Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2015)
Fish, family and the ties that bind The reality of America’s history COAST WEEKEND OPINION • 6A 143rd YEAR, No. 32 THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2015 ONE DOLLAR Somers resigns as Clatsop County manager Heads east to Maryland at end of September By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian Scott Somers, Clatsop County manager since July 2012, resigned Wednesday to accept a job offer in Maryland. He will become the city manager of College Park, Md., a Washington, D.C., suburb and home to the Uni- versity of Maryland. His last day with the county will be on or before Sept. 30. “The last three years that I have worked for Clatsop County have been the most challenging and re- warding period of my career,” Somers said in a statement. “The county commissioners and excep- tional staff at the county have taught me a great deal; what’s more, I’ve come to regard those I’ve worked most closely with as friends and they will be missed.” Somers previously served as city manager of Reedsport, as well as with municipalities in Minnesota, before being hired in Clatsop Coun- ty. Candidates had to apply for the position in College Park, a city of 30,000, by May 31, according to the Montgomery County Sentinel newspaper. Somers will replace City Manager Joe Nagro, who retired after 25 years of service with Col- lege Park, including as city manager since 2005. During his tenure, Somers helped launch Clatsop Vision 2030 To- gether, a visioning project to guide long-range planning by the Board of Commissioners and departments, and gained state approval for a local enterprise zone and designation of the North Coast Business Park as a UHJLRQDOO\VLJQL¿FDQWLQGXVWULDODUHD See SOMERS, Page 7A Killing 6KHULII¶VRI¿FHWRPRYHWR:DUUHQWRQ the birds Audubon: Study that found culling cormorants to have no impact ignored By GOSIA WOZNIACKA $VVRFLDWHG3UHVV Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin shows a radio room that had to be converted into a storage room because of the lack of space in the sheriff’s office. Relocation could mean more beds in the county jail By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian H aving outgrown its location below the county jail in Astoria, the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office is making plans to relocate. The move could open up space in the jail for 30 extra beds. The estimated $1 million project will re- locate the entire sheriff’s office into its pa- role and probation building in Warrenton. Construction will take six to nine months to remodel the existing 9,500-square-foot building and build a new 1,200-square-foot modular building for housing evidence. Sheriff Tom Bergin said the move is much needed. Boxes and files are stacked up in multiple rooms throughout the sheriff’s of- fice, including in an old emergency dispatch center. Evidence is kept in a small locker, and the rest is stored upstairs in the old jail, now the Oregon Film Museum. About 20 deputies often share the same room to review cases and sort evidence. See OFFICE, Page 10A Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin walks into the old Clatsop County Jail, the location of the Oregon Film Museum. Because of confined space in the current sheriff’s office, some evidence is stored in the old jail. PORTLAND — Conservation groups opposed to the ongoing kill- ing of cormorants on the Columbia River to protect steelhead and salm- on say they have documents showing DIHGHUDODJHQF\LJQRUHGD¿QGLQJE\ its own biologists that the measure ZRXOGQRWKHOSWKH¿VK The Audubon Society of Portland and several other groups made the documents public Wednesday. They were obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under a court order. The groups had challenged the killing in a federal lawsuit. In May, a judge declined to block the plan to shoot the cormorants, but the lawsuit is ongoing. One of the newly disclosed docu- ments is an analysis by U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists concluding that killing double-crested cormorants ZRXOGQRWEHQH¿W6QDNH5LYHUVWHHO- head — which are most affected by FRUPRUDQWSUHGDWLRQ²EHFDXVH¿VK not eaten by the birds would be eaten by other predators. “As a consequence, efforts to re- duce cormorant predation on steel- head are expected to have no effect on Snake River steelhead population productivity or adult abundance,” the analysis says. It adds that killing cormorants is “similarly unlikely to EHQH¿W WKH SURGXFWLYLW\ RI RWKHU salmonid populations.” The second document, a timeline written by Fish and Wildlife biol- ogists, shows multiple staff at the agency were aware of the analysis and its conclusion. It also shows the biologists were concerned that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did QRWDGGUHVVWKHLU¿QGLQJV Despite the analysis, earlier this year U.S. Fish and Wildlife autho- rized the Corps to kill about 11,000 cormorants — or 5,600 breeding pairs — on East Sand Island at the mouth of the Columbia between Or- egon and Washington. The uninhab- ited island is North America’s big- gest cormorant nesting colony. The agency also authorized the Corps to oil 26,000 nests to prevent the eggs inside them from hatching. See CORMORANTS, Page 10A Former trooper gets probation for child porn By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian The former Oregon State Police trooper who pleaded guilty in May to child pornography charges was sentenced Wednesday in Clatsop County Circuit Court. David Charles Corkett, 54, was sentenced to two years probation that includes registering as a sex offender, completing a sex offender evaluation and recommended treat- ment. He already began the sex offender evaluation, according to his defense lawyer Lisa Maxfield. In addition, the sentence includes Corkett forfeiting his Oregon De- partment of Public Safety Standards and Training license. He will not be allowed to work in law enforcement in Oregon. Corkett, who served child abuse, and the mate- as a senior trooper in the rial could only be lewd if Astoria Area Command the person possessing it is Office until his resigna- sexually aroused. tion in January 2013, was She specifically pointed arrested in April 2014 on to images from a Swedish 29 charges of second-de- art film that won Swe- gree encouraging child sex den’s most prestigious film abuse, a class C felony. prize, the Guldbagge, and As part of a plea agree- was Sweden’s official se- ment, he pleaded guilty to lection for the 54th Acade- David Charles two counts of third-de- my Awards in 1982. Other Corkett gree encouraging child sex images were from nudist abuse, a lesser misdemeanor charge. publications. Corkett, who moved to Southern In court Wednesday, Maxfield California but is staying in Portland said she has never seen images like to complete treatment, appeared in that be criminally charged. One rea- court Wednesday. He declined to son she believed Corkett was able to speak during the hearing. plead to a lesser charge was because Maxfield attempted multiple investigators could not confirm if times to dismiss the case, claiming the children in the images were un- the child pornography material was der 18. a form of freedom of expression, not Judge Paula Brownhill agreed with Maxfield that the images were not as extreme as other cases, but were still illegal in Oregon. “This is a different kind of case than what we generally see with child pornography,” Brownhill told Corkett. “You have already given up quite a bit before you are even sen- tenced. You are no longer working as a state police officer, and I would imagine there are personal ramifica- tions from that.” However, the judge reminded Corkett that child pornography is not a victimless crime. Corkett was wanted on the felo- ny charges following an internation- al child exploitation investigation, “Operation Spade,” conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “It seems to me the resolution is appropriate in this case,” Brownhill said.
