Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Vernonia eagle. (Vernonia, Or.) 1922-1974 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1947)
“Vernonia, Gateway to Nehalem Valley Lumbering, Farming, Recreation.” VERNONIA, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON VOLUME 25, NUMBER 22 Marshal Cites Ordinance on Weed Cutting Trimming Required Of Property Owners During Summer Property owners who have al lowed weeds to grow on their land and haven’t yet taken care of the trimming are reminded this week of a city ordinance regulating the matter by City Marshall A. D. Lolley. The ordinance is one that deals with the removing of un sightly growth and the penalty for not doing so. The ordinance states in part that during the “monts of May, June, July, August and September land owners must cut and remove therefrom and from the half of the street or streets abutting the property all weeds, thistles, burdack, ferns and other noxious vegetation and all grass more than 10 inches in height and all dead bushes, dead trees, stumps and other things likely to cause fire. . . ’’"he ordinance also tells the pen alty for not carrying out the de tail. It is: “In case of failure to remove the nuisance the city will cause same to he abated and charge the cost against the pro perty.” Principal reason for urging pro perty owners to cut grass now is to do away with the fire hazard be fore the grass dries and becomes more inflammable. • Vacation Schools To Start Monday Daily Vacation Bible Sshool be gins at the Nazarene Church, Mon day, June 2, at 9 a.m. and closes at 11:45. All children from the ages of 4 to 14 years are welcome to attend. There will be Bible classes, chorus singing, hand work, manual training for the boys, blue print ing and leather work. A fine group of teachers and instructors will be there to help with Mrs. H. L. Russell, serving as suner ntendant. Starting also on June 2 is the summer school to be conducted again this year by St. Mary’s Catholic church. The school this year will be in charge of two sis ters and children will go to class es at the Lincoln grade school. All youngsters are invited to come. First Use of Church, Plan The opening service of the re medied building to be used by the Church of the Nazarene is planned on the coming Sunday morning Rev. H. L. Russell, minis ter, said Wednesday. He announc ed at that time that Sunday’s service would begin with Sunday school at 9:45. The building is located on Third street at the site of the former Thomas Garage which was pur chased by the congregation last year and for which remodeling started September 4, 1946. Most of the work has been done'- by Rev. Russell with the help of members of the congregation and some hired labor. The auditorium- is arranged to seat about 175 people. Here for the opening event Sunday will be Dr. W. H. Hess, district superintendent, who will speak at both the morning and afternoon services. The afternoon program will begin at 3 o’clock and delegations from the Portland Nazarene churches are expected to attend. Special music will be furnished by the Portland Central church. • Farm Signup Best Ever The Columb a county 1947 agri- culturial conservation sign-up is completed and all tabulated. J. G. Watts, chairman of the county committee, along with Rudy Anlik- er, committee member, have just completed approving practices and signing farm plans. This year’s signup is best ever, says Chairman Watts. The sign up of 657 worksheet farms is over 100 more than the 1946 signup and the $154,915.00 worth of in tended practices is $57,000 more than last year’s intentions. Such a large signup indicates that the farmers are getting more conserva tion-minded and realizing the im portance of building and maintain ing the farmland. It is the hope of the committee that all farmers will make an attemt to complete the practices they signed for. Producer’s copies of the farm plan are being sent to them now, showing the practices the county committee approved and each in dividual minimum allowance. The committee disapproved very few practices, but distributed the coun ty allocation by giving each signer a proportionate part. Project Started for Housing; Rainier Berry Harvest Starts ■< VETERAN HOUSING PROJECT STARTED ST. HELENS—Hopes to allevi ate the housing shortages in St. Helens were given a boost last week by an announcement from the E. T. Steele company that work had been started on the con struction of 12 modern apartments in Little Addition in West St. Helens. W'ork began on the pro ject the first of this week and Steele said the apartmens would be ready for occupancy between Au gust 15 and Septembed 1. A veterans housing project built under the FHA. two four-plexes and two duplexes are to be erected and when completed will provide Ui* »K« »ray the most exclusive residential rental units in the city of St. Helens, according to Steele. BERRY HARVESTING STARTING MONDAY RAINIER—Rainier strawberry growers expected to begin pick ing Monday, May 26. For some days however, picking will be spotty as the berries develop. This is earlier picking than has ruled for the past two seasons. The crop is promising although agricultural products in western Oregon and Washington are in some danger from dry weather. Independent buyers are reported to be offering 17Hc OREGON FIR USED IN NEW CAPACITY ST. HELENS—Down at Leban on, Linn county is a factory which is making battery seperators from Douglas fir lumber and the St. Helens mill of the Pope & Talbot company is furnishing the lumber. Heretofore most of the battery seperators have been furnished by a manufacturing plant near Coquille and made from Port Or ford cedar and the demand was so great that the plant has been en larged from time to time. But now it appears that the Port Orford cedar will have competition from Douglas fir and long time exper iments appear to prove that