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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2011)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, May 19, 2011 The INDEPENDENT Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net Advertising Rep., Ellen Sadler, ellen@the-independent.net Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Opinion What will you do on May 30? What will you do this Memorial Day? Spend the day at a leisurely pursuit such as fishing or golfing? Perhaps enjoying the company of friends and family at a picnic or barbeque? Every Memorial Day, many Vernonians, and others, join in a ceremony of honor at the Vernonia Memorial Cemetery. People come to pay their respects and remember. We wonder…if more people understood and remembered the sacri- fices of those who did not get to return to their loved ones because they died in service to our country… would we try to find a better way to resolve conflict, instead of going to war? The ceremonies at Vernonia Memorial Cemetery will include a speech about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, songs, a rifle salute, taps, an Honor Guard, and prayer. Whether you attend every Out of My Mind… year, or this will be your first time, you’ll find the cer- by Noni Andersen emonies moving and highly appropriate to the day. “Mendaciousness”, giv- Memorial Day started as Decoration Day, a day to en to or characterized by decorate the graves of those who gave their lives for deception or falsehood or this country. Waterloo, N.Y., was officially declared divergence from absolute the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon truth,* is about the best description of what has Johnson in May 1966, but it’s difficult to prove con- been going on in the City clusively the origins of the day. General John Logan, of Vernonia. It isn’t all de- national commander of the Grand Army of the Re- ception or falsehood, public, officially proclaimed Memorial Day on May 5, though there’s plenty of 1868, in General Order No. 11, and it was first ob- that to go around, there is also a lot of diver- served May 30, 1868, with flowers placed on the gence from absolute truth. It appears, though, that many, many Vernonia graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arling- citizens are not simply tired of misrepresentation ton National Cemetery. The first state to recognize at the city level, but are working to do something the holiday was New York, in 1873. When it was ex- about it. The initial effort involves a campaign to panded to include those who gave their lives in any recall council member Kevin Hudson, with plans for a subsequent campaign to recall council war, it was renamed Memorial Day. It is now cele- members Willow Burch and Marilyn Nicks as brated in almost every state on the last Monday in soon as possible, which will be early July, the re- May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday quired six months after they take office. The three council members (a majority) seem Act of 1971). Some southern states have a separate to think that interim administrator Bill Haack was day for honoring the Confederate war dead. In 2000, somehow responsible for state investigations of President Bill Clinton instituted a National Moment of Mike Kay, a city police officer, for numerous inci- Remembrance on Memorial Day, when everyone is dents which appear to fit the above definition. At urged to take a minute of silence, at 3:00 p.m. local least one of the three didn’t even bother to read any of the 900-plus pages of the state report be- time, to just remember. fore they voted to get rid of Haack. Since man has walked the Earth, there have been Citizens were just annoyed, initially, but firing wars, perhaps there always will be. The least we can Haack triggered widespread anger. Technically, do is take one day out of the year to spend a moment they terminated the City’s contract with Haack’s employer, Columbia Pacific Development Corp. remembering those who served and gave their lives. (Col-Pac), which had loaned him to our cash- strapped and leaderless city. Primary among the reasons for that anger was the competency Haack brought to the city’s many complicated projects and the elements within those projects, which include the following: • ROSE AVENUE PROJECT – feasibility plans for Clinic, Vernonia Cares, Senior Center, program development plan for each entity, coor- dination with FEMA for Seniors and Clinic, lease- hold agreement design, proposals for CDBG funding, proposals for road improvement fund- ing, negotiate with WOEC on dedication of road improvements, biomass project planning • WATER FACILITY – water rate study, meter upgrade project, master meter planning, • WASTEWATER FACILITY – project manag- er selection, pre-engineering selection, final en- gineering selection, general contractor selection, wetland mitigation as required, improvements to lake if required, sewer rate study • SCHOOL/CITY related – Missouri Ave./Bridge St. construction, wetland mitigation construction, wetland mitigation oversight, new Spencer Park planning, school demolition, new Spencer Park construction • CITY SYSTEMS – negotiate collective bar- gaining agreements, establish human resources systems including compensation plan, job de- scriptions and updated employee handbook; up- grade fiscal management systems including pur- chase orders, fund analysis tool, potential use of DASHBOARD product Please see page 3
