PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 24, No. 10
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
May 21, 2009
Members of the Rose City Motorcycle Club made their annual visit to Vernonia Cares, May 16,
and donated 1,783 pounds of much needed, and greatly appreciated, food. Since “adopting”
Vernonia Cares after the flood of ‘96, the group has donated, literally, tons of food and other
items.
The safe use of Tasers depends Results of school,
fire board votes
on training and who is “tased”
Because of questions raised in
the May 7 issue of The Indepen-
dent regarding the use of Tasers,
here is additional information, as
promised.
Are Tasers safe? The an-
swer is along the lines of: Yes,
if they are used correctly on a
healthy adult. In most cases,
being hit with a Taser is better
than being shot with a gun. Un-
fortunately, some people have
died after being Tased, though
many more people have died
after being shot with a gun.
A Taser (that’s a brand
name) is a class of weapon
called “conducted energy de-
vices” (CEDs) that deliver a
high voltage (50,000 volts), low
current, electrical charge. They
stop people by disrupting the
central nervous system and
cause uncontrolled muscle
contractions. They can be used
in two modes, with an air car-
tridge that drives two “darts”
from 15 to 35 feet through the
air or, after removing the car-
tridge, they can be used by di-
rect contact of probes with a
body, called “drive-stun” mode.
The darts cause a larger elec-
trical response in the person
being tased than do the
probes, which cause a more lo-
calized electrical response, but
either is designed to make the
subject collapse with uncontrol-
lable muscle spasms.
The Tasers currently being
used in Vernonia and almost
everywhere else are X26s or
M26s. Police forces generally
use the Tasers within parame-
ters outlined on what’s called a
Use of Force Continuum. The
Continuum lists levels of force
ranging from the affect of a po-
lice officer’s presence up to
deadly force. Each police de-
partment can determine where
Tasers fall. In Vernonia, Tasers
fall under Level IV, Physical
Control, along with pepper
spray.
See Taser on page 5
The unofficial final results of
the May 19 Special Districts
Election show no changes to
the Vernonia School District
47J Board of Directors. Voters
returned Jim Krahn, Cari Lev-
enseller, Kim Wallace and
Ernie Smith to the board.
Frank Cieloha and Steve
Weller will each serve another
term the board of the Vernonia
Rural Fire Protection District.
Mist-Birkenfeld Rural Fire
Protection Board will see the
return of William DeJager, Tr-
ish Wright and Louise Green to
their board.
The unofficial final results in
Washington County tallied
votes for Norie Demeo-Ediger,
Will Moore and Richard Bow-
den, who will all serve on the
Banks School District #13
Board of Directors.
Unopposed candidates for
the Banks Fire District, Matt
Pihl and Steven Harr, received
98.19 and 98.85 percent of the
vote, respectively.
The youngest Make Vernonia Shine volunteer is shown
above with his mother, picking up trash on May 16. His father
and brother, not pictured, also helped. During lunch after-
wards, the young man was given a certificate of appreciation
for his efforts last year and this year.
Wyden schedules Town Halls in
Vernonia, Forest Grove on Sunday
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
will host town hall meetings, on
May 24, in Vernonia and Forest
Grove. Columbia and Washing-
ton county residents are invited
to attend the open forums to
ask questions and voice their
concerns.
Senator Wyden has been
holding town halls in each Ore-
gon county every year since
1996. The events in Vernonia
and Forest Grove are numbers
513 and 514 respectively
The Columbia County Town
Hall will be May 24 at 1:00 p.m.
in the Vernonia High School
gymnasium.
Washington County’s Town
Hall will be May 24 at 3:30 p.m.
in the Community Auditorium,
1915 Main St., Forest Grove.
Vernonia School District
TOWN HALL MEETING
Have a
safe
Memorial Day – Don't
Drink and Drive
PRESENTATION BY
BOORA ARCHITECTS
7:00 p.m. Thursday
May 28th
Middle School Cafeteria