The INDEPENDENT, June 21, 2007
Page 3
Letters
Letter Carriers food
drive invaluable help
To the Editor:
On behalf of Columbia Pacif-
ic Food Bank, I would like to
thank the letter carriers
throughout our community for
the wonderful work that they
did this year on the Annual Let-
ter Carriers Food Drive. On
Saturday, May 12th, our neigh-
bors throughout the area set
food out for their letter carriers
to pick up. The generosity of
the community and the commit-
ment of our letter carriers
brought 6,340 lbs. into the St.
Helens Post Office, an increase
of 1,000 lbs., 350 lbs. into
Scappoose, 17 lbs. into
Clatskanie, 3,179 lbs. into
Rainier and 1,003 lbs. into Ver-
nonia for a grand total of
10,889 lbs. of much needed
food.
I would also like to thank our
very valuable volunteers who
met the letter carriers at the
post office to help load it into
our truck.
An event like this is what al-
lows Columbia Pacific Food
Bank and our emergency food
pantries to provide healthy and
nutritious food boxes to those
in need. We couldn’t do it with-
out you.
Great Job!
Tracie Smith
Executive Director
Sen. Johnson article
not “breaking news”
To the Editor:
The Oregonian has been
promoting a story about Sena-
tor Betsy Johnson recently. In
my opinion the story is irre-
sponsible and not worthy of
their responsibility, public trust
and stature in our state.
They are running the story
like it’s “breaking news,” which
it is not, and even acknowledge
they have gone to print without
salient, basic facts that provide
a big part of the story. Thinking
this might be a story because
someone brought it to their at-
tention is fine. Not bothering to
A) do their research, B) await
facts and information directly
relevant to the story and C)
question the motivation, con-
text and relationship of their
“sources” to the story – is the
worst kind of newspaper busy-
work – not worthy of being
called journalism.
The credibility of sources is
something that should be im-
portant to journalists. Carefully
and responsibly developing the
story should be important to
journalists. Trying to “FOXify” a
potential story and try to get a
headline by refusing to wait for
a story is the worst kind of sell-
out.
This issue will get resolved
because there are forums and
public processes to do that –
and the facts exist. That The
Oregonian and Harry Esteve,
for whom we once had respect,
would do this half-baked is a
soiling of their credibility that
won’t go away.
Betsy, John and the good
work they do will far outlast
anyone at the Oregonian.
Sally J. Jones
Rainier
Mayor objects to
opinion of columnist
To the Editor:
Noni Andersen of The Inde-
pendent . I feel I owe it to the cit-
izens of Vernonia to respond to
our recent “Out of My Mind”
commentary in The Indepen-
dent (May 17, 2007).
Of course you are entitled to
your opinion of the sitting city
council. It would make your opin-
ion more meaningful if you had
used facts instead of conjecture
to form your said opinion.
Example: The Tree Removal
Issue. I did not need a staff re-
port (even though there was
one) to make a decision on this
matter. I personally went to the
property and made my own de-
termination whether the trees
needed to be removed. Other
councilors had done the same.
Example: $25,000 Opera-
tions Loan for the Learning
Center. True, I was not aware
that the 20 acres had been
used for collateral. But, I’ve
never personally borrowed
money without some kind of
collateral being needed.
Example: Cemetery Deposit
Issue. If you had attended the
cemetery committee meeting
and the council meeting when
the $25 cemetery deposit had
been discussed, you would
have known that a mere $25
was not the purpose of the dis-
cussion. In fact, it had to do
with who could profit from the
sale of cemetery plots. The
council, after due diligence, de-
termined that the Vernonia
Memorial Cemetery, being a
perpetual care cemetery was
the only entity that should prof-
it for the sale of cemetery plots.
Example: Hiring of New Ad-
ministrator. It was never ex-
pressed verbally or in writing
forbidding the council from hir-
ing the interim administrator full
time. And if there had been,
would it be prudent to pass up
a wonderful administrator just
because of a rule of LOC.
I had always respected, if
not always agreed, with your
opinions. Why? I truly believed
that you had done your home-
work and had all the pertinent
facts. I hope in the future you
will again aspire to form opin-
ions and write articles based on
facts.
