Did You Know...

01-03-05 First of all, the members of the Vernonia Police Department and I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous 2005! The sad and catastrophic events that brought 2004 to an end reinforced how lucky we are to live and work here in North America. Though I would never want such an event to occur in our area, I now know that Vernonia would pull together to help see each other through. The disaster preparedness article in the last Independent was ironically timely given the Tsunami and recent snowstorms. In this week's article I want to touch on a few incidents that have occurred over the past few weeks. The first incident involves a telephone scam. A Vernonia resident received as telephone call from a man wanting to verify bank account information. The man seemed official and had a lot of information all ready. Unfortunately the man took the new information and printed fake checks which he subsequently used. As with email "phishing", do not provide any personal information to anyone unless you are sure who the recipient is. The next incident that occurred was a case of "road rage" on South Hwy 47. Since I started here in May, a half dozen people have reported similar incidents to me while a dozen more have reported hazardous driving incidents. Most of South Hwy 47 is out of the VPD jurisdiction but all of the incidents were forwarded to either the Oregon State Police or the County Sheriff's in Columbia and Washington Counties. Please be courteous and respectful to other drivers and remember that not everyone is as comfortable and as skillful driving down or up the hill as you may be. Patience is not only a virtue but may actually be the difference between a safe or dangerous trip. My last comment is just a simple reminder to show pride in our town by using trash cans and cleaning up after your animals. I have seen an increase in animal feces in the downtown area and accumulating garbage along Bridge St., particularly in the area of the Senior Center. Keep Vernonia beautiful by throwing that wrapper in a trash can and not on the ground.