PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
FREE
INDEPENDENT
THE
The Farewell Edition
Vol. 27, No. 21
The Voice
Voice of
of the Upper Nehalem River
The
River Valley
Valley for
for Over
Over 25
27 years
years
December 5, 2012
Goodbye statement from
the publisher
High water visited Vernonia again on November 19. This picture, taken at 4:30 p.m., shows
the water level at the Miles Bridge (commonly referred to as the green steel bridge).
by Clark McGaugh
It is with deep regret and
great sadness, I must an-
nounce that this is the last edi-
tion of The Independent. Poor
economic conditions, and the
fact that there are not enough
businesses able to advertise in
the Vernonia area, simply won’t
allow The Independent to keep
printing. Since The Indepen-
dent ran out of money, with
hope that conditions would get
better and with self-deluded
justifications, it has been run-
ning on credit.
Now the credit has run out
and the delusions have evapo-
rated, all we have left is debt.
Having two publications vy-
ing for limited available adver-
tising has not helped. Some
businesses wanted “to be fair”
and advertise in both publica-
tions. A few businesses with
limited budgets had to reduce
the size and/or frequency of
their ads in The Independent.
Other businesses, not wanting
to be criticized for advertising in
one publication and not the oth-
er, opted to just quit advertis-
ing. Some businesses have
had to quit advertising to save
money in order to keep their
doors open.
Not that it hasn’t been a
great ride. I have been in con-
stant awe and humbled by the
devotion and dedication of our
readers. Through our readers I
have learned the great love
others have for our community
and that there are rarely just
two sides to an issue; often
there are as many sides as
there are people with an opin-
ion. I have valued every one of
those people for sharing their
views. It was a surprise that I
didn’t have to agree with those
Continued on page 2
A look at The Independent’s beginning and Vernonia, circa 1986
by Noni Andersen
It’s been a great run. When
Dirk and I started The Indepen-
dent in 1986, we had two pri-
mary reasons:
One was that, until we
moved to Vernonia in 1983,
neither of us had ever lived in a
town without a newspaper and
we didn’t like the vacuum
caused by the lack of commu-
nication. The other reason was
that many people here felt the
same way and, knowing that
we worked for another newspa-
per, repeatedly asked us to
start one in Vernonia.
Many things have changed
in the past quarter-century, and
many have not changed. The
following observations are all
mine, no one else is responsi-
ble and, yes, I’m opinionated.
By the time we started the
paper, I was fully aware that
our city government operated
for the benefit of only a few cit-
izens, primarily because of in-
competence, not because of
deliberate intention. Most
council members believed that
the way government worked
when they were kids was the
way it should work four
decades later (even though
they didn’t drive 40-year-old
vehicles).
There were two variations of
the council’s motto: “We tried
that once and it didn’t work” or
“Why should we try, it won’t
work”.
The hardest part of getting
our city council to operate
(mostly) within the law was
making them acknowledge that
the state Public Records and
Meetings law applied to the
City of Vernonia. When re-
minders were insufficient, I re-
ported illegal, closed door “ex-
ecutive” sessions as though
they were public meetings.
Councilors didn’t like that, so I
reminded them that the state
law applied to them individual-
ly, and that they were legally li-
able as individuals. The possi-
bility of legal liability was more
uncomfortable than learning to
comply with the law.
Most council members
eventually understood that
there were valid reasons to
learn how a municipal budget
works, what constitutes the
city’s responsibility, why intelli-
gent planning is needed, who
can make decisions, and much
more. Nevertheless, they relied
heavily on city staff for answers
without considering whether
the staff was adequately
trained to answer their ques-
tions.
One area that has changed
very little is that reliance on city
staff, particularly the adminis-
trator and the police chief. A
major problem occurs when
council hires an administrator
or police chief who is not quali-
fied, or who has lied on their
application, both of which have
happened here. The council
doesn’t want to admit they
made a mistake, so they refuse
to consider any information to
the contrary and vilify whoever
provided the information.
In 1986, the council mem-
bers lack of understanding was
the result of ignorance, not stu-
pidity. Ignorance is a human
condition frequently caused by
thinking we know everything
we need to know. Ignorance
also results from limited expo-
sure to people whose thought
processes are different from
what we grew up with. More re-
cently, as we have seen, igno-
rance is often self-inflicted.
The Vernonia fire district
board had a different approach
to governing: They did whatev-
er the volunteers said was
needed, if they could afford it.
Otherwise, they rarely made
decisions, just let things hap-
pen…or not happen.
The latter was particularly
annoying because the district
was underfunded, but was eli-
Continued on page 2