it is a worthy competitor. Cancer Fund Gets $418.12 From Drive Jars Contribute $35.37; Quota Figure Here $250 The campaign to raise funds for financing cancer research and treatment received an amount of $418.12 from this area as the re sult of the drive just ended Mrs. Judd Greenman, chairman, said Tuesday. The drive has been in progress for several weeks. The fund was raised here from voluntary contributions, payroll deductions and jars placed in bus iness houses but no solicitation from house to house or in the busi ness section was made. The jars brought $35.37 of the total. The quota set for this part of the county was $250. • Three Teaching Places Open The Vernonia grade schools have only three vacant teaching positions as the result of resigna tions for the coming year Superin tendent Paul Gordon said Tuesday. That situation is considerbly better than last year when there were more vacancies and less applicants for the open positions. Needed right now for the Wash ington school are an art teacher, a girl’s physical education instruc tor and a third grade instructor. Seven of the instructors who plan to return here next fall will attend school during the summer Mr. Gordon said. They are Miss Velva Ramsey, Mrs. Mabel Black- well, Mrs. Mathilde Bergerson, Mrs. Grace Cantwell, Mrs. Pearl Wilkerson, Mrs. Mabel Graves and Mrs. Irma Chance. • Stream Log Jams Being Removed Trying to keep the streams of Oregon free from debris and log jams is taxing the capacity of not only the Oregon state game com- mision but the fish commission as well, and in some instances, ,the highway commission, states C. A. Lockwood, assistant supervisor of the game commission in charge of stream improvement work. The log jams in Tillamook coun ty have been giving particular trouble. As a result of the big fire in 1933 and others every six years since, the streams have been jam med with burnt snags. The condi tion has been further agravated since the war by increased activ ities of sawmills and logging con cerns. The Wilson river and its tribu taries have been given special at tention under a cooperative pro gram of the fish, game and high way commissions. In the fall and winter of 1945-46 they removed seven log jams and others were taken out by logging operators. Three of these jams were in Jor dan creek. More jams farther up this stream are on the agenda for removal as soon as the stream im provement crews can get around to them: Other coastal streams have also been given attention the past win ter, including the removal of three large jams from the Nehalem river and three more from the Yachats river. • Officer* Nominated At a Red Cross meeting held at St. Helens, Mon. evening, officers were nominated to serve during the coming year. The election will be held in June. Nominees to rep resent the Vernonia area as direc tors were Mrs. Frank Hartwick and Mrs. A. J. Hughes. Both were present for the meeting. THURSDAY MAY 29, 1947 Court Dismisses Truck Petition The action of the Columbia coun ty court early in February to prohibit the hauling on county roads of any load exceeding 10,000 pounds weight except by special permit issued by the court re sulted in a decision in the circuit court this week. The decision was given by Judge Howard K. Zimmerman on a petition for a writ of review in which he dis missed the petition and sustained and approved the action of the county court. The orginal action of the court was to have been effective on March 1. The decision as ren dered by Judge Zimmerman states: “Briefly, the order recites that the hauling of heavy loads over county roads in Columbia County is damaging the roads which were built and must be maintained at the expense of general taxpayers, and that it is for the best interests of the county and its citizens as a whole to prohibit or regulate such heavy hauling as weather and road conditions may make necessary. Based on such finding of fact, the county court has prohibited the hauling on county roads of any load exceeding 10,000 pounds weight except under and by virtue of a special permit issued by the county court, and prohibiting such vehicles traveling under permits from exceeding the speed of 35 Foresters View Columbia Tree Farm Work Saturday Over 50 foresters engaged in an all-day tour of the Columbia County Tree Farm Saturday of last week and ended the day at Rogers Park up Pebble Creek with a barbecue. The men visiting the local Crown Zellerbach farm were members of the Columbia ri .'er branch of the Society of American Foresters, a nation-wide organiz ation of men interested in forestry. This group was one of the largest to visit the Columbia farm. Represented among the forest ers here for the tour were all the big lumber companies of the North west. The work being carried out here towards utilization from pre viously logged land, towards plant ing and seeding to start growth of a new forest and the thin ning of present stands was viewed with interest. The group left |the Crown Zel lerbach office in Riverview for Baker Point lookout to get a pan orama of the entire farm, the net area of which is 50,000 acres. From that point ,they also saw small trees which started from seed although no seed trees were left from the previous logging. The second stop was made near Natal where a thinning operation is now in progress on the 40 acres Soil District Hearing Is June 5 A hearing on the proposed Soil Conservation District for the Ne halem Valley will be held Thurs day, June 5 at the Washington grade school, starting at 2:00 p.m., according to W. G. Nibler, county agent. A group of 29 farmers has peti tioned the state soil conservation committee for the formation of a soil conservation district in cluding approximately the entire watershed of the Nehalem river in Columbia county. Chairman of the committee sub mitting the petition for the dist- trict is M. B. Steers, Vernonia. The