8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015
Interns: 38 Job Corps students are on work-based learning off-campus
Continued from Page 1A
At Tongue Point, Laibinis
said, students and Peterson are
creating plaster mock-ups for
possible use on particularly
cracked portions of the Col-
umn’s exterior. “This is smooth
but a brown color that is not
common, and it’s the base color
of the painting.”
Laibinis said she hopes to
keep the Job Corps students
through the completion of the
project in September and get
an additional student to help re-
place several of the curved win-
dows atop the Column’s cupola.
She estimated the scaffolding on
the Column would start coming
down the last week of Septem-
ber.
On deck
With 9 acres of land, a
44,000-square-foot
museum
and a small maintenance staff,
the Columbia River Maritime
Museum appreciates Job Corps’
help, custodian Patrick Valade
said.
Over the past several weeks,
several Job Corps seamanship
students helped scour, paint
and weatherize the pilot vessel
Peacock, mounted for all to see
along Marine Drive between the
museum and Barbey Maritime
Center.
Now several other students
are ¿xing the deck of the Light-
ship Columbia, which the mu-
seum bills as the only Àoating
lightship museum in the coun-
try.
“We’re going to do the whole
deck of the ship, from the stern
to the bow,” said seamanship
LNG: Project will cost $6 billion
Continued from Page 1A
The mayor and several North
Coast residents used the pub-
lic forum of the commission’s
meeting to share their opposition
to the $6 billion project, which
includes a terminal on the Ski-
panon Peninsula in Warrenton
and an 87-mile pipeline from
Washington state through Co-
lumbia, Tillamook and Clatsop
counties.
The Federal Energy Regula-
tory Commission has released a
draft environmental review of the
project which concludes that ad-
verse impacts to the environment
could be reduced if Oregon LNG
follows safeguards to minimize
harm to ¿sh and wildlife habitat
and water quality and uses ade-
quate safety features.
But several other federal,
state and local agencies are also
reviewing the project and could
raise objections.
The Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality has to decide
whether to issue Oregon LNG a
water-quality certi¿cation and a
host of permits regulating air qual-
ity, wastewater and stormwater.
The department denied wa-
ter-quality certi¿cation for the
Bradwood Landing LNG project
east of Astoria, which had en-
countered political, ¿nancial and
regulatory setbacks before col-
lapsing in 2010.
‘Lethal scenario’
LaMear has taken an aggres-
sive tone against Oregon LNG
over the past few months. In July,
she pressed U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden,
D-Ore., on his position on the proj-
ect during the senator’s stop in As-
toria to promote state tourism.
Astoria does not have a say in
either the terminal or the pipeline,
but many residents oppose the
project, fearing it would alter the
region’s scenic character, harm
the environment, and pose safety
risks in an earthquake or tsunami.
LaMear told the commission
Oregon LNG could “threaten our
very way of life.” She also said
it makes no sense to locate such
a project in a known earthquake
zone.
“Scientists tell us that the
‘Big One’ is inevitable,” she said.
“What does not have to be inevi-
table is adding LNG to this lethal
scenario.”
Other North Coast residents
also asked the state to intervene,
expressing no faith in the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission’s
review process.
“The FERC has never met
an LNG terminal that they didn’t
like,” said Cheryl Johnson, an
activist who has been a leader in
opposing the project.
Don West, the general manag-
er of the Cannery Pier Hotel and
the owner of the Crest Motel, said
the project would threaten tourism
and the environment.
He said visitors come for re-
gion’s beauty, history and ¿shing,
which could be spoiled by an in-
dustrial site.
“I ¿rmly believe LNG will
damage tourism and our recre-
ational economy beyond repair,”
he said.
Doug Thompson, a former
Astoria city councilor, remind-
ed the commission that former
Gov. John Kitzhaber lost Clatsop
County last November because
of his policy to phase out gillnet-
ting on the Columbia River. He
warned that Gov. Kate Brown
could face similar political con-
sequences if she does not come
out against Oregon LNG and the
Jordan Cove LNG project in Coos
Bay.
