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The INDEPENDENT, November 19, 2009
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
Mentor Noni Andersen
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
What are you thankful for?
Here it is, Thanksgiving time again. This year instead
of letting you know what we are thankful for, we thought
we would write about things to do so others will be
thankful.
Got money? Perhaps you can give some of it to one
of the organizations (there are many) that provide a
Thanksgiving dinner to those with nowhere else to go.
Or, give to Vernonia Cares to help them fill a holiday
box.
How about going into West Oregon Electric Cooper-
ative and giving some money to be put against some-
one else’s bill, anonymously. Or, send a gift card to
someone, just because.
No money? Invite someone to dinner or help serve
lunch at the Vernonia Senior Center. There are plenty
of other volunteer opportunities in your community, too.
Got some time? It’s amazing how much impact you
can have on someone by just listening.
Find something to be thankful for and share it. Hap-
py Thanksgiving.
We’d be thankful for truth
City Administrator Bob Young started work in Ver-
nonia on June 22. Since then we’ve noticed what ap-
pears to be a propensity for untruthfulness. It started
with him telling us in a letter that a young man in this
community had been convicted of assault. When we
pointed out that this wasn’t true, he repeated it and said
he believed those who told him that (hmm, was he call-
ing us liars?). At about the same time, he said if he
made a mistake, he would correct it, but he didn’t – so
there’s another whopper.
More recently, he told council that he spoke to
DPSST (see page 1 for more details) and was told
there was no current investigation against Mike Kay.
But DPSST says they never spoke to him and there is
an open investigation. That’s three and four.Yesterday,
Young told us he informed each council member, indi-
vidually, about a recent lawsuit against the city and the
settlement, but the council member we spoke to knew
nothing about the matter. That’s five.
If the city’s top administrator lies to his boss (the
council) how can he be trusted to do the city’s work?
What kind of example does that set for his employees?
The City of Vernonia needs strong, honest, ethical
leadership. Only the council can discipline or fire this
employee. We urge them to do the right thing, soon,
before the credibility of the City of Vernonia is further
damaged.
Out of My Mind…
by Noni Andersen
Voters in the Vernonia
School District approved
(by nearly 2 to 1) a $13
million bond issue for new
schools. We voted to in-
crease our property taxes
by $1.90 per $1,000 of as-
sessed value and, yes, we
knew how much it would
cost us. The amount of the
tax increase was made very clear by everyone
involved in the campaign, in every public meet-
ing, and in the campaign literature. Even though
the tax rate was omitted from the ballot, anyone
who didn’t know what the tax rate would be must
have worked hard to remain willfully ignorant.
While pleased with passage of the measure,
many of us who voted for the bond issue are
keeping our fingers crossed that what we voted
for is what we will get…new schools out of the
flood plain. We didn’t vote blind and are fully
aware that the $13 million bond issue is not
enough to reach our goal, and that much more
fund raising is needed. Hopefully, that effort will
be equally successful, but it is part of what
makes us keep our fingers crossed.
The lack of whole-hearted enthusiasm for the
bond measure stems from what we didn’t vote
for. We didn’t vote for cosmetic or short-term fix-
es. We didn’t vote for a new building in the cur-
rent location. We didn’t vote for improvements to
Washington Grade School, temporary or other-
wise. We didn’t vote for more modulars. We did-
n’t vote to raise the middle school.
Speaking of the middle school, the school
board must not forget that we didn’t vote to build
the middle school, either. That was a board de-
cision and, since many of the members who
made the decision to build a school in the flood
plain are still on the board, the trepidation felt by
many district residents is understandable.
If, or when, new schools start to become a re-
ality, there is another element of great concern.
During early efforts to get the attention of, and
gain support from, the community, there were
statements that project bids would be structured
in ways that would allow participation by local
contractors. I don’t recall any such statements in
the campaign materials, which came later, but
district superintendent Dr. Kenneth Cox, who
could not campaign but provided much factual
information, has repeatedly expressed that goal
as part of the project. Many of us feel that local
contractors and local workers deserve all the
work they can handle, because their property
taxes help pay the bills for local schools.
There are no rose-colored glasses here. This
area has been hit hard by the economy, espe-
cially when so many are still struggling with flood
damage, and we are painfully aware that large
projects rarely include the workers who help pay
for them. It is vital that this element be somehow
included in the overall contract for project man-
agement. Without it, there will be negative reac-
tions to the school board and future plans.
We said “yes”, but our fingers remain crossed.