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10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 Ballet: Dance Theatre of Harlem was founded in 1969 Continued from Page 1A Classic beginnings Co-founded in 1969 by Ar- WKXU 0LWFKHOO WKH ¿UVW EODFN dancer with the New York City Ballet, and Karel Shook, a Renton, Wash., born ballet master, the Dance Theatre of Harlem was initially a project to expose inner-city youth to classical ballet in the after- math of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The ballet company’s ob- jective has always been to both educate and entertain, to break stereotypes and put a multi- cultural face on a traditionally white art form. Weighted down by debt, the Dance Theatre of Har- lem stopped touring in 2004 but was able to relaunch two years ago with a leaner troupe. Last week, the ballet company PDGH LWV ¿UVW DSSHDUDQFH LQ Portland in three decades — DQGLWV¿UVWHYHULQ$VWRULD While the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s performance at the Liberty Theater Saturday night showed the dancers in full bloom, three intimate workshops at the theater Fri- day gave students a rare look inside the world of ballet. “Ballet belongs to every- body,” said Virginia Johnson, the ballet company’s artis- tic director. “It’s not just one group of people. So there are many reasons why we do it, but it really is about planting that seed for the next genera- tion.” Elementary school students from Seaside, Gearhart and Photos by JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian ABOVE: Trixie Gunn, of Astoria, takes part in a ballet class taught at by Artistic Director Virginia Johnson at the Dance Theatre of Harlem at the Paulson Pavilion in the Liberty Theater Friday. LEFT: Anthony Savoy and Al- ison Stroming, both with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, demonstrate ballet for local students at the Liberty The- ater Friday. ‘Ballet belongs to everybody. It’s not just one group of people.’ — Virginia Johnson Dance Theatre of Harlem’s artistic director Naselle, Wash., along with youngsters from the Shoot- ing Stars Child Development Center in Astoria, caught the morning session. Students from Hilda Lahti Elementary School in Knappa and Seaside High School had the afternoon session. On Friday evening, John- son, a former principal bal- lerina, led a master class for local dance students upstairs at the theater’s Paulson Pavilion. Cool and exacting, she did not spare the unsteady amateurs from her precise standards. At the end of the 90-minute OHVVRQ VHYHUDO ÀXVKHG GDQFH students looked relieved. “I always enjoy learning from beautiful people who have so many ideas,” said Peg- gy Boisvert, a special needs assistant who lives in Astoria. “I like having more things to think about. “So you go home and think about it. And so it’s not nec- essarily tough right now but it makes your dancing better Members of the Dance Theatre of Harlem demonstrate ballet techniques for local stu- dents at the Liberty Theater Friday. later.” Removal: Attorney says low morale was tied in part to ship’s condition Continued from Page 1A “They’re alleging that his performance was substandard. But Darrin Gibbons, Bit- He denies that,” Gibbons, a terman’s attorney, said Bitter- former Coast Guard judge ad- man, who took command of the vocate, said by telephone Mon- 6WHDGIDVW ODVW -XO\ LGHQWL¿HG day from Virginia. “He believes problems such as lead contami- that’s false, of course. The per- nation, poor decking and moldy formance of the ship on all met- mattresses. rics that the government uses to The commander, the attor- measure the performance of the ney said, reported the issues cutter meet or exceed all stan- to Coast Guard leadership. His dards. temporary removal, his attor- “He was removed — we ney claims, was in retaliation. believe, he believes — due to whistleblowing activity.” Gibbons said Bitterman, who has been temporarily as- signed to Coast Guard Sector Columbia River in Warrenton, will challenge his removal. He may also seek protection un- der the Military Whistleblower Protection Act. “He absolutely is going to defend himself to the maxi- mum degree under the law,” Gibbons said. Lt. Donnie Brzuska of the &RDVW *XDUG¶V 3DFL¿F $UHD Command in Alameda, Calif., denied that Bitterman was re- moved in retaliation. “Commander Bitterman was not relieved as a result of reporting issues with the mate- rial condition aboard the Cut- ter