‘A lot of passion’
Earlier this year, the Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality
held informational meetings in
Warrenton and Vernonia on wa-
ter-quality certi¿cation for the
Oregon LNG project. The depart-
ment could seek public comments
on the permits necessary for the
project before the end of the year.
“There’s a lot of passion
around the subject,” Jane O’Keefe,
the Environmental Quality Com-
mission’s chairwoman, said after
the public forum. “I’m impressed
with the amount of good informa-
tion that we’ve heard today.”
Shipyard: Cleanup could cost $1.5 million
Continued from Page 1A
AMCCO’s operations began
in the early 1920s. Last year, the
shipyard was included on the
National Register of Historic
Places for its history of building
and repairing Navy ships during
World War II and the Korean
War. Historical operations led
to much of the contamination to
the site. In 2012, the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
gave the state cleanup oversight
of the site, which avoided feder-
al Superfund designation.
The recommendations from
GSI Water Solutions would come
with a price tag of about $1.5 mil-
lion earmarked for cleanup.
The Department of Environ-
mental Quality has requested a
new feasibility study draft with an
option that would allow the ship-
yard to remain open, according to
Bob Williams, the DEQ project
manager for the AMCCO site.
Nina DeConcini, DEQ
northwest region administrator,
said the department recognizes
how important the shipyard is to
the community.
Scott Lee, the chairman of
the Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners, said the board
was in the process of drafting a
letter to DEQ and other agen-
cies.
The county would like to
see the shipyard remain open,
Lee said, as a matter of safety
for ¿shermen and others who
require boat repairs.
The Environmental Quali-
ty Commission, the policy and
rulemaking board for the depart-
ment, met in Astoria Wednesday
and Thursday.
As part of the agenda, com-
missioners and others took part
in a tour of several local envi-
ronmental project sites, includ-
ing AMCCO.
Skip Hauke, executive di-
rector of the Astoria-Warrenton
Chamber of Commerce, spoke
in favor of AMCCO at a public
forum before the commission
Thursday. “I’m pleading for
your help,” he said. “I need your
help to save one of our most im-
portant assets we have here.”
He stressed the importance
of ¿shing to the local economy
and the shipyard to ¿shermen.
“We need a shipyard. We
need it badly,” he told the com-
mission. “If you want to put
it in context, go back to your
hometowns and get rid of all
the garages and the repair shops.
That’s what Astoria will be like
with our Àeet if we don’t have a
shipyard.”
Andrew Bornstein, co-own-
er of Bornstein Seafoods, also
spoke. He referred to the ship-
yard as a “gem” and asked for
collaboration.
“AMCCO is desperately
needed,” he said.
But coming up with another
draft of the feasibility study with
an option to keep the business
open costs money, and the op-
tion may include prohibitively
high costs for AMCCO.
“We don’t want to spend ad-
ditional money on a potentially
futile request,” Bowler said.
student Michael Taylor, working
with classmates Angelo Luhrsen
and Anthony Martinez.
Taylor said he and the other
students have already redone
decks on ships at Job Corps.
Martinez added that students
have worked on the Astoria
Riverfront Trolley, sanding and
painting it.
Martinez expects it will take
a few weeks to ¿nish the deck of
the 93-foot vessel. Valade said
Job Corps students were out in
the hot sun painting and chip-
ping the Peacock for six weeks.
rell Gasser, 38 Job Corps stu-
dents are on work-based learn-
ing off-campus, 23 of them
locally.
Work-based learning pro-
vides an internship opportunity
for students, who often practice
their skills on various projects
around campus. In the com-
munity, they intern with the
U.S. Coast Guard and nearly
20 other local businesses. Gas-
ser said Job Corps likes to keep
about 10 percent of its students
on work-based learning at any
given time.
