The INDEPENDENT, January 20, 2011
Page 5
Rural community worked to
reduce the danger of wildfire
From page 1
concerned with wildfire protec-
tion and, over the years, has
demonstrated their dedication
and ingenuity through such ef-
forts as their campfire program
and cooperative outreach ef-
forts with the Mist/Birkenfeld
Rural Fire Protection District.
Most recently they have been
working with the Oregon De-
partment of Forestry (ODF)
through a fuels reduction grant
awarded to Columbia County.
ODF has been the adminis-
trator of a federal grant to help
the residents of Columbia
County prepare and protect
themselves for wildfires. Kevin
Nelson, a Forester with the Co-
lumbia City ODF office, has
been assisting Columbia Coun-
ty residents in these efforts for
the last year. Nelson performs
individual Firewise assess-
ments, signing up people for
grant assistance with their pro-
tection projects, and coordinat-
ing community efforts. His serv-
ices are available for anyone
interested in learning how to
protect their homes. Assisting
Fishhawk Lake with their desire
to become a Firewise Commu-
nity is just one of his latest en-
deavors.
Grant money was used to
hire a chipping crew to assist
with Fishhawk’s first Firewise
clean-up weekend, held last
October. The residents pruned,
cut, and otherwise cleaned up
their properties of fuels and the
chipping crew came through
and disposed of the debris.
Fishhawk Lake now joins a
short list of only eight other
communities in Oregon to be
officially Firewise, and is the
first in Northwest Oregon.
If you are interested in hav-
ing a free Firewise assessment
done on your property, seeing
if you qualify for grant assis-
tance, or learning more about
how you can protect your prop-
erty call Nelson at 503-397-
2636.
Minimum wage increase is a help
to low-income Oregonian workers
by Chris Thomas, Oregon
News Service
The first paychecks of the
New Year are a little bit bigger
for some workers in Oregon.
The new minimum wage has
kicked in: $8.50 an hour means
those employees are earning
ten cents more per hour than
last year. It translates to a be-
fore-tax annual income of
about $17,000 a year for a full-
time worker.
Recent college graduate
Laura Baker, who makes just
above minimum wage, says
the extra $20 or so a month re-
ally helps, “For a salaried per-
son, that may sound a little bit
trivial, but for people who are
just struggling to make sure
they can go buy groceries,
twenty bucks is a lot. That can
help you buy a bus pass. It can
help you buy school supplies
for your kids.”
Baker said she works two
lower-paid part-time jobs, and
has been unable to find work in
her chosen profession. The Na-
tional Employment Law Project
(NELP) reports over 87,000
Oregonians make minimum
wage, and more than 60 per-
cent of them are women.
Oregon is one of ten states
where the minimum wage in-
creases when cost of living
goes up. Opponents of that
system say it increases costs
to business with very little ben-
efit to employees. But Ann
Thompson, NELP policy ana-
lyst, says even a small in-
crease for the lowest-paid
workers produces a variety of
benefits, from lowered absen-
teeism and improved morale,
to boosting the economy and
the paychecks of other work-
ers, as well, “Generally when
we see minimum wage in-
creases, it brings up the floor.
So it brings up the lowest
wage, but it also gives a little bit
of a bump to the workers who
are making, you know, 50 cents
or a dollar more.”
Oregon has a lower per-
capita personal income than
the national average but, ac-
cording to the State Employ-
ment Department, the number
of minimum-wage workers is
not a factor, and Oregon’s min-
imum wage is the second-high-
est in the nation.
Mist/Birkenfeld RFPD Fire Chief Dave Crawford (left) and Fishhawk Lake Recreation Club rep-
resentative Kathy Cardona accepted the community’s Firewise award, presented by Kevin
Nelson of the Oregon Department of Forestry. Photo courtesy of ODF.
Protect your debit card from skimming
Better Business Bureau
(BBB) warns that ATM skim-
ming is a growing problem.
Identity thieves tamper with
ATMs to steal debit card num-
bers and PINs. It only takes a
few seconds to install cameras
over the keypad and a device
over the card reader. ATMs
aren’t the only hot spots, credit
card readers at gas pumps and
retailers can be tampered with
as well.
According to Bankrate.com,
ATM skimmers are close to
reaping $1 billion annually from
unsuspecting consumers. Ja-
velin Strategy & Research esti-
mates that one in five people
have become victims.
See Protect on page 8