10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015
FEMA: Warrenton’s 80-year-old levees have never been breached
Continued from Page 1A
But with Johnson’s SB 306,
which was signed into law by Gov.
Kate Brown this month, the city may
¿nally see a Sath to certi¿cation.
State responsibility
7he bill Srovides state Iunding
Ior levee SroMects that imSrove, e[-
Sand or reSair inIrastructure systems
essential Ior the use or develoSment
oI Iarm, industrial or commercial
land.
³7he state has taNen a ¿rst steS
by Sroviding million,´ Johnson,
'-ScaSSoose, said. ³7his is going
to be an ongoing state resSonsibility,
and , thinN to have the state steS uS in
the 0 session is the beginning oI a
long state engagement oI the issues.´
Though the Warrenton City Com-
mission still needs to discuss the
matter, KuMala said the city may use
the new Iunding oSSortunities to
hire a Srivate consultant to certiIy
the levees and do minor reSairs and
imSrovements. $ geotech consultant
alone could cost the city at least
million, he estimated.
,n )ebruary, KuMala testi¿ed in Iavor
oI the state +ouse version oI the bill
beIore the +ouse Committee on 5ural
Communities, Land Use and Water.
³The maS has changed, but the
risk hasn’t changed, and the whole
idea is that you’re suSSosed to be
measuring risk — that’s what insur-
ance comSanies are suSSosed to be
based on,´ he said in an interview.
³There isn’t daily Àooding Irom the
Columbia 5iver.´
Measuring risk
By undertaking the certiIication
Srocess, Warrenton would demon-
strate the 80-year-old levees, which
have never been breached, Iunction
SroSerly.
It would also address another
Sressing Sroblem )(0$’s maS oI
Warrenton that e[tends the Ilood
Slain inland to encomSass roughly
Sercent oI the city.
The maS — drawn on the as-
sumStion that the levees aren’t
there, let alone Srotecting anything
— has Iorced SroSerty owners
to Say Ior Ilood insurance that, iI
the levees were recognized, they
would Srobably not need. $nd it
has Iorced develoSers to build at
elevations to 6 Ieet higher than
they would otherwise have to.
³We’re trying to Srevent any
Iurther damage to the city by trying
to work through )(0$ accredita-
tion, and hoSeIully revision oI the
maSs, so that we can move on Irom
this, because it’s very detrimental to
Sercent oI the city,´ KuMala said.
Johnson in their corner
KuMala aSSlauds Johnson Ior
bringing statewide awareness to
the Slight oI coastal communities.
³Sen. Johnson really craIted
this with not Must Warrenton, but
with Tillamook County, Colum-
bia County and ClatsoS County
in mind,´ KuMala said. ³This gives
us a mechanism where the state
would be in the Iight with us to
work through the bureaucracy oI
)(0$.´
Hole: $storia received a 00,000 brown¿elds Silot grant
Continued from Page 1A
dry cleaning. The city acquired the
land in 003 to helS revitalize down-
town and demolished the old suSer-
market in 00. The suSermarket’s
Ioundation — a slab built above a
basement — collaSsed aIter heavy
rains in 2010, leaving the hole.
³We’re looking Ior a green clean-
uS,´ said 5ebecca Wells-$lbers,
the northwest region brown¿elds
coordinator Ior the 'eSartment oI
(nvironmental 4uality. ³$nd green
being ¿nancially green, but also en-
vironmentally green.´
The new tests could helS decide
how much oI the soil gets hauled to a
sSecial-SurSose land¿ll in +illsboro
and how much can be disSosed oI
closer to home.
$storia received a 00,000
brown¿elds Silot grant Irom the U.S.
(nvironmental 3rotection $gency
in 2012, with halI oI the money to
assess contamination and the other
halI Ior cleanuS. $ consulting ¿rm,
$mec )oster Wheeler, was hired to
helS guide the SroMect.
With the assessment nearly com-
Slete, the city worries that e[Sensive
hauling costs to +illsboro or another
Iar-Àung land¿ll could saS the clean-
uS money.
The stockSiled soil, much oI which
is covered by tarSs, is not believed to
be heavily contaminated. Soil and an
ash-like material in a hollow sSace
under the Sarking lot in the northeast
corner could be more Sroblematic.
³The samSling ne[t week is
to helS de¿ne where this material
can go, and where it needs to go,´
Wells-$lbers said.
‘We’re looking
for a green
cleanup. And
green being
financially
green, but also
environmentally
green.’
Rebecca Wells-Albers
Northwest region brownfields
coordinator for the Department
of Environmental Quality
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The block has been home to a printing press, an auto repair shop, dry cleaners, and most recently, a Safe-
way store, before the city acquired the property.
