PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 27, No. 8
THE
FREE
INDEPENDENT
The Voice
Voice of
of the Upper Nehalem River
The
River Valley
Valley for
for Over
Over 25
27 years
years
April 18, 2012
Commissioner candidates
weigh in on county issues
Just one of the fun scenes from the play, Vaudeville’s My Home, performed at Washington
Grade School on April 13 and 14 by the Vernonia Community Theater group. See article on
page 7.
Banks offers free recycling on Apr. 21
Whether you’re looking to
clean out your garage, or just
plain do something good for the
environment – there’s a way to
make it happen. On Saturday,
April 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00
p.m., City of Banks and the
Banks Chamber of Commerce
will be hosting a free recycling
collection at the Banks High
School parking lot. Recycling
services will be provided by EG
Metals.
All of the following items will
be accepted at the event:
• Computers: Computer
CPUs, laptops, boards, key-
boards, mice.
• Cell Phones & chargers.
• Wires and Cables: Power
supplies, Christmas Lights.
• Other Electronics: laptop
batteries, Printers, keyboards,
mice, peripherals, copiers, fax
machines, scanners, PDAs,
calculators, electronic games/
toys, telephones, flash drives,
populated circuit boards, hubs,
switches, routers, digital cam-
eras, VCR/DVD players, A/V &
stereo equipment, etc.
• Batteries: Any battery ex-
cept Alkaline.
• Appliances: Stoves, small
appliances, microwaves, wash-
ers, dryers, refrigerators*, free-
zers*, air conditioners*, etc.
[*All Freon must be removed]
• Metal: Scrap metal, iron,
steel, aluminum, brass, copper,
ferrous and non-ferrous met-
als, lawn mowers (fuel
drained), auto parts, BBQs,
water heaters, Propane tanks
w/out valves, etc.
Plastics – Sort clean and dry
plastics into these categories:
• Plastic Bags/Film: Dry
cleaning bags, grocery bags,
shrink, bubble & pallet wrap,
clean freezer & Ziploc bags,
clean Visqueen polyethylene,
six-pack rings, clean fertilizer,
soil & seed bags.
• Media Plastics: DVDs,
CDs, jewel cases, cassette
tapes and cases, VHS tapes,
8-track audio tapes.
• CLEAN Rigid Plastics: All
plastics #1 - #7, plastic strap-
ping – no metal, buckets – no
metal handles, bottle caps and
drink lids (yogurt, butter, soda),
nursery potting flats/trays,
nursery pots of all sizes, potting
4 and 6-packs, vinyl, tarps,
swimming pools, liners.
Plus:
• Paper and Cardboard
Items that won’t be accepted
are:
• No garbage, no yard de-
bris, no hazardous waste or
other toxic materials. If it is not
on the list above, it will not be
accepted.
• No vehicle fluids.
• No light bulbs.
• No styrofoam.
The event is completely free
to the public.
For more information on this
event or of you are interested
in hosting your own recycling
event, please contact Peter
Van Houten at info@egmet
als.com or 503-693-8939.
Columbia County voters will
decide who should represent
them on the Columbia County
Board of Commissioners, in the
May 15 primary election, when
two positions are up for elec-
tion. The two open seats are
Position 1 and Position 3, cur-
rently held by Earl Fisher and
Tony Hyde, respectively.
If one candidate for each po-
sition gets a majority, or 50%
plus one, of the ballots cast,
that candidate is elected in the
primary and will not have to run
again in the general election. If
no candidate gets a majority,
the top two candidates for each
position will go on to a runoff in
the November general election.
The Independent inter-
viewed the candidates, asking
the same questions of each
one. Here are the questions
and the candidates’ responses.
Responses are in alphabetical
order, separated by the posi-
tion they are seeking.
The candidates for position
1 are Earl Fisher, Wayne Mayo
(who was unable to make time
for the interview, citing a job in
Canby), Brady Preheim, Terry
Luttrell, and Colleen DeShazer
(who was unable to respond
before deadline).
The candidates for position
3 are Tammy Maygra, Jim Gib-
son, Tony Hyde, and Reginald
Vernonia
Household
Hazardous Waste
event
A Household Hazardous
Waste Collection Event will
be held in Vernonia on April
21, from Noon to 4:00 p.m., in
the Vernonia Lake parking
lot.
For information on what’s
accepted, see http://www.co.
columbia.or.us/departments/
land-development-services/
solid-waste-program .
Ward.
Following the questions and
answers, there is additional in-
formation about each candi-
date.
Position 1 Candidates
1. How do you propose to
provide county services with
less money (bad economy,
loss of county payments,
etc.)?
Fisher – This is very, very diffi-
cult. We are going to do our
very best to provide as many
services as we can given the
$2.3 million budget shortfall
due to reduced tax income and
increased cost of providing
services. We’ve already had to
close the county offices every
Friday and have taken the
County Fair out of the county
See candidates, page 4
Make Vernonia
Shine offers free
yard debris day
Let’s Make Vernonia Shine
in honor of Genny Fisher,
who recently passed away,
and was one of the founders
of Vernonia Pride. Make April
21 a special day to honor her
by cleaning up each of your
own properties and neighbor-
hood.
Waste Management will
place a dumpster at the Fire
Station, and another at
Bridge St. and Weed Ave., for
yard debris. No garbage
please. Waste Management
Transfer Station will be open
on April 28, from 8:00 a.m. to
2:00 p.m. for garbage collec-
tion.
To recycle materials such
as tires, old cars, trucks, met-
al, washing machines, dry-
ers, refrigerators, etc., call for
pick up Terry Buckner at 503-
438-8546 or contact Dad’s
Recycling on Mist Dr., or oth-
er local haulers.