So, we help many
ages. You are a part of that an-
swer to these needs.
Vernonia Cares Food Bank
is not supported by any govern-
ment agency, other than the
USDA foods supplied through
the Oregon Food Bank. The
United Way of Columbia Coun-
ty provides about one-third of
our financial support. The other
two-thirds of our financial sup-
port is raised through direct do-
nations or fundraisers. We just
completed two fundraisers al-
ready this year, with six more
planned in 2007.
We reach out to donors to
help meet the needs of hungry
people. We live in a supportive
Opinion
Continued from page 2
The Independent is still waiting to be provided with
the minutes, or an agenda, from the January meeting
(another Public Meeting violation, as all minutes from
committees must be readily available for up to one
year).
For months, The Independent has been trying to get
definitive figures on VCLC to see how much the con-
struction cost the community and whether VCLC can
stand on its own without cash infusions from the city
(and thus, the community). The information has not
been forthcoming. Though it’s been known since the
auditors’ report last fall, that the Economic Develop-
ment Fund had been, shall we say, overdrawn to the
tune of $374,000+, The Independent has still been un-
able to get Kline to provide specifics. Kline even told us
that the $50,000 budget for the VCLC was too small a
part of the city’s $7 million total budget for him to spend
any time figuring it out. See related article on page 1 for
results of our latest attempt.
Now, in addition to the defamatory charges by the
VCLC committee in February, Kline has sent a letter to
The Independent’s publisher stating that he “should
only make requests to City of Vernonia staff and their
volunteers via public information requests submitted to
City Recorder Kate Conley” until he can “demonstrate
a consistent and sustainable ability to maintain a calm
and civil demeanor while interacting with the City staff
or volunteers.” I guess that means the publisher can’t
‘talk’ to his wife or mother as they both volunteer on city
committees. Kline, in writing, stated his opinion that our
publisher’s “repeated argumentative, confrontational,
and abusive behavior has caused significant distress”
and goes on to say, “I am extremely concerned for the
emotional and physical well being of City employees
and volunteers.” No specific incidents of such behavior
were provided. Yep, more defamation of character.
Kline seems to think that the staff of The Independent
are his employees and that he can dictate how and
who we can or can’t speak to. The Independent sees
this as a tactic to try to discredit us. But it’s not about
us. It’s not even about the VCLC, though there are
certainly still questions about it. It is about trans-
parency in government.
Public meetings laws and regulations are set up so
that the work of the public is to be done in public. It’s
our money (via taxes, property and otherwise, plus use
fees on water, sewer, etc.) that’s primarily used to op-
erate city government and we all should be able to un-
derstand and have a say in how it’s being used. Kline’s
answer to any question that involved money (and they
all do, don’t they?) before October 2006 was that he
had to wait for the audit report; from October 2006 to
March 2007 he was too hard at work on the supple-
mental budget. As soon as the supplemental budget
was done, his answer changed to wait until the next
budget is done. Time and again, he gives the ‘right’ an-
swer (like the “there’ll be a retraction to the bias state-
ment”) in private and then, when he hasn’t followed
through, doesn’t seem to remember the conversation.
What is going on at City Hall that they need to dis-
credit The Independent and even threaten “legal re-
course” instead of just providing public information that
anyone in the public, yes, even the media, is entitled
to? Why don’t you ask your city administrator or city
councilor? The Independent will continue to beat on
the doors of City Hall and call out in a loud voice (or as
Kline chastised us for, a raised voice) for information
that the public has, by law, a right to know. The Inde-
pendent will tell you what we find.
In the meantime, we request the City to respond to
this editorial in writing by June 1. We will print their re-
sponse, word for word, in our June 7 issue.
community and we are thankful
for food and financial donations
from all sources.
Thank you, again, for run-
ning The Great Food Drive in
March. US Bank helps this food
bank in many ways, including
foundation grant money. It is all
greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Sandy Welch
Executive Director
Vernonia Cares Food Bank
Volunteers really did
make Vernonia Shine
To the Editor:
Vernonia Pride would like to
thank all of you who participat-
ed in Saturday’s Clean-up Day.
You really did make “Vernonia
Shine.”
Thanks to Katie Poetter for
arranging the lunch, with a lot
of help from her dad and other
food suppliers.
A big thank you to Gretchen
Please see page 14
Ike Says…
From page 2
not seen before is deer with
significantly worse hair loss on
only one side of their body. I’m
not sure what to make of this,
other than the deer might be
laying in the bed of another in-
fected deer and then develop
hair loss first on the exposed
side of their body.
The most significant devel-
opment, though, in the HLS
arena is that mule deer on the
east side of the Cascades
have been spotted and pho-
tographed with HLS. The in-
fected deer have been seen
around The Dalles and the
White River wildlife area. This
is really bad news, since it was
believed that the louse that is
causing HLS would not survive
in the colder and dryer climate
east of the Cascades.
HLS has also been ob-
served in eastern Washington
State. This time it is a different
louse but, again, it is an exotic,
one found on fallow deer. This
development is reinforcing the
theory that these new syn-
dromes may be coming from
the import of exotic species
from overseas.
Izaak Walton League,
Nehalem Valley Chapter
meets monthly on the 3rd
Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Call
503-428-7193 for location.