It was Job Corps students in
2006 who helped ready the Pea-
cock before it was mounted in
2010.
Without the Job Corps stu-
dents, Valade said, repairing the
vessels would be a more piece-
meal effort.
All around town
The Maritime Museum and
Astoria Column are some of the
more high-pro¿le projects Job
Corps students help on. But they
aren’t the only ones.
According to Katrina Mor-
Lunches: 52 percent of
Oregon students are poor
enough to receive free meals
Continued from Page 1A
In an annual notice of po-
tentially eligible schools in
April, the state also identi¿ed
Seaside Heights Elementary
School as eligible to partic-
ipate. Gearhart Elementary
School, Seaside’s Broadway
Middle School, Warrenton
Grade School and Hilda Lahti
Elementary School in Knappa
were listed as nearly eligible to
participate.
Dupuis said in Clatsop
County, the state has only
received the necessary infor-
mation to participate from As-
toria. The deadline to submit
such information is Aug. 31,
Dupuis said, and she expects
a rush of applications in the
coming weeks.
How it adds up
Instead of collecting pa-
per applications for free and
reduced lunches, Astoria can
claim a percentage of students
receiving free lunches based
on the percentage of pover-
ty-stricken students, multiplied
by 1.6 to account for other
students likely eligible for the
poverty program based on
income, resulting in a total of
65.2 percent. The federal gov-
ernment will reimburse 65 per-
cent of lunches served at Astor
and Lewis and Clark at $3.09
per lunch, Dupuis said, while
reimbursing the remaining 35
percent at 30 cents each. Free
breakfasts are reimbursed at
$1.66, and paid breakfasts 29
cents.
Louise Kallstrom, the
district’s director of support
services, said participation in
lunch and breakfast are likely
to increase with the subsidi-
zation of lunches, which will
provide the district with more
revenue.
Grace Laman, a school
board member and a nutrition
instructor, raised concerns
about children double-dipping
and eating too much. Linda
Berger, principal at Astoria
Middle School, said schools
have the ability to put blocks
on kids from getting meals.
Kate Gohr, principal at
Astor, said she doesn’t foresee
lunch participation increasing
much, because many kids al-
ready like bringing their own.
“It might change for break-
fast.”
State lunches
For schools not part of the
Community Eligibility Provi-
sion, Dupuis said, then the state
will be reimbursing lunches.
In April, Gov. Kate Brown
signed House Bill 5017, a $2.4
million budget provision to
fund a mandate that all students
eligible for a reduced-price
lunch get them for free if they
are eligible under the USDA’s
eligibility requirements. In
July, she signed House Bull
2545, which directs the Ore-
gon Department of Education
to reimburse districts for the
amount students would have
paid, up to 40 cents per lunch.
“With the state funding,
what they’re picking up is the
difference between the federal
free reimbursement and the
federal reduced-cost reim-
bursement, which is 40 cents,”
Dupuis said, adding the re-
duced-cost category has been
removed.
About 8 percent of students
in Oregon are eligible for re-
duced cost lunches, Dupuis
said, while about 52 percent
are poor enough to receive free
meals.
The state estimated that
the change will affect nearly 6
million reduced price lunches,
at a reimbursement rate of 40
cents per lunch, and cost the
state nearly $2.4 million in
each of the 2015-17 and 2017-
19 bienniums. Dupuis said that
takes into account participation
in the Community Eligibility
Provision.
Dupuis said the state ex-
pects an 11 percent increase in
free lunch programs once the
co-pay goes away. The state
has subsidized reduced-price
breakfasts for the past six
years, she said.
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Denise is one of the caregivers at
CMH who exemplifies our Promise of
Excellence:
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Respect
Integrity
Compassion
Leadership
Safety
Teamwork
Caregivers like Denise make your
community hospital one to be proud of.
“I like helping people...
To me, patient-
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a friendly face and
treating all patients
with compassion and
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– Denise Gagnon,
Registration Clerk
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