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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