Thank you,
Sally Harrison
Mayor
Vernonia
Sen. Johnson works
hard for constituency
To the Editor:
As a citizen, Betsy Johnson
is a tireless supporter for our
communities. She has con-
tributed generously to the senior
centers, women’s shelters, cul-
tural events, children’s hospi-
tals, and environmental causes.
As a legislator, she is a tire-
less worker for creation of fam-
ily wage jobs, school funding,
accessible health care, and
public safety. She has been an
advocate for affordable hous-
ing, funding for public roads
and much more than we can list
here.
The harder a legislator
works, the easier it is for them
to make political enemies, so it
was no surprise to see Senator
Johnson come under fire for
sponsoring SB 680. We do not
believe a conflict of interest or
abuse of the public trust has
occurred because the Scap-
poose Airport has had a
“through the fence” arrange-
ment for several years. The
purpose of SB 680 was to ex-
tend this benefit to other rural
airports.
The Columbia, Tillamook,
and Clatsop County Democrat-
ic Central Committees strongly
support Senator Johnson. She
has our trust and our deep ap-
preciation for the fine work that
she has done for all the citizens
of Oregon.
Jolene Jonas, Chair
Columbia County DCC
Lenora Lawrence, Chair
Tillamook County DCC
Lawrence Taylor, Chair
Clatsop County DCC
Still no need for tree
ordinance in Vernonia
To the Editor:
This letter is in regards to the
article “Oregon has forty-five
tree cities – Vernonia (and
Banks) not included” in your
last issue. I was a member of
the committee that recom-
mended that Vernonia not be-
come a “Tree City USA.” The
article stated: “The committee
majority was opposed to any
city ordinances regarding tree
care, even on public property.”
This is not a completely accu-
rate statement. I believe the
majority of the committee found
that we felt strongly about en-
couraging tree care on public
property but were opposed to a
tree ordinance that would affect
privately owned land.
It was determined that we al-
ready have a public parks com-
mittee and city employees who
make decisions regarding the
trees on public property. They
follow the guidelines of an al-
ready established tree ordi-
nance for our community. The
appointment of a separate tree
committee and another tree or-
dinance seemed redundant in
our small community.
The committee presented a
letter of recommendation to the
city council suggesting several
ways that we can support the
planting of trees and tree care
in our community. One of these
suggestions was that a re-
source library be established in
our public library to provide in-
formation on what trees are
best suited to our area.
A discussion took place that
our schools should be encour-
aged to celebrate Arbor Day.
Committee member, Mike Pihl,
of Mike Pihl Logging, offered to
provide the trees for the school
children as a way to encourage
education and the planting of
trees in our community.
Though some communities
have chosen to become a “Tree
City USA,” it is not for every
community. Our small town can
support tree care and the plant-
ing of trees without spending
$2 per capita as required by the
“Tree City USA program.
Other communities that have
attained “Tree City USA” status
have found that a committee
now determines what private
land owners can do with the
trees on their land. This is an is-
sue that caused the majority of
the committee much concern.
We can celebrate the won-
derful tree-filled community that
we live in and encourage tree
care and the planting of trees
without being regulated by a
committee. We can also sup-
port our parks committee and
encourage the care of trees
and planting of trees on our
community’s public land with-
out establishing another ordi-
nance.
The recommendations pre-
sented to the City Council by
the appointed committee are a
matter of public record and can
be viewed by anyone who is in-
terested.
I have enclosed a copy of
the recommendation made to
City Council and would ask that
you print it in your paper, along
with my letter, to give a fair view
of the committee’s decision. I
thank you for your time and co-
operation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Kala F. Cota
Vernonia
To: City Council
From: Tree Committee (Noni Ander-
sen, Brett Costley, Kala Cota, Mike
Pihl, Derl Roberts)
CC: Mayor Harrison
Re: Tree Committee Recommenda-
tions
Date: March 2, 2006
The tree committee would like to
thank the City Council and Mayor
Harrison for the opportunity to serve
on this committee. The tree committee
considered many options and gathered
much information since appointment
in October.
After consideration, the tree com-
mittee recommends the council take
the following actions:
• Ordinances – the council may
consider better defining the process by
Please see page 21
Policy on Letters
The INDEPENDENT will not publish letters that include personal
attacks on private citizens. Because of space limitations, prefer-
ence will be given to brief letters, 300 words or less.
All letters must be signed and include a verifiable address or phone
number, and all letters are subject to editing for clarity or length.