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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2010)
The INDEPENDENT, July 15, 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 Page 3 Letters Committee seeking ideas from citizens To the Editor: Last month, the City Council asked a number of local ac- tivists to staff a strategic plan- ning committee. Rural Devel- opment Initiatives (RDI) helped us do a strategic plan after the 1996 floods, and a city consult- ant just completed a planning process that generated several typed pages of input from citi- zens. The City Council asked this new ad hoc committee to evaluate and prioritize the new ideas, placing them into a for- mat similar to the one RDI used in 1997. Committee members repre- sent specific constituencies within the city. They include: Brett Costly, former city council person, Bill Haack, Interim City Manager, Catherine Helmer from Parks, Dan Brown and Nancy Dailey from the Planning Commission, Karen Davenport, Marilyn Nicks, Willow Birch, Tim Bero and Sharon Bernal from the Economic Develop- ment Committee and the Downtown Business Associa- tion, Mike Seager from the Air- port, Cynda Allen, Janelle Ced- ergreen from Vernonia Pride and George Tice from the Pub- lic Works Committee. Each of these committee members has agreed to bring the collected ideas to their par- ticular constituency for input. We are hoping to engage the smart, experienced citizens of Vernonia to help us identify ten to twelve, feasible, top priori- ties. The City Council, staff and volunteers can use these prior- ities to keep the city focused for the next ten years. Our first meeting (of three planned) will be at 7:00 p.m., on July 22nd, at Vernonia City Hall. We encourage citizens to attend. If you cannot, copies of the 1997 strategic plan and the 2009 idea list can be obtained at City Hall or by emailing me (jimtierney@verizon.net). Even without these documents, feel free to let me know your best idea for our town. Remember to explain your idea as well as you can. We need to evaluate ideas for feasibility, so if we don’t ful- ly understand it, your good idea may not get its best chance to make the list. You can contact any of these committee mem- bers or me by phone or mail at: 503-429-0720 and 1209 Bridge Street. Jim Tierney 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. "I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it." —Thomas Paine, 1783 Salem Scene By Representative Brad Witt Oregon District 31 In my last newsletter I was in Salem attending 3 days of legislative hearings that are designed to help us to keep on top of things during the 18 month interim be- tween sessions. At that time, the state economist issued a new quarterly revenue projection that showed an unexpected $577 million shortfall from the previous forecast. In the past several weeks, Governor Ku- longoski has taken a two-pronged ap- proach to solving this shortfall. First, he an- nounced his plans to cut $577 million equally across the state budget. That amounts to an across the board cut of 9% for all General Fund expenditures, 95% of which is dedicated to education, health care and public safety. The Governor asked all state agencies to submit their proposed cuts by June 7th, which they did. Secondly, the Governor outlined the rec- ommendations submitted to him by his “Reset Cabinet,” an experienced and thoughtful group of advisors tasked with the responsibility of giving him a no-holds- barred assessment of what it is going to take to get Oregon back on the road to re- covery. The Governor’s Website, which outlines the Reset and gives you an oppor- tunity for input, is: http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/governor_r eset_cabinet/reset_state_govt.shtml We now have these two outlines before us and the depth of these cuts is sobering. This is not just about numbers, it’s about people. Families and communities will feel real pain when these cuts go into effect. We must now determine if it is possible to mitigate some of the worst cuts, while also anticipating the budget challenges of the 2011-2013 biennium. Some have called for the Legislature to go into immediate emergency session, but I believe that would be a mistake. Until we receive the August 26th revenue forecast, and determine what, if anything, the feder- al government is going to provide in terms of aid to the states (Oregon is not alone), it makes no sense to call ourselves into ses- sion. We do not want to repeat the experi- ences of the 2002 Legislature that met in five emergency sessions, resulting in huge costs to the taxpayers. Here are the immediate steps being tak- en: • The Legislature sent a letter to Ore- gon’s Congressional delegation requesting aid for services to remedy the deficits caused by lax federal regulation and the re- sulting global recession that has put all states at risk. • We are in the process of scrutinizing proposed agency service cuts to determine the best path to preserve the most critical services for schools, public safety, seniors and vulnerable families, for both this bien- nium and the next. • We will implement a fair share of budg- et cuts for the Legislature, Judicial Depart- ment, Secretary of State, and Treasurer, since the Governor’s allotment authority doesn’t extend to those agencies. • We are engaging stakeholders statewide in discussions about the impact of cuts and strategies to protect core serv- ices. • We are assessing what additional re- sources we can bring to bear, including re- serves and other funds, which are about $175 million (less than 2% of the state’s bi- ennial general fund budget). As we continue to recover from the re- cession, we see hopeful economic signs all around us. For example, Oregon employ- ers in the construction sector added 1,700 jobs in May, the third consecutive gain. Oregon is one of 17 states where unem- ployment is lower than it was a year ago, and the reduction in the unemployment rate last year, 1%, is one of the largest drops in the nation. Rural Energy Assessments Available… On a happier note, I received an email from the Oregon State University Energy Efficiency Center, which is making its serv- ices available to Oregon farmers and rural businesses. This new rural energy assess- ment program is available to any small ru- ral Oregon business or farm – as defined by the Small Business Administration – that makes more than half of its gross income from agriculture. Those using the program save an average of 10% of their annual fa- cility energy use. You can access more information by go- ing to http://eec.engr.oregonstate.edu .