City of Columbia City

ANNEXATION AND REZONE APPLICATION

The Columbia City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10, to hear comments about an application to annex and rezone 15.5 acres of vacant property. The property is generally located to the north of Ninth Street and west of "H" Street, and to the south of "E" Street and west of Sixth Street.

If approved, the property would be annexed into Columbia City, and the zoning would be changed from Columbia County FA-19 to Columbia City R-2, moderate density residential.

Following the public hearing, the Planning Commission may make a recommendation to the City Council regarding the proposed annexation and rezoning. If they do, the matter will be referred to the City Council for a separate public hearing on Thursday, July 19, at 7:30 p.m. Both meetings will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

Interested persons are invited to attend the public hearings and present oral and written testimony, or submit written comments to City Hall. Copies of the staff report and all related documents are available for review at City Hall. Property owners Barbara Jones, Michael Jones, Kay Brown, Jennine Trachier, Angela Jones and Douglas Clifton Jones have authorized this application for annexation and rezoning.

RAFFLE TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

The City was able to put together five great raffle prizes for this year's Columbia City Celebration!

1st place: Columbia Gorge Getaway $699 value

Gift certificates to Skamania Lodge, Mt. Hood Railroad, Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge,

Maryhill Winery, Oak Grove Restaurant, Maryhill Museum, and Chevron Gasoline

2nd place: Flat Panel MonitorViewSonic 19" Wide DVI LCD $185 value

5ms 700:1 300 cd/m²1440 x 900 WXGA+ Integrated Stereo Speakers Energy Star Qualified

3rd, 4th and 5th places: $75, $50 and $25 Gift Certificates for Chevron Gasoline

Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. The raffle drawing will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, 2007. All of the proceeds from the Celebration are used to operate the Columbia City Community Library. The Library is funded entirely by donations. Please support the fund raising activities and purchase your raffle tickets today!

THANK YOU

We'd like to extend a very special thank you to:

· Shelia Bauer, Gloria Chinell, Betty Jensen, Jean Lord, Phyllis Moss, Vera Moeller, Phyllis Rowley and Carol Yarbrough for helping with the newsletter and utility billing in May.

· The St. Helens Garden Club for donating a floral bouquet to City Hall in celebration of National Garden Week.

· Norm Jones for mowing Datis Park.

· Marian Calnon for planting shrubs in Jim Bundy Memorial Park and for donating flowers for the flower beds at City Hall.

COLUMBIA CITY T-SHIRTS

Purchase a new Columbia City Community Library t-shirt beginning July 23! The Library logo was designed by Jennifer Anderson, who serves as Treasurer of the Friends of the Library. T-shirts are available in child and adult sizes. They are short sleeve, natural in color, with a color logo on the front center.

Children sizes — Small - Large: $10.00

Adult sizes — Small - X-Large: $11.00

2X: $12.00; 3X: $13.00; 4X: $14.00

COMMUNITY LIBRARY

Dig up a treasure this summer – Read a book!

It’s no surprise that students who read over the summer do better in school when fall arrives. Experts say that some children can lose up to 3 months of reading skills (referred to as summer backslide) if they do not read during the summer break. We encourage you to visit the Library, read, have fun and win prizes! Recommended reads:

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them — in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul — they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love. (Comments by the publisher.)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: It's just a small story really about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery... Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist — books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul. (Publisher comments.)

Staffed Library Hours:

Monday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Wednesday, 4 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Thursday, 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Phone: (503) 366-8020 Address: 205 "I" Street

E-mail: cclibrary@opusnet.com

Story Time: 11 a.m. every Monday

Friends of the Library Meeting: July 16, 7 p.m. Novel Quilters Meeting: July 18, 6:30 p.m.

The City of Columbia City purchases water from the City of St. Helens. St. Helens supplies water from a new water treatment facility located in Columbia City and one ground well located near the Scappoose Bay Marina in St. Helens. The Scappoose Bay well only operates during very high usage days in the summer. There are two Ranney collector wells in Columbia City that supply water to the treatment plant. The collector wells are located in Columbia City at "K" and First Streets and "E" Street and The Strand.

The water treatment facility is a membrane plant that works by running water through a series of synthetic filters that capture sediment, germs and organisms. These filter systems are fully computer-controlled for automatic backwashing and cleaning. There are not chemical additions, except for standard chlorine disinfection and acidity controls.

