PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 26, No. 18
THE
FREE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley for Over 25 years
September 21, 2011
Town Hall gives school update
This picture of the new Vernonia school was taken on September 19 and shows the ongoing
progress as the builders prepare to finish the roof before the winter weather sets in.
Veterans: Benefits & Job Fair, Sept. 28
Veterans and their families
needing assistance are invited
to attend a Veterans Benefits
and Job Fair at the Willow
Creek Center, 241 SW Edge-
way Drive, Beaverton, from 10
a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Wednes-
day, September 28. Washing-
ton County Disability, Aging &
Veteran Services, WorkSource
Employment Beaverton, and
the Western Washington Coun-
ty Employer’s Council are coor-
dinating the hosted event.
Veterans are unemployed in
higher-than-average numbers
locally and statewide, with
more than 20 percent of veter-
ans younger than 35 without
jobs. The lack of jobs puts vet-
erans at risk of becoming
homeless quicker than veter-
ans of any other era. It is esti-
See Veterans on page 22
Vernonia School District 47J
held a New School Town Hall
on September 13 in the cafete-
ria building.
About 50 people attended to
hear a presentation by the Ore-
gon Department of Transporta-
tion (ODOT) on the changes to
Bridge St. and Missouri Ave.
that will provide improved ac-
cess to the new school.
David Kim, ODOT Project
Manager, presented a map
showing what Bridge St. and
Missouri Ave. will look like after
the project is completed. Com-
ing up the hill from the old
schools, there will be a left turn
lane from Bridge St. onto Mis-
souri, with Bridge St. widened
for this purpose. The extra
space needed will come from
the Vernonia Pioneer Museum
and Vernonia Rural Fire Pro-
tection District properties.
Turns will still be possible, as
now, onto Texas Ave. and
Lakeview Ave. Missouri will
have left and right turn lanes
coming from the school onto
Bridge St. A new, marked
crosswalk will be on the east
side of Missouri Ave. This will
be an illuminated crosswalk
sign with rapid flash beacons to
alert drivers that pedestrians
are about to use the crosswalk.
There will also be a six foot bi-
cycle lane on Bridge St.
Missouri Ave. will be
widened and will have parking
on the west side only. The east
side will have a planter strip
and a wide sidewalk for pedes-
Salmon Festival
October 1
See page 24
for more
information.
Outcome of a log truck to log truck accident, on September 9, at the junction of Hwy 47 and
Scappoose-Vernonia Rd. Two fully loaded log trucks, one driven by Larry Cave of Cave
Trucking of Warrenton (not pictured) met up with this BMS truck, driven by owner Bill Mont-
gomery of Gaston. Both lost their loads and Montgomery sustained non-life threatening in-
juries. Hillsboro Towing handled the towing and Weller & Sons Trucking came out with self-
loaders and picked up the logs.
Final Vernonia
First Friday
September 30,
5 to 8 pm
at Scout Cabin
trians and bicycles.
ODOT said work is expect-
ed to begin next Spring and will
be completed before school
starts in September 2012. The
ODOT work is being funded by
a $3.9 million grant.
Utility work will be done by
the school district and city, not
ODOT. School district Project
Manager Steve Effros said the
utilities need to be in place be-
fore winter so system testing
can begin at the school. It has
not been decided if power will
be underground or overhead.
Work will start on the utilities
this month or in October.
The audience also heard
that Lango Hansen Landscape
Architects, of Portland, won the
contract to build the new
Spencer Park on the old school
site. Kurt Lango told the audi-
ence there will be, “A lot of op-
portunity for input and for peo-
ple to come together with ideas
for this new space.”
One member of the audi-
ence asked, related to the
funding for the new school, “Is
there going to be enough mon-
ey to finish this?” This was an-
swered by State Senator Betsy
Johnson, “I know in my heart
we’re going to find the money.”
John Donovan of the Metropol-
itan Group, hired to raise the
money for the school, said the
fundraising is where we ex-
pected it to be at this point and
finished with, “This place is one
of the places Oregon can stand
together.”
Reward amount
raised in elk kill
Oregon State Police (OSP)
Fish & Wildlife Division troop-
ers are continuing to ask for the
public’s help to identify the sus-
pect(s) responsible for the ille-
gal killing of four elk found in
See Reward on page 14
See page 22 for in-
formation on
Salmon Poisoning