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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2015)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 Dog park:&LW\PD\XVH-RKQ:DUUHQ)LHOGIRU¿YH\HDUV Continued from Page 1A the board members. “I think it looks very pos- itive.” The board will likely take up the dog park at a meet- ing on March 25. The board could make a recommen- dation to the City Council, which has the final say. The City Council, re- sponding to requests from dog lovers, had made a dog park a goal for this fiscal year. But the city’s Parks and Recreation Department has had some difficulty in find- ing a site because of neigh- borhood opposition. A 4-acre parcel near Al- derbrook Lagoon — known as Stinky Beach — was iden- tified by the city as a poten- tial option until a backlash from neighbors concerned about increased traffic and parking. John Warren Field has not provoked the same passion. Columbia Memorial Hospital acquired the foot- ball field as part of the agreement with the Astoria School District and the city on the new Astoria Sports Complex at the city’s for- mer landfill. The city might use the field for five years, with annual extensions possible until the hospital is ready to JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Columbia Memorial Hospital, which owns the land containing John Warren Field, has had preliminary conversations with the city about using part of the land as a dog park. develop the property. Michelle Bisek, of Astoria Dog Park Friends, the group that has urged the city to de- velop a dog park, said the group is in favor of the inter- im site. “We’ve been looking for over a year now and have had no luck finding a perma- nent location,” she said. “We think that over the period of at least five years — maybe six, seven, eight; who knows how long we’ll have there — we’ll be able to fundraise all the money we need for a permanent location. “And actually spend a great amount of time find- ing a good spot that fills the needs that we’re looking for and that is not going to piss off a bunch of neighbors, which we don’t want to do.” Some worried, however, that an interim site could sap the momentum behind find- ing a permanent dog park. “You’re just punting the ball down the field,” said Cindy Marconeri, who add- ed that the private donations collected by Astoria Dog Park Friends should be re- served for a permanent lo- cation. Several Alderbrook res- idents, meanwhile, are dis- appointed that the city has not formally ruled out the Alderbrook Lagoon site and question whether it would be revived as an option once the city can no longer use John Warren Field. Susie McLerie, who lives in Alderbrook, said a dog park near Alderbrook La- goon would be “forcing a crowd into a tiny little bot- tleneck. And it’s not practi- cal.” If the city moves forward with an interim dog park at John Warren Field, the Parks and Recreation Department would likely establish rules of etiquette for dog owners and dogs. The city could also de- termine whether to section off D SRUWLRQ RI WKH IRRWEDOO ¿HOG for smaller dogs who might not want to romp with bigger playmates. Rory Gerard, whose three small dogs are familiar fix- tures in the window of his Niagara Avenue home, urged the city to “make sure there is an area that’s fenced off for the little guys, because little guys don’t like big guys.” Bills: If OK’d, changes would happen in 2021 Continued from Page 1A AP photo Pacific fishery managers have approved new forage fish restrictions. Fish: The ban does not affect H[LVWLQJ¿VKHULHVIRURWKHUW\SHV of herring, sardines and anchovies more sun for evening recre- ation and family activities, and it pushes more driving trips into daylight hours. Critics of daylight saving time point to the irritating rit- ual of resetting clocks each time we “spring forward” or “fall back.” They say it causes health problems by disrupting the body’s natural timekeep- ing, and it likely contributes to diminished productivity in the days following a time change. Furthermore, they say it hasn’t delivered on its prom- ise of reducing energy costs. A study by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara found an in- crease in energy use when Indiana adopted daylight sav- ing time statewide. It had pre- viously been observed only there only in some counties. The researchers found that de- creases in lighting costs were offset by higher demand for heating and cooling. Thatcher’s bill would ask voters in the 2016 election whether to ditch daylight saving time. If they approve, it would take effect in 2021, giving plenty of time for soft- ware programmers and other business interests to prepare. In addition to eliminating