Steadfast,” Brzuska said. “He was relieved due to a loss RI FRQ¿GHQFH LQ KLV DELOLW\ WR command. “I can assure you that the Coast Guard acted in the best interest of the crew of the Cut- ter Steadfast to ensure a posi- tive working environment.” The Steadfast, a 210-foot medium endurance cutter, was commissioned in 1968 and un- derwent major maintenance in the 1990s to extend its life for an additional 25 years. The Steadfast, under the temporary leadership of Cmdr. John Pruitt from the Coast Guard Motion Picture & Tele- YLVLRQ 2I¿FH LQ /RV $QJHOHV left Astoria on Saturday after- noon for its latest deployment. Gibbons said the Coast Guard cited low morale among the Steadfast crew as among the reasons for Bitterman’s remov- al. The attorney said, however, that morale was tied in part to the ship’s condition and high tempo deployment schedule. “Essentially, he inherited a ship that was in disrepair and beyond its service life,” he said. Pot: Increased demand for electricity could drive up rates Continued from Page 1A Power-hungry grow lights and ventilation systems are not just an environmental issue. Small, consumer-owned utilities across Oregon purchase electricity from the Bonne- ville Power Administration on a tiered system, which allows smaller utilities to purchase power at lower rates. Those rates could attract indoor grow- ers, but the increased demand for electricity might drive up rates for all utility customers. That prompted Ashland City Manger Dave Kanner to call for WKH VWDWH WR DGRSW HQHUJ\ HI¿- ciency standards for indoor ag- riculture. The Oregon Department of Energy tasked Diana Enright, program and policy adviser to agency director Michael Ka- plan, with working on the inter- section of pot and power. Wray said cannabis remains “a small part of (Enright’s) pol- icy portfolio,” but Enright at- tended a conference in Decem- ber on energy demand from the marijuana industry. She is also following efforts to address the issue in two other states with legal recreational pot, Colorado and Washington. In Colorado, Boulder Coun- Courtesy Portland General Electric Oregon Energy Department officials and electric utilities in the state are trying to address power issues produced by large, indoor marijuana ahead of recreational pot be- coming legal in July. ty enacted a cannabis carbon tax, Enright said. Oregon state government is not currently con- sidering anything similar. On July 1, adults aged 21 and older can posses up to four mar- ijuana plants. Growing those four plants indoors with light- ing, climate control, ventilation and equipment to boost carbon dioxide to improve plant growth typically uses as much electrici- ty as running 29 new refrigera- tors, according to one report by a California scientist. It is also equivalent to the total energy used by an average U.S. home. “So you can start to see where the energy consumption is huge,” Enright said. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council estimat- ed in September that energy demand from pot growers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana will nearly double over the next 20 years. The anticipated increase in energy demand from legal rec- reational marijuana also caught the attention of investor and consumer-owned utilities. At a hearing in February, Portland General Electric government af- fairs analyst Brendan McCarthy told lawmakers on the commit- tee working to implement legal pot that 85 percent of residential transformer problems it handles are caused by indoor marijuana grows. McCarthy said there is cur- rently a shortage of information about energy demand from pot grows. Utilities want the infor- mation so they can deliver the power cannabis growers need DQG SODQ IRU HQHUJ\ HI¿FLHQF\ measures. McCarthy said util- ities also need that information so they can keep employees and customers safe. “It doesn’t help us for some- one to say, ‘We’re gonna start a pottery business and we’re gonna have a lot of kilns running,’” Mc- Carthy said. “We’ve heard that.” Power-hungry pot gardens can rival the energy intensity of data centers, with lights as in- tense as in operating rooms and air circulating at 60-times the rate of ventilation in a modern home. The increase in energy us- age that accompanies growth of Bartlett: She earned awards for her work Continued from Page 1A with a question-and-answer section and comments from Emergency Communications Manager Jeff Rusiecki. Bartlett, who