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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2011)
Page 16 The INDEPENDENT, February 17, 2011 Letters From page 3 ing Katrina. FEMA and the Corp see structural projects as failing catastrophically and, as a result, causing unprecedent- ed levels of damage. Second, everyone with whom I spoke talked about the millions of dol- lars and decades of effort needed to simply obtain permit- ting for a dam. Right or wrong, most public officials I spoke with at the local, state and fed- eral level were not encouraging about the prospects for a dam. As a result of Ms Thomp- son’s letter, I decided to do my own, “back of the envelope” calculation to “site” a retention dam. Thanks to Dale Webb, I learned the water flow during the flood. Using Google Earth I found one or two areas up Rock Creek from Vernonia where a potential reservoir could reach 1,000 feet in width (more or less) and maybe a couple miles in length. Guess- ing at an average depth, I cal- culated a total volume and then estimated the fill rate to be only 1.6 hours. Even if that estimate is off by a factor of 10, the reservoir would seem inade- quate to me. Of course, I am not an engi- neer. But that fact actually proves my point. Very few of us are. We have very competent federal staffers (I have met them) who are engineers and whose job it is to do these kinds of calculations and steer public investment. I, for one, think we should trust them, at least in this case. I appreciate Ms. Thompson’s concern about the loss of tax base. I began talking to the Council about that in December of 2007. Through grants from the state and FEMA, we have delivered more than $24 million to help businesses, citizens and the schools recover, so far. This is not counting FEMA pay- outs to victims or flood insur- ance proceeds. All of this in- vestment has a positive impact on values and the real estate market in Vernonia. It is hard to see that right now, with the na- tional real estate collapse in the background. But, this substan- tial investment has helped and will help more in the future. Many flooded families have been adamant about remaining in their homes, despite their dangerous location. FEMA and the state have helped us pass though funds to lift these homes. Other, have made the sounder choice (from my per- spective) to leave the flood plain using the generous buy- outs afforded by state and fed- eral programs. Hopefully, many of these families will relocate within Vernonia. It is a misunderstanding to assume that these purchased homes would remain occupied and paying taxes. These prop- erties were substantially dam- aged, that is, more than 50% of their value was spent repairing them. As such, the city must force these owners to lift their homes or tear them down with- in four years. If the city does not, the whole community could lose access to flood insurance. Since flood insurance is re- Please see page 22 Just for Fun Casey and Kyle by Will Robertson Solve this Sudoku A n s w e r t o Fe b r u a r y 3 Sudoku is on page 23 In honor of Pre s i d e n t ’s Da y, h e re i s a h a t c h e t that was not used b y G e o rg e Washington. He that loves read- ing, has e ve r y t h i n g within his reach. He has but to desire, and he may pos- sess himself of every species of wisdom to judge and power to perform. WILLIAM GODWIN English writer (1756-1836)