PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 25, No. 20
THE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley for Over 25 years
October 21, 2010
City found in violation in five
areas of flood grant compliance
Left to right; Interim Vernonia City Administrator Bill Haack, Representative Brad Witt, Gener-
al Manager Marc Farmer, Senator Betsy Johnson, County Commissioner Tony Hyde and Rep-
resentative Debbie Boone were all smiles at the October 8 groundbreaking for the new West
Oregon Electric Cooperative headquarters on Rose Ave. Photo by Sarah Rossi.
New flood maps change risk in some areas
Columbia County is urging
residents affected by the re-
cently-approved Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
(FEMA) flood maps to get in-
surance before November
25th, the day before the new
maps take effect.
Columbia County recently
completed reviewing and re-
newing flood maps, which help
identify hazard zones and high-
risk properties that are eligible
for flood insurance under the
National Flood Insurance Pro-
gram (NFIP). Some properties
not previously in the flood plain
are now listed in that area,
which means those residents
may need to purchase a NFIP
flood insurance policy.
According to Glen Higgins,
flood plain administrator for the
county, if your dwelling has his-
torically been mapped as out of
the Flood Hazard area and is
now in that area on the new
maps, if you purchase flood in-
surance prior to the November
25, 2010, deadline, you will
qualify for a Preferred Risk Pol-
icy. The Preferred Risk rate can
FREE
be continued on that policy for
two years, as long as the insur-
ance policy is kept current. Af-
ter two renewals, your policy
will transition to a standard rate
schedule but, because you
bought a policy when your
dwelling was out of the flood
hazard area, you can grandfa-
ther to the “out of the flood
zone” rate, or use the new zone
rate, whichever is less expen-
sive for you.
Those with mortgages may
be required by their lenders to
purchase the flood insurance
because standard home insur-
ance does not cover floods, ac-
cording to Derek White, the
county’s emergency manage-
ment director. “All folks in the
flood plain are highly encour-
aged to get flood insurance
even if they don’t have a mort-
gage company requiring them
to do so,” White said.
White added that NFIP poli-
cies will pay claims even when
federal disaster help is not eligi-
ble. “We had flooding in
Clatskanie in January 2009 that
did not meet the requirements
for a federal disaster declara-
tion. Those who had flood in-
surance were still able to get
assistance with claims they
filed and others were unable to
get any kind of recovery assis-
tance.”
For more information on the
NFIP, go to http://www.floods-
mart.gov or call 1-888-379-
9531.
State public records,
meeting laws get “F”
Attorney General John
Kroger recently released a
Government Transparency Re-
port emphasizing that Oregon’s
nearly
40-year-old
public
records and public meetings
laws need major reforms.
“Oregon received an ‘F’ in a
2007 study of government
transparency in the fifty states,”
said Deputy Attorney General
Mary Williams. “Oregonians
across the state agree with that
assessment.”
After taking office last year,
Attorney General Kroger deter-
mined it was time to reform
See Public on page 5
The City of Vernonia re-
ceived a letter, dated Septem-
ber 23, notifying them of issues
needing to be addressed re-
garding their administration of
Community Development Block
Grant (CDBG) funds used for
flood recovery projects.
The letter, though it said that,
“In general, the grant project is
in compliance with…require-
ments.” also said that the proj-
ect is not proceeding on sched-
ule and that there was one
“Finding”. A “Finding” was de-
fined as a situation where the
city is in violation of federal law
or a Special Condition of the
grant contract. The City had 30
days to provide a satisfactory
response to the “Finding”, be-
fore “appropriate sanctions
Halloween
Activities
Sunday, Oct. 31
Carved Pumpkin Contest
— 3-6:00 p.m. at Black Bear
Coffee Co. Bring your carved
pumpkins to be judged. $2
for 12 and under, $5 over 12.
Cash prize determined by
number of entries. Free mu-
sic by Basinbillies and free
face painting for kids, plus
50/50 drawing, $1 per ticket
or $5 for six. Sponsored by
Black Bear and the Free-
wheelers.
Halloween
Costume
Parade — 4:30 p.m. start-
ing at City Hall. Sponsored
by Vernonia Community PTA
and Clever Cricket.
Fall Carnival — 7:00
p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Ver-
nonia Christian Church, with
games, prizes, goodies and
more. Join us at 410 North
Street for a safe Halloween
alternative of free family fun
for everyone. For more infor-
mation call the church office
at 503-429-6522
may be exercised.”
The grant in question is for
$500,000 to help with flood ele-
vations and rehabilitation proj-
ects administered by Commu-
nity Action Team (CAT) in their
capacity as the overseer of the
County’s flood relief efforts.
The “Finding” actually out-
lined five areas needing to be
addressed, including docu-
menting permit inspections be-
fore paying for work done, the
homeowner needing to find
three bids for work (versus CAT
giving them bids), handling of
homeowner conflicts with con-
tractors, work not being done to
specifications, and problems
with paperwork in one file. One
of the findings was about work
that had to be done a second
time because 6” foundation
blocks were used where the re-
quirements called for 8” foun-
dation blocks.
Jim Tierney, CAT Deputy Di-
rector, told council, “I don’t think
this kind of feedback is ever
harmful” and that it gives an op-
portunity to review the process.
The eight-page response letter
approved by council outlined
corrective action that would ad-
dress the concerns, such as
additional training for person-
nel. Council approval allowed
the letter prepared by Commu-
nity Action Team to be sent
within the 30 day time limit.
Ballot drop sites
Ballot drop sites for the No-
vember 2 General Election are
as follows:
• Vernonia Library during li-
brary hours through Nov. 1;
noon to 8:00 p.m. on Nov. 2.
• Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD dur-
ing office hours through Nov. 1;
8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Nov. 2
• County Courthouse, 230
Strand St., is open 7:00 a.m. to
8:00 p.m. on November 2.
There is also a drive-by drop
box in the lower parking lot.