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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2011)
The INDEPENDENT, May 5, 2011 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 313 Hart 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 Vote YES to support law enforcement To the Editor: Vote Yes for Sheriff’s levy. A stable and civil society de- pends on laws and regulations. These guidelines govern how we as people function in our daily lives. If everybody fol- lowed the rules and lived like angels, life would be simple. Since we all know this is not the case, then there is the need for deterrents and enforcement. A Nation can have all the laws it wants, but they are symbolic and useless without the con- cept of a possible police pres- ence. It has been a generation since the Columbia County Sheriff has had adequate fund- ing and it shows. Join me in voting for a more orderly and predictable future. Jeff VanNatta Rainier Neighboring sheriff urges YES on 5-210 To the Editor: As Sheriff of neighboring Clatsop County, I am hoping you will support the efforts of citizens to secure stable fund- ing for your Sheriff’s Office. I know Sheriff Dickerson has worked very hard to build the Office of Sheriff into the conser- vator of the peace it is meant to be. I also know that continuous budget cuts have had a debili- tating effect on his ability to pro- vide the services delegated to the Sheriff by our Constitution and state law. Measure 5-210 provides the dedicated funding needed to fi- nally provide 24/7 patrols, faster response times to emer- gencies, detectives who can in- vestigate and solve crimes, while at the same time shield- ing the Sheriff’s Office from the budget cuts threatening many Sheriff’s services. In 1993, Clatsop County was in a similar situation. We had no dedicated source of funding for the Sheriff’s Office, and as a re- sult, the skeleton crew we had available to address problems in our county could not be as effective as we needed to have a positive impact. Clatsop County voters passed our stable funding ini- tiative, which enabled us to go from one deputy for every 2400 people to one deputy for every 1,000 people. Measure 5-210 will give your Sheriff enough deputies to go from one deputy for every 3,800 people to one deputy for every 1900 people – a change that will make your county a safer, more economi- cally viable place to live and work. Please vote YES on Mea- sure 5-210. Tom Bergin Clatsop County Sheriff Apology offered To the Editor: I apologize for lumping The Independent in with Vernonia’s Voice and the way the Voice campaigned to get information out to people so they would show up at the May 2 Vernonia City Council meeting. Willow Burch Vernonia City Councilor Objects to change of medical provider To the Editor: Re: Medical Provider. The Medical Board in charge of making the decisions of who will provide Vernonia’s service and needs have done so with- out the consent of the town’s people. If we change provider (Prov- idence) it will cause a lot of people to drive to Hillsboro for service. Have they shot themselves in the foot. And for a lower grade of service. And how many people will suffer. Robert Bertonneau Vernonia ter my lunch buddy time frame and monitor the students. I have a handful of middle and high school students that I am friends with because of my jun- ior son and my being a band booster, community theatre, and other volunteer work. I fig- ured that it would work well for a ‘friend’ to be extra ‘adult’ eyes during lunch. I figured incorrect- ly because I’m too much of a friend to the kidlets to be au- thoritative. The purpose of this letter is to SINCERELY solicit Vernonia folks to volunteer to go through the background check and help at the school where they can. At the time mid/end of April, I sadly noticed that I had been the ONLY visitor to sign in at the high school over the last week or so. The school does NOT want to turn down volun- teers, but at the same time they need to be appropriately placed. I have been able to help with the grade school kids and emcee’ing the Talent Show for Joy for Jaden. Stay tuned for a summer fundraiser talent show! I have felt very sad about this over the last few weeks, but I understand it. In the mean- time, some of the kids have ‘friended’ me on facebook and that is kind of redeeming, but also remind me of the example that I am. Yikes, eh? Seriously, I advertise with my picture in both of the Vernonia papers to remind myself that I should NOT pick my nose. Ha ha. But seriously... :-) Lee Anne Krause Vernonia School volunteer urges you to help Grange fund raiser To the Editor: was very successful Many folks will know me as the Pampered Chef gal in town, even though that has always been a hobby; I had worked daytime for years prior, but with being “unemployed” now about nearly two years, I have found myself needing to make myself busy…thankfully, I have been able to be a lunch buddy for a few months to a 2nd grader and have REALLY enjoyed it. The other classmates argue over who sits next to me. Following a Vernonia Pre- vention Coalition meeting where complaints were heard about high school students “making out” in the cafeteria, I said that I could stick around af- To the Editor: The one-day Grange fund- raising rummage sale was a success. Thanks to everyone who donated so many nice things, shopped, rounded up their purchase prices to make a donation, set up, ran the sale, cleaned up, and hauled the re- maining items to St. Mary’s for their sale. Special thanks to Julie Prohaska, Ella Tessitor, Maggie Peyton, Penny Costley, and Diana Peach for the hours they put in on the prep, sale day and clean up. It was a great team effort! Tobie Finzel Vernonia Great workers made Vernonia really shine To the Editor: On behalf of the Vernonia Pride members who helped or- ganize this year’s Make Ver- nonia Shine Day event – Dede Webb, Sally Harrison, Janelle Cedergreen, Sharron Rock- wood, Marge Lowrance, Re- becca McGaugh, Pat Phillips and last, but certainly not least, my wonderful mentor Donna Webb. I’d like to thank the 68 people who came out to Make Vernonia Shine Saturday, April 16. I’d also like to thank the Vernonia Health Board for al- lowing us to set up registration at Providence, Sentry for the donation of bottled water and SOLV for the grant to purchase native shrubs. If I’ve missed anyone to thank, I’ll send in an- other letter :) Mother Nature cooperated to give us pretty wonderful work- ing conditions. So many proj- ects were completed in just four short hours. The back of the VCLC was totally cleaned up of 3-years of built-up fir needles and you can now see the as- phalt! We also planted the rear area with Oregon Grape shrubs. The base of the trees that line downtown were raked out, debris removed and fresh bark dust was spread. Litter was removed from downtown sidewalks, Shay Park, Hawkins Park and the Lake. The planter box behind the restrooms at Hawkins Park was cleaned out, new shrubs were planted and bark dust was spread. A lot of time was spent on the Lake and debris removal, it looks gor- geous. The Museum had a great crew that did a bunch of yard work and a lot of work was done at the Community Gar- den. A couple of business own- ers spent more than the 4- hours working on their store See Letters on page 20 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.