daylight saving time, Thatch- er said she might prefer to change the state to the Moun- tain time zone so it would EHQH¿W IURP WKH DGGLWLRQDO evening sunlight year round. Another bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas, also at the behest of a constituent, would make the change almost im- mediately. “Constituents who have reached out to me approach this from a perspec- tive of every time you switch it costs money,” Boquist said. Now that Indiana has ad- opted daylight saving time statewide, only two states, Arizona and Hawaii, have held on to standard time year round. An Arizona lawmak- er wrote a bill this year that would have put the state on daylight saving time, but he quickly withdrew it after the response was overwhelming- ly negative. ANSWERS ON : Safety Continued from Page 1A Paul Shively of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a conservation group, said in a Species covered by the ban include statement: “This marks a fundamental 3DFL¿FVDQGODQFHVLOYHUVLGHVDQGFHUWDLQ change from traditional management of varieties of herring, smelt and squid. The RFHDQ¿VKLQJWRDPRUHFRPSUHKHQVLYHDS- EDQ GRHV QRW DIIHFW H[LVWLQJ ¿VKHULHV IRU proach.” other types of herring, sardines and ancho- Geoff Shester of the conservation group vies, and it comes on top of a similar ban Oceana said he hoped the ban would serve RQ¿VKLQJIRUNULOODFUXVWDFHDQWKDWLVLP- DVDPRGHOIRUIRUDJH¿VKFRQVHUYDWLRQLQ portant food for salmon, seals and whales. other waters. Rod Moore of the West Coast Seafood Burner said there were provisions for 3URFHVVRUV$VVRFLDWLRQVDLGWKH¿VKLQJLQ- an applicant to seek permission to target dustry shared the concerns of conservation IRUDJH ¿VK EXW DQ\ SURSRVDO ZRXOG IDFH JURXSVDQGVSRUW¿VKHUPHQZKRZDQWHGWR tough requirements to show it would not EHVXUHWKDWIRUDJH¿VKZHUHSURWHFWHG harm the resource. Robotics team competes LQ¿UVWGLYLVLRQDOTXDOL¿HU By KATHERINE LACAZE EO Media Group SEASIDE — The CY- BORG Seagulls have com- pleted their first district tournament in the Oregon FIRST Robotics 2015 sea- son. However, the rankings from the Oregon City dis- trict tournament were not available by press time. Seaside High School’s team, the CYBORG Seagulls — the acronym stands for “Creative Young Brains Observing and Rede- fining Greatness” — attend- ed the Pacific Northwest divisional qualifier tourna- ment in Oregon City Feb. 27 and 28 to compete against 23 other teams. With their robot SARA, short for “Stacking Agile Robot Assembly,” the Sea- side students competed in 13 matches at the region- al tournament. For each match, the team was paired up with those from two oth- er schools to play against three other teams. Recycle Rush is the 2015 FIRST Robotics game. Based on a recycling theme, the participating teams have to move and stack recycle bins and clear their area of litter. Coach Mike Brown said he was proud of the way his team quickly adapted to mishaps along the way. For instance, the robot’s forklift apparatus broke in the first match, so the team had to reinvent its strategy and create a hook structure to use instead. In another match, one of the cables that sent power to a wheel broke, and the students had to address that problem. “It’s kind of how you handle those issues that’s important,” Brown said. “All in all, I thought they did pretty great.” In addition to compet- ing in the games, the stu- dents also interacted with judges and other students to explain their model, scouted other teams to pick up tips and com- peted for the prestigious Chairman’s Award. Of the 12 students on Seaside’s team, seven are new to the robotics program this year. The team will next trav- el to Wilsonville Thurs- day through Saturday for a second divisional qualifier tournament. Before they go, however, the students will have exactly six hours to work on and improve their robot. The team was scheduled to meet this week to make a game plan be- fore working on the robot, Brown said. The team’s scores from the two district tourna- ments will be calculated to determine if it qualifies to advance to the regional competition. Of the approx- imately 150 teams in the northwest district, about 40 advance, Brown said. For more information about the Seaside robotics team, visit www.team3673. org. “BEING SAFE AROUND ELECTRICITY IS ALWAYS ON MY HONEY-DO LIST.” - Dave, Homeowner © 2015 Pacifi c Power Team travels to Wilsonville Thursday Sprucing up your home? Safety should be the first step of every project. We have tips and information to help you stay safe around electricity indoors and out – especially near power lines. Your safety matters to us. Order our booklet Electricity 101 by calling 1-866-375-7085 or visit pacifi cpower.net/safety.