The INDEPENDENT, November 2, 2011 Frontier announces upgrades complete Frontier Communications announced the completion of a major upgrade to the network that provides residential, gov- ernment, public safety and business telecommunications service to Vernonia. The fiber optic network was upgraded to provide four times as much voice and/or data traf- fic between Beaverton and Ver- nonia. Beaverton is one of three major hubs that Frontier operates in the Northwest Ore- gon and Southwest Washing- ton region. All long distance and data connects to the world from there. The network provides a link to the Internet through a Digital Subscriber Line network (DSL), and all existing customers had an increase in speed to a max- imum of 3-7 megabits per sec- ond, depending how far their home is from Frontier’s central office on Highway 47. Almost all modern phone and data services are now available to Vernonia business- es and government, similar to those available in Portland, in- cluding the price. Frontier Communications acquired Verizon phone com- panies in 14 states, in July 2010. The upgrades on the Vernonia network are part of a larger three year project, and many rural county areas are being considered for inclusion in its statewide plan. The three year expansion plan to provide high-speed Internet service to rural Oregon and Washington communities is part of the transfer agreement between Frontier and the State of Ore- gon. Council holds a special meeting More jobs this Vernonia City Council held a special meeting on Wednes- day, October 26, for the pur- pose of deliberations in an ex- ecutive session (closed to the public). When they came out of that session, they voted to au- thorize Mayor Josette Mitchell to sign a Memorandum of Un- derstanding between the City, West Oregon Electric Coopera- tive and Soderback Trucking. Council also approved hav- ing City Administrator Bill Haack sign a license agree- ment with Soderback for truck parking, subject to the city at- torney’s review. The next regular city council meeting will be November 7, starting with a work session at 6:00 p.m., followed by the reg- ular meeting at 7:00 p.m. at city hall. Corps of Engineers seeks input The U.S. Army Corps of En- gineers requests public com- ments on a proposal from the Oregon Department of State Lands to modify the document which governs the statewide in- lieu fee program. The in-lieu fee program in- volves restoration, establish- ment, enhancement, and/or preservation of aquatic re- sources through funds paid to a governmental or non-profit nat- ural resources management agency. It provides a way for people to accomplish the com- pensatory mitigation required for some projects, which may be permitted by the Corps of Engineers. A revised program docu- ment and detailed summary of the changes can be found at http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil /regulatory/home.asp, click on “New public notices.” Comments must be re- ceived no later than November 13, and should be addressed to U.S. Army Corps of Engi- neers, CENWP-OD-G, P.O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208- 2946. Comments can also be emailed to Jaimee.W.Davis@usace.ar my.mil. Dist. 1 candidate gives opinions From page 4 Greenfield – No, I will vote to reduce banking regulation. Banks are already the most heavily regulated business in our nation. Excessive bank regulation created the financial crisis, and excessive regulation is now keeping banks from lending, which is why our hous- ing market is continuing to tank. I will oppose any more bank bailouts, which is an un- constitutional waste of taxpay- er money. c. How will you get Republi- cans to compromise? Greenfield – I won’t. What I want for Republicans is total victory in 2012, so we can final- ly balance the budget, cut gov- ernment spending, lower taxes, de-regulate business and get the free market economy grow- ing again. year than last Columbia County’s season- ally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.8 percent in Sep- tember, essentially unchanged from the previous month (10.5%) but lower than the year before (12.1%). The rate was above the statewide rate (9.6%) and the national rate (9.1%). Total employment climbed by 39 to 22,363 and the number of unemployed people dropped by 48 to 2,454. Total employment this Septem- ber was 633 more than one year before and there were 324 fewer people unemployed this year. Page 5 Columbia County Assessor office gives property tax statement explanation Due to the steep decline in the real market value of resi- dential properties between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2011, many property owners may see a decrease in their tax bill for the first time since maxi- mum assessed value was set in 1997 by passage of Measure 50. This is due to the real mar- ket value falling below the max- imum assessed value for these properties; therefore the real market value becomes the tax assessed value. In addition, if the catego- rized consolidated rates ex- ceed the constitutional limits of $5 per thousand for education districts or $10 per thousand for general government limits when applied to the real market value, the tax is further reduced by compression. Based on per- manent operating rates, the consolidated education rates for Saint Helens, Scappoose, Vernonia and Rainier exceed the $5 per thousand rate limit, and the consolidated general government rates for proper- ties located inside the city limits of Rainier and Clatskanie ex- ceed the $10 per thousand rate limit. For the 2010-11 tax year, only 579 out of a total of 23204 residential properties county- wide had a tax assessed value lower than their maximum as- sessed value. For the 2011-12 tax year, this number has in- creased to 5838 out of a total of 23026 residential properties. The City of Clatskanie had the least percentage of properties, at 9.29%, that fell below the maximum assessed value this year, while the Cities of Saint Helens and Columbia City had the highest percentage of prop- erties, at 40.46%, that fell be- low the maximum assessed value. All properties have market trends developed by analyzing sales in each market area to determine the current tax year’s increase or decrease in value. For the current assess- ment date of January 1, 2011, all sales in 2010 are reviewed and compared to the January 1, 2010 value. Real market val- ues for residential properties decreased an average of 20% countywide. Property owners of townhouses and row houses in Saint Helens and Columbia City will see the greatest de- crease of 36%, while property owners of rural residential properties in the Clatskanie dikeland area will see an in- crease of 3% in their real mar- ket value. For residential properties that are currently electronically recalculated annually, the sales See Property on page 16