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12A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015 Cutter: Astoria designated ‘Coast Guard City’ in 2010 Continued from Page 1A including but not limited to: mission needs, distance to primary operating area, work-life, logistics support, current and future infrastructure costs, and environmental impacts,” Saylor said in an email. The Coast Guard’s Sector Colum- bia River headquarters and Air Sta- tion Astoria are based at the Astoria Regional Airport in Warrenton. Asto- ria is also host to the guard’s 210-foot medium endurance cutters Steadfast and Alert, and the 180-foot buoy ten- der Fir, but does not have one of the Island-class patrol boats. The Island-class Orcas is home- ported in Coos Bay and the Cutty- hunk is at Port Angeles, Wash. &RDVW*XDUGRI¿FLDOVVDLGSULYDWH ly that while the new Sentinel-class cutters are meant to replace the Is- land-class patrol boats, they may not be assigned to the same ports. Landing one or both of the new cutters would expand the Coast Guard’s footprint in Astoria, where LWDOUHDG\KDVDVLJQL¿FDQWSUHVHQFH Astoria was designated a “Coast Guard City” in 2010, one of only 16 in the United States. Newport re- ceived the designation in 2005. The Coast Guard is planning for 58 Sentinel-class cutters. Twelve cut- ters have been delivered so far and assigned to Miami and Key West, Fla. Other future home ports, accord- ing to the guard, could be San Juan, Puerto Rico; Cape May, N.J.; Pas- cagoula, Miss.; Ketchikan, Alaska; Honolulu, Hawaii; Portland, Maine; Atlantic Beach, N.C.; and San Pedro, Calif. WANT TO COMMENT? U.S. Coast Guard photo The Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) is a new Coast Guard patrol boat that is capable of de- ploying independently to conduct missions that include port, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. Named after Coast Guard enlisted heroes, the FRCs are replacing the aging Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. Public comments about the Coast Guard’s potential homeporting of two fast response cutters in Astoria or Newport can be sent to: Diana Soriano, USCG Civil Engineering Unit Oakland, 1301 Clay St., Suite 700N, Oakland, Calif., 94612; or diana.soriano@uscg. mil; or fax at 510-637-5726. The deadline to comment is March 30. Ports: ‘It’s a complicated choreography’ Continued from Page 1A It will take at least a month for the 73 terminal operators and shipping lines that be- long to the PMA and 13,600 longshoremen to review and ratify the contract, said Steve Getzug, a PMA spokesman. Meanwhile, longshoremen resumed a normal work pace with the Saturday night shift, Feb. 21, beginning the task of clearing tens of thousands of containers plugging dock- yards at the ports, Getzug said. “It’s a complicated chore- ography,” he said of moving the loaded and empty con- tainers, clearing paths to get to ships. As of Feb. 23, 22 ships were being worked at dock- side at Los Angeles and Long Beach, Getzug said. Thir- W\¿YH RWKHUV ZHUH DW DQFKRU in those harbors waiting to get in and two dozen more were on their way, he said. He didn’t have numbers for other ports but said Los Angeles and Long Beach would have the most ships and containers since they are the largest ports. The only problem was at Oakland, where a disagree- ment over work breaks held up operations until Sunday night, he said. West Coast port statistics, 2013 Locations by region Washington 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Bellingham Anacortes Port Angeles Everett Seattle Tacoma Olympia Aberdeen/Grays Harbor Oregon 9. Astoria 10. Longview 11. Rainier 12. Kalama 13. St. Helens 14. Vancouver 15. Portland 16. N. Bend/Coos Bay 3 8 WASHINGTON Grand totals TEUs* Tonnage (U.S. tons) Registered workers Total wages paid 15.6 million 340.4 million 13,733 $1.37 billion Washington: 2.5 million or 16.3% TEUs * by region OREGON N. CALIFORNIA 18 22 20 21 23 19 26 24 25 N. California 17. Eureka 18. W. Sacramento 19. Stockton 20. Port Chicago 21. Benicia 22. Crockett 23. Richmond 24. Oakland 25. Redwood City 26. San Francisco 4 5 6 7 10 9 12 11 14 13 15 16 17 1 2 Oregon/Columbia River: 155,230 or 1% Northern California: 1.8 million or 11.5% Southern California: 11.1 million or 71.2% S. CALIFORNIA S. California 27. Port Hueneme 28. Los Angeles 29. Long Beach 30. San Diego Tide gate: County commissioners plan to pass an emergency declaration Board of Commissioners is planning to pass an emergen- “I’m not worried. We cy declaration Wednesday to KDYH ¿YH GD\V´ %DUHQGVH possibly be eligible for fed- said about the water that rose eral funding for a permanent one foot per day. tide gate replacement. The tide gate likely broke 7KH6KHULII¶V2I¿FHVHQW off from six decades of wear its underwater dive team to and tear, Rhone said. He es- the site Sunday to investigate timates the tide gate is about the damaged gate. The Clat- 65 years old. It controls the sop County Public Works ÀRZRQ*UL]]O\6ORXJK and Emergency Manage- “They worked all yester- ment departments offered day and late at night to effect backup support to the drain- a temporary solution and as age improvement company, a result, it averted disaster,” if needed. Rohne said. “The water was “The people in Brown- getting to a point where it smead who pulled this off was going to ruin people’s have never done this before, homes.” but displayed intelligence The Clatsop County and resolve,” Rohne said. Continued from Page 1A 27 28 29 *Twenty-foot equivalent container units Source: Pacific Maritime Association 30 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Shipper leaves Portland Another issue is the loss of Hanjin Shipping at the Port of Portland