has worked seven years for Astoria Dis- patch, was one of the recog- nized dispatchers. “Summer is a true top per- former. She has been recog- nized as the State of Oregon Telecommunicator of the Year in 2012 along with receiving various other state, local, and department level awards,” Rusiecki wrote. “Summer al- ways goes the extra mile to make sure those in need get the required help. Summer is also our Law Enforcement Data Systems representative DQG VHUYHV DV D ¿HOG WUDLQLQJ RI¿FHU´ Bartlett earned the Ore- gon Telecommunicator of the Year award for handling an incident where a man had shot his mother in rural Asto- ria. In 2010, Barlett received the Oregon State Critical In- cident Award for her reaction that resulted in an arrest and a domestic violence victim’s rescue. While her work on those two calls earned awards, Bart- lett said, she treats all calls the same. To properly handle 911 calls, Bartlett is trained to be detached and as monotone as possible. “I detach during the phone call because I can’t do my job if I’m emotionally invested in an incident,” Bartlett said. “If we do emotionally invest too much in these calls, we are not providing service to them that LVEHQH¿FLDO´ Sometimes the detachment seeps into a dispatcher’s per- sonal life, Bartlett said. Over time, Bartlett has learned to turn off the detachment by spending time with family, going for walks and enjoying KREELHVVXFKDVKXQWLQJ¿VK- ing and reading. “I have to remember that I’m not at work and it’s OK to have emotions,” Bartlett said. “Because when someone tells me that they just shot some- one, I can’t say ‘Oh, really?’ I can’t engage them in that as I would another person on the street.” To become a dispatch- er, Bartlett, who studied law enforcement at Western Or- egon University, completed a two-week course, three- day training session and six months training with Astoria Dispatch. Now, seven years into her career, Bartlett still enjoys the adrenaline rush of not knowing who is on the other line. “I like multitasking. I like going fast. I enjoy a really busy period and afterward looking back and knowing I did well,” Bartlett said. “I like the not knowing. I like that every call is different.” the marijuana industry has been documented when states legal- ized medical pot. After California legalized medical marijuana in 1996, per capita residential electricity us- age increased by 50 percent in Humboldt County, according to research by Evan Mills, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berke- ley National Laboratory in Cal- ifornia, published in the journal Energy Policy in 2012. Enright said Mills’ research LV VWLOO WKH ³PRVW GH¿QLWLYH work” on energy consumption by pot growers. Mills estimated at the time that indoor cannabis cultivation and transport of the product was responsible for 1 percent of na- tional energy consumption or $6 billion each year. The study also looked into the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from pot gardens. “One average kilogram of ¿QDOSURGXFWLVDVVRFLDWHGZLWK 4,600 kg of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, or that of 3 million average U.S. cars when aggregated across all national production,” Mills wrote. Criminalization of marijua- na was only part of the reason growers favored indoor gardens; the environmental control has also allowed them to increase yields and control pests and oth- er issues. Mills wrote that indoor marijuana growers could reduce the energy intensity of their op- erations by as much as 75 per- cent, if they adopt commercially available technologies such as those used by indoor agricultur- al greenhouse operators. TKLV VWRU\ ¿UVW DSSHDUHG LQ WKH OUHJRQ &DSLWDO IQVLGHU QHZVOHWWHU TR VXEVFULEH, JR WR RUHJRQFDSLWDOLQVLGHUFRP P ra y er a nd H ea ling E X PL O RE TH E CO N N E CTIO N S! A L ecture w i th M a rk Sw i nney I n ter n a tio n a l spea k er , M a r k Sw in n ey, is a pr a c titio n er a n d tea c h er o f C h r istia n Sc ien c e h ea lin g a n d a m em b er o f th e C h r istia n Sc ien c e B o a r d o f L ec tur esh ip. W ha t is it tha t co nnects pra yer w ith hea ling? Sa tu rd a y • M a y 2 , 2 0 15 • 2 P M B o b C hi sho l m Co m m u n i ty C en ter 12 2 5 Ave A i n Sea si d e ( Behind Sa few a y betw een Ave A a nd Ave B ) & Present 102.3 fm the Classic Rock Station Quarterflash Friday, May 22 nd tic ke ts at the Liberty Theater t.com at Astoria es th e sw bo x t ke of fic e d an Tic