Bamboo screens
City staII will uSdate the City
Council 0onday night on the as-
sessment and cleanuS oI the Iormer
SaIeway lot. The city hoSes to re-
move soil aIter Labor 'ay and stay
on track to get a clean bill oI health
Irom the state — and the (3$ —
to redeveloS the rest oI +eritage
Square.
0any residents, along with
some on the council, have won-
dered about the timeline Ior Iilling
the Sit or have used the hole as a
cautionary e[amSle when discuss-
ing the Sotential demolition or
vacancy oI other buildings down-
town, such as the old WaldorI +o-
tel and the $storia 3ublic Library.
Over the years, the city has
looked at several oStions Ior the
'uane Street SroSerty near City
+all, Irom an urban camSus Ior
ClatsoS Community College to a
Sublic Slaza to an amShitheater.
$ mi[ed-use library and housing
idea was Iloated a decade ago and
resurrected this year aIter Sreser-
vationists Iought the demolition
oI the WaldorI Ior an e[Sanded
library.
The Garden oI Surging Waves
was the Iirst Siece oI redeveloS-
ment. The Sarking lot along 12th
Street is used by the SoSular $s-
toria Sunday 0arket, while the
$merican Legion is the dominant
Ii[ture along ([change Street.
City Councilor Cindy 3rice
said downtown merchants and
other SroSerty owners have
done so much to make down-
town more attractive, “and then
there’s this hole. This horrible
hole that seems to get worse every
year.´
3rice and others have come uS
with a creative method to temSo-
rarily make the Iormer SaIeway
lot less oI an eyesore. The council-
or has won city aSSroval to Sut uS
bamboo screens along the chain-
link Iencing that surrounds the
hole.
3rice hoSes the bamboo is in
Slace in time Ior the $storia 5e-
gatta in $ugust.
“It will de¿nitely screen it,´ she
said. “You will not be able to see into
the hole unless you walk uS to it and
Sut your eyeballs uS to it.´
$uburn, Wash., man died
July 4 in Long Beach
Death deemed
susSicious but
still not oI¿cially
a homicide
By KATIE WILSON
EO Media Group
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
A shattered window is shown from the outside of Clatsop County Jail. Kevin Michael
Burnham and Anthony Craig Osborne attempted to escape from Clatsop County Jail
around 1 a.m. Sunday by swinging a shower drain grate tied to a bedsheet against the
window.
Escape: Inmates took about
20 swings against the window
Continued from Page 1A
be removed Irom the cellblock and held in
a library sSace, while maintenance crews
temSorarily Ii[ed the broken window
shortly aIter 2 a.m. Sunday.
Burnham and Osborne took about 20
swings against the window. $ couSle oI more
swings and they could have broken through
the window, which is large enough Ior them
to get through.
The estimated damage could cost between
,000 and ,000 to ¿[, according to the Mail.
“They were actually able to shatter the
window,´ Bergin said. “It was de¿nitely
weakened enough it was getting close.´
(scaSe attemSts are rare at the Mail, Bergin
said. The last one he remembers is beIore his
time as sheriII, when an inmate MumSed Irom
the rooI oI a recreation area, and was caught
a day later.
Burnham and Osborne are scheduled to
aSSear in ClatsoS County Circuit Court ne[t
week Ior arraignment on the new charges.
$rraignment delayed in murder-Ior-hire case
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
C$T+L$0(T, Wash. —
$ Mudge has SostSoned until
ne[t week the arraignment
hearing Ior an $ltoona man
who is susSected oI drug
manuIacturing and dealing
and consSiracy to commit
murder.
Sam F. Valdez, 63,
was arrested at his 3illar
5ock 5oad home on July
3 Iollowing an undercov-
er investigation by the
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum 1ar-
cotics Task Force.
The investigation and
subsequent raid on Val-
dez’s SroSerty revealed
that Valdez was Slotting
with a “hit-man´ who
was actually a Solice in-
Iormant to murder his
e[-wiIe, e[-steS children,
and two local Mudges. The
Task Force also discovered
large quantities oI alleged
“honey oil´ — mariMuana
concentrate — which Val-
dez was allegedly Sroduc-
ing and selling.
Valdez was scheduled
Ior an arraignment hearing
July 14. +owever, he still
has not been arraigned, be-
cause he does not have le-
gal reSresentation yet.
County
Wahkiakum
3rosecutor Dan Bigelow
said that Shelton attorney
Bruce Finlay aSSeared in
Wahkiakum County Su-
Serior Court by teleShone
July 14, and said he Slanned
to Iormally register as Val-
dez’s attorney.
Valdez is now scheduled
to be arraigned at 8 a.m. on
0onday. In the meantime,
he is being held in the Wah-
kiakum County Jail on 10
million bail.
LO1G B($C+, Wash.
— The 3aciIic County
SheriII’s OIIice has re-
leased the name oI the man
who died “under susSicious
circumstances´ over the
Fourth oI July weekend in
Long Beach.
JeIIery Beach, 36, oI
$uburn, was reSortedly
Sartying with a grouS oI
SeoSle on the beach near
120th 3lace, down Irom the
Sunrise 3aciIic +oliday 5V
3ark in Long Beach July
3. The Solice were called
there to resSond to an as-
sault around 10 S.m. and
Iound Beach unconscious
aIter he’d aSSarently wan-
dered into the dunes Iol-
lowing a Iight or assault.
Beach was taken to Ocean
Beach +osSital then trans-
Sorted by helicoSter to
3ortland where he was Sro-
nounced dead.
Oregon news channel
Fo[ 12 reSorted that the
death is considered a “ho-
micide investigation,´ and
that the $uburn man died
due to a “sSinal cord break
caused by a blow to the
head.´
But 3at 0atlock, chieI
criminal deSuty with the
3aciIic County SheriII’s OI-
Iice, says he does not have
enough inIormation to say
one way or the other. +e has
yet to see an autoSsy reSort,
and there are no susSects,
yet.
The scene July 3 was
chaotic — SeoSle drinking
and Sartying — and inves-
tigators are working hard to
Sut the Sieces together, he
said.
“The geograShics ... the
sheer number oI SeoSle that
may have been witnesses to
this or may have been in-
volved ... the levels oI in-
to[ication,´ 0atlock said.
The list oI SeoSle in-
vestigators need to talk to
is long, and most oI them
live out oI town, in Clark
County and 3ierce County.
“We have a lot oI names
to sort through,´ 0atlock
said.
+e hoSes to have an
autoSsy reSort in the ne[t
week. Until then, Beach’s
death is considered susSi-
cious, not a homicide.
“I’m not calling it any-
thing,´ 0atlock said. “I’m
calling it a susSicious
death investigation.´
Timber harvest tops 4 billion board feet
The Associated Press
3O5TL$1' — Oregon’s
timber harvest decreased
slightly last year, ending
a Iour-year run oI gains
that began aIter the Great
5ecession, the state 'e-
Sartment oI )orestry said
Wednesday.
The 4.13 billion board
Ieet harvested in 2014 reS-
resents a 1. Sercent de-
cline Irom the year beIore.
It was, however, the second
consecutive year oI more
than 4 billion board Ieet, a
total Oregon had not seen
since 2006.
The state hit a recession
low oI 2. billion board
Ieet in 200. It takes 10,000
board Ieet to build a roughly
1,800-square-Ioot house.
The )orestry 'eSartment
said in its annual harvest re-
Sort it doesn’t e[Sect a big
change in 2015. Brandon
Kaetzel, a toS economist at
the deSartment, said several
issues will likely keeS the
harvest Irom rising, includ-
ing reduced Sort access, a
challenging e[Sort market
and housing starts not reach-
ing the levels some e[Sect-
ed.
Si[ty Sercent oI Oregon’s
Iorest land is Iederal. Indus-
trial and Iamily owned lands
comSrise another 34 Ser-
cent and the rest is divided
between entities such as the
state, counties and tribes.
3ercentage-wise,
the
largest harvest sSikes in
2014 were on U.S. Bureau
oI Land 0anagement lands
west oI the Cascades, boost-
ed by salvage logging Irom
the 'ouglas ComSle[ Iire,
and on U.S. Forest Service
lands east oI the Cascades.
The Srivate industry har-
vest declined 5 Sercent, the
reSort states, and the harvest
on 1ative $merican Iorest-
land droSSed 14 Sercent —
Irom 66 million board Ieet
to 5 million board Ieet.
Douglas County, in the
southwestern Sart oI the
state, reSlaced neighboring
Lane County as the state’s
toS Sroducer in timber vol-
ume. Both toSSed more than
600 million board Ieet.
Klamath County harvest-
ed the most timber east oI
the Cascade 5ange, with
103 million board Ieet.
Though Oregon’s har-
vest has increased since the
recession, it’s Iar less than
what it was beIore environ-
mental issues such as the
sSotted owl SromSted sharS
cutbacks in logging on Ied-
eral lands
Oregon’s largest timber
harvest was .4 billion
board Ieet in 12. It has
not e[ceeded 5 billion since
13.