10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015
Mission: ‘She puts a lot of heart and soul into it’
Continued from Page 1A
Project Homeless Connect,
an annual outreach initiative,
links the homeless with so-
cial-service providers.
Shelters such as the Asto-
ria Rescue Mission and Help-
ing Hands in Seaside offer
meals and guidance in drug-
and alcohol-free settings.
Contentious issue
Nationally, the question of
whether individuals or non-
SUR¿WVVKRXOGIHHGWKHKRPH-
less on the streets has become
contentious.
Underneath the compas-
sion, some social-service ex-
perts worry that food-sharing
programs can enable home-
lessness if not tied to services
such as substance abuse treat-
ment, mental health counsel-
ing or housing assistance.
Several cities have re-
stricted food sharing with
the homeless, according to
the National Coalition for
the Homeless, a Washington,
D.C., advocacy group, requir-
ing permits to distribute food
on public property or impos-
ing standards to ensure food
safety.
Such restrictions are moti-
vated by complaints that feed-
ing the homeless allows them
to remain in business districts,
parks and neighborhoods
where they can be disruptive.
But the National Coalition
for the Homeless argues that
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imperative and that “meals
DERRICK DePLEDGE — The Daily Astorian
Salon Boheme held a food drive for Filling Empty Bellies
for the past two weeks.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Corri Buck hands people water from her car in the parking lot at 12th and Exchange
streets Wednesday.
should not come quid pro
quo” as conditions of seeking
treatment or services.
“I certainly think society,
GH¿QLWHO\ IURP WKH VLPSOH
citizen all the way up to the
government, I think we need
to always think about folks
in need,” said Dusten Mar-
tin, the operations manager
for the Clatsop Community
Action Regional Food Bank.
“And I think we need to have
a clear and constructive and
simple way of helping people.
“There’s a lot of regula-
tions and restrictions and or-
dinances and that kind of a
thing. We have to really make
sure, as a society, we’re doing
justice by the folks who are in
need, and not creating such a
FRPSOH[ ZHE WKDW¶V GLI¿FXOW
for them to navigate to get
services.”
Filling a need
While the homeless in
Clatsop County may have ac-
cess to food, Buck has found
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“It sounds like it’s some-
body with a big heart,” Mar-
tin said. “And I can only hope
that there is maybe some
steam that gets gathered be-
hind it and there’s folks and
organizations willing to help
out with getting food and get-
ting it out in a safe manner.”
Kallie Linder, the owner
of Salon Boheme, said she
learned about Buck’s mission
on Facebook.
The downtown salon has
held a food drive for Filling
Empty Bellies over the past
few weeks. “We are really
involved in the community,”
she said. “We do lots of food
drives, coat drives, toy drives,
shoe drives.
“We just like to help.”
Linder was not concerned
that Buck is feeding the
homeless on her own, rather
than working through an es-
tablished charity. She recom-
mended others get involved.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I
say jump in with both feet.”
Buck has branched out
from lunches. In the back of
her silver Ford Edge — the
one with the bone-shaped “I
(Heart) My Grandogs” mag-
net — she has bins with socks,
gloves, scarves and pants. She
also hands out hygienic pack-
ets with toothbrushes and
shower supplies.
Buck knows most of the
men she helps feed by name.
They know her as the woman
who comes to them at noon
at 12th Street and Exchange
Street, with no strings — or
preaching — attached.
“She puts a lot of heart
and soul into it,” said Chris
Crone, who has done outreach
with Helping Hands and was
among the men waiting for
lunch on Wednesday.
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experience as personally grat-
ifying. “I feel so good right
now my insides are dancing!”
she wrote on Facebook in No-
vember. But as she has gotten
to know the men, and as “an-
gels” like Linder and others
have donated food and mon-
ey, it has become something
deeper.
“They’re my friends,” she
said. “And that’s what I’m
doing. I’m simply feeding my
friends. And I have a whole
bunch of friends helping me
do it.”
Buck does not know when
her mission might end.
“I can’t answer that ques-
tion,” she said. “I will go until
I can’t go no more. I do not
see an end.”
Boatyard:1R¿QHVIRUWKH3RUWDVORQJDVLWGHDOVZLWKVWRUPZDWHUWUHDWPHQW
Continued from Page 1A
There’s still a 45-boat wait-
ing list in Ilwaco’s boatyard,
Green said, and the Port needs
to advertise that its boatyard is
still open for business.
“They’ve completely put
a halt to hauling anything that
might be a derelict vessel,”
Green said of Ilwaco’s policy
toward suspected derelicts, add-
ing there is a minimum require-
ment of $300,000 in liability in-
surance to haul out there, along
with a limit of 30 days. Green
added the Port should put some
pressure on the Oregon State
Marine Board to help deal with
the boats that have been in its
yard for years.
Knight said AFP laid down
VRPH ¿QHU JUDYHO EHKLQG WKH
Best Western Lincoln Inn,
where it had been storing logs,
but where the several derelict
vessels and long-term stays of
the boatyard will be moved.
The committee discussed
short-term improvements to the
boatyard, including making boat
owners sign a copy of the Port’s
boatyard rules; covered work
spaces; erecting fences to im-
prove security and, with privacy
slats, cut down on crosswinds;
sweeping the boatyard; and
VWRUPGUDLQ¿OWHUV
Regarding any short-term
improvements, Knight said he
would have a better idea in the
coming weeks of where the Port
VWDQGV ¿QDQFLDOO\ ZKHQ LW UH-
ceives its 2013-14 audit being
performed by Moss Adams.
