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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2012)
The INDEPENDENT, March 7, 2012 Ike Says… From page 2 sea turtles, dolphins and lots of sea birds. I actu ally got to see my first flying fish, now that is a crazy fish, they re- ally do seem to fly across the water and for a long ways. The birds chasing them gave us an aerial display of flying prowess that would make any fighter jet jockey jealous. Here is a brief synopsis of our impressions of each country that we visited. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, tropical in nature and very broken in terrain. We traveled up above what is called the Central Valley into the coffee bean growing area, where the hill- sides are covered by coffee bean plants. The distractions that we saw were all the iron bars and fences that control access to each house; this really gave the impression of a high crime rate, which we were told is not the case. The other distraction to an otherwise very beautiful country is that it appeared customary to bring your garbage to the side of the roadway and simply set it on fire. Garbage was in every pull-off on the highway. Panama is very similar to Costa Rica in terrain and vegetation. Our tour included an hour-and-half bus ride through the country- side to an arm of a lake, where we boarded dugout canoes with outboard motors that took us on a 40-minute ride. Being a kayak- er, I was still more than a little nervous when we rounded a point and ran head-on into a stiff head wind, then started across a wide- open portion of the lake. It would have been a long swim to shore, but then again our canoe would not have sunk. The Embera Indi- an village was a neat place to experience and, at times, I think these people who choose to live in the jungle just might be smarter than the rest of us. The houses were less gated than Costa Rica, but garbage dumping was still a noticeable distraction to the beautiful countryside. The Panama Canal is indeed an engineering marvel and to get to transit it in a Panamax size ship will surely be one of my most favorite memories of this trip. Passing the Queen Elisabeth II in a narrow portion of the canal was a rare experience we were told, the cheers from all the people on both ships was awe inspiring! Our next port was in Cartagena, Colombia, we ported right in the city, so we did not get to view the countryside much. Let’s just say Cartagena is not a city for the faint hearted to drive in. My im- pression of drivers in Columbia is that, if you need to stop to do something, you simply stop in the travel lane and go do it. Every- body else will simply speed around your stopped vehicle; need- less to say I had some white knuckles a few times, and one tour bus got side-swiped. We toured an old fort and it was amazing to think of how the defenders designed their fortress physically to make it very difficult for their taller attackers. Our tour also includ- ed the old part of town and churches where the Spanish Inquisi- tion took place. The town was clean and hardly any ironwork was visible for home protection. Panhandlers, on the other hand, were numerous. Aruba is a very neat and clean little island in the Caribbean. Donna and I both enjoyed the sun and surf on the west coast. The sand is coral sand and is so different than our coastal beaches. We both thought that Aruba would make a great place to fly into and, we gathered from some of the people who regularly travel there, that the cost to stay is reasonable. We didn’t have time to explore Aruba much, but it does give the impression somewhat of a desert island. Please see page 17 State Farm ® Providing Insurance and Financial Services Home Office, Bloomington, Illinois 61710 Bunny Girt, Agent 1229 N. Adair PO Box 543 Cornelius, OR 97113-0543 Bus 503-357-3131 Fax 503-357-9667 bunny.girt.b71g@statefarm.com Page 13 Power of the People By W. Marc Farmer, General Manager, West Oregon Electric Cooperative Bringing You Up to Speed Things continue to hap- pen around here as al- ways. Winter continues to remind us that spring is not here just yet. The snow and wind storms have kept us busy with outages and costs. January was the second highest in both categories, in recent history, and February has seen scattered outages mostly due to snow and wind. Our crews have been busy round the clock and on weekends as well. At least some of the January snow storm costs in Columbia County will be partially cov- ered. We found out just this last week that Co- lumbia County was included in a federally de- clared FEMA Disaster signed by President Oba- ma. This means up to 75% of our costs to recov- er from the snow storm in the declared county will be reimbursed to WOEC. Our costs in Clat- sop, Washington, and Yamhill Counties will not qualify for FEMA reimbursement. In order to qualify, the Governor must declare the county a disaster. In order for him to do so, the county must reach a specific dollar amount which is based upon a formula that includes total dollars expended, divided by the population number for that county. Washington County was the second most expensive for us during the storm, but the population is so large that costs did not reach the total necessary to trigger a declaration. The good news is that Columbia County was the area that was the most expensive to repair in this event, so this will be a big help to the Co-op. Another update should be to answer the question we hear a lot regarding when WOEC will be completing the paving of Cougar and Rose. The answer is as soon as the metal shed is emptied and removed by the current owner, then we can finish the roadwork on Cougar and pave all of remaining sections at once. The cur- rent owner has until May 7 to complete the re- moval. Another big topic is the status of the new Ver- nonia substation. We have submitted for the fi- nal permits, completed the bid process and se- lected the contractor for the project, and have ordered all of the components. We anticipate re- ceiving the final permits by the end of March and will then begin construction. Tice Electric Com- pany was the successful bidder and will be the contractor for the entire project. The next update will be to answer the ques- tion of what happens to our old headquarters building. We will be completing the sale of the old building to FEMA, most likely in March or April of this year. Then, per FEMA’s require- ment, the old buildings will be demolished, then ownership transferred over to the City of Ver- nonia. The property will never be able to be built upon again, but can be used by the City as a park, a parking lot, or a community garden. We are waiting for paperwork from Rural Utilities Services (RUS) to complete the sale process. As a final note, we did recover the stolen line truck and the police have a party of interest they are pursuing. There were several vehicles stolen from this area by the same people. We appreciate the continued efforts by our local po- lice to solve this crime and find those responsi- ble. Obituary MARY LUCINDA MCCAIN Mary Lucinda McCain, 99, Forest Grove, died February 12, 2012. Funeral services were held February 17 at Cor- nelius Community Church. In- terment was at Skyline Memor- ial Gardens. Mrs. McCain was born No- vember 28, 1912, in Payette, Idaho, to Herbert Cloude and Rebecca Lucinda (Hurlburt) Wayne. She graduated from Payette High School in 1931. In 1937, she married Harlan McCain. They made their home in Ontario, Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, then Hillsboro for 35 years. They then lived in Bay City, Salem, and in Forest Grove starting in 1991. She was a homemaker. She enjoyed her church, playing games, babysitting her grandchildren, crocheting, sew- ing, canning, gardening and traveling. She was preceded in death by her husband and her nine siblings. Survivors include her son, Jim McCain of Banks; five grandchildren and 15 great- grandchildren. Duyck & VanDeHey Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. TRUDY PREWITT Rotraud “Trudy” Elizabeth Maria Prewitt, 71, died Febru- ary 10, 2012. A memorial serv- ice was held February 17 at Grace Baptist Church in War- ren. Mrs. Prewitt was born Octo- ber 18, 1940, in Innsbruck, Austria, to August and Frieda (Knapp) Mathofer. She lived in Frankfurt, Germany, when her husband was in the U.S. Army. She lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Beaver- ton for 38 years. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in education Please see page 18 "A Trusted Name in Funeral Service" Fuiten, Rose & Hoyt Funeral Home & Crematory Jeffrey & Kathryn Hoyt Third Generation Family Owned & Operated Jeffrey & Kathryn Hoyt, Gregory & Rachel Hoyt, Ross Mathews, Dan Raney, Samantha Humphrey, Peni Flores. Attendant: Ray Pelster 2308 Pacific Av. Frst Grv....357-2161 741 Madison Av. Vern.........429-6611 E-mail: Fuitenrosehoyt@aol.com To sign the online guest book or send a condolence to the family, go to: www.fuitenrosehoyt.com