The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current, October 19, 2011, Page Page 21, Image 21

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    The INDEPENDENT, October 19, 2011
Page 21
Power of the People
From page 15
during the flood. They were not
only the low bid, but are mem-
bers and neighbors of the Co-
op. They did an amazing job on
all of the work they did in our
building.
Incorporated in the design of
the building were energy effi-
ciency measures, using materi-
als that would last for the next
60 plus years, and a promise to
the City that the building would
not look like an industrial facili-
ty, but instead would capture
the historic and cultural her-
itage of the community. It was
decided to construct it with as
much wood as possible to re-
flect the fact that Vernonia has
been a timber town. The “lodge
look” was selected and incor-
porated into the design and the
selection of materials. While
the building looks very expen-
sive, in reality it is not – due to
the careful choice of materials
and design. The building was
constructed for around $120
per square foot. To help keep
costs down, we reused every-
thing we could from the old
building. Since we just remod-
eled it after the flood, it made
no sense to discard items that
the members recently pur-
chased and have to repur-
chase them. Instead, we
reused doors, furniture, toilets,
sinks, dispensers, cabinets,
appliances, and even disman-
tled the entire kitchen and re-
assembled it in the new build-
ing. Racks for the warehouse
were purchased at 50 cents on
the dollar from a company that
went out of business, a forklift
was purchased by selling old
transformers to a recycler, a
crane was purchased by selling
items from the old building we
were not going to be able to
reuse and a chipper we no
longer needed. We even
reused some of the landscap-
ing from the old building includ-
ing the rocks. We also traded
items for carpentry work.
The size of the facility is
often questioned compared to
our old building. The new facili-
ty is almost twice the size of the
old one for some very specific
reasons. Our old building was
not only insufficient for our cur-
rent needs, but could not ex-
pand for future needs. We
needed a facility that would
handle current and future
needs of the Co-op, allow us to
operate more efficiently, and in-
clude room for items we had to
keep up at the pole yard. The
Co-op was losing thousands of
dollars in materials, damages
to property and equipment, and
even vehicles stolen from our
pole yard. The area was out of
sight and almost impossible to
secure. Metal theft was the pri-
mary problem. Now we have a
building large enough to bring
equipment and materials inside
to a safer location. The cost
savings will help pay back the
cost of the new buildings.
Features are included in the
new facility to make it useful as
an emergency shelter for the
community in case of another
catastrophic event. The facility
was upgraded to survive a Cat-
egory 4 seismic event. Addi-
tional lighting was included so
that the truck bays could be
used as medical triage center
with the backup generator
sized to power everything a
center would need. The park-
ing lot was configured to be
able to land medical evac heli-
copters, garage doors were se-
lected with the highest insula-
tion value, both for energy effi-
ciency and to allow the bays to
be heated easily for shelter by
the two heaters installed.
WOEC also donated a genera-
tor to Wilcox and Flegel gas fa-
cility allowing fuel to be avail-
able for emergency vehicles
and uses during an event, with
the stipulation that minimum
amounts of fuel be maintained
at all times. The Board room is
also available for community
use.
The facilities we built truly
belong to the members of the
Co-op and the community that
we serve. It was built for mem-
bers for be proud of, knowing
that it will last for years to
come, be an asset to them and
serve them, and represent and
serve the Co-op staff as well. It
is a much safer, healthier, and
more efficient work environ-
Letters
ment than we had before. Yes,
the building looks expensive,
but we built it smart, not expen-
sive. What is the final cost to
the members each month?
After receiving funds from
FEMA for the sale of our old
building, all of the reuse of ma-
terials and items from the old
building, paying cash for the
property, all of the trading and
selling of items to pay for things
we needed in the new building,
the total amount the members
pay each month for a $3.5 mil-
lion facility is $3. That’s right,
only $3 per month, which
stayed within the membership
survey response. For this, the
membership has a new build-
ing built to last for the next 60
plus years that is more energy
efficient, out of the flood plain,
and designed to serve as an
emergency shelter in case of
another disaster event. The in-
vestment is a good one for now
and for the future of West Ore-
gon Electric Cooperative and
its members.
WEATHER REPORT
SEPTEMBER 2011
From page 3
homeless. We have logged
many volunteer hours while not
working, making us feel like we
are part of the community.
Do you really know what it
means to be called homeless
or to be homeless? Would you
even know if the person next to
you was homeless or about to
be homeless? If it was your
friend or family, what would you
do? How can you help the
homeless or jobless folks
today? Do you even wish to?
Do you believe the home-
less are lazy and don’t wish to
make it or just wish to survive?
Our family does appreciate
what we have even more than
before. When fruits and veg-
etables, or even sugar and toi-
let paper, are treats one really
starts to think. What is truly im-
portant; what others think or
how we feel about ourselves?
Homelessness isn’t some-
thing one plans on or even
wishes to be in today’s world.
And, it is different today than it
was yesterday.
Kimberly Brandt
Vernonia
Ambition, hard work
needed for success
To the Editor:
In response to “Opinion” in
the October 5, 2011 issue of
the Independent – “Occupy
Wall Street” is a recognition of
inequity.
Our Declaration of Indepen-
dence states, in part: “We hold
these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalien-
able Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness...” All men are
created equal and there is
equal OPPORTUNITY. Where
is it written that there should be
equity of OUTCOME? Where is
it written that there should be
equality of income or living
standard? Some people are
more ambitious, work harder
and are rewarded financially for
it by the free market system.
Others do not work as hard and
are not rewarded to the same
extent. Some refuse to work at
all and become a burden on all
who work. Why should we ex-
pect equal income for different
amounts of work? Oh, yeah,
that has been tried. In the for-
mer Soviet Union all workers
were paid the same regardless
of their initiative or how hard
they worked. How well did that
work out?
If we expect the government
to make all things equal are we
not surrendering our liberties to
the government? The govern-
ment that can give you every-
thing also has the power to
take everything away. Is it the
role of government to be a
Robin Hood seeking “social
justice”? If you see a man on
the street that is hungry and
you come up to me and de-
mand (maybe at gunpoint) that
I give you money to give to the
hungry man, what should hap-
pen to you? I hope you would
be arrested and tried for theft,
no matter how “noble” your in-
tentions to create “social jus-
tice”. But that is exactly what
the government does and it has
the power of the sword. Is that
the kind of country we want to
have?
Dick Martin
Vernonia
Happy Birthday
JK,
From your
neighbors
DATE
TEMPERATURE
HI
LO
PRECIP.
AMT.
1
75
39
--
2
68
39
--
3
84
37
--
4
89
37
--
5
85
38
--
6
87
39
--
7
93
42
--
8
88
47
--
9
88
44
--
10
91
43
--
11
94
45
--
12
76
55
T
13
67
55
--
14
64
53
--
15
62
52
T
16
66
47
.02
17
59
43
.22
18
64
54
.17
19
67
49
T
20
79
41
--
21
83
49
--
22
76
49
--
23
83
57
--
24
80
55
.01
25
71
53
.19
26
66
45
.02
27
65
55
.01
28
67
41
--
29
81
34
--
30
67
39
T
Temperature and precipitation
amounts are from the official U.S.
weather station at the Vernonia
water plant. Measurable precipi-
tation in September totalled .64
inches.