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.