PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 27, No. 6
THE
FREE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice
Voice of
of the Upper Nehalem River
The
River Valley
Valley for
for Over
Over 25
27 years
years
March 21, 2012
Vernonia water rates will
increase starting in June
The Beamish family walks in the Vernonia St. Patrick’s Day parade where, as usual, much
candy was thrown. This year the weather cooperated for just enough time to finish.
Vernonia schools demolition date set
The Vernonia School District
Board of Directors held their
regularly scheduled meeting on
March 8, then held an extra
meeting on March 15 to take
care of items related to the new
school and demolition of the
old schools.
At the March 15 special
meeting, Superintendent Dr.
Ken Cox told the board that
demolition on the old schools
will start July 5, though Hazmat
work will begin inside Washing-
ton Grade School and the high
school on July 2. By July 16,
everything is expected to be
moved off the old site and
moved into the new school.
Fencing at the old site during
demolition will allow for the
grassy area and fields to be
used during Jamboree. Moving
the items inside the old schools
to the new school will start
June 12 and the old district of-
fice is expected to close on
June 28 and open at the new
site on July 2. The demolition is
expected to be completed by
September 1. The district is in
the process of preparing a Re-
quest for Proposal in order to
select and hire a demolition/de-
construction contractor.
Also on March 15, the board
approved:
• A supplemental budget
needed to appropriate and use
the additional funds coming
from a construction loan and
grants/donations, all for the
new school.
• Declared the donated mod-
ular (the one beside Washing-
ton Grade School) as surplus
as they prepare to sell it to
some school district that might
need it.
• A new Intergovernmental
Agreement (IGA) with the City
of Vernonia that puts the school
district in charge of demolition,
rather than the city.
The March 8 board meeting
dealt with regular items such as
naming Grove, Mueller and
Swank as the district auditor,
and renewing the teacher and
administrative contracts.
One interesting item pre-
sented was the information that
data from the 2007/2008
statewide graduation rates
showed that Vernonia’s rate of
graduation was 79 percent,
while the statewide rate was
only 67 percent.
Upcoming events include
Spring Break March 26-30.
The next regular board
meeting will be held April 12,
starting at 6:00 p.m. in the dis-
trict office.
Water rates is a topic that
has resulted in many meetings
of the Vernonia Public Works
Committee and the city council.
There have been a series of
meetings and work sessions
over the last two months to de-
termine what the rates should
be, in order to have necessary
working funds to make and
maintain the water system.
The City of Vernonia brought
in Tim Tice from the Oregon
Association of Water Utilities
(OAWU) to utilize their expert-
ise in what other municipalities
do, and to crunch numbers for
the city. The first run at the
numbers was met with concern
by both the council and com-
mittee.
After a deeper look, more
accurate numbers were provid-
ed and a different rate structure
was requested of Tice. The
structure originally looked at
had tiers that allowed user
costs to increase incrementally
as they used more water.
Council and committee pre-
ferred a simpler plan, one simi-
lar to the current structure, with
a base rate and a consumption
rate for water used above the
base allowance.
Tice advised that the base
rate should cover 60-75 per-
cent of the expenses. The fore-
cast for Fiscal Year 2012-13 is
for a water budget of around
$550,000. The consumption
rate should then take care of
the additional 25-40 percent
necessary to fund the budget to
100 percent. Historical data
show that city water rates,
since 2008, have brought in an
average of $459,409.
The current rate structure
has a $35.00 base, which in-
cludes the first 2,000 gallons of
water, plus the consumption
rate of $1.25 for each addition-
al 1,000 gallons. Just a re-
minder – that what many think
of as the “water bill” includes
water, $53.00 for sewer, $2.00
for park maintenance and
$12.00 for an existing sewer
loan, so most residential users
see a bill of somewhere over
See Water on page 5
Spaghetti feed
for Roberts
There will be a Spaghetti
Feed on Saturday, March 24,
from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the
Vernonia Scout Cabin. This is
a fundraiser for Ryan
Roberts, a Vernonia man
who needs a kidney trans-
plant.
Cost of the meal will be $7,
and all of the money collect-
ed will go to Roberts, as
everything needed for the
feed has been donated. To-
go meals are also available.
Food by Mario Leonetti.
High water was back last week when the Nehalem River rose to over 11 feet before dropping
again. The above picture was taken from Bill Sword’s property looking over at the Horse Are-
na in Anderson Park.