purpose of this hearing is to allow farmers and land owners in the arcs an opportunity to ex press themselves concerning the formation of such a district and to discuss the proposed boundaries. The hearing will provide an op portunity to become better ac quainted with the purpose and operation of a soil conservation district and interested farmers should attend to acquaint them selves with this proposal. The hearing will be conducted by members of the state soil con servation committee. If farmers indicate a definate interest at the hearing, the question of farming a district will be voted upon by land owner this coming fall. • Repair* Intended No major construction changes are intended during the summer at the Washington grade school or the Lincoln school Paul Gordon, superintendent, said this week. The usual general repairs and redecor ating carried out every summer are all that will be done. of 50-year-old Douglas fir. At this site the stand has been marked to remove 18 per cent of the volume. Foresters present heard explana tions of the reasons for thinning and why the trees selected for re moval were selected Paul Goodmanson, resident for ester for the Columbia Farm, and Robert Lindsay, associate forester, made the selections of the trees to be removed on that location. On the return from Natal the sawmill owned by Angelo DeRoia at Pittsburg was visited. At that mill salvage from the farm is being utilized for timbers and lum ber. Two more stops were made, one at a location up Pebble creek where pulpwood is being salvaged from previous piling operations and decked for loading and truck ing to the Columbia river. That particular part of the salvage op eration is being done by horse power at a cost considerably be low what the same work would amount to if machinery were used. Several small Farm salvage oper ations are being carried on by horse power. The final stop was made at another point near the old Mc Donald homestead where pulp wood is being salvaged after clear cutting, decked from a pulpwood mill and loaded out with a crane. At this point the foresters saw the results of cutting with the pulpwood mill and also the pre former, both made by Harry Junk- en. The preformer makes pos sible a considerable saving of time in banding pulpwood and loading it for trucking. The tour ended at Rogers Park for a barbecue prepared by Glen Hawkins, Farm supervisor, and the farm crew. The park is located on the site of the homestead where Nels Rogers state forester, was born and has been developed as a picnic site for the use of Nehalem valley residents and visitors. Arrangements for the trip were made by Clarence Richer, chief forester for Crown Zellerbach. • Lions Plan Swim Pool Clean-np Provision for a tempotary wad ing pool for little children will be undertaken Wednesday evening when members of the Lions club removed some brush from a part of the city park pool. The plan to cut the brush was suggested by Cecil Johnson at the club’s noon luncheon when he also asked for volunteers to do the work. A wading pool has been desired for some time and plans for one with a cement bottom have been suggested, but difficulty in obtain ing materials has prevented the work. This year the pool will be lo cated on the west side of the creek at a point where a gravel bar washed in during last winter’s high water. The pool dam wil be erected a- bout the 15th of next month for the summer swimming season. miles per hour. The permits pro vided for are to be given to named operators for specified vehicles to operate between designated points within the county over designated roads. “Petitioners assert that they are engaged in heavy hauling over county roads and Lave invested much money in their equipment and earn their livelihood therein. That their vehicles are within the limits allowed by state laws as to weight and shape, and are licensed under state law and regulations of the P.U.C. Petitioners assert that the county court is issning the above described order, have exceeded their functions and jur isdiction to the injury of the rights of petitioners in that the enforce ment of said order will subject petitioners to fines and imprison ment; prevent them from carry ing on their lawful operations, and impose legal liabilities by virtue of the bond required. The petition also asserts that the coun ty’s order requires the permit holders to waive any claims he may have against the county for damages arising out of the coun ty’s negligence in maintaining roads and bridges in safe condi tion. This assertion, however, is denied by the county’s reply to the petition and I understand from oral argument of counsel, that said allegation of the petition is waived. I also find that no such provision is in the copy of the order attached to the petition. “The county court justifies its order generally upon the authority Continued on page 6 • More Water to Be Allowed Users Customers of the city water de partment can do considerable more irrigation for the next four months without exceeding the 4,000-gallon water limit for which the minimum charge of $1.75 is made. The reason for the opportunity to use more water comes from an an- ual procedure here to allow 8,000 gallons during the summer months of June, July, August and Septem ber. The increased amount of water makes it possible for water users to irrigate lawns and gardens without being charged more than the $1.75 rate until after the great er amount is used. • Pioneers Plan Annual Meeting The annual meeting of b^baiem Valley Pioneers will be held at Birkenfeld June 8. Long-time res idents of the valley are notified of the place so they can be present for the event. People planning to attend are asked to be there at 10:30 that morning. Most Store* to Close Most Vernonia business houses plan to be closed Memorial Day, Friday, May 30. They will be open as usual Saturday.