Page 2
The
The INDEPENDENT, December 5, 2012
INDEPENDENT
Published by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St.,
Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Publisher’s final words
on the paper’s closure
From page 1
views to have expanded my thoughts and understanding in ways
I could not have imagined.
With limited available advertising and competition, it still comes
down to one thing.
I apologize to our readers, contributors and advertisers for be-
ing unable to weather the tough economic conditions plaguing our
nation. I feel I should have been able to sell more advertising or
come up with better plans than I did, in order to keep the commu-
nity’s newspaper running. The truth is simple, I couldn’t do it. With
all the talented and dedicated columnists volunteering their time
to provide us with valuable, quality content, I should have been
able to do better. I did not, for that I am truly sorry.
My biggest concern is that The Independent will no longer
serve as your government watchdog, helping to keep government
honest and accountable to you, the people, the taxpayers.
When a newspapers dies so does a bit of democracy and with
it a free and open society.
I do not think you can rely on Scott Laird and Vernonia’s Voice
to care about accountability in government or to stand up for the
free speech of others. He started his publication after he became
upset at our reporting on the apparent lack of budget knowledge
of City Administrator Dick Kline and how Kline responded to our
questions. Laird stormed into the offices of The Independent, ac-
costed editor Rebecca McGaugh and began yelling that he was
going to start a newspaper and put us out of business.
The following is from the Ford Family Foundation newsletter,
referring to Laird and The Independent: “Scott and some partici-
pants in his leadership training started discussing the role of a
community newspaper, and reached the conclusion that the cur-
rent paper in town was not meeting the community’s needs. They
felt that the local newspaper should be a positive force in the com-
munity”.
Laird has consistently shared the City of Vernonia’s views. In
an editorial in February, 2010, when the City was in denial about
Police Officer/Captain/Chief Mike Kay, Laird said this in character-
izing our attempt to hold government accountable: “…the contin-
ued campaign of personal attacks and attempts to ruin careers. A
campaign that has been more about using a news publication as
a weapon to carry out personal vendettas than it has been about
truthfully reporting the news— which is not only unprofessional,
it’s unethical”.
Laird again followed the lead of City staff in a May, 2011, edi-
torial, after the City had finally acquiesced to an investigation of
Kay. Addressing Vernonia City Councilor Birch after she voted to
fire City Administrator Bill Haack for allowing the investigation,
Laird wrote: “The citizens had a right to know just what the accu-
sations were against a police officer in their community, someone
they are expected to trust, respect and look up to. That is real
transparency, not what you are doing— trying to cover up the
facts about an investigation”.
The Independent agreed with the City on this, but there were
no grounds to accuse Birch of a cover up. That was a personal at-
tack because she disagreed with the city administrator, in the
same vein as his personal attacks on me because I disagreed
with city administrators.
Laird is getting what he wanted, The Independent out of busi-
ness. What does the rest of the community get?
Continued on page 8
More from The Independent’s founder
From page 1
gible for assistance from a spe-
cial fund. Getting them to seek
those funds with a proper appli-
cation was much harder than
pulling teeth; all they would do
is say they deserved it, then
complain about the money go-
ing to Mist-Birkenfeld. It was
too much effort to supply infor-
mation about projects or equip-
ment needed, much less any
estimate of how much those
items might cost.
I hadn’t known much about
the special (gas field) “impact”
fund until I started serving on
the Columbia County budget
committee. As I learned more, I
realized that the county com-
missioners wanted to award
some of the funds to the Ver-
nonia fire district, which wasn’t
cooperating. Persuasive edu-
cation was needed: I cajoled,
explained and bullied until they
understood. The district ap-
plied with all the necessary in-
formation, sent the fire chief to
answer any questions, and re-
ceived enough money to add
an ambulance bay, meeting
room, administrative offices
and upstairs EMS space to the
fire station on East Bridge
Street.
Along with the primary rea-
sons for the addition, another
justification was that the space
could be used during an emer-
gency, which proved to be true
almost
immediately.
The
Clatskanie High School girls
basketball team had a game at
Banks High School and, on
their way home, an ice storm
hit. They got as far as Vernon-
ia, but it was too dangerous to
continue. Calls went out to vol-
unteers, who supplied food and
sleeping bags. Everyone was
safe and warm in the meeting
room, and they were able to go
home the next day.
Reporting on the school dis-
trict board of directors was a
job I never liked; school activi-
ties, fine, but not the school
board. My problem was a per-
sonal bias developed as the
daughter, sister and wife of
teachers, exacerbated by my
own experience (I couldn’t
take P.E. but was required to
take a C grade, fouling up my
grade point average.), and oth-
er observations before I came
to Vernonia.
One small incident illus-
trates a problem that existed in
Vernonia. On the door of the
Washington Grade School gym
was a hand-written sign that
said, “No food or drink’s in the
gym.” When I pointed out the
grammatical error to the princi-
pal, his response was “Oh well,
it’s old.” It was many years old-
er before it was removed.
A more important issue was
student drug testing. We op-
posed the policy of random,
suspicionless drug testing of
high school students for rea-
sons that remain valid. Such a
policy declares that students
are considered to be drug
users unless they are cleared
in a urine test. A student didn’t
have to be “acting like they
were under the influence”, or
doing anything else suspicious,
they just had to attend VHS.
The district’s “reasoning”
ranged from unbelievable to
laughable: The policy would
“keep kids from using drugs.”
They didn’t include steroids be-
cause they “could tell” when a
student was using steroids.
They didn’t include alcohol be-
cause “it left the system too
quickly.”
Initially, the board wanted to
apply the policy to all students,
then limited it to athletes for a
very cynical reason – they did
Continued on page 8