The INDEPENDENT, August 2, 2007
My Fair Lady honors to Clatskanie
Lydia Arthur, of Clatskanie,
was selected, July 18, as My
Fair Lady for the 2007 Colum-
bia County Fair.
Princesses are chosen for
the My Fair Lady Court from
the five Senior Centers in Co-
lumbia County.
Princess Tessie Aldrich was
Vernonia’s able representative.
Additional princesses were
Marian Nolin of Rainier, Mary
Dahlgren of St. Helens, and
Betty Karsten of Scappoose.
The pageant is sponsored
by Columbia River PUD, with
My Fair Lady chosen during the
Columbia County Fair. She will
participate in various parades
around the county.
What causes Emergency care
for dental needs
most fires?
The Oregon Department of
Forestry Daily Fire Update for
Monday, July 30, 2007, gave
the following statistics for this
year:
January 1 through July 30
(for the 15.8 million acres of
forestlands protected by the
Oregon
Department
of
Forestry):
• Lightning-caused: 247 fires
burned 6,958 acres,
• Human-caused: 434 fires
burned 910 acres,
• Total: 681 fires burned
7,868 acres.
These numbers are higher
than the 10-year averages.
Bits & Bites
By Jacqueline Ramsay
What
is there
left
to
say after
t w o
weeks of
the Ver-
nonia
hot line.
Y o u
k n o w
where you stand, I know where
I stand – everyone stands on
their own two feet or you hit the
pavement. Right? It hurts but
we survive if you give life a
chance.
The “variety store” is gone.
A Mobile Dental Clinic run
by Medical Teams Internation-
al, Inc., will be in Vernonia on
Friday, August 10.
Community Action Team will
be sponsoring the clinic. which
is for emergency dental only.
Call Melissa at 503-369-
7566 for more information and
prescreening to schedule an
appointment.
While lightning fires have
taken the spotlight the last few
days, human-caused fires have
kept firefighters busy on state
and private lands in Oregon.
Nearly 400 abandoned
campfires, debris burns, smok-
ing, and equipment use are the
types of wildfires caused by
careless behaviors.
“Even though we’re having a
period of cooler weather, we’re
still responding to a high num-
ber of human-caused fires”
said Rick Gibson, fire preven-
tion manager for the Oregon
Department of Forestry. “Since
firefighters are kept busy extin-
guishing these smaller human-
caused fires, our resources are
not able to fully focus on the
natural fires that we have no
control over.”
Mary Ellen Holly, president
VERNONIA INN
Enjoy a quiet weekend with us.
Medicare / Medicaid Certified
VA , HMO and
Insurance Contracts
Sub-Acute Skilled Nursing
& Rehabilitative Therapies
Respite & Hospice Care
Long Term Intermediate Care
Dedicated & Caring Staff
FULL SIZE, IN ROOM
HOT TUBS
Queen Beds • Private Bath • Separate Entrance
Cable TV • Phones • Handicapped Access
• Commercial Rates
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL
1-800-354-9494 / 503-429-4006
F o re s t G ro ve
Gift Certificates Available
900 MADISON AVE., VERNONIA, OR 97064
( 5 03 ) 35 9- 04 49
Just one block off scenic Nehalem River Hwy. (Oregon 47)
3 9 00 P ac i fi c Av e . ,
Now the sidewalk superintend-
ents can start guessing “what”
is going in the “hole”. I don’t
know but I’d like to see a nice
“Sit Down Restaurant” come
into Vernonia so I could “go out
to Dinner” at home. Or, if that
isn’t possible we dog folks still
need a “free range” dog area –
fenced in, of course.
What do yo do when it’s re-
run season? The radio plays
the same music over and over
and over (not your kind), the
news on radio and T.V. is the
same day and night; not en-
lightening nor refreshing. the
telephone rings — is it a friend?
No – you’ve just won a $10,000
dollar shopping spree in New
York (oh, WOW) or you can pay
all your debts with la, la, la. I
have knitted, mended, even
cleaned and re-cleaned a room
or two, gone visiting, sat in the
back yard in the shade, read a
couple of books, walked the
lake, combed out the dog and
cat. I’ve even walked a mile or
two in my own shoes (yours
won’t fit me), and guess what?
Gas just went down 6¢. Maybe
I can afford to fill up my car and
get out of town for a day if I can
find the time. Don’t give up, just
give in and take a nap. That’s
what I’m going to do till Jeop-
ardy comes on. Bye.
Take responsibility and don’t start fires
Remember When…
51st Vernonia Friendship
Jamboree and Logging Show
August 3, 4 & 5
C a m el ot C a r e
C e n te r
Page 9
and CEO of the Keep Oregon
Green Association, said that
the number of human-caused
fires is higher than any year
within the last ten years. “Our
focus is to reduce the number
of human-caused wildfires, a
mission we’ve had for over 67
years.” People – residents and
visitors – must start taking
more responsibility for this pre-
vention. Many of the state’s
forested areas, including pri-
vate, federal and state lands,
are in Restricted Use, which
means forest users must check
before they go into the forests
or perform any operations to
see if their planned activities
are allowed.
Campfires are prohibited on
all state-protected lands except
in designated campgrounds,
and debris burning is not al-
lowed except on very few dis-
tricts where a permit is first re-
quired. Equipment use and
smoking are also restricted.
When investigators deter-
mine that a wildfire is caused
from carelessness, the respon-
sible party will be charged for
suppression costs. Gibson stat-
ed that over 200 of those
charges were made and col-
lected in 2006.