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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