Monday. Earlier in February, Hanjin announced it would end service at the port because it was taking too long for its ships to be unload- ed and loaded. Hanjin carries 78 percent of the cargo out of Portland, and two smaller shipping lines don’t have the capaci- ty to pick up the slack, said Steve Johnson, port spokes- man. Port managers are working to get Hanjin back or attract other shipping lines, he said. Otherwise, ag exporters will have to truck or send by rail their cargo to other ports at $600 to $1,000 more per container, he said. While agricultural export- ers are pleased ports are oper- ating again, they already have lost an estimated $1.75 billion worth of sales per month for two to three months, said Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition. And losses will continue for the several months it takes ports to get back to normal, he said. Containers of apples, hay, frozen potato products, meats and other goods are stacked up and waiting for the 15-day ocean crossing to Asia. The number of containers on a ship varies from 5,000 to 18,000 but the average on the West Coast is 7,500 to 8,000, Friedmann said. The normal turn-around time to unload and load a ship varies from RQHWR¿YHGD\VGHSHQGLQJRQ the size of the ship and how much is being unloaded and loaded, he said. Shelly Boshart Davis, vice president of internation- al sales at Bossco Trading, a rye grass straw exporter in JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Hazel Barendse, looks out from her deck at the wa- ter line of the flooding on her property Monday. A broken tide gate near her house has caused wa- ter levels to rise about one foot per day. The broken gate was spotted Sunday by the Clatsop No. 1 Drain- age Improvement Co. JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian AP Photo/Nick Ut A dock worker arrives at the Port of Los Angeles Feb. 23. Nearly all West Coast seaports began the week with dockworkers hustling to load and unload cargo ships that were held up amid a months-long labor-management dispute. Tangent, said her compa- ny has had 140 containers of straw, worth $500,000 to $700,000, at the ports of Portland, Tacoma and Seat- tle since Jan. 15. “We need to get contain- ers moving,” she said. “We will be OK if we can, but we can’t do another six months of this.” Three more months to get ports back to normal may push some exporters to bank- ruptcy, she said. Changing the law? It remains to be seen whether the new port con- tract will embolden export- ers and members of Con- gress to try to change federal labor law to prevent future disruptions. “...(I)t is appropriate to evaluate all options that would end the economic threat posed by such disputes in the future,” Rep. Dan Ne- whouse, R-Wash., said in a statement. Chris Schlect, president of the Northwest Horticultur- al Council in Yakima, Wash., said often interest in changing the laws wanes once disputes are resolved. But, he said, this crisis was big enough that people may be more willing to look at it, and more will be interested DIWHU WKH FRQWUDFW LV UDWL¿HG because comments could no longer derail it. Schlect said he has not heard of anyone going bank- rupt because of the port slowdown but wouldn’t be surprised if some tree fruit growers do because of many factors that have made it a poor year. A record large har- vest, lower prices and factors such as the Russian boycott of European Union and U.S. fruit have combined with the port slowdown to hurt the in- dustry. European apples have been displacing Washington apples in Asian markets because of the slowdown, and it will take “a lot of brand building to get ourselves back into the mar- ketplace and top in minds of consumers,” said Todd Fry- hover, president of the Wash- ington Apple Commission in Wenatchee. Friedmann said the coalition is “totally for” changing labor law to prevent future disrup- tions and will continue to push WKH 3DFL¿F 0DULWLPH $VVRFLD tion and the ILWU to improve West Coast port productivity. “U.S. agriculture can re- cover but only with a collec- tive effort,” he said. The PMA and union need to improve the pace of terminal operations, automation and eliminate out- dated labor and management practices, he said. Crews pull out the door of the broken tide gate. A metal sheet will be placed over the broken tide gate to try and prevent more flooding. Charged: Arraignment hearing set for March 13 Continued from Page 1A murder, conspiracy, robbery I, assault I and theft. Both suspects appeared in front of Judge Paula Brownhill in Clatsop County Circuit Court on Monday. Security was set at $250,000 for each man, which means they would have to post $25,000 to be released from jail, according to the Clastop County District At- WRUQH\¶V2I¿FH Brownhill appointed each man an attorney and set the next arraignment hearing for March 13 to present the outcome of the interim grand jury proceeding. Seaside detectives believe the “two men have been in- volved in additional criminal activity and possibly other as- saults,” the release states. “We have yet to receive any tip information, but over the course of the weeklong investigation, many people were interviewed and we be- lieve that there may be ad- ditional victims unrelated to the current charges that were previously unwilling to report or have not yet reported the circumstances to the police,” said Seaside Police Detective Sgt. Jason Goodding. The investigation is ongo- ing so he could not provide VSHFL¿F GHWDLOV$Q\RQH ZLWK information related to Burn- ham and Fitch or believed criminal activity should con- tact Goodding or Detective Gary Welborn. An anony- mous tipline also can be used to provide information by calling 503-738-0222.