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