Background
In August, the Port found out
from the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality it would
need to follow more stringent
monitoring requirements after
testing high in copper at outfalls
on Pier 3 and underneath Born-
stein Seafoods between Piers 1
and 2. At the end of last year, it
submitted a required stormwater
WUHDWPHQWSODQWR'(4DELR¿O-
tration pond located on the west-
ern edge of Pier 3.
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
A conceptual drawing from 2005 shows the plan for the
Port of Astoria’s Pier 3 to become a boatyard, with shops,
covered work spaces, multiple places for boats to be
hauled or towed out and a park on land owned by the De-
partment of State Lands.
cars near the Oregon State Pa-
WURORI¿FHVWKDWFRXOGEHFRQWULE-
uting to the issue, Knight said.
OSP is moving from its Port lo-
cation on Gateway Avenue this
summer to Dolphin Avenue in
Warrenton, which outside of the
tsunami inundation zone,
The Port’s stormwater plan
depended Department of State
Lands approval to place the sys-
tem on Pier 3 land. DSL recently
QRWL¿HG.QLJKWLWZRXOGEHZLOO-
ing to lease the strip of land to
the Port for $750 a year for the
system. He added they offered
to sell it to the Port, albeit with
a price tag likely in the millions.
Next steps
Knight envisions two or
three more meetings about short-
Knight announced in late FDXVH¿QHVDVORQJDVWKH3RUW term planning with the boatyard,
February that, because of pollu- moves forward with stormwater with monthly meetings after that
looking at the long-term.
WLRQFRQFHUQVDQGSRWHQWLDO¿QHV treatment.
At the last boatyard meet-
from DEQ, the Port would ten-
The Port has troubled over
tatively close the boatyard down the source of copper, because ing, members suggested adding
by April 1. He canceled the the outfall near Bornstein Sea- names such as Greg Morrill,
closure after saying the state as- foods is away from the boatyard. president of Bergerson Con-
sured him the boatyard wouldn’t There are some rusted, crushed struction, and Willie Toristoja,
who helps run WCT Marine
and Construction Inc. at North
Tongue Point. Some members
again mentioned Bill Cook, the
former deputy director of the
Port and a central force in its
concept of a Pier 3 boatyard,
could be a good source of in-
formation on the boatyard com-
mittee, and his presence might
improve the committee’s image
through such sources as the
Save Our Boatyard Facebook
page, created by Cook.
Knight said he still had
lingering reservations, noting
some potentially hard feelings
between Cook and some of the
Port commissioners. He said
he keeps the lines of communi-
cation open with Cook. “If Bill
can help us, I’d be happy to call
him,” Knight said.
Coming Friday, the Port of
Astoria’s boatyard committee
also discussed a possible new
location on the central water-
front for the boatyard, related to
the agency’s attempt to clean up
past petroleum contamination.
Fair: Participation rate of youth in the workforce has fallen by nearly half since 2000
Continued from Page 1A
“Right now, we have about
400 job listings,” she said. “At
least a third of them don’t re-
quire previous training or expe-
rience.”
According to an article
called “Youth Employment in
Northwest Oregon,” put out by
the Employment Department in
February 2014, the participa-
tion rate of youth in the work-
force has fallen by nearly half
since 2000.
The Census Bureau estimat-
ed an annual average of nearly
2,700 youth of ages 14 through
18 working in Clatsop, Colum-
bia, Lincoln and Tillamook
counties in 2000. By 2012, that
number fell to about 1,500. The
unemployment rate for Ore-
gon youth aged 16 through 19
topped 30 percent during the
recession the report said, and
nationally, labor force partic-
ipation for that age group fell
from 47 percent in 2002 to 34
percent in 2012.
In the meantime, college
enrollment soared during the
recession, a national trend.
“They’re more focused on
school than in the past,” Sykes
said.
Resume-building
The mission of the job fair
was threefold, providing in-
formation on immediate jobs,
training opportunities and ca-
reers. While many employers
were offering immediate jobs,
from Wyndham and Baked
Alaska to Fort George Brewery
and retail outlets, others provid-
ed future training opportunities,
such as Clatsop Community
College and Tongue Point Job
Corps Center.
“At least a quarter of our
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in Clatsop County,” Astoria
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an Aydt said, adding that while
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dispatchers can be 18. The mar-
ket for those jobs is competitive
and the department was mostly
at the job fair to tell the teens
how to prepare, he said.
Executive Director Alana
Garner from the Astoria Down-
town Historic District Associa-
tion was there with another vol-
unteer, advertising on behalf of
downtown employers and for
volunteerism with the associa-
tion as a resume-builder.
Corbin Lampa, a junior
from AHS, said he was there
seeking immediate employ-
ment, in maybe the forestry
or construction sector. But the
short-term experience could
likely play into his longer-term
goals of studying forestry at
Oregon State University and
becoming a forest engineer.
It’s been a long time since
there was a high school job fair,
AHS Principal Lynn Jackson
said. His hope was for students
to come away with at least one
or two ideas of what’s available
locally, in terms of employ-
ment.
“It isn’t like it was in my
day, when you just moved
away,” Kevin Leahy said.
As executive director of
Clatsop Economic Develop-
ment Resources, Leahy played
a central role in organizing the
job fair. It took months to put
together, he said, including a
volunteer committee of em-
ployers to educators.
The hope, he said, is to have
it every year from now on.
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