PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 26, No. 22
THE
FREE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley for Over 25 years
November 16, 2011
Vernonia School District
continues funding quest
by Dr. Ken Cox, Vernonia
School Superintendent
On Saturday, November 12, the Freewheelers Club of Vernonia cut wood donated by Dustin
Thompson of St. Helens. They gave most of the wood to senior citizens in the area and are
raffling off a trailer load as part of their effort to adopt a family for Christmas. The club was
started by Joe Hammond in honor of his friend Erik Kesterson, a soldier killed in Iraq, who
went to school in Vernonia. The club honors Kesterson’s memory by doing good works, such
picking up litter in town and on the highway, and finding ways to help those in need. See
more pictures on page 20. Photo by Sunny Suppes.
Former officer says he will sue city
The attorney for former Ver-
nonia police officer Michael
Kay sent a letter to the City of
Vernonia notifying them of
Kay’s intent to sue the city for
“high six figures,”
The four page Notice of Tort
Claim letter from Attorney
Michelle R. Burrows, dated No-
vember 4, 2011, starts with the
general reasons of actions, “re-
sulting in his (Kay’s) unlawful
and unconstitutional termina-
tion from employment.” Bur-
rows goes on to say they in-
tend to name the City of Ver-
nonia for the actions of Mr. Bill
Haack, former Chief Grace,
Chief Connor (sic), Justice of
the Peace Wally Thompson,
Kathy Peck, Dian Rubanoff,
Mayor Sally Harrison, and Offi-
cer Carnahan. “Because the
City has edited, destroyed and
refused to provide extensive
documentation there are likely
other acts and actor (sic), in-
cluding City Council members,
who will be implicated as dis-
covery proceeds,” the letter
continues.
The letter also states, “We
were unaware of the degree of
falsification, manipulation, per-
jury and outright lying the vari-
ous individuals engaged in to
perfect the termination of Offi-
cer Kay until Kay was terminat-
ed.”
Burrows asserts that, “The
DPSST investigation of Mike
Kay involved a somewhat ab-
surd claims (sic) he “falsified”
K-9 accreditation, stole money
and falsified public records on
the retention, training and ex-
perience of his K-9 officer,” but
then goes on the say, “The
DPSST dog certification issue
is primarily for DPSST to sort
out.” DPSST has already noti-
fied Kay of their intent to re-
voke his certification, for life, to
be a police officer. Kay is cur-
rently waiting for his final round
of appeals with DPSST on that
issue.
Though the letter refers to
Haack as “the primary bad ac-
tor in all of this,” it goes on to
say, “others followed or con-
tributed to the enormous and
often breathtaking effort to dis-
credit a man who likely saved
lives (emphasis added).”
“We will be seeking all back
pay, front pay, emotional dam-
ages for loss of an entire ca-
reer. I expect our prayer to be
in the high six figures together
with our attorney fees,” the let-
ter asserts. Burrows added that
the lawsuit will be filed in feder-
al court, before the arbitration
is scheduled. The arbitration
referred to is arbitration re-
quested by the police union for
a date not yet set.
Consideration and response
to the potential lawsuit will be
determined by the city attorney
and the city’s insurance com-
pany.
New Spencer Park
Town Hall
The Vernonia School Dis-
trict will hold a Community
Town Hall on plans for New
Spencer Park, on December
6, starting at 7:00 p.m. in the
green building. Park design
information will be presented
by the district’s architectural
firm.
The [Vernonia School] Dis-
trict recently went to the Ver-
nonia Planning Commission
asking for an adjustment to our
Conditional Use Permit for the
new school. We asked them to
allow us to run the utilities, from
Bridge Street along Missouri to
the new school, overhead, as
they are now, rather than un-
derground. Based on the infor-
mation we had at the time we
made the presentation we felt it
was a reasonable request, and
it would also save the District
an estimated $87,000.
The Planning Commission
unanimously approved our re-
quest and we are moving for-
ward with the project right on
schedule. However, some of
the concerns that were ex-
pressed seemed to have an
underlying question: Where are
we with our financing of the
new school? I would like to an-
swer that question and briefly
recap our financial journey to
date.
When we started this jour-
ney we had BOORA Architects
help us design a school that
met all of our needs because
Vernonia
Thanksgiving
Dinner
A Community Thanksgiv-
ing Dinner will be held at the
Vernonia Community Church
gym on Thursday, November
24, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Turkey or ham will be on
the menu at this free dinner.
Everyone is invited to the
dinner, which is sponsored
by the Pioneer Baptist Fel-
lowship and the Vernonia
Community church.
To donate or volunteer to
help at the dinner, call Cathy
at 503-429-8033 or Dennis
at 503-429-0335.
many felt that we only had this
one shot at new schools for our
community. They came up with
a $48 million design. Two years
ago we successfully passed a
bond for $13 million and we
were able to sell them at a pre-
mium and get $13.6 million in
return, while keeping the cost
to taxpayers almost 10 percent
lower than the original tax rate
estimate. Thank you for your
down payment on our new
schools!
We were then faced with a
very large gap, which we im-
mediately addressed by con-
solidating the design and bring-
ing the project estimate down.
Today we are looking at a
budget of over $39 million. It
was about this time that the
District contracted with the
Metropolitan Group of Portland
to act as our fundraising coun-
sel and laid out an aggressive,
four-year fundraising strategy
based on reaching out to foun-
dations, corporations, state
See School on page 3
Vernonia
Christmas
Events
Washington Grade School
Winter Concert will be De-
cember 1 at 7:00 p.m., in the
gymnasium.
The presentation will in-
clude the 5th grade begin-
ning band, and the elemen-
tary students holiday musi-
cal.
~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~
Vernonia Christmas in the
Country Bazaar will be held
at the Vernonia Middle
School (green building) on
December 3 and 4. Hours
are Saturday 10 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. and Sunday Noon to
5:00 p.m.
The bazaar is a fundraiser
for the Vernonia Boosters
scholarship fund.