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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2015
Daily Astorian File
The Army Corps of Engineers planned to kill half the
double-crested cormorants nesting on Sand Island
near the mouth of the Columbia River because the
birds eat too many young salmon and steehead.
Cormorants: Birds
eat 12 million juvenile
salmon a year
Continued from Page 1A
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin shows the case file room in the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office.
2f¿ Fe: About 3,500 people are booked
and released in the county each year
Continued from Page 1A
“We are just completely
growing out of this space,”
Bergin said.
Jail beds
With the move comes
the potential for using the
current space for the county
jail.
In 2012, a proposal to
expand the jail was rejected
by voters. The $14 million
proposal would have added
100 beds to the overcrowd-
ed 60-bed jail.
Four studies over the
past several years have
concluded the community
needs a jail with about 180
beds, three times the current
size, Bergin said.
Each year, about 3,500
people are booked and re-
leased in the county.
The jail rents about 10
beds from Tillamook Coun-
ty to help with the over-
crowding.
Clearing the space below
the jail is the first step in
potentially adding up to 30
beds. The addition would
allow the county to possi-
bly cancel its contract with
Tillamook, Bergin said, sav-
ing the community at least
$200,000 per year.
No specific plans have
been set for a jail expan-
sion. However, the extra
space allows the sheriff’s
office to start coming up
with ideas.
Bergin noted the work
would not directly involve
taxpayer money.
Funds for the Warrenton
relocation are from a special
projects budget approved by
the Board of Commission-
ers. The board will also ap-
prove the contractor for the
project.
Invitation to bid
Clatsop County Pub-
lic works is accepting bids
from contractors for the
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Uniforms hang next to the evidence locker in the hallway of the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office.
relocation project until
Sept. 2. A mandatory pre-
bid meeting will be held on
Monday.
While construction is un-
derway, the parole and pro-
bation office will operate
temporarily out of offices at
16th and Exchange streets
in Astoria.
Lt. Kristen Hanthorn,
who oversees the parole
and probation office, said
she requested the temporary
location so her staff is not
trying to work around the
construction.
The parole and probation
office will have the same
amount of space after the
construction as it does now.
It has only been using a por-
tion of the building, located
at 1190 S.E. 19th St. in War-
renton.
Much of the space was
shared with a transition cen-
ter, which closed in 2011
from budget constraints.
The transition center
opened in 2006 and housed
24 men and six women. It
provided a holding facili-
ty for local offenders and
people about to be released
back into the community.
Members held jobs, were on
work crews and took part in
treatments and other mental
health services during their
stay.
Hanthorn said her staff is
looking forward to working
under the same roof as the
other sheriff’s office divi-
sions.
“We won’t be like the
Island of Misfit Toys,” she
joked.
Waiting our turn
Another benefit from the
move to Warrenton is be-
ing more centrally located,
Bergin said, and possibly
responding quicker to inci-
dents in the rural parts of
the county.
Over the past couple de-
cades every other county
department has moved into
nearby office spaces on
the 800 block of Exchange
Street. The majority of the
departments
previously
shared space in the county
courthouse.
Bergin said he is pleased
the Board of Commission-
ers decided it was his turn.
“We have been put on the
back burner long enough,”
he said. “It’s time to see
what we can do to enhance
the sheriff’s office and our
capabilities.”
Both agencies declined to
comment on the documents,
citing ongoing litigation. It’s
unclear whether the Corps
was aware of the analysis
when it wrote its environ-
mental impact statement.
Save the salmon
Federal agencies blame
the cormorants for eating an
average 12 million juvenile
salmon a year as they mi-
grate down the Columbia to
the ocean. 6ome of the ¿ sh
are federally protected spe-
cies.
Bob Sallinger, con-
servation director for the
Audubon Society of Port-
land, said conservation
groups repeatedly asked the
agencies whether killing
cormorants would make a
difference.
“We went through a ma-
jor public process, which is
supposed to ensure transpar-
ency,” said Sallinger. “They
never disclosed that their
own biologists were fun-
damentally questioning the
ef¿ cacy of this action. They
chose to bury it and that’s un-
conscionable.”
Sallinger also said the
analysis con¿ rmed what
conservation groups have
been saying all along, includ-
ing in their lawsuit: that it’s
the dams that most impact
¿ sh. In their analysis, the
federal biologists found that
efforts to reduce mortality
during passage through the
hydro system on the Colum-
bia would result in increased
productivity and abundance
of steelhead.
The focus on cormorants,
Sallinger said, is “about
distracting the public from
the real reason of salmon
decline, the hydro system.
They’re spending tax dollars
killing protected birds that
will have absolutely no im-
pact on salmon.”
The conservationists are
calling for the government to
stop killing the cormorants,
and to launch an investiga-
tion into why the agencies
ignored their own biologists’
¿ ndings and didn’t disclose
the documents to the public.
So far, 158 cormorants have
been killed using .22-cal-
iber riÀ es and more than
5,089 nests have been oiled,
destroying the eggs inside
them.
Cormorants are not the
only animals to be targeted
for eating salmon. Caspian
terns have also been pushed
off an island in the Colum-
bia, and sea lions have been
killed to reduce the numbers
of salmon eaten.
AUGUST 22nd | 4-8 pm
It has been said, “Creativity knows no age”
and the residents at Suzanne Elise would
certainly agree with that statement. They
will be hosting an art show featuring local
artists from the Seaside area. There will also
be a silent auction. Proceeds will benefit the
Alzheimer’s Assocation.
ART
SHOW
Visit us online at
www.DailyAstorian.com
& Silent Auction
G ET YO U R
NAME O U T
TH
ER
E
a t a low
August 22nd
4-8pm
cost
Suzanne
Elise
assisted living community
a p a r t of
the
a v a m e r e f a m i l y of c o m p a n i e s
503-738-0307
101 Forest Drive
Seaside, OR 97138
www.suzanneelise.com
Contact: Jeanne Devitt