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2A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2015 6tDtH VHt to VurYHy SoVViElH GHYHloSDElH PinHrDl GHSoVitV By +,//ARY BORR8D Capital Bureau It could get easier for min- ing companies to ¿ nd promising sites in s outhern and e astern Or- egon, thanks to a new project the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries plans to start soon. The agency will spend the next year evaluating which min- eral deposits in s outhern and e astern Oregon counties would be most “economically devel- opable,” under legislation that state lawmakers passed earlier this year. State mineral regu- lators will also include a list of all existing mineral inventories in the study, evaluate the cost to post mineral records online and recommend potential future mineral assessments. House Bill 3089 set aside $25,000 from the state general fund for the department to com- plete the study. Richard Riggs, assistant di- rector for the agency’s mineral land regulation and reclamation program, said the goal is to “do a mineral resources assessment in Courtesy of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Indus- tries will spend the next year studying the locations and economic viability of mineral deposits in eastern and southern Oregon, under a bill the Legislature passed ear- lier this year. One of the state’s existing gold mines is the Twin Lake Ranch site operated by Western Mine Develop- ment in Baker County. RHgulDtHV Pining DnG Grilling those areas for things that could actually create jobs.” Although the bill called for the agency to estimate the cost to post more records online, Riggs said employees might start that work as part of the study project. The Department of Geology and Mineral Industries regulates all mining and drilling in Oregon above the ordinary high-water line, and also researches land- slides and other natural hazards. ACCUWEATHER ® FORECAST FOR ASTORIA Astoria 5-Day Forecast Tonight Mainly clear 57° Tuesday The Dalles 64/90 Astoria 57/71 Portland 59/82 Corvallis 55/86 Eugene 54/88 Pendleton 66/92 Salem 56/86 Albany 56/86 Wednesday Burns 49/88 Medford 65/94 Partly sunny; breezy in the afternoon 71° Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2015 71° Thursday 54° Friday Clouds breaking at times for some sunshine Mostly sunny and beautiful 55° 74° 56° Almanac Sun and Moon Astoria through Sunday. Temperatures High ........................................... 74° Low ............................................ 55° Normal high ............................... 68° Normal low ................................. 54° Precipitation Yesterday ................................ 0.00" Month to date .......................... 0.00" Normal month to date ............. 0.05" Year to date ........................... 27.78" Normal year to date .............. 36.99" Sunset tonight .................. 8:43 p.m. Sunrise Tuesday .............. 6:00 a.m. Moonrise today ............... 10:35 p.m. Moonset today ............... 10:08 a.m. Regional Cities Today Hi Lo W 86 50 t 84 51 t 70 58 pc 90 54 pc 66 58 pc 86 51 pc 95 65 pc 65 53 pc 66 55 pc City Baker City Bend Brookings Eugene Ilwaco Klamath Falls Medford Newport North Bend Today Hi Lo W 92 71 pc 88 72 pc 82 60 s 86 58 t 83 66 pc 83 60 pc 96 73 t 72 53 pc 90 77 pc 86 62 pc 87 70 pc 106 79 s 84 66 pc 96 76 s 89 77 c 95 73 pc 93 78 pc 90 75 s 90 70 pc 92 75 pc 91 73 pc 79 64 t 71 61 pc 82 59 pc 95 77 pc Last Aug 6 New First Aug 14 Full Aug 22 Aug 29 Under the Sky Tues. Hi Lo W 88 50 t 85 46 t 71 57 pc 88 51 pc 66 58 pc 85 51 pc 94 63 pc 65 51 pc 68 54 pc National Cities City Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks Honolulu Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Memphis Miami Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle Washington, DC Klamath Falls 51/85 Partly sunny 56° 72° Ontario 60/95 Bend 51/85 City Olympia Pendleton Portland Roseburg Salem Seaside Spokane Vancouver Yakima Today Hi Lo W 82 53 pc 92 66 pc 87 59 pc 92 61 pc 89 56 pc 68 58 pc 95 66 c 86 58 pc 96 59 pc Tues. Hi Lo W 79 52 pc 92 61 pc 82 57 pc 91 59 pc 86 53 pc 68 58 pc 88 59 pc 81 56 pc 94 56 pc Tonight's Sky: Spiral galaxy known as M51 is just below the star that marks the Big Dipper's handle. Source: Jim Todd, OMSI Tomorrow’s Tides Astoria / Port Docks Time High 4:42 a.m. 8.2 ft. 5:24 p.m. 8.6 ft. Time 11:03 a.m. 11:44 p.m. Low -0.6 ft. 0.4 ft. Tomorrow’s National Weather Tues. Hi Lo W 95 75 s 87 68 c 83 62 pc 89 57 t 82 68 pc 81 59 pc 99 75 s 78 58 pc 90 78 pc 84 64 pc 84 67 t 106 80 s 86 65 pc 98 78 pc 90 78 pc 95 73 pc 91 77 pc 90 71 pc 92 72 t 90 70 pc 88 73 t 90 68 pc 72 60 pc 79 59 pc 92 73 pc Fronts Cold Warm Stationary Showers T-Storms Rain Flurries Snow Ice -10s -0s 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. Forecast high/low temperatures are given for selected cities. Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. Ha ve you w a ited u n til th e en d of th e yea r to u tilize you r in su ra n ce b en efits? Klemp Family Dentistry now offers C EREC b y Siro na ceram ic d ental resto ratio ns. Y o u r new cro w ns can b e co m p leted in a sin gle a ppoin tm en t! Typical restorations require uncomfortable temporaries and impression trays, and returning for a secondary appointment for fillings, veneers or full crowns. CEREC restorations are all color matched, metal free and highly durable. With 30 years of research and development backing this process, 28 million restorations placed worldwide and a success rate of 95%, you can rest assured that you’ve made the right decision to trust the CEREC system with your dental restoration needs. A lower assumed rate of re- turn on investments will result in higher future contributions by state and local governments to Oregon’s public-pension system and slightly smaller payments to workers hired before 1996 who retire after Dec. 1. The decision Friday by the Public Employees Retirement System board also starts the process by its actuarial ¿ rm to calculate what those employer contribution rates will be in the 2017-19 budget cycle. Prelimi- nary numbers, known as “advi- sory rates,” will be released later this year. The PERS board will approve the actual rates in fall 2016. Several factors are involved in the calculations, but the as- sumed rate of return is key. The board settled on an as- sumed rate of return of 7.5 per- cent, down a notch from the 7.75 percent rate of the past two years. For the 24 years before then, the rate was 8 percent. Oregon has had an assumed rate since the 1970s, when it began investing in what is now a retirement fund of almost $71 billion as of June . Court ruling inÀ uHnFHV rDtHV Government employers al- ready face higher contribution rates as a result of an April de- cision by the Oregon Supreme Court, which ruled that law- makers could not pare cost-of- living increases to retirees retro- actively. The Legislature did so in 2013 as part of an attempt to reduce the system’s future liabil- ity over the next 20 to 30 years. Milliman, the Seattle actu- OREGON Sunday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 5-9-1-2 4 p.m.: 1-9-4-2 7 p.m.: 2-9-8-2 10 p.m.: 4-2-6-2 Saturday’s Megabucks: 4-13-29- 35-38-48 Estimated jackpot: $5.4 million. Saturday’s Powerball: 7-13-24-49- 57, Powerball: 15 Estimated jackpot: $110 million. Saturday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 8-3-8-4 4 p.m.: 8-0-9-3 1006 West Marine Drive, Astoria (503) 468-0116 www.klempfamilydentistry.com arial ¿ rm contracted by PERS, projects the average rate in- crease for school districts at 5.3 percentage points of total payroll for workers hired before August 2003; for all other gov- ernments, 3.8 percentage points, and for coverage of the post-Au- gust 2003 workers, one-ten th of a percentage point. The projected increases will apply in the next budget cycle. Rates for the current two-year cycle, which began in July , were set in fall 2014 before the Supreme Court heard legal chal- lenges to the 2013 changes. With the approval of a low- er assumed rate of return, the PERS board is likely to “collar” contribution rates so that overall increases are spread over sever- al budget cycles, instead of all at once. ,nYHVtPHnt HDrningV FontriEutionV 7.75 percent to 7.5 percent in 2012. According to a recent survey by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, about a third of the 126 statewide retirement systems it surveyed still retain an 8 percent rate. But since the ¿ nancial-markets crash in 2008, the mean has dropped to 7.68 percent, and the median — the point at which half the sys- tems are above and half below — is equal to Oregon’s former rate at 7.75 percent. The assumed rate also is used to credit annual earnings of pub- lic employees hired before Jan. 1, 1996, otherwise known as Tier 1. If employees in that group retire by Dec. 1 of this year, the 7.75 percent rate will still apply. Those who retire afterward will be sub- ject to the 7.5 percent rate, which takes effect on Jan. 1. µ-uVt not rigKt¶ About 73 cents of every dol- lar Oregon pays out in public pensions comes from invest- ment earnings. Most of the rest comes from contributions by the 925 employer members of PERS, which covers about 95 percent of Oregon’s public em- ployees. There are roughly 130,000 retirees. The change in the assumed rate was not unexpected, al- though the board chose the high- est of three scenarios. Milliman had projected scenarios of 6.99 percent, 7.32 percent and 7.45 percent. Mil- liman’s was the lowest; Callan, the San Francisco ¿ rm that ad- vises the Oregon Investment Council, was the highest. California’s pension system reduced its assumed rate from Under an example offered by the PERS staff, someone who re- tires on March 1, 2016 — after the lower rate takes effect — will earn the same pension bene¿ t as someone who retires by Dec. 1 of this year. Before Friday’s meeting, two employees ¿ led comments urging the board not to change the current rate. “Having to work six extra months just to get to where you would have been before is just not right,” said Tammy Noeske of Salem. “Oregonians who work in government are weary of all the recent changes that keep mov- ing the goal line for retirement,” said Doug Crumme of Corvallis. