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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 2012)
Page 2 The The INDEPENDENT, January 4, 2012 INDEPENDENT Published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Deadline is noon the Friday before each issue. Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Vernonia 2011 Year in Review From page 1 disbands. Apr. 23 – Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by Vernonia Community PTA. May 2 – City council agenda includes informational item that on March 15 DPSST asked VPD offi- cer Kay to give up his certification to be an officer for misrepresentations, being untruthful and dishonesty. Councilor Burch makes motion to terminate Haack’s contract immediately. Nicks, Burch and Hudson vote yes in 3-2 split. May 3 – Interim Chief of Police Mike Conner resigns to step back to sergeant position. Campaign to recall Councilor Hudson organ- ized. May 7 – Vernonia Health Fair, sponsored by Vernonia Health Board. May 14 – Vernonians Doug Davenport, Mike Pihl and Rob Richards awarded Citizen Life Saving Awards. May 12 – Vernonia school board told budget cuts will cause staffing cuts. May 16 – Mayor Mitchell and Jim Johnson named as co-Pro Tem City Administrators. May 19 – DPSST policy committee votes unanimous- ly to revoke VPD officer Mike Kay’s police cer- tification. Kay appeals. June 3 – First Friday events begin for 2011. June 4 – Vernonia High School graduation. June 10 – Councilor Kevin Hudson recalled by 86%. Removed from office on June 13. June 21 – City council deadlocks on choosing a new councilor. June 27 – City council votes unanimously to terminate the employment of Sergeant Mike Kay. Wall Raising Celebration at new school. City council deadlocks on choosing a new councilor. July 5 – Campaign to recall councilors Nicks and Burch organized. Sergeant Mike Conner pro- moted to Interim Chief of Police. July 9 – Vernonia Seventh-day Adventist Church cele- brates 75th anniversary. July 21 – Vernonia school board member Kim Wallace resigns. July 28 – DPSST board unanimously agrees that VPD officer Mike Kay’s certification should be Please see page 3 Ike Says… By Dale Webb, member Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League By the time you read this the season will be open again, yes, the cougar season for zone A will be open again for 120 cougars. What many of you probably didn’t know is that cougar zone A actually reached its quota of 120 cougars on December 29th and was closed for the remainder of the year (three days). I believe this is the first time that zone A has reached its quota for the year; several other zones East of the Cascades have done so in the past. While hunters did improve their harvest this year, they still were the minority harvester of cougars, with 59. Zone quotas include all forms of cougar deaths: vehicle strikes, homeowners defending themselves or livestock, government hunters taking complaint cougars, and then hunters. While the official causes of death of the 120 cougars taken in zone A are not yet available (other than hunter harvest), there seems to be consensus among hunters that the government hunters were probably the next highest cause of death. One thing is certain; cougars are becom- ing more numerous in zone A, which includes our area. My buddy Jim and I managed to get out for a partial day of coyote hunting in our local area. We mountain-biked in and made several stands, trying birds in distress, a rabbit in distress and some sounds that simply sound good, but I’m not sure they come from an actual critter. Of course we managed to call in some hawks and a pair of owls and always some jays. But the coyotes seemed to shun us, and sometimes seemed to mock us. Usually, there are some coyotes that will howl at us from way far away, surely just to wake us from our daze, after sitting still for 20-30 minutes out in the freezing cold. But some of the coyotes are sneakier, and this last trip, showed what they are up to. We had made a set and walked back several hundred yards to our bikes when we noticed, too late, a coyote running down the road in front of us, away from our bikes. I asked Jim, “Do you see any pee marks on your bike?” Well, the coyote didn’t score this time. Don’t forget to buy your new licenses and tags for this year. The new synopsis is also out, so grab one and – on a wet, windy day, while holed up in the house – take a good hard look at the changes that are colored blue. There are a few new ones for our area and, of course, a whole lot more when you include the whole state and all hunted species. For a while it looked like we were in the midst of a drought, with local rivers getting down to al- most summer time levels, of course, it only took a couple of good storms and we are back to nor- mal. I suspect that a second wave of Coho rode in on the last batch of storms, and are now spawning in our local streams. We had a very healthy November run of Coho this year, but Please see page 3