WATER SERVICE INFORMATION

For information and/or participation in decisions about your drinking water, please contact Leahnette Rivers by calling City Hall, (503) 397-4010. We want our valued customers to be informed about their water utility. In case of emergencies, our Public Works personnel are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by calling (503) 397-1521. Our regularly scheduled City Council meetings are held on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7:30 p.m.

Public Works personnel are certified by the Oregon State Health Department (OSHD) and are trained in all aspects of water distribution and cross-connection. They are required to complete continuing education classes in order to maintain their certification and to keep up-to-date on the latest information and technology in their field.

Inorganic Contaminants

Contaminant	Date Tested	Violation	Range Min.-Max.	Detected Level	Unit	MCL	MCLG	Major Sources
Sodium	04/17/03	No	n/a	126.00	ppm	n/a	n/a	Naturally occurring
Sulfate	12/08/05	No	n/a	7.0	ppm	250.0	n/a	Naturally occurring
Nitrate	11/03/05	No	n/a	1.5	ppm	10.0	n/a	Naturally occurring
Uranium	04/03/03	No	n/a	0.04	ppb	30.0	n/a	Natural or industrial
TTHMs	Quarterly	No	3.2-25.1	23.23 (avg.)	ppb	80.0	n/a	Disinfection byproduct
HAAs	Quarterly	No	ND-7.3	4.1 (avg.)	ppb	60.0	n/a	Disinfection byproduct
Turbidity	Daily	No	0.02-0.25	0.25	NTU	TT=0.3	n/a	Soil runoff, sediment

Water Quality Table Footnotes

All contaminants tested were below the Maximum Contaminate Level, and none were in violation. Although we were required to sample for TTHMs and HAAs quarterly during the reporting period, we missed the 3rd quarter sampling. This was a violation of the rules. However, when we tested for TTHMs and HAAs during the 1st, 2nd and 4th quarters, the contaminants were below the maximum allowed.

MANDATORY TESTING

The contaminants we monitor are listed below. Only the ones listed in the previous table had detectable levels.

Microbiological Contaminants

Total Coliform Bacteria

Fecal Coliform

Turbidity

Radioactive Contaminants

Beta/photon emitters

Alpha emitters

Combined Radium

Inorganic Contaminants

Antimony

Arsenic

Barium

Beryllium

Cadmium

Chromium

Copper

Cyanide

Fluoride

Lead

Mercury (inorganic)

Nickel

Nitrate (as Nitrogen)

Nitrite (as Nitrogen)

Selenium

Sodium

Sulfate

Thallium

Synthetic Organic Contaminants

2,4D

2,4,5-TP (Silvex)

Alachlor

Atrazine

Benzo(a)pyrene(PAH)

Carbofuran

Chlordane

Dalapon

Di(2-ethylhexl)adipate

Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthate

Dibromochloropropane

Dinoseb

Diquat

Endothall

Endrin

Ethylene dibromide

Glyphosate

Heptachlor

Heptachlor epoxide

Hexachlorobenzene Hexchlorocyclopentadiene

Lindane

Methoxychlor

Oxamyl (Vydate)

PCBs (Polychlorinated)

Pentachlorophenol

Picloram

Simazene

Toxaphene

Volatile Organic Contaminants

Benzene

Carbon Tetrachloride

Chlorobenzene

o-Dichlororbenzene

p-Dichlororbenzene

1,2-Dichloroethane

1,1-Dichloroethylene

cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene

trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene

Dichloromethane

1,2-Dichloropropane

Ethylbenzene

Stryrene

Tetrachloroethylene

1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene

1,1,1-Trichloroethane

1,1,2-Trichloroethane

Thrichloroethylene

THHMs

Toluene

Vinyl Chloride

Xylenes

The 90th percentile is the highest result found in 90% of the samples when they are listed in order from the lowest to the highest results. EPA requires testing for lead and copper at customers’ taps most likely to contain these substances based on when the house was built. The EPA determined that the sample results exceeded the Action Level (AL), and the City must take action in reducing the risk of leaching of lead and/or copper. The City previously added phosphate to the water to reduce lead and copper levels, but the Water Filtration Facility, which was placed on-line in February 2006, has a new method of pH control to address this issue.

ADDITIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION

To ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes limits on the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. FDA regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water, which must provide the same protection for public health.

Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791.

The sources of drinking water (both tap water and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals and radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity. Contaminants that may be present in source water include:

· Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife.

· Inorganic contaminants, such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming.

· Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, stormwater runoff and residential uses.

· Organic chem

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