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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2010)
The INDEPENDENT, July 1, 2010 Where to Find Them U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (Dem) 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Suite 585 Portland OR 97232 Phone: 503-326-7525 223 Dirksen Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510-0001 Phone: 202-224-5244 E-Mail: http://wyden.senate.gov/ contact Website: http://wyden.senate. gov U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (Dem.) One World Trade Center 121 SW Salmon St., Suite 1250 Portland, OR 97204 Phone: 503-326-3386 107 Russell Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-3753 E-Mail: http://merkley.senate. gov/contact WebSite: http://merkley.senate. gov U.S. Representative David Wu (Dem) OR District 1 620 SW Main, Suite 606 Portland, OR 97205 Phone: 503-326-2901 2338 Rayburn House Ofc. Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-0855 Website: http://house.gov/wu Senator Betsy Johnson (Dem) Senate District 16 PO Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056 Phone: 503-543-4046 900 Court St. NE, S-314 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1716 E-mail: sen.betsyjohnson@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/johnson Representative Brad Witt (Dem) House District. 31 21740 Lindberg Road, Clatskanie, OR 97016 Phone: 503-728-4664 900 Court St. NE, H-373 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1431 E-mail: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/witt Representative Deborah Boone (Dem) House District 32 PO Box 926 Cannon Beach, OR 97110 Phone: 503-717-9182 900 Court St. NE, H-375 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1432 E-mail: rep.deborahboone@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/boone Ike Says… From Page 2 off this year due to poor brood recruitment. Big game species should benefit from all this rain, however. Extending the time that vegetation remains green adds time for ungulates to cap- italize on the high nutrition from this forage. Simply put, when forage flourishes, so will the animals that feed on it. East- ern Oregon, especially, has seen a major difference this year. With better forage condi- tions come better fawn and calf survival, and better body con- ditioning of the adults, which will result in better next-year fawn and calf production and, for the trophy hunters, bigger antlers. So you can see, rain isn’t al- ways a bad thing. Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter meets monthly on the 3rd Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Call 503-429-7193 for location. Page 3 Letters Library needs help to maintain services To the Editor: As most of you have proba- bly heard our city is in a finan- cial pinch, with all departments making deep cuts, one of those is the library. We are fortunate to have such a great facility and a li- brarian and staff dedicated to providing so many services, such as a book discussion group, pre-school story hour, the summer reading program, after school crafts, adult and children movies, guest pro- grams, and free internet use. The library budget was cut over $4,000 dollars, $1,000 of that is for purchasing new books. I would like to encourage all library patrons to donate to- wards a fund to ensure the pur- chasing of new books. If you read as many books as my husband and I, you know how much money you save by using the library. If you are not a user of our li- brary, preferring to buy your books, I invite you to support our local library. I have been using the library for 56 years and always find something to my liking. If you have books you no longer have any use for, please donate them to the Friends of The Library for their annual book sale in August. I’m sure if we all pitch in we can easily make up that $1,000 dollars or more. If you wish to donate, please make your checks to the Friends of The Library, that money will then go directly to the library fund. We will be making the first donation and hopefully many of you will do the same, and make our goal a reality. DeLoris Webb Vernonia Policy on Letters The INDEPENDENT will not publish letters with per- sonal attacks on private citi- zens. Preference will be giv- en to brief letters, 300 words or less. All letters must be signed and include a verifiable ad- dress or phone number. We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concen- trated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. — Justice Louis D. Brandeis(1856-1941) US Supreme Court Justice Recession triggers state budget review and “reset” Governor Ted Kulongoski recently re- leased the official report from the Reset Cabinet that he created last September to develop options for restructuring state gov- ernment. Triggered by the recession, the governor’s goal is to preserve and improve critical services for Oregonians while con- trolling costs. The Reset Cabinet’s charge was to un- dertake a comprehensive review of state government functions, how those functions are delivered and identify policy changes that would create greater stability, improve outcomes or control costs in the three ma- jor areas of government: education, human services and public safety. Because the fiscal changes will affect many Oregonians, following is a summary of some of the recommendations. (For the full report, go to http://www.oregon.gov) EDUCATION – K-12 Develop “shared services” across school districts. Establish a statutory mini- mum list of “shared services” that includes consolidating business, transportation, and other functions for which a school district is required to contract with its regional Edu- cation Service District, with all districts par- ticipating by July 1, 2012. Benefit: Functions such as accounting, human resources, transportation, informa- tion technology, and special education in- struction can be provided much more effi- ciently when districts consolidate these op- erations into a single regional Education Service District. Replace Education Service Districts with a new system of fewer regional serv- ice providers. Consolidate “shared servic- es” among school districts further by re- ducing the number of independent region- al service providers, with transition com- plete by July 1, 2014. Benefit: Further consolidation of shared services among school districts will pro- duce even greater cost-savings. Create a statewide virtual learning sys- tem for all public school students. Require every district to provide access to online learning options if the district does not have its own internal program. Benefit: The availability of online cours- es can significantly expand coursework op- tions and reduce the cost of providing high- quality education. The cost of online teach- ing options are calculated at 70-80% of providing the same quality of education in a traditional bricks-and-mortar setting. Expand offerings of “dual-credit” cours- es, allowing high school students to earn college credits while also meeting gradua- tion requirements. Benefit: In addition to providing in- creased educational opportunities for stu- dents, dual credit courses permit consider- able monetary saving for students and par- ents, since state support typically reduces the cost of the courses to a fee that is well below the actual cost of college tuition. PUBLIC SAFETY Short Term Options Continue to suspend the implementa- tion of Ballot Measure 57 (temporary). Benefit: Continuing to suspend imple- mentation of M57 will save $5 million for the 2011-2013 biennium; $44 million for the 2013-2015 biennium; $65 million for the 2015-2017 biennium. Provide Depart- ment of Corrections (DOC) with the ability to allow offenders in custody to serve the fi- nal year of sentence under county jurisdic- tion in jails, using electronic detention, halfway house placement, and day report- ing, among other innovative practices. Benefit: The cost of using halfway house placement and electronic detention is an average of $35/day compared to $84/day for state prisons. Long Term Options Create a system of sentencing guide- lines that incorporates the intent of manda- tory minimums, within the state’s current bed capacity (14,000). Benefit: The state is unable to fund the 2,000 additional beds needed to meet the projected growth in prison population. Cre- ating a modern sentencing guidelines sys- tem will ensure that DOC lives within its means (current capacity) and save $580 million over the next ten years. The state could continue the hold on construction of the new Junction City minimum security prison, which will save $153 million in pro- jected future construction costs. Adopt the federal earned time system with consideration of federal policies on the use of halfway house and electronic moni- toring during the final year of sentencing on appropriately screened offenders. Benefit: Increasing offender accounta- bility by reducing earned time in prison, coupled with increased flexibility to have offenders serve their last year in other ways, estimates savings of $2 million for the 2011-13 biennium; in 2013-15 would be $35 million and in 2015-17 would be $65 million.