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Me- dia Group and Pamplin Media Group. 7 p.m.: 1-9-6-3 10 p.m.: 1-6-9-3 Friday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 5-3-1-3 4 p.m.: 4-8-8-7 7 p.m.: 7-5-8-7 10 p.m.: 9-3-5-4 WASHINGTON Sunday’s Daily Game: 9-9-9 Sunday’s Keno: 07-08-09-25-30- 35-37-41-42-46-49-51-53-61-64-68- 70-71-73-76 Sunday’s Match 4: 14-18-19-23 Saturday’s Daily Game: 5-3-8 Saturday’s Hit 5: 06-18-26-29-32 Estimated jackpot: $100,000 Saturday’s Keno: 08-12-18-23-25- 28-34-36-49-52-57-60-64-66-71-72- 73-74-75-76 Saturday’s Lotto: 03-12-19-22-44- 48 Estimated jackpot: $1.6 million Saturday’s Match 4: 01-13-17-20 Friday’s Daily Game: 1-0-1 Friday’s Keno: 06-08-21-22-26-27- 28-29-37-41-43-44-45-47-50-53-59- 72-76-78 Friday’s Match 4: 01-06-20-24 Friday’s Mega Millions: 8-32-33- 40-46, Mega Ball: 10 6 p.m., 34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business. tDry 6HZHr DiVtriFt BoDrG 6 p.m., 34583 U.S. Highway 101 Business. 6HDViGH PlDnning CoP PiVVion 7 p.m., City Hall Council Chambers, 989 Broadway, Seaside. CDnnon BHDFK City CounFil 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E. Gower St., Cannon Beach. PuEliF PHHtingV MONDAY AVtoriD City CounFil 5:30 p.m., work session, 7 p.m., regular meeting, City Hall, 1095 Duane St. .nDSSD 6FKool BoDrG 5:30 p.m., work session, Knappa High School library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30. YoungV RiYHr /HZiV ClDrN WDtHr DiVtriFt BoDrG The Daily Astorian Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503- 325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103- 0210 www.dailyastorian.com MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KLEMP F A MILY D ENTISTRY AGGitionDl FKorHV Ali Ryan, a spokeswoman for the agency, wrote in an email that the agency has not yet set a timeline for the project, but em- ployees must present the results to interim legislative commit- tees by Sept. 15, 2016. State Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, said he was initially concerned whether the Depart- ment of Geology and Mineral Industries could handle the project because as a member of the Joint Committee On Ways and Means Sub-Com- mittee On Natural Resources, he heard about “the various challenges they had budget wise, different shortfalls they were having, and the expendi- ture out of accounts that — as it turns out — they had to be repaid.” The agency had to get help from accounting employees at other state agencies to straighten out its ¿ nances earlier this year. When those employees discov- ered a revenue shortfall, the geology department asked for and received $800,000 from the state Legislature to pay its bills through June . “On the one hand we’re cut- ting back, we’re trying to make it more ef¿ cient,” Hansell said of the agency’s budget and staff. “On the other hand, we’re giv- ing them additional chores to do and costing additional money to do it.” In the end, however, Hansell decided to support House Bill 3089. “I was assured by the depart- ment and also by some of the customers that would use this that this project would actually help them to become more ef- ¿ cient and help streamline their expenditures in some ways they would not without it,” Hansell said. This stor\ ¿ rst appeared in the Oregon Capital Insider newsletter. To subscribe, go to oregoncapitalinsider.com. /ottHriHV Established July 1, 1873 (USPS 035-000) The restorations look and feel natural, which will give you the confidence to SHOW YOUR SMILE. a lot of money to go into the ¿ eld and conduct in-depth stud- ies, but for the information we do have we can dedicate some staff time to make sure that’s as organized as possible for people to use and access,” Riggs said. Lower returns mean higher PERS contributions By PETER WONG Capital Bureau Oregon Weather Shown is tomorrow’s weather. Temperatures are tonight’s lows and tomorrow’s highs Riggs said the state created the department in the 1930s to put people to work, so House Bill 3089 ties into the agency’s orig- inal mission. “There’s gold mines all over Southern Oregon that operat- ed up to World War II,” Riggs said. “I would assume there’s still gold in those mines ... They were shut down because of the war.” The agency has an extensive collection of paper records on mineral deposits around Ore- gon, from talc and industrial metals to precious metals, but Riggs — who started working for the agency in February — said he did not know what por- tion of those have been posted online. By moving more of the records to the agency’s website, “we can have a single point for people to access, it will make it a lot easier for them,” Riggs said. Lawmakers originally want- ed the d epartment to complete a full survey with ¿ eld work, but it would have cost more than the Legislature was willing to pay this year, Riggs said. “Unfortunately $25,000 isn’t The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper. T8E6DAY Port oI AVtoriD 5 p.m., workshop, old Port of¿ ces, 422 Gateway Ave. AVtoriD 6FKool BoDrG rH trHDt 5:30 p.m., CMH Field, 1800